"joy of cooking" news and stories

Today is the 131st birthday of Irma Rombauer, the woman who brought us the Joy of Cooking. Rombauer first wrote Joy (then titled The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat) as small, self-published volume in 1931, attempting to both fill her time and bring in some much-needed money after the death of her husband the previous year. In 1936, the book was picked up by the Bobbs-Merrill Company and a larger, more comprehensive edition was released nationwide.

I come from a Joy of Cooking family (as opposed to a Fannie Farmer or Better Homes and Gardens one) and so many of my culinary memories begin with one of my parents pulling down their age-worn, turquoise covered copy. I can see my father standing in the kitchen in his pajamas on Thanksgiving morning, reading glasses perched on his nose, as he consults Rombauer's advice for turkey cooking times. My mother often references it for baked goods, and has made the quick banana bread so many times, that the book naturally opens to that page when left to its own devices.

Joy of Cooking is one of the most enduringly popular cookbooks to have ever been written. According to Wikipedia, there have been more than 18 million copies sold since it was first printed and it continues to sell at a swift pace. Thank you, Irma Rombauer, for bringing such useful and timeless book to so many generations. Check out these links to read more about Irma Rombauer and Joy of Cooking.

Sometimes I wonder how certain food holidays are created. They seem so specific. Is there an Applesauce Cake Council that demands a day of their own?

Oh, by the way, today is National Applesauce Cake Day! I've never had it, but it sounds quite good. I keep picturing something that is moist and chewy and wet and dry all at the same time. AOL Food actually has two recipes for it, one from The Joy of Cooking and the other from Woman's Day.

Sometimes I wonder how many different recipes there can be for one type of food. We post a lot of recipes here at Slashfood, and while some of the recipes are exotic and complex, some are for very basic foods that we've made and/or eaten hundreds of times over the years. Take Chocolate Pudding for example. If it's basic chocolate pudding, how many different ways are there to make it? I guess it's all in the chocolate you use.

This recipe is from The Joy of Cooking. I have to have it with whipped cream on top. I love that combo of chocolate and whipped cream you get when you sink your spoon in and have a bunch of each on your spoon and put it into your mouth.

More than once, I've been caught saying nasty things about my 1997 edition of the Joy of Cooking. It's not that there's anything inherently bad about that volume, I just happened to grow up with one printed in the early seventies (white dust jacket, turquoise fabric cover) and love that one totally because it is so deeply familiar to me. However, last night I had to swallow all my heartless words, because the '97 version came through for me big time.

Last week I went apple picking. Scott and I picked a full bushel of apples. I've made apple sauce, apple crisp, apples with yogurt, eaten about 15 out of hand and still the box of apples doesn't seem to be visibly reducing. So I went looking for a recipe for a baked good that uses apples. I was hoping for a quick bread or muffin recipe that was low in fat, used several apples and tasted good. And I found it. The muffins came out light, tender and amazingly delicious (ate two as soon as they were cool enough to touch). This one is getting copied down and is going in the file. The recipe is after the jump.

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The Joy of Cooking is the most popular cookbook in America for good reason. It been around since the 1930s and, since that time, has instructed millions on how do to everything from boiling an egg to baking a cake in a no-nonsense way. Since its original publication, the book has been reissued several times with updates that attempt to encompass the various culinary changes that have taken place in between book releases. Is the newest 75th anniversary edition just forced nostalgia? Perhaps, but that's why the good thing about cookbooks is that you don't need to discard the old one when you buy a new copy.

When looking for old cookbooks, the choices that some people make seem surprising, opting for Pillsbury's Best 1000 Recipes: Best of the Bake-Off Collection over Julia Child, but the real reason is that the recipes are classic, homey and probably things that your mother made - all of which are huge selling points.

Take a look at some of the new books that explore Southeast Asian cooking.

Terra Madre, an international culinary event held in Italy over the last week, celebrated slow cooking

Dulcinea Rosso Bruno are tomatoes that are best in fall.

Frank Bruni dines at Boqueria and gives it two stars.

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