The Joy of Cooking, revisited

Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

Growing up with Betty Crocker, I’ve always had only one cookbook in the house.  A couple of months ago, I walked by the 641s and it seemed The Joy of Cooking was calling out my name.  I needed a good recipe for crab dip, as I had never made it before and wanted to have it for our Super Bowl party.

I was surprised and delighted to discover that The Joy of Cooking is like an encyclopedia of cooking.  Like the World Book Encyclopedia, this book starts with the most basic information and builds from there.  It is not spiral-bound for a reason: it literally has every basic recipe you can think of, but it is meant to be a reference book.  Or at least, that’s how I look at it.  I’m going to buy a copy of this book to keep on hand at home.

So now I have three manuals for cooking:  Betty Crocker, The Joy of Cooking, and (most importantly) my mom.

Melissa, IT Librarian and cook