Cookbook #192: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking, Kenneth H. C. Lo, Pantheon Books, Random House, NY, 1974.

“In spite of the widespread popularity of Chinese food, Chinese cooking is still rather new and strange to the average Western housewife. By concentrating each chapter on one method of cooking, the book should make it much easier for the Westerner to conduct an initial trial, after which the mystique still surrounding Chinese cooking should evaporate. One of the purposes of this book, apart from introducing Chinese vegetable and vegetarian cooking, is to help dispel some of the mystery that still pervades any subject connected with the Chinese.”

So reads the introduction to this 1974 book. By 2017, much of the mystery about Chinese cooking has been dispelled, and Americans have adopted many Chinese dishes: stir-fries, steamed and fried dumplings, egg rolls, hot and sour and egg drop soup, fried rice . . .  dishes part of our restaurant and home culinary fair.

Lo wrote over 40 books on Chinese cooking from the 1950s to the 1990s. According to the back cover of Chinese Vegetarian Cooking, he was also a news commentator for the BBC, a diplomat, a fine-arts publisher, a champion tennis player, and a food critic. He certainly knows a lot about Chinese cooking and culture! It’s evident in every page of Chinese Vegetarian Cooking.  I search the internet to see if had a web site, and perhaps recipes that are not 40 years old. No such site exists. I did find from a 2015 bibliography entry stating that he has passed away.

(Curious fact: One of his books, Oriental Cooking [1996] is listed for $1141.11 on Amazon in February 2017.)

I especially like reading about the unusual ingredients in Chinese Vegetarian Cooking. For instance, “red-in-snow”. I envision a pile of crushed ice with spots of red coloring in it. I search the index, but do not find a description of red-in-snow. But, I found a webpage explanation: “Basically any pickled green vegetables in the mustard family can be called ‘red in snow.’ The word ‘red’ in Chinese doesn’t literally mean the colour here. Red symbolises spring and livelihood. And because many types of mustard green can still thrive in cold winter with snows, this name was given to it.” (Accessed 2017.) And I found this on Google books:

I decide to look for red-in-snow at the Asian Seafood Market on 28th St. in Boulder. Nothing under that name in the store, but I did find pickled mustard greens:

I was pretty proud of myself! I picked up a package just to see what it tastes like. Heck, it only cost 99 cents!

So what shall I make for this blog? As I page through Chinese Vegetarian Cooking, none of the recipes look familiar, and none are marked. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked any recipe from this cook book, although I’ve owned it for forty years. When I make pot stickers and dumplings and soups and egg rolls, I use recipes from other of my Chinese cookbooks. But I have to find something! After a lot of searching, I choose to make Chinese Salad.

I pick up some bean sprouts for this salad at the Asian Seafood Market. I really like that this market sells bean sprouts in bulk – most stores sell them in packages, and the two of us can never finish them before they go bad. I don’t find chives, but pick up a bunch of green onions; these too are always good a the Asian Seafood Market. I get some ginger, and a big baggie of peeled garlic ($1.50!). I decide to put some of the pickled mustard greens in the salad to see what they taste like. I don’t have and sherry, but decide to substitute with a little rice wine vinegar. It’s not in the salad, but I buy a big bag of bok choy (the storeowner always gives me grief when I just buy a couple bok choys).

Chinese Salad
serves 2

• romaine, torn or chopped into bite size pieces; enough for 2 people, about 4 ounces
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 1 tomato, peeled and chopped in chunks
• bean sprouts, about 1/2 cup
• green tops of 1-2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 onion or 1 shallot, diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon fresh garlic, grated or chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or use sherry, but it will be a sweeter dressing)
• sesame oil to taste (I used about 1/2 teaspoon)
• red-in-snow for garnish (totally optional)
• fried chow mein noodles (optional)

Place the romaine, carrots, tomato, bean sprouts, and green onion tops in a bowl.

