General

* The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer and Manon R. Becker, Bobbs-Merrill, 1951. paperback, New American Library, 1979.

This was the first cookbook that I ever owned. It was given to me by my sister in 1946 and, because of the excellence of the recipes and the clarity with which they are outlined, I became a reasonably inspired cook during my early years in Chicago. To my mind it is unique, the finest of all-inclusive, comprehensive basic American cookbooks. It goes well beyond mere primer techniques, however, and should be indispensable to any good cook’s library. It is a marvelous reference book not only for recipes but for cooking techniques, temperatures, baking times, and so on.