How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food--With 1,000 Photos: A Beginner Cookbook

by Mark Bittman

Book Overview

The next best thing to having Mark Bittman in the kitchen with you

Mark Bittman's highly acclaimed, bestselling book How to Cook Everything is an indispensable guide for any modern cook. With How to Cook Everything The Basics he reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat, to cooking building-block meals that include salads, soups, poultry, meats, fish, sides, and desserts, Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know.

1,000 beautiful and instructive photographs throughout the book reveal key preparation details that make every dish inviting and accessible. With clear and straightforward directions, Bittman's practical tips and variation ideas, and visual cues that accompany each of the 185 recipes, cooking with How to Cook Everything The Basics is like having Bittman in the kitchen with you.

This is the essential teaching cookbook, with 1,000 photos illustrating every technique and recipe; the result is a comprehensive reference that's both visually stunning and utterly practical.Special Basics features scattered throughout simplify broad subjects with sections like "Think of Vegetables in