Heat the oil in a pan, then add the onions, garlic, and ginger; stir fry 1 minute. Put the mixture in a small bowl and whisk in the water, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil. Toss the salad, then plate on two dishes. If you like, top each salad with a few crunchy chow mein noodles.

Here are the items I bought at the Asian Seafood Market. Note how fresh the bean sprouts are! I used the bok choy in a stir fry to go along with the salad.

My Chinese Salads:

The salads were a success. The dressing is good – probably better than store-bought “Oriental salad dressing”. The dressing was also easy to put together and it was quick and convenient to make enough for just two people. Of course, vary the salad ingredients to whatever is on hand!

Although this recipe was a success, I will recyle this cook book. Can’t find any other recipe in it I’d like to try, and I have other proven references/recipes for Chinese ingredients and dishes.

Cookbook #186: Cuisinart Prep 11, Cuisinart, East Windsor, NJ, 2001.

This is the instruction booklet for my first Cuisinart, a DLC-2011 series, that I gave to my daughter a year ago. It is still a working unit, although over the years I had some issues with the top and its attachment to the working bowl. (And now the blade has been recalled due to issues with the rivets in the blade falling apart.)

Included in this instruction booklet are about 40 recipes for appetizers, soups, breads, entrees, pizzas, sauces and dressings, sides, and desserts. The instructions for all recipes are excellent. I love the recipe for hummus – have made it many times. Although I have my own banana bread recipe, I read with interest the one in this booklet: finally a recipe that does what I came up with on my own. Why hand mash bananas? Use a processor, mix the bananas with other wet ingredients, and then fold in the mixed dry ingredients. I have used the pizza dough recipe, but not often. You can use the dough blade and the unit to knead yeast breads, but I rarely do.

The pesto recipe on page 43 is excellent and I have used it lots. As the instructions state, this pesto “is lower in fat than traditional pestos, and just as flavorable”. It makes a lot, but can be frozen (I’ve frozen it before in ice cube trays).

Creamy Chevre and Peppercorn Dressing catches my eye. This is a salad dressing with shallots, green peppercorns, lemon, vinegar, sour cream, and olive oil. I think I’ll make it for this blog! If I ever want to make my own mayonnaise using a food processor, I would use the recipe in this booklet.

I use a modified version of the french-cut green beans on page 54. Generally, I start with the chopping blade in place, then run the machine andI drop in a clove or two of garlic. I leave the garlic in the bowl, but remove the blade and insert the slicing disc and use it to process the green beans. Then I dump the lot into a sauce pan and saute in butter for a few minutes, add water and cook another few minutes, drain and serve.

I will definitely save this cookbook. I noted at least 10 recipes to try!

Below is the recipe for Creamy Chevre and Peppercorn Dressing.

“Chevre” is more commonly called “goat cheese”, at least where we live. I have used green peppercorns before (ages ago), and they were packed in brine, as called for in the printed Creamy Chevre & Peppercorn Dressing recipe. According to my Food Lover’s Companion, “the green peppercorn is the soft, underripe berry that’s usually preserved in brine. It has a fresh flavor that’s less pungent than the berry in its other forms”. But all I could find on my venture to Whole Foods was a spice jar of hard, dried green peppercorns. I bought that jar, and soaked a few peppercorns in a mixture of salted hot water and vinegar for awhile, then drained. They were still pretty hard. Thinking they are sort of like capers flavor-wise, I used half a tablespoon of these peppercorns and half a tablespoon of capers. If you can’t find brined green peppercorns, I suggest substituting with a teaspoon of capers and then grind some fresh black peppercorns into the dressing to your own taste.

Creamy Goat Cheese Dressing
makes about 1 3/4 cups

• 1 1/2 ounces shallots, peeled and roughly chopped (for me, this was one medium-sized shallot “clove”; you could substitute a portion of a regular onion)
• 1 tablespoon drained and rinsed brined green peppercorns (or substitute as I suggested in the above paragraph)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces goat cheese
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Insert the metal blade in a food processor. Start the machine, and drop the shallots down the feed tube; process 5 seconds. Add the green peppercorns and process 10 seconds. Scrape the mixture out of the bowl and reserve.

