Product Description

The long-awaited, completely revised and updated edition of the classic American cookbook (with over two million copies in print) that marries the spirit and simplicity of the 1900s with the cooking priorities of the 1990s. Each of the 1,200 recipes has been updated for the modern cook--lighter, healthier, easier than ever before. Instructional line art, charts, and boxes throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #388938 in Books
• Published on: 1997-02
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 832 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Two million copies and 90 years after its first publication, The Settlement Cookbook remains an American standby. It began in 1901 as the "bible" for Mrs. Simon Kander's cooking classes, composed mostly of recent immigrants to Milwaukee. Despite language barriers, the young women were eager to assimilate and learn new skills for cooking typical American dishes. If Kander were to browse through the latest edition, assembled by New York food writer Pierce, she might be surprised to find a recipe for pad Thai opposite another for kreplach. Such is the international tone that the book adopts in its latest incarnation, in a decided shift away from assimilation to celebrating culinary differences. Old-fashioned basic fare is well represented, as befits the educational intent of the original. Yet an inexperienced and adventurous cook will also find an easy-to-prepare Spanish chili sauce, fragrant with fresh marjoram and garlic. Still targeted to beginners, the volume offers rundowns of cooking techniques, definitions of everything from skim milk to mache lettuce and nearly 800 pages of recipes. However, health information is limited to calorie counts for popular foods, without data on cholesterol or important nutrients.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A disappointment-
I still refer to my original settlement cookbook. I don't like the way the new book is organized. I don't feel as if it is a quick reference guide which I was hoping because that is how I use my first version. Menus aren't simple and don't help me as a working mom.

misguided revision
I bet the original is interesting and maybe fun to cook from. The revised edition tries to celebrate the history of the original while providing practical updates, but the result is an unsatisfying compromise that is a little like the overcooked vegetables it suggests you make -- bland, flavorless and not all that practical. Did I overextend that simile? Whatever, if you like your food history spliced with depressing 90s-era diet tips and microwave cookery, buy this book. Otherwise, uh, don't.

1951:This was my mother's first cookbook after she married .
This is a fabulous cookbook! I have made many of the recipes and they always come out as they are supposed to come out. Very yummy, and what I like best is that it goes way back and has ties to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. (Although it is not a kosher book).