Product Description

Great Food Made Simple
Here's the breakthrough one-stop cooking reference for today's generation of cooks! Nationally known cooking authority Mark Bittman shows you how to prepare great food for all occasions using simple techniques, fresh ingredients, and basic kitchen equipment. Just as important, How to Cook Everything takes a relaxed, straightforward approach to cooking, so you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still achieve outstanding results.

Praise for How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman:

"In his introduction to How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman says, 'Anyone can cook, and most everyone should.' Now, hopefully everyone will -- this work is a rare achievement. Mark is in that pantheon of a few gifted cook/writers who make very, very good food simple and accessible. I read his recipes and my mouth waters. I read his directions and head for the kitchen. Bravo, Mark, for taking us away from take-out and back to the fun of food."
-- Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of the international public radio show "The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper"

"Mark Bittman is the best home cook I know, and How to Cook Everything is the best basic cookbook I've seen."
-- Jean-Georges Vongerichten, award-winning chef/owner of Jean-Georges

"Useful to the novice cook or the professional chef, How to Cook Everything is a tour de force cookbook by Mark Bittman. Mark lends his considerable knowledge and clear, concise writing style to explanations of techniques and quick, classic recipes. This is a complete, reliable cookbook."
-- Jacques Pepin, chef, cookbook author, and host of his own PBS television series

"Sometimes all the things that a particular person does best come together in a burst of synergy, and the result is truly marvelous. This book is just such an instance. Mark Bittman is not only the best home cook we know, he is also a born teacher, a gifted writer, and a canny kitchen tactician who combines great taste with eminent practicality. Put it all together and you have How to Cook Everything, a cookbook that will inspire American home cooks not only today but for years to come."
-- John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, coauthors of License to Grill

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1161 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 960 pages

Amazon.com
Mark Bittman, award-winning author of such fundamental books as Fish and Leafy Greens and food columnist for the New York Times ("The Minimalist"), has turned in what has to be the weightiest tome of the year. There are more than 900 pages in this sucker--over 1,500 recipes! This isn't just the big top of cookbooks: it's the entire three-ring circus. This isn't just how to cook everything: it's how to cook everything you have ever wanted to have in your mouth. And then some.

Bittman starts with Roasted Buttered Nuts and Real Buttered Popcorn, and moves right along, section by section, from the likes of Black Bean Soup (eight different ways), to Beet and Fennel Salad, to Mussels (Portuguese-style over Pasta), to Cream Scones--and he hasn't even reached seafood, poultry, meat, or vegetables yet, let alone desserts. There are 23 sections in this cookbook (!) that reflect directly on the how-to of cooking, be that equipment, technique, or recipe.

Every inch of the way the reader finds Bittman's calm, helpful, encouraging voice. "Anyone can cook," he says at the beginning, "and most everyone should." More than a few college kids are going to head off to their first apartments with Bittman's book under arm. More than a few marriages will benefit with this book on the shelf. And anyone who loves cooking and the sound of a great food voice is going to enjoy letting this book fall open where it may. No matter what the page, it's bound to be a tasty and rewarding experience. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly
There's a millennial ring to the title of Bittman's massive opus of more than 1000 basic recipes and variations as the widely known food writer ("The Minimalist" is a weekly column in the New York Times) and author (Fish) contributes to the list of recently published authoritative, encyclopedic cookbooks. He concedes that most accomplished cooks will find little new here, and indeed the recipes can be as simple as how to pop corn. His voice is a comfortable one, however, so the tone is less tutorial than, say, that of the newly revised Joy of Cooking. While much of the ground covered is familiar, Bittman offers inventive fare (Kale Soup with Soy and Lime) and reclaims formerly abandoned territory?his Creamy Vinaigrette calls for heavy cream. Pastas range from Spaghetti and Meatballs to Pad Thai. Similarly, sandwiches include both old favorites and fresh combinations, e.g., Curried Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with Chutney and Arugula. Bittman's friends, he says, praise his Chicken Adobo as the best chicken dish in the world. He doesn't linger too long with beef because Americans are eating less of it; he remarks that a well-done hamburger is not worth eating. Vegetables are comprehensively addressed from Artichokes to Yuca, with attention paid to buying, storing and cooking methods well suited to each. Desserts are mostly homey, like Apple Brown Betty and Peaches with Fresh Blueberry Sauce, but there is also a Death-by-Chocolate Torte. The enormous breadth of recipes, the unusually modest price and Bittman's engaging, straightforward prose will appeal to many cooks looking for reliable help with?or reference to?kitchen fundamentals. Illustrations not seen by PW. 250,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; simultaneous CD-ROM; 15-city author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, William Grimes
This is a cookbook whose pages are destined to become stuck together from constant use.

Customer Reviews

Simple solid recipes for a novice like me (single guy learning unaided)
I just started to cook, and am often daunted by the enormity of the task. I love to master that meals I make, crushing out a mean grilled cheese, but sauteeing flounder, or making artichoke seemed out of my league. I found that this book provides a good base of knowledge written in a simple and straightforward manner, allowing me to meander down new avenues of culinary delight. Terms and sub-ingredients are succinctly explained for answering all those questions that invariably arise, and most recipes come with delicious alternatives to help add variety to the palette as a new notch is carved into my culinary board of knowledge. I think it probably holds it own as a cookbook, since everything I have made is pretty delicious, but its strength really lies in the wider tutelage on cooking lying within.

Most Useful Cookbook I own!!
This is my "go-to cookbook" for EVERYTHING! I actually purchased this copy for a friend for her bridal shower...we were supposed to submit our 2 favorite recipes but instead I gave her my favorite cookbook! You are not going to find anything overly fancy here...this just has your basic recipes for as the title says cooking everything! I highly reccommend this book!

Ok, so not quite everything . . .
Think of a food you want to make, but don't know where to start, like say, hummus. Look in the appendix -- there it is! Then try the recipe. Yay! Don't know what to do with those parsnip things? Look up parsnips in the appendix -- there it is! You get the idea. The sections in the appendix that list meal suggestions broken down by type and time are really useful. Throw those awful "30 minute nightmare" books away.

Other reviewers have correctly pointed out that the recipes are not always mind-blowing, in fact, they are not necessarily even "best-of-breed".

But Bittman delivers what his title promises: "Simple Recipes for Great Food"

The instructions are easy to follow, the ingredients are easy to get and the food tastes like, well, what it's supposed to. If you didn't like parsnips before you tried his recipe, you probably still won't like them. But if you like Yorkshire Pudding, you will enjoy his simple recipe.

If you are already a pretty good cook, you will adapt his recipes to your tastes -- and most are easily adapted. In fact, with several recipes, he gives simple variations on the recipe to give your creativity a jumpstart. My personal copy looks horrible. The binding has split in a few places, there are notes of changes I've made scribbled in the margins and there are splatter stains on several pages.

Please note that this book is NOT for everyone. There isn't much going on in the visual aid department here, though I've read that the CD-ROM has some helpful stuff on it. (I bought mine before there was a CD-ROM version.) And if you actually like those "30 minute nightmare" recipes, you might not like these. Finally, if you are heavy seasoning inclined (like me, having grown up in Cajun Country), you will probably want to taste and then add "mo' love" to some of the dishes.