Rating: 
Summary: Cooking in the twilight zone
Review: All of the previous reviewers are absolutely correct. This is the strangest and zaniest collection of recipes, remedies, survival tips, philosophical musings, diatribes, out-and-out historical flights of fancy --well, I can't describe it. You have to read it to believe it. I first came upon it many years ago, and knew nothing about it (I collect cookbooks and food lore) To put it mildly,I was astonished. Who was this guy? Since then, as some of the other reviewers have done, I have bought several copies for near and dear friends (coincidentally, Minnesotians all) "Sauerbraten was invented by Charlemagne...Henry the VIII actually never amounted to anything and would not have made a good ditchdigger...In 1212 St. Francis went to the Holy Land. When he came back he taught his followers a simple way to poach eggs...Pate De Foie Gras was first made for Joan of Arc by one of her army cooks ..." You get the idea. I have noticed that the various editions have different topics, but I am pleased to note that my 1969 edition still gives us explicit directions as to what to do in case of a hydrogen attack. Mr. Herter is certainly sure of himself, and his book offers hours of good, solid (hilarious) advice and recipes.If you should chance upon a copy at a used book store or garage sale, snap it up.
Rating: 
Summary: He was un-pc before un-pc was cool...
Review: First of all, be advised: You will never get this (or any out of print book) from Amazon. Go to [Marketplace] instead. My copy - in very nice condition, for only $...- arrived earlier this week. I've been aware of this book for some years now, and it's a scream. From the Virgin Mary's favorite dish; to Church Chicken, and beyond (the Church Chicken, by the way, "has done more good, I believe, than any other recipe in the world."). As an enthusiastic cook, there is quite an array of interesting recipes that I'm sure I'll get around to trying. But the recipes are really secondary to Herter The Blowhard waxing rhapsodic on everything from the "fine Italian people" in Minneapolis & St. Paul; to the impact a nuclear war would have on the availability of soap. I was just thumbing through my recently-arrived copy, and came across this gem, from Herter's mayonnaise recipe (and I swear I'm NOT making it up!): "Using this famous recipe, mayonnaise is very easy to make and you will never have a failure with one exception. If you are a woman do not attempt to make mayonnaise during menstruating time as the mayonnaise will simply not blend together at all well. This is not superstition but a well established fact well known to all women cooks." Go ye, and read of it.
Rating:
Summary: He was un-pc before un-pc was cool...
Review: First of all, be advised: You will never get this (or any out of print book) from Amazon. Go to [Marketplace] instead. My copy - in very nice condition, for only $...- arrived earlier this week. I've been aware of this book for some years now, and it's a scream. From the Virgin Mary's favorite dish; to Church Chicken, and beyond (the Church Chicken, by the way, "has done more good, I believe, than any other recipe in the world."). As an enthusiastic cook, there is quite an array of interesting recipes that I'm sure I'll get around to trying. But the recipes are really secondary to Herter The Blowhard waxing rhapsodic on everything from the "fine Italian people" in Minneapolis & St. Paul; to the impact a nuclear war would have on the availability of soap. I was just thumbing through my recently-arrived copy, and came across this gem, from Herter's mayonnaise recipe (and I swear I'm NOT making it up!): "Using this famous recipe, mayonnaise is very easy to make and you will never have a failure with one exception. If you are a woman do not attempt to make mayonnaise during menstruating time as the mayonnaise will simply not blend together at all well. This is not superstition but a well established fact well known to all women cooks." Go ye, and read of it.
Rating:
Summary: It's Back In Print
Review: I have all three volumes of this book - the best review of cooking and life in general I have ever read. My volume 1 is so tattered and torn I am trying to get another one. From what I remember the author was the brother of Christian Herter, a member of Eisenhower's cabinet. I am buying copies for both of my sons as their cooking (and living) bible.
Rating:
Summary: I can't believe it!
