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Recommended by

Fred Plotkin

Authority on Italian food and opera

The first edition of this indispensable primer was written by Irma S. Rombauer in 1931 and has been updated countless times since, often with her daughter Marion and subsequently by other relatives and new editors. This is among the first books any American home cook acquires and is a valuable instruction manual on the basics of ingredient selection, preparation and cooking. Recent editions did harm to some of the book’s quirky charm by standardizing concepts that defy standardization. The original Rombauer versions (epitomized by the 1975 edition) of this book teach the reader—often a stranger in the kitchen—how to cook but also how to think creatively and intuitively. Many Americans of a certain age refer to The Joy of Cooking as “Mother Rombauer.”

Ben Starr

Blogger

I list this last because I NEVER use any of the recipes in it, but I look at it all the time. Get the oldest copy, the earliest edition you can find. It's a piece of history, and will remind you of whence we came! The older copies have instructions like how to skin a squirrel, and how best to cook a possum. If you choose to use any of the recipes, it will teach you that you shouldn't trust most recipes. Half a teaspoon of salt in a casserole? For decades, this was the go-to cooking reference for our nation, which is why our cuisine was scorned the world over. But it was the life's work of Rombauer, and the continuing work of her daughter, and is of priceless anthropological value. It should be on every cookbook shelf in the nation.

Jenny Whitham and Margaret Carter

Specialist food producer

This book was given to Margaret by her mother when she complained to her mother that in married life she now had to cook. Being brought up in South America and the Bahamas, Margaret's early life did no include the necessity to cook. The kitchen was the domain of the kitchen maids! So this book was sent from Nassau to Margaret in the UK with blessings from her mother saying you will find instructions on how to cook Sunday lunch in here. Still Margaret's most hated meal to cook, she hates the balancing act of presenting so many different components to table at the right temperature.

Dan Lepard

Baker and food writer

The Joy of Cooking (1896) is the kitchen bible for many home cooks in America, still a bestseller. I found a battered, coverless but complete 1943 edition at the Strand Bookshop NYC in 1993 and somehow still have it. When I wanted to know the traditional way to bake a chocolate brownie, make cornbread, it was the book I went to. Rombauer called it a “record of our American way of life”, back in 1943, and it’s remarkable that she recorded it so thoroughly.

Jennifer Armentrout

Editor-in-Chief, Fine Cooking Magazine

My mom gave this book to me when I left home for college and kept calling her every night to ask basic questions, like “how do I roast a chicken?” Not only does it cover those basics, it’s also got instructions for oddball tasks like how to cook a squirrel or skin a beaver tail. Not that I’ve ever needed to do either, but who knows, one of these days that knowledge might come in handy.

Gina McAdam

Editor of Profile Leader and author

This spiral bound version was a wedding present from a childhood friend who knew that until I left for abroad to study for my Masters degree, I had never ever stepped into the kitchen. It was a lifeline during my first years of marriage — when Britain was still not yet the food nirvana it is today and eating out still quite the luxury — especially the recipe for spaghetti bolognese.

Cat Black

Food writer

I grew up with this bible of all possible recipes, it is no nonsense and has a recipe for everything. It works. I have never lived in a house without it, the page marking the temperature and measurement equivalents is permanently bookmarked. It is the first book I bought for my own house when I left home.

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