Good Old Food: A Taste from the Past

by Irena Chalmers

Book Overview

This longtime Barron's kitchen favorite features authentic recipes brought to America in past generations from around the world. Now available in an economically priced paperback edition, that all 264 recipes and 64 full-color photos from the original hardcover edition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812058410
• ISBN13: 9780812058413
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 2.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.6" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book, poor binding!

The recipes in this book are really great! Fairly easy to make and very easy to change just a tad to make more to your family's taste. For years I have owned and used a hardcover copy of this book, copywright of 1988 and published by Barron's. I'm guessing I've had the book for about 18 years since it was one of the first 10 cookbooks I owned after college. None of my older cookbooks are in the poor condition this book is in. The binding is just separating at the seams at certain places in the book. Others are glued too high up the page and are causing the pages to tear at the binding when the book is laid flat. Otherwise, the book is in beautiful condition! The color pictures look fabulous, the color and quality of the paper has held up beautifullly. The book wouldn't look 5 years old if only the pages were staying bound as they certainly still should be. So, I write this review as I'm trying to locate another copy because having a book that is falling apart takes away much of the pleasure of reading the book. The picture of the book above is different than my book, which is mostly red with a close-up photograph of vegetables, so I am hopeful that the newer edition will be better bound. Otherwise, I highly recommend this cookbook.

traditional recipes at their straightforward basic best

Here are 250 recipes; American or 'traditional ethnic' -- not too far off the beaten path; things like moussaka, goulash, chile con carne, coq au vin, Boston baked beans, beef stew with dumplings, fried chicken, corned beef & cabbage. No frills, no hard-to-find ingredients, no nonsense about what county in Hungary you should buy your paprika from. I've tried about 20 recipes from this book -- all have been successful & most added to the rotation/repertoire; usually I'm pleased/surprised to find more than a couple of recipes per cookbook that I like & here I've found ten times that & haven't tried all that I want to yet. This is, without hesitation, the best 'everyday' cookbook I've ever used. (for fancier/not 'everyday' recipes I generally like Jacques Pepin & Jacques/Julia -- that's for a baseline...)

A beautiful, old-fashioned cookbook with ethnic recipes.

Each recipe comes with a story from the person who submitted it. It's a fun cookbook to just browse through and read! The recipes are old-fashioned recipes from different ethnic families. You'll probably come across some recipes your grandma used to make (I found spaetzle and German potato salad). Also includes nummy full-page, color photos of some of the dishes.

Good Old Food

My sister and her husband gave me this book as a Christmas gift in 1993. Containing recipes representative of many ethnic groups, Good Old Food has become one of our family favorites. The recipes are delicious and easy to follow. Each recipe is accompanied by a short anecdote by the person who provided it, describing their memory of the food and why it has played an important role in their life. The color photos are excellent. My book is now tattered. I was delighted to find this year (1999) that Good Old Food is still in print, so I can replace my worn copy. My favorite recipe is for chicken pot pie, but everything I've tried has been very tasty - from baklava to stifado to goulash.