Dec 08 2008
How to Cook Everything – Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition 2 000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
Today’s favorite kitchen companion—revised and better than ever.
Mark Bittman’s award-winning How to Cook Everything has helped countless home cooks discover the rewards of simple cooking. Now the ultimate cookbook has been revised and expanded (almost half the material is new), making it absolutely indispensable for anyone who cooks—or wants to. With Bittman’s straightforward instructions and advice, you’ll make crowd-pleasing food using fresh, natural ingredients; simple techniques; and basic equipment. Even better, you’ll discover how to relax and enjoy yourself in the kitchen as you prepare delicious meals for every occasion.
“A week doesn’t go by where I don’t pull How to Cook Everything down from the shelf, so I am thrilled there’s a new, revised edition. My original is falling apart!”
—Al Roker
“This new generation of How to Cook Everything makes my ‘desert island’ cookbook choice jacked up and simply universal. I’ll now bequeath my cookbooks to a collector; I need only this one.”
—Mario Batali
“Mark Bittman has done the impossible, improving upon his now-classic How to Cook Everything. If you need know-how, here’s where to find it.”
—Bobby Flay
“Mark Bittman is a great cook and an incredible teacher. In this second edition, Mark has fine-tuned the original, making this book a must for every kitchen.”
—Jean-Georges Vongerichten
“Throw away all your old recipes and buy How to Cook Everything. Mark Bittman’s recipes are foolproof, easy, and more modern than any others.”
—Isaac Mizrahi
“Generous, thorough, reliable, and necessary, How to Cook Everything is an indispensable reference for both experienced and beginner cooks.”
—Mollie Katzen, author of the Moosewood Cookbook
“I learned how to cook from How to Cook Everything in a way that gives me the freedom to be creative. This new edition will be my gift to new couples or for a housewarming; if you have this book, you don’t really need any others.”
—Lisa Loeb, singer/songwriter
Exclusive Recipe Excerpts from How to Cook Everything
• Grilled or Broiled Chicken Kebabs
• Roasted Shrimp with Herb Sauce
• Warm Spicy Greens with Bacon and Eggs
• Author Tip: 7 Ways to Vary Chicken Kebabs [PDF]
10 Reasons You Need the New How to Cook Everything (even if you already have the original)
1. The 2000+ simple recipes will make cooking at home easier, so you can spend less and eat better.
2. With 1,446 new recipes and variations such as Beer-and-Butter Chicken Wings, Roasted Corn Chowder, BLT Salad, Paella with Chicken and Chorizo, Caramelized French Toast, and Popcorn Brittle, this book provides a whole new array of recipes.
3. The many new techniques covered in this edition will help you to expand your repertoire of kitchen skills to include frosting a cake, grinding your own chili powder, or even de-boning a quail.
4. Your husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, or best friend needs a little help in the kitchen (okay, maybe a lot). The new How to Cook Everything contains more expert advice like “12 Must-Have Kitchen Tools,” “Super-Easy 3-Ingredient Soups,” and “The Basics of Cutting.”
5. You trust Bittman’s no-nonsense opinions and can’t wait to read the thousands of new ones packed into this edition. He’ll even help you to select the best inexpensive fish (ex. mackerel is versatile, tasty, healthy, and plentiful; tilapia can taste kinda muddy).
6. The index of “Essential Recipes” points you to Bittman’s favorite dishes in each chapter, so there’s less reason to be intimidated by all those recipes.
7. There are more helpful lists in the new How to Cook Everything than ever before. Bittman shows how to jack up the basics with easy ideas like “4 Ways to Thicken a Sauce”, and “Infinite Ways to Season or Serve Any Grilled or Broiled Chicken Dish.”
8. With this edition’s brand new charts, it’s absurdly easy to look up the cooking times for grains, heat factor for chiles, and other need-to-know information about everything from herbs and spices to flour and noodles.
9. You know it’s cheap, easy, and fast to serve your family boneless chicken breasts every week, but sometimes you run out of ideas. That’s why you really need all the new recipes, variations, and other suggestions for chicken breasts like “11 More Ways to Vary Grilled or Broiled Boneless Chicken.”
10. There are plenty of new illustrations which incorporate more detail than many photos. They’ll show you how to use a pastry bag, how to eat crabs, and even how to puree soup using an immersion blender (it’s is way less messy than a regular blender).
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars I love this cookbook!
In addition to the typical American basics, I love that this cookbook includes recipes for international and less than every day foods. There are plenty of suggestions for varying recipes and I find his “quick” versions of many recipes helpful and well suited to work night dinners. The recipes tend to be fairly easy while using mostly fresh and healthy ingredients. I find so many things that sound delicious that I have a hard time deciding what to try first. Bittman explains techniques and ingredients clearly enough for real beginners, while going into enough depth that even more experienced cooks can learn something. I am already buying a second copy to send to my daughter at college.
5 Stars Even Better Than The Original!
I first began my affair with cooking and baking when I was in high school, learning from an original printing of HTCE that lie forgotton in my parents’ pantry.
Now, together with the love of my life in our first apartment, this new version is the nightly answer to the question, “What’s for dinner?” (and, perhaps even better – “How can we use that xxx we picked up at the farmer’s market?”).
Love it.
5 Stars Innovative, hip, and inspirational – it’s The One
If you have room in your heart for only one cookbook, this is the one. With 2000 recipes it really does have everything. With variations. It’s got vegetables from A to Z, with several recipes for each, primers on meat, fish and fowl, on stocking the kitchen and preserving your tools.
Bittman, author of the Minimalist column in the New York Times, has overhauled the original to reflect the changing times. Almost half the material is new, showcasing more international dishes, more vegetarian fare, and a tighter organization. Best known for keeping it simple – fine food, with minimal fuss – Bittman would like to see the home cook spend an hour a day cooking but most of these dishes can be made in half that time.
If the dishes are inspirational, the organization is breathtaking. Organized by course, each chapter begins with “essential” recipes, the “building blocks,” and icons accompany every recipe, indicating fast (under 30 minutes), make ahead, or vegetarian. Charts and sidebars abound, offering ideas for using different techniques with similar ingredients or the same technique with different ingredients.
As always with Bittman, the watchword is variation, the goal is inspiration. Cooks of all levels of experience and interest will spend hours with this book and never run out of new ideas and new tricks.
5 Stars A Classic Got Even Better
I got my copy of the new edition of How to Cook Everything the other day and am beyond thrilled. I own the old yellow edition and have cooked from it far more than any other book, so I knew the new book had a lot to live up to. Well, it by far exceeded my expectations. While the book still feels familiar, it also feels new and improved. The essential recipe sections beginning each chapter are a great way to find the basics. But even the basics have changed. For example, Mark’s roast chicken recipe, which I’ve used and liked in the past (though I still love Barbara Kafka’s) has changed. He suggests you heat the pan before putting the chicken in and placing the chicken breast side up (instead of side down as he suggested in his old book). The heat of the pan helps cook the thighs faster so the breasts don’t dry out. It worked perfectly the first time I tried it. Beyond the basics, there are just so many new recipes in here. The variations, lists, and charts that Mark is famous for seem even more plentiful than before, and there are tons of beautiful new illustrations. I’m so excited to cook with this new edition and foresee a day when it’s pages will be stained with grease and flour just like the old edition. But I still can’t get rid of the old one. It’s like a good friend. I’ll just put the new one on the shelf right next to it, red by yellow, and know that I can always count on them.
4 Stars Beverages are missing!
I gave away my first edition of this book as soon as I got the new one. Much to my dismay, I discovered that the entire beverages chapter has been omitted from this new book.
