If anyone, based on the uniformity of this thread, is thinking about buying
the "Joy of Cooking", it's very important to get the last edition (1974)
written by the Rombauers without help from anyone else. The "Joys" published
after this date were added to by Ethan Becker. One rewrite took the original
famous emergency dish "tuna noodle casserole" and added cheese to it! That's
almost sacrilegious!!

"Kent" > wrote in message
. ..
> I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but now and then one must
> search for what is new, and what people think.
> When I want to find a recipe I sit in front of our 300+ cookbooks , and I
> almost always reach for the Rombauers' "Joy of Cooking", 1975 edition,
> before anything else. This never ceases to amaze me. It's still the
> starting point, 300 cookbooks later.
> Following that it's almost always Julia Child;s "The Way to Cook". Next,
> depending on what I'm wanting to cook, are any of Marcella Hazan,'s
> books["Classic Italian Cooking], any of Michael Field's books["Cooking
> School", "Culinary Classics and Improvisations"]. Only after the above,
> for almost everything else, do I open any of the remaining 290 books.
> What are your favorites? Especially newer favorites published in the last
> 5-10 years.
> Many thanks for any advice,
> Kent
>
>