Add the lemon juice, vinegar, water, sour cream, salt, and goat cheese to the food processor bowl. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the shallot/peppercorn mixture. Start the machine running, and slowly add the olive oil through the feed tube. Process until all the olive oil is added and incorporated.

Remove the dressing from the processor. Let stand at least 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. This dressing will keep for a week in the refrigerator.

Below is a photo of my just-finished dressing, still in the processor. You can see I have a couple drops of olive oil still on top.

I honestly didn’t think my husband would like this goat cheese dressing. So when I made up our salads, I only dressed mine, and told him he could make his own choice.

He ended up choosing the goat cheese dressing, and he liked it! He even chose it the next night too.

Me? I love this dressing. It’s creamy and pungent and only about 50 calories in a tablespoon. It was even better the second night. I am using it for all of my salads until it is gone!

Cookbook #168: Step-by-Step Microwave Cook Book, Better Homes and Gardens, Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, Iowa, 1987.

I do like Better Homes and Gardens publications! As I leaf through this one, I find myself enjoying most everything: the photos and the writing and the recipes. Reminds me of the BH&G Golden Treasury of Cooking that I covered a couple weeks ago. Checking my cookbook database, I find 17 BH&G books, and I have covered all but this one so far – and most I decided to keep.

I bought this cookbook for my mother in 1990, when she got a microwave oven.

My mother never really liked “new fangled things”. She held out on a garbage disposal for years, and never wanted (or had) a dishwasher or clothes dryer. She relented to a microwave oven around 1990 – it came as the upper oven in her new stove. (I remember how long she needed a new gas stove, how the bottom was almost baked through by the time my father gave in and bought a new one.) My guess is that I found this cookbook in a bookstore, because I (still) like it. I probably bought it in a brick-and-mortar bookstore because online book-buying was in its infancy in 1990.

I went into some detail on microwave ovens when I covered cookbook #17, Whirlpool Micro Menus Cookbook. I highly recommend reading that “old” post of mine! It talks of early microwaves and my uncle and how we were a bit wary of microwave ovens at first but how even ex-hippie-me finally added one to my kitchen. Now I would hate to live without a microwave oven, even though I use it mostly for tasks like defrosting or re-heating or melting cheese or making burritos, or baking chores like melting chocolate.

Microwave cookbooks encourage the reader to prepare the entire meal in the microwave, from appetizers to soup to stews to meats to breads to desserts. That’s simply not the way I cook! But, I am always looking for ideas and sometimes I need microwave cooking times and methods, so I will keep one or two microwave guides on my cookbook shelf.

Okay, details on why I like this cookbook. The appetizer section gives lots of good ideas, especially South-of-the Border-Style Meatballs, Pork Kabobs, Taco Chicken Nuggets, and party and snack and nut mixes ideas. The bread section describes how to use your microwave to rise yeast doughs. I like the quick breads Cranberry Orange Loaf and Chocolate and Whole Wheat Ring, and the cakes Pumpkin-Raisin Cake and Applesauce Cake – but I’d probably adapt these recipes for a conventional oven. I’ve never thought of making candies like divinity or brittles in the microwave, but it might be nicer than standing over a hot stove. Excellent instructions for scrambled eggs and omelets. Fish and Vegetables En Papillote sounds good. Mother tried and liked “Saucy Tuna-Mac Casserole”. Walnut Bananas Foster! Sounds good for grandkids (if you leave out the rum!). If my regular oven breaks, I could simmer a pot roast in my microwave. I like the Spaghetti Pie, Mexican-Style Manicotti, and Saucy Sausage and Noodles casseroles. Good instructions for defrosting and cooking chicken pieces and a “Creating a chicken casserole” section. I like the chocolate and butterscotch ice cream toppings.

