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Summary: The Fannie Farmer revision broke my heart
Review: On the shelf in my mother's kitchen there is an old, brittle gold-covered book. It's held together with clear tape, and certain pages are well splattered with stains. But I love that book. In that book are some of my favorite and yummiest memories. It's the Fannie Farmer Cookbook.So when I got my own copy for my birthday I was ecstatic. Sure, the cover was different, but inside I'd have my own chewy brownies and buttery sugar cookies. Only...they changed the recipes! The brownies that were universally praised by my class when I took them to school as a kid -- they were all different! How am I going to make Fannie Farmer classics if they aren't classic? Now I have a useless book, and my mother's copy is falling apart. I beg of the publishers - reissue the original, without any changes, full of all that high cholesterol goodness. Otherwise, I will never be able to move out of my mother's house, and she's starting to get mad at me.
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Summary: Looking for a basic cookbook with more than just pictures?
Review: This is a classic! This book has a great number of recipes. I have honestly never been to this book and not found something I was looking for. This is a great book to help expand your recipe library. This book is perfect for the beginner, and the more seasoned cook. Recipes are clearly explained, and they do turn out well. There is a nice variety of recipes that includes a many different types of foods such as meats, vegetables, cheeses, and baking. You are bound to find a great use of this book.
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Summary: The best, from boiled eggs to holiday feasts
Review: This book is a must in every kitchen. I consider myself to be a fairly accomplished cook, and I'm not afraid to try new and complicated recipes in the latest cookbooks. Fannie Farmer, however, is my *ANCHOR* cookbook. I always go back to this cookbook when I'm thinking of modifying or combining other recipes, because Fannie is packed with basic tips and procedures for making sauces, roasting, baking, proofing dough, and so on. This book will tell you the best way to bake a potato, roast chestnuts, and roll out pie-crust. It offers lots of variations, substitutions, and so on for 1000's of recipes that constitute the basics of today's American cooking (including the influence of world cuisines). I've given this cookbook to several younger friends as bridal shower gifts. It's the best start to your kitchen library!
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Summary: FANNIE IN THE KITCHEN
Review: Fannie Farmer was a real person, of course, who did much to promote cooking. She was especially interested in healthy diets for the ill. If you love to cook and share that love with kids, there's a delightful new children's picture book called FANNIE IN THE KITCHEN, a fictionalized story of how Fannie Farmer got the idea to emphasize precise measurements. Don't miss the great illustrations by Nancy Carpenter!
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Summary: The Best Basic Cookbook
Review: This is the best basic cookbook I have seen. It contains such a wide variety of cooking information that it would be helpful to anyone. We homeschool our children and I have been using it as part of our daughter's basic home-ec course. It belongs in every kitchen.
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Summary: Great Basics Cookbook
Review: This is a great basic cookbook/reference guide. I damaged the first one I had and immediately went out and bought a second copy. Great for new cooks!!!
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Summary: Really terrific all around cookbook! Indispensable!
Review: I've had this most recent edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook for just a few months now and I've only just begun to get into it, but I have read some of the recipes I haven't yet tried, and I think it deserves 5 stars. It is good to see that she has a recipe for standing rib roast beef WITH Yorkshire pudding (or popovers, if you prefer) because I will make it as soon as I can. I just did try the recipe for Paella and it was delicious. To her credit, Marion Cunnigham does not tell the reader to remove the CASING from the chorizo (although there IS at least one brand on the market that would require this because the so-called casing is plastic, so I recommend that if you are going to make this dish, you read the package directions on the chorizo carefully and make sure that the casing DOESN'T have to be removed and that it is NOT plastic). My only criticism of the recipe for paella is that it doesn't include mussels, which I add anyway. I didn't think I was ever going to be able to make beef stroganoff again because of the amount of fat and the number of calores in the sour cream ( I had high cholestrol and need to watch my weight), but having tried the relatively new fat free sour cream that is now on the market (to me it tastes every bit as good as full fat sour cream) which is low enough in calories for me to have, I expect to be having it again in the not too distant future, complete with the brown rice that she suggests serving it over. There are, in general, so many wonderful recipes in this cookbook that one can always be trying something new, as well as preparing something old and familiar with excellent results. I think it would be impossible to tire of this cookbook or ever be finished with it. There are a lot of seemingly, and undoubtedly not just seemingly, wonderful, fish and seafood recipes-too many to mention. (And she tells the reader all about buying and preparing soft shell crab, for example). One does come to mind that I am planning to try very soon: salmon with asparagus (both cooked in a little butter). Simple and healthful. Others I've read that I think are more than worth a try include lobster thermidor, chicken tetrazzini, and sweetbreads. Also very helpful is a section on microwaving foods complete with recipes that she has tested and found to work well. One very minor critcism-there seems to me to be something a little strange about her recipe(s) for Hungarian goulash. Both of them call for beef round (the first in cubes and the second?). The first one calls for plenty of beef broth, plus potatoes, and paprika and no sour cream. The second has no beef broth, no potatoes, and only drained, canned tomatoes, plus onions and paprika and is served over noodles WITH sour cream. If I were going to make Hungarian goulash I would make the first recipe only AND serve it WITH sour cream (and a lot more paprika than she says it needs). However, this is such a good cookbook that that is hardly worth mentioning. There are also 13 plus pages in the back of the book listing the calorie, cholesterol, fat, protein and carbohydrate content of certain foods and recipes so that you can take your trusty calculator and use it to maintain your healthy, balanced diet. Highly recommended. If I could have only one cookbook, this one would be it. I wouldn't be without it for anything.
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Summary: the basics
Review: There are many sophisticated ethnic and specialty cookbooks on the market, so this isn't the book you go to for such recipes. It is however where you'll go to learn or check on the basics of cooking, from roasting meat to baking bread. This kind of cookbook is needed by all cooks, from beginner to expert. I own THE FANNY FARMER COOKBOOK and THE JOY OF COOKING, use both of them often, and both are as good as they get. But in shopping for a gift recently I chose this book because of the clarity of the instructions. They are superb.
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Summary: A Celebration of Down Home Cooking
Review: I first received the paperback edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook for Christmas, and found it to be extraordinary in the realm of cookbooks. The recipes are simple, with excellent explanations and plenty of additional resources. I have always been able to count on finding a recipe I can make without running to the store for extra ingredients, and they've always come out excellently. I wasn't sad when my paperback copy fell apart as I had reason to purchase the larger hardback edition. Not only is it easier to read and stays open more easily than the paperback, but the already good organization and layout is enhanced by the additional space on the pages, as well as the additional colors used for pictures and emphasis. Could something as good as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook get even better? It certainly has in this hardcover edition!
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Summary: The penultimate first cook book
Review: This is the perfect first cook book because it is so chock full of basic information. The book is divided into several sections grouped by type of food stuff one wants to make: basic spices and herbs, appetizers, soups, fish, meat, poultry, sauces, vegetables, etc. Each section features a wealth of introductory material followed by recipes. For example, the fish section begins with a diagram of twenty common fish. There are tips on how to buy and store fish, as well as how to prepare them (scaling, cleaning, skinning, and boning). Following this are over thirty recipes, several with variants. In the fruit section, the Fannie Farmer book suggests when things are in season, how to buy and use, how much to serve, and alternatives to fresh produce. You'll use this book very frequently, so a hard-back edition is definitely advised.
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