Rating: 
Summary: The Absolute Best Cookbook Ever!
Review: I came to Amazon to buy the 13th edition hardcover , because my 12th edition paperback is completely worn out! The pages are torn, crumpled and stained with drips and spills, the cover is gone, and a few pages are loose from overuse and abuse of this cookbook. It is the most useful cookbook I own. I bought this book from a grocery store 15 years ago, and have bought many books since then, but Fannie is the one I go back to. No matter what you're looking for, no matter what your question is about food, measuring, equipment, temperatures--it's in this book. I did not know much about cooking when I first got married, and now I am proud to say I am considered an excellent cook. I learned so much from Fannie Farmer. There's no other book that gives this much information on cooking. I love to cook from scratch, and the recipes in this cookbook call for just that. It's basic, home-cooked food, but there are also elegant recipes just in case you need them. I've read this book so many times, I've memorized many recipes, because they really are the best around. Get this book. You will not be disappointed!
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Summary: The BEST all-purpose cookbook
Review: I refer to THE FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK more than any other cookbook in my kitchen - and I own approximately seventy-five cookbooks. What's so special about FANNIE FARMER? It is a wonderfully friendly book for the beginning cook that also supplies recipes for those who are more experienced. Unlike THE JOY OF COOKING, another basic cookbook, this one has recipes that always succeed. The sections on baking are the most successful. You will cherish many of these recipes once you try them. The cornbread is a snap - my family loves it - while the Cracked Wheat Bread, equally delicious, requires more skill, or at least the ability to scale the recipe to a breadmaker. You'll find great recipes for crepes, old-fashioned gingerbread, and berry tarts. It includes five different recipes for chocolate frosting - and a penuche frosting that will send you into a delicious sugar swoon. The selection of cookie recipes is rather ordinary, but hey, you need recipes for peanut butter cookies and sugar cookies. Want to know how to select a good pineapple and then prepare it? It's here. Confused about the various stages of sugar syrup? You'll find an easy to read table, from soft ball to hard crack. Forget the temperature of a properly cooked turkey breast? No problem. You'll find descriptions of fish and shellfish, various cuts of meats, most fruit and vegetables, and instructional paragraphs about proper technique. The inside cover contains liquid and dry measurement equivalents, a basic pastry recipe, and a scattering of tips about food preparation. Most of the recipes would not be considered gourmet - this is a basic cookbook, after all - but sometimes I am surprised by the inclusion of the out-of-the-ordinary. This book can make a good cook out of anyone.
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Summary: Without a doubt, THE BEST COOKBOOK EVER!
Review: I have about forty cookbooks. But, whenever I need to find THE recipe for something, I always end up with this book. Content-wise, I have seen none better. If you own only one cookbook, this should be it. The only thing that could make this outstanding cookbook any better is if it were reissued as a hardcover spiral so that it could lay flat on the kitchen counter!
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Summary: A Mix of the Old and the New - For the Old and the Young
Review: I first discovered the FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK when I was 6 years old in my very own kitchen.......my mother had (perhaps?) the original.....Brown hardcover with the Distinctive script writing on the cover. Needless to say, this book was very well used and referenced; and it is now on its last leg......cover now practically off the binder, nearly all of the pages soiled and/or torn. When I moved out of the family home and on my own into the Washington, DC area (my mother, unfortunately, has now been deceased for 6 years), among my first items to get was my very own FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK. None of the bookstores - not even [local retailer] - had it. When I was looking on Amazon.com one day, I saw this version and, again, needless to say, I snapped up a copy immediately. This version is every bit as good as the original - filled with basic cooking suggestions, equivalent measuring techniques, siggestive items, and basic, easy to follow instructions. For the millenium, I was delighted to see recipes for vegetarian and diet conscious food items with the food flavor basically kept intact BUT without the added fat. A perfect equivalent is Fannie Farmer's THE 1896 BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL COOKBOOK (which is also sold here at Amazon.com and which I also have and review on this site). Both are MUST have staples for any kitchen in any household......whether you are single (as me), a married couple, or a family of 10.
Rating:
Summary: An encyclopedia-type cookbook
Review: This book is not going to provide you with fancy, tedious recipes. What this book will provide you with is straightforward, relatively simple and effective approaches to cooking just about anything you could ever imagine. The vegetable section is particularly great, as it's organized by ingredient with several ways of preparing each particular vegetable listed. Stumbled on some interesting looking vegetable at the farmers' market but don't know how to prepare it? Look it up, and you'll be given several options, from the most very basic to a little more dressed up. This book impressed me in that it is not just your normal recipe book; it is a cook book in the truest sense of the word. You'll see plenty of recipes, but they often read more like loose guidelines that are to be tinkered with, rather than the intricate and pretentious recipes that plague so many other cook books.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Careful
Review: The banana bread in this book is hard and chewy. I can't get a single cake to come out right. The frostings are too complicated or simply don't taste good, (I went back to using Wilton's recipes.) The swedish meatballs are dry and have no sauce. There are only three recipes I use from this book regularly Spaghetti and meatballs, baking powder biscuits, and griddle cakes. Even the cornbread was dry. (The book said cornbread was "supposed" to be dry. I don't think so! Luckily I could call my mom and get a good recipe.) There are some good recipes in this book and some can be modified if you know enough about cooking. Mine is covered with scribbled ingredient adjustments. I would much rather have something that tasted good the first time. I gave it three stars because it does have a lot of interesting information like how to make your own pasta and fondant.
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Summary: The best all-around cookbook
Review: This is the cookbook I pull from my crowded shelves the most often. With great how-to sections, great tasting recipes, and clear directions it's a hands-down winner. Highly recommended whether you're just starting out or are wanting to learn more.
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Summary: Memories of life in North America
Review: After returning to germany this cookbook(paperbackedition)has become a heap of torn pages in my collection of cookbooks,my alltime favorite.Wonderful recipies,good descriptions of staples and pictures of vegetables that were hard to find over here when I came back in 1985-it was so much help!
I'm looking forward to get more books on amazon.com! (sorry,didn't mean to advertise)
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Summary: A class-act cookbook for a novice cook.
Review: ... As others here have said, the recipes are easily put together, easily understood and make me look and taste like a skilled cook. Fanny Farmer candy is the cream of the crop for sweets and this cookbook is really the cream of the crop for good eating when you aren't an expert chef.
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Summary: Everything you need to know is here
Review: I got this cookbook when I first got married and really didn't pay attention to it much. The past few years, I've used this A LOT! It has everything you need to know in it. This is what I go to when I need to know almost anything... It has a listing for almost every food and how to cook it. I'll admit that I've not really used many recipes from it, but as a reference this cookbook is essential.
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