Betty Crocker's Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today
For 50 years Betty Crocker has reigned supreme in America's kitchens, her trusted advice and easy-to-follow recipes helping cooks of all levels become confident in the kitchen. Now updated for the new millennium, the cookbook, nicknamed "Big Red," has been completely revised and updated to reflect the cooking trends and tastes of today. Stumped by chayote squash? Want to make a perfect apple pie or find new recipes for the bread machine? It's all right here in this handy book: - More than 950 recipes, from appetizers to desserts, to cover every cooking need - pot roast, pasta, pumpkin bread, and more
- Step-by-step line art and photographs with specific "how-to" instructions to guide you through new techniques
- Beautiful food photography that shows the finished results; i.d. photos of such foods as mushrooms and exotic fruits to help you shop with confidence
- Easy meat-roasting charts, numbered recipe steps, and preparation times with each recipe that keep cooking simple?and relaxing
What's New in the 9th Edition:
- 30-Minute Recipes and Reduced-Fat/Low-Calorie Recipes tagged so they can be found in a flash
- Individual chapters on grilling and vegetarian meals
- Expanded information on fruits and vegetables
- Crockpot recipes
- Information on organic food
- "Learn with Betty" photographs that guide you through cooking techniques
- Dietary Exchanges in each recipe's nutrition analysis
Instruction was and is the book's strongest suit, and any cook--novice to professional--will benefit from its many how-to features. These include step-by-step directions with photos, tips for kitchen timesaving, and troubleshooting advice. The book also includes several comprehensive glossaries (those on cooking terms and ingredients are particularly good). Standouts among the vast recipe collection, more than 300 of which are designated fast or low fat, include old favorites such as Macaroni and Cheese, Old-Fashioned Baked Beans, and Lemon Chiffon Cake. A few newer ones, such as Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Bread, also qualify. Published, as ever, in a loose-leaf binder, the book celebrates American culinary know-how, a broad-based tradition of good home cooking, exemplary baking, and the conviction that food and commerce can meld to help people cook easier and eat better. Happy birthday indeed! --Arthur Boehm
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A must-have for every kitchen!,
I have always had a Betty Crocker cookbook around. It was the first cookbook I took with me when I moved away from home, and it still remains the first book I grab for if I have *any* questions about a recipe I’m making.
The book is great for cooks of all levels. It has a lot of great introductory information – how do you boil an egg? What are the different cuts of meat? It provides a lot of easy recipes that taste delicious and are nutritious as well.
In addition, the book also eases you into many advanced recipes. Looking to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the relatives? Trying to make a birthday dinner really special? This cookbook has the recipes for you, all easy to understand and with gorgeous photos.
This version is definitely an improvement on previous versions as well. There is information on grilling and vegetarian meals, something lacking in the last versions. They’ve also added in a number of ethnic dishes that are quite tasty.
If this book isn’t on your kitchen shelf, be sure to buy a copy!
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|You will be pleasantly surprised,
You will be pleasantly surprised by this book. This book has a lot of information that goes along with the recipes. You will be amazed at all of the supplimental information that goes into this book. The way to buy fresh vegetables, how to look for good cuts of meat, ways to stretch meat, and a host of ideas with each recipe. The book is clearly written, and it makes it very easy to read. There are pictures for many recipes as well, this pictures aren’t of just the finished product either. I think you will find this book covers the basics, and goes well beyond that. If you know someone that is just starting out, or perhaps learning to cook this would be a great choice for them.
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|Betty’s Not What She Used to Be,
Time was when the words Betty Crocker actually stood for the best in general-purpose cookbooks, although the recipes, for better or for worse, were always a product of their times. The very first “Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book” was published in 1950 (still available), revolutionized how cookbooks were produced, and was an enormous best-seller. The recipes were the result of much thorough testing in the company’s kitchens and in homes across America. This was cooking from scratch with very little reliance on convenience foods in its pages. This gradually changed as Betty and her books became more and more of a shill for General Mills’ products and her name got plastered on one mix after another to the detriment of good cooking.
The 1956 edition was an expanded version of the original 1950 book, with many more recipes and clearer photographic reproduction. It contains the most recipes of the entire series and is, in my opinion, the best cookbook Betty ever made. The next two editions came out in 1961 and 1969 and were both loaded with recipes and wonderful tips/helps, although you could see the beginnings of sacrificing quality for convenience–especially in the 1969 edition, which has some horrendous shortcut recipes that border on parody–but this was still relatively minor in proportion to the majority of the recipes. If you have these books, treasure and keep them; you’ll never see their likes again.
The current 10th edition looks good but, like the past several editions, the number of recipes has been drastically reduced. Gone are the many variations, which are especially missed in baked goods. It was wonderful having recipes of many cakes that were sized for two people or small families and having different mixing methods to choose from. Now way too many recipes are of the “dump and stir” method instead of choosing methods that would insure the best results. Also gone is the very friendly, assuring, conversational voice of yesteryear. Yes, there are recipes covering a wider range of ingredients and styles, but they are mostly stripped-down versions.
It’s obvious that the folks at Betty Crocker now seem to think that no one really cooks these days and can’t be bothered with proper preparation of dishes, which begs the question of why General Mills even bothers to publish new editions. The “Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook” is a better bet for those looking for an all-purpose, everyday guide. It has a better layout, the recipes and ingredients are generally of a higher quality, and there are more recipes and variations than Betty Crocker’s had in some time. Even better, if you care at all about the quality of the food you eat and serve your family, I highly recommend the cookbooks of Cooks’ Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen. Their comparable general-purpose cookbook is called “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.” The recipes are tested and reworked–dozens of times, if necessary–to be the best their staff can make them and you get precise directions and brand recommendations to ensure quality results. It’s a shame that Betty Crocker has tarnished her reputation for excellent advice and recipes, but there’s even better stuff out there now. Go for it!!
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