I bought this cookbook as my I'm-moving-into-an-apartment-and-have-to-start-cooking-for-myself cookbook. It seemed basic enough and it looked like something I could handle. I have made some recipes from it, but more often than not I find myself just paging through for ideas and never making anything. It's got really great, basic recipes if you've never cooked before, but it's a little unadventurous for my taste. I really like all the explanations for how to cut a whole chicken, how long to bake meat, etc. Those are quite helpful!
Great Cookbook for Beginners
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
This is a great cookbook with basic recipes and some unique ones too! I like the variety and extra tips the book provides. It has an entire section dedicated to techniques, terms, ingredients and nutrition. Within the different sections (Apetizers, Breads, Breafast, Salads, Meat... etc.) there is more advice, tips, and helpful techniques offered. Two improvements: it would be nice if the book was spiral bound or a binder version - paperback can be hard to keep open. Also, it would be nice if each recipe told you how long it would take to prepare. Otherwise, this is a great book. I love it!
A great gift for your beginning cook
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
I purchased this book to help teach my cooking-impaired boyfriend some basics in as guy friendly a way as possible. After going over a couple recipes and having him help me with some easy stuff, I came home from work (on his day off) and he'd made us a complete dinner solo with this book, and it was all delicious! His previous attempts at dinner turned into things like macaroni and cheese soup style and black on the outside, raw on the inside chicken, so if he can make something great with this book, anybody can!
Cooking idiot learns new skills!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
I received this cookbook as a Christmas gift, and at first was slightly confused what what my frined was thinking, because I have absolutely zero cooking skill. But upon further inspection of the book, it's very interesting and actually goes as far as to make cooking fun for me. I do not know the first thing about cooking, and this book starts at the very basics...like how to properly thaw chicken and what different spices and herbs do. It actually gives you detalied pictures of how to cut up the meat if the recipe calls for you to 'julieanne' the chicken. The recipes are very basic, but every one I've tried so far has turned out great. And that's saying a lot for a very very very beginner cook like me! The only improvement I would make on the book is to make the pages laminated, and possibly make the binding spiral. It's kind of hard to keep the book open and I've spilled quite a few things on it already! Both are very minor drawbacks and I would highly recommend this book to a beginning cook!
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