The Joy of Cooking

Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker

"Well, this particular Joy of Cooking is really interesting. The one that I have is in the very early 60's. Food I think changed a lot during that time. People were going from making everything by scratch to some more pre-prepared food. If you want to know anything about anything, you go to the Joy of Cooking. But because this is an older version, it's got some pretty crazy stuff in there, like how to make your own peanut butter. I mean, who makes their own peanut butter? But it's interesting to see how it's changed over time.

It's very, very concise. I think the reason why I called it the bible of cooking is because there's an enormous amount of information in there. It's like a dictionary. So you can look up information a lot of different ways by how you would entertain. So luncheons, tea parties, afternoon tea, picnics, hunting dinners, formal dinners; and then you can also look it up in the back by type of food. Then they also have a nutrition center in the beginning.

The other thing that's so interesting about it is that you don't have a lot of pictures. If you want to make something from scratch, then I think this is the cookbook to look in. I don't use it for day-to-day cooking because it's completely overwhelming. Hmm, let me look at this 500-page book and find something. You know, you kind of have to just open it and go, "Poof, all right, I'll make that," and I think everyone should own a copy of it.

I would give The Joy of Cooking - the 60's version would probably get like a three."

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