"Louis Cohen" > in
...
> The Joy of Cooking is encyclopedic, but very bland.
> Louis Cohen

> [Earlier text snipped considerably]


That is my take on it also, in a nutshell. It went through a number of
important editions though, and the character changed considerably. It was
originally a home recipe collection. Someone I know with the original
edition (very limited number, badly bound) reports that it is based on
canned ingredients and that "when her daughter redid the book, the recipes
were from scratch."


-- Max Hauser. (Mens et manus!)