Clear instructions for thawing and cooking different foods are throughout the book, and the end of each section has the nutritional analysis of each recipe. Throughout, I am impressed by the clear instructions. Yes, I will keep this cookbook.

I choose to make Mexican Beef Salad for this blog.

The round steak is cooked in the microwave, and the prep takes just a few minutes. The whole salad can be prepared in just one bowl. It’s July, and hot, and the less time spent in a hot kitchen, the better! I do think this salad needs a little salsa and avocado. I also put a few tortilla chips in our salads for some crunch.

I had trouble finding a small can of “yellow hominy”. At my local supermarket, they only had 6 pound cans of hominy! The labels didn’t say “yellow” hominy, but the picture on one of the choices looked a little yellower than the others. I bought that one huge can, and when I opened it, the hominy inside was pretty pale. And now I have the rest of the can to re-purpose.

The ingredient amounts in my version of this recipe (below) are approximate. It is, after all, just a salad! Experiment as you wish.

Mexican Beef Salad
serves 2

• 8-12 ounces beef round steak
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (I used champagne vinegar)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup hominy (about)
• 1/2 large onion, sliced
• 1/2 green (or red) pepper, chopped or sliced
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup sliced black olives
• halved cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup jack cheese, cut into small cubes, or grated
• torn lettuce (I suggest romaine or iceberg)
• optional: avocados, salsa, and tortilla chips

Slice the round steak into bite-sized strips. (It is easier to slice thinly if you put it in the freezer for about an hour first.)

Place the meat in a 1-quart glass casserole. Add 1 tablespoon oil, then microwave on high for 3-5 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes, until the meat is done.

Remove the meat from the casserole with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to the drippings in the casserole. Stir in vinegar, salt, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and cayenne. Cook in the microwave on high about 30 seconds, or until it is bubbling. Add the cooked meat, hominy, onion, green pepper, and olives. Toss to coat. Cover and chill 3-24 hours.

When ready to serve the salad, stir the cherry tomatoes into the meat and vegetable mixture. Fill two bowls with as much lettuce as you like. Add the meat-vegetable mixture.

If you like, add chopped avocados and salsa, and garnish with tortilla chips.

This was a great salad for a hot summer night! I’m sure I’ll make it again.

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Cookbook #133: Artichoke to Za’atar, Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, 2008.

This is a beautiful cookbook. The photos are amazing. Pleasing designs and colors are carried throughout the pages. And – the Middle Eastern recipes are interesting and often enticing.

My daughter brought me this cookbook when she moved from Washington, DC to Togo, West Africa. She knows a lot more about Middle Eastern cooking than I do. I only took a class in it – she traveled to Morroco and stayed with families there. I do want to learn more about this cuisine, and Artichoke to Za’atar is great for reference and for recipes. I’m glad this blog got me to take this book off the shelf and spend some time with it.

A little about the authors. Greg Malouf is “modern Middle Eastern” grand chef. He lives in Australia but his heritage is Lebanese. On this site, you can see some of his handiwork (2015). I recommend his Facebook page too. Lucy Malouf, who is now his ex-wife, has had a “rich and varied career”. From her site, Lucy “. . . is regarded as one of the most experienced food editors in the publishing industry. She is also a member of that peculiar group of people who enjoy compiling indexes.” Ah, a woman after my own heart! I once indexed an organic chemistry laboratory text and thoroughly enjoyed that task!

Oh yes, I can learn a lot from Greg and Lucy Malouf.

Many recipes in Artichoke to Za’atar look exotic, but the directions seem clear and easy to follow. I think that my problem will be in finding some of the ingredients in local stores. Examples: amardine (apricot leather), orange blossom water, haloumi cheese, merguez sausages, white haricot beans, fresh fava beans, juniper berries, sumac, quinces, rose water, Vialone Nano rice, poussin (very young chicken), pigeon, rabbit. (Rabbit? We have tons of rabbits on our land this year, but I am not about to kill and dress one.)