Review: I'm amazed this book is still in print! I found this book in a used book store in New Orleans and thought it was a bizarre regional oddity from up north - what a great read, especially if you're a big foodie.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite cookbook
Review: In addition to being a useful cookbook, this is a facinating history book. This is my favorite cookbook, and has taught me how to cook more than any other. It is also very entertaining, and funny to read. Some of the recipes that I've used which are excellent are Shoshone meat patties, saurbraten, Stonewall Jackson barbecue ribs, Seminole Corn Relish, sour dough pancakes La Salle, and beans escoffier. And if you've ever wondered how to make Worstecshire sauce, beer, or about 50 different kinds of wine after reading this book you will wonder no more.
Rating:
Summary: The Cliff Claven of Cuisine
Review: Remember Cliff, the postman in "Cheers"? You know, the John Ratzenberger character who was the know-it-all barfly who, even if he DID know something about a subject, managed to mangle it into unwittingly hilarious non-sequiturs?
Cross that character with an travel & food writer of great enthusiasm and woefully limited skills, and you might end up with something like this.
Part cookbook, part very dubious history, part polemic and 100% personal. It is refreshingly blunt and opinionated, even if his opinions are howlingly off base sometimes. Look at it this way, to use another TV analogy: which would be more interesting, a beer with Archie Bunker or a sherry with Felix Unger? This book is definitely not the latter.
I gotta confess I have a soft spot for Herter. I was born in 1951, and during my formative preadolescent years one of the finest pieces of literature I consumed ravenously was the Herter's sporting goods catalog. GL Herter wrote the same purple prose and with the same hyperbolic certitude whether the subject was Oysters Rockefeller or fly-tying supplies or worm bedding. Nothing was ever simple: it was always "World Famous Herter's Snelled Hooks" or whatever. Even as a kid I recognized this as over the top, before I even knew what 'over the top' meant.
Highly recommended. A terrifically crazy read. Where is the justice in a world which lets this go out of print while Danielle Steele continues to cause thousands of trees to be killed???
Rating:
Summary: Everyone's Entitled To His Opinion!
Review: The book was a gift to my father, years ago, who was a chef with some domestic and international training and experience. A fan of Escoffier, my father couldn't believe some of Herter's comments about the reknown French master of cuisine. This is a wonderful, mixed up collection of recipes, which seem to be second to a world history according to THE authority, George Leonard Herter. He claims authentic historical recipes, but the ingredients list begins with "Take a #2 can of whole corn..." I'm sure the early Native Americans had the electric can openers ready. In any event, a must-read, as I have devoured this book many times and keep howling with laughter. Oh, and yes, the recipes are quite good...and easy.
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest cook books I've ever read
Review: This is hilarious, and I am sure it is unintentional. The author (the book lists husband and wife as joint authors, but I am sure it was the Mr. who wrote the cookbook, and the Mrs. who typed it) claims to know the only correct version of numerous recipes, as if he had talked to the creators of the recipes in person. However, the funniest part of all is near the end, in a recipe for homemade soap. The author sneers that modern women are too good to make their own soap, but a hydrogen bomb would take care of that! The text is so dense, and full of information, that reading it is like mining - and you never know when you'll come across another priceless nugget like the soap recipe.
Rating:
Summary: "BULL", and how!
Review: This is simply the funniest, strangest cookbook I've ever owned. The story of St. Anthony's world famous sandwich put my boyfriend into such a state of hilarity that I thought he'd stopped breathing. Of course, it's just one among many bizzare blends of ancient history and rustic American home cookin'. Some recipes, ostensibly from original, ancient sources, use such things as ketchup and luncheon meat. I had no idea the book had been re-published in 1995, so I was shocked to find these reviews! My edition is 1969, Vol. I, gold hardcover, self-published by Herter's store. In back, it lists some other titles by the Herters, such as, "How to Live with a Bitch", "George the Housewife", and "How to Get Out of the Rat Race and Live on $10 a Month". If anybody finds these, I'd love to know how they compare to old "Bull Cook".
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