I decide to make “Honey-Roasted Pear and Walnut Salad” for this blog:

The ingredients that might be hard to find are orange blossom water and haloumi cheese and frisee. I start in downtown Boulder with a visit to my favorite ingredient and spice shops. Got lucky on my first store, Peppercorn, and found the orange blossom water (with the help of a saleswoman).

Cypricot haloumi cheese? I know that Whole Foods has a good selection of cheese, so I started there. Couldn’t find it in the fancy cheeses, but a store helper led me to the area of fresh mozzarella, feta, quesa fresca – those sorts of cheeses – and there it was:

When I got to the check-out stand, they couldn’t find a price on this cheese, even sent the bagger back to look, so they gave it to me for free! The clerk raved about this cheese as a “grilling cheese”. I am looking forward to tasting it!

Frisee is a type of lettuce that is often in the “spring mix” packages, but I don’t recall seeing it sold separately. I was wrong! I found “endive frisee” sold by the head in the produce section of Whole Foods.

I have cardamom pods in my own spice cabinet. They smell wonderful! Cardamom comes in seeds, powder, or pods. Here is my jar of whole cardamom pods:

The cardamom seeds are inside the greenish pods. I cracked a pod and peeled it apart and found these black seeds:

If you have cardamom seeds or powder in your pantry, my guess is that you could substitute them for the pods.

The rest of the ingredients (even watercress) are easy to find. Pears especially are easy – it is fall and pears are in abundance. (Once I ordered “roasted pear salad” at a restaurant in Boulder, and they only put one measly pear in it! This time I will have a lot of pears.)

The recipe does not say how many it serves. It looked like too much for the two of us, so I cut back the ingredients.

Aargh. As I prepared this salad, I took issue with many of the instructions. It said to use a “very hot oven” for the walnuts. To me, a “hot” oven is 475˚, the temperature I use to bake rustic breads. I chose 450˚ to roast the walnuts, and they were burnt after 4 minutes of cooking (I had to start over). It calls for the “juice of 2 lemons” but did not specifiy how much went for the cheese and how much for the dressing. I don’t think running the onion under water for 5 minutes is necessary. It says to “add the pears”, but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to add just the pears, or the pears and their cooking liquid. (For that matter, I was disappointed that the pears were “roasted” by frying in a pan, not cooking in a hot oven.) The recipe lists frisee but does not specify when to add it to the salad. Whisk the oil and lemon juice “gently”? That’s odd, usually you want to whisk it to an emulsion.

Below is my version of this recipe.

Pear, Walnut, and Haloumi Cheese Salad

Pears

• 2 ripe pears, peeled and cut into quarters
• 2 1/2 tablespoons honey (about 50 grams)
• 3 cardamom pods, seeded (use the seeds only)
• 1 tablespoon orange-blossom water
• 1 tablespoon sherry
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the honey, cardamom seeds, orange-blossom water, and sherry in a small pan and heat gently to combine. Save.

Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a heavy fry pan. Keeping the heat at medium high to high heat, add the pear and sear the pears for 1 minute on each “side” (my pears had 3 sides). Add the saved honey mixture and cook for 2 more minutes, or until the liquid is a caramel color. Turn the pears carefuly a few times as the liquid is caramelizing.

Set the pears aside and save.

Walnuts

• 1/2 cup walnut haves

Roast the walnuts by placing in a pan in a 400˚ oven for about 5 minutes. Check during the cook time, as they can become black quite quickly.

Cheese

• 4 ounces Haloumi cheese, sliced 1/8-inch thick
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (extra-virgin not necessary)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice one lemon and use 1 tablespoon here, the rest in the dressing)
• thyme, about 1 fresh sprig chopped or about 1/4 teaspoon dried

Heat a fry pan over high heat and add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Dust the haloumi cheese in the flour and then cook the cheese slices until they are golden brown on each side. Remove the cheese from the pan and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon lemon juice and the thyme.

Salad

• 1/4 of a red (purple) onion, thinly sliced
• about 1/4 of a bunch of watercress, leaves only
• about 1/2 cup endive frisee lettuce (if you can find it)
• (use any lettuce combination you have on hand)
• about 1/3 cup whole black olives, brined are especially good
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• juice of one lemon (well, what is left after taking out the 1 tablespoon for the cheese slices)
• salt and pepper to taste

Put the pears (fish them out of their cooking liquid), the fried haloumi cheese, the watercress, frisee, olives, onion, and most of the walnuts in a bowl and mix gently. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice and salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix gently. Serve topped with the remaining walnuts.

My version of this salad was very flavorful, and quite pretty. In the cookbook they say to serve it as a “starter”. Since it is a fairly substantial salad, I decided to serve it plated with salmon and garlic bread as a complete meal.

I will make a version of this again, I’m sure. But next time I might try a couple variations. I would like to try the haloumi cheese grilled outside instead of fried in oil. For the pears, I want to try roasting them in the oven instead of frying in a syrupy sauce.

A small additional note. This cookbook is organized in alphabetical order by ingredient name. But, “artichoke” is not the first entry, “almond” is. And the last entry is “zucchini”. “Za’atar” is a thyme spice mixture, and does not have it’s own entry. I guess they did not want to call this book “Almond to Zucchini”!

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Cookbook #100: Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1964.

If my house were on fire, and I was able to save only one of my cookbooks, the Joy of Cooking would be it. It has lived in my kitchen since the seventies. The cover has fallen off the spine and I have many pages marked – but only with note papers, I never wrote in this book, I tried to keep it clean. Quite simply, this is my favorite cookbook, and entirely suitable for the placement of “100” in this blog.

I know I bought this book for myself, but I don’t recall the trip to the bookstore. It must have been in 1974, since that is the last listed printing date on the copyright page. That puts me living in a rented funky old house near downtown Boulder, a graduate student, fairly poor, just beginning to expand my cooking repertoire. I am sure that I stood in the store and paged studiously through this book before I purchased it – brand new and hardcover – with money that I had religiously saved up (or maybe the money was a gift from my Mother). It was a big purchase.

Joy of Cooking has a long history. In 1931 the author, Irma S. Rombauer (1877-1962), a Missouri homemaker from an immigrant German family, created the Joy of Cooking. She began as an amateur – she was neither a writer nor a professional cook. Her daughter, Marion Becker (1903-1976), illustrated the first version of Joy. The second edition came in 1936, and the third in 1943/46. By 1951, Irma Rombauer’s health was failing, and she negotiated a book contract that named her daughter as her sole successor in any future revision. (Wikipedia) Hence, the 4th edition, 1951, is the first authored by both Rambauer and Becker.

My edition of Joy of Cooking is the 5th, first copyright 1962. On the Los Angeles Times website, I learn that there is some controversy about this edition. Apparently the publishers released a 1962 version without the final consent of the authors, a version that was “garbled” and fraught with errors. It wasn’t until 1963 that the 5th edition was published in a form acceptable to Marion Becker. Luckily, my edition was printed in 1974. The 6th edition came out in 1975. To many, the 6th edition is deemed the best, although I would vote that the 5th edition is my favorite.

After Marion Becker’s death, her sons, Ethan and Mark, took over the Joy of Cooking. The book remained unchanged until 1997. During this period, Bobbs-Merrill folded and Simon and Schuster purchased the copyright. Working with Ethan Becker, Simon and Schuster hired a cookbook editor, changed the writing style of the book, and included input from various professional food writers/chefs. Diehard Joy of Cooking fans often don’t like the seventh edition. The eighth edition, the 75th anniversary edition, came out in 2006. The original voice of the Joy of Cooking was restored, and it includes some of the information deleted in the 7th edition.

The Joy of Cooking has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 18 million copies. Pretty amazing.

Why do I like this book? It is extremely comprehensive, and has a bent that satisfies my scientific side. If I want to learn how to cook just about anything, I consult this book first. I did in the seventies and I do so today. How to make German potato salad? It’s there. How to cook a lobster? Yes. How to pluck a chicken? That too.

I like too that the recipe instructions are clear, and written in “action-style”. For instance, the ingredients for a recipe’s first step are listed, instructions given, then ingredients for the second step are listed, instructions given, etc. (See my recipe scan below for an example.) Often, alternative ways to finish a basic recipe are given, such as different fillings for raviolis, or three different variations for a chicken stew. When recipes include methods or ingredients that are covered in a different section of the book, a referral page number is given for the convenience of the reader. And, this book has a great index.

I enjoy the “voice” of this book. It is written in the first person: “we like this version” or “if you, like us, expect a 100% return on your efforts” or “In the foregoing pages we have supplied . . . “. Countless comments are throughout, for example, for hollandaise sauce they write “Our cook calls this “holiday sauce”, isn’t that a grand name for it?” or for banana cake “Do try this, if you like a banana flavor . . . ” or for maple cream candy “Who would ever suspect that this delicious confection was just plain maple syrup in a more solid form?” Throughout are asides: stories about their travels or historical figures. It’s written with a little attitude or bossiness, as illustrated in the instructions for cooking Puffed Potatoes in hot oil: “Drop the slices in separately. Do not crowd the pan. The slices will sink. This next admonition is not without danger for the unskilled. When, after a few seconds, they rise, use a continuous shaking motion with the pan, which will set up a wave-like action to keep the floating strips bathed in the fat.”

The Joy shows a definite German influence. As such, it appeals to my own German heritage: three out of four of my grandparents were mostly German. Thriftiness, industriousness, stubbornness, holding to traditions – these are the traits that I associate with my German ancestry. Irma Bromauer and her whole family worked hard to get this book out and keep it updated over many decades. And it’s a long book – my edition of Joy is 849 pages. That is a ton of work! Oh – this is touching. In the dedication, Marion Becker writes: “Working with Mother on its development . . . ” Note that she, like me, called our mothers “Mother”. Not mom or mommy or ma. Maybe it’s the German heritage.

Finally, a quote from the foreward that speaks to me: “Most important to us are all of you, both at home and abroad, who are preoccupied every day with that old yet ever-new question, ‘What shall we have for dinner?'”

I always use a Joy of Cooking recipe for my cheese souffles, blender hollandaise sauce, cooked red cabbage, and potato pancakes. And Caesar’s Salad, which I decide to make for this blog. I’ve made this tons of times. If I have a Caesar’s salad in a restaurant, I always compare it to the Joy’s version, and they rarely measure up. This is a “classic” Caesar’s, no mushrooms or other vegetables, and the perfect dressing, made on the salad rather than in a bottle.

If you follow this recipe, you will be successful!

I am not going to type in this recipe, since I always refer to this cookbook to make it. I always halve the recipe for the two of us, but I still use a whole egg. Remember to put a clove of garlic in olive oil early in the day. Use fresh lemon juice, no other. I prefer grated fresh Parmesan cheese rather than the stuff that is sold in a can. I use the amount of romaine lettuce that I think the two of us are hungry for. Anchovies? My husband loves them, I only like them, so I put more in his salad. When adding the vinegar, lemon juice, and oil, I usually measure out the recommended amounts, then add a portion of each, toss the salad, taste, and add more if I feel it needs it.

Here are my ingredients, sans lettuce and croutons:

The croutons are stars in this salad. Make them fresh and just before you put the salad together. And use that garlic-soaked olive oil to fry them.

Here are our salads, moments before we ate them:

Mmmm. I still have lots of romaine. I think I’ll make Caesar’s salads again soon! Thank you Joy of Cooking for helping me make a great dinner, once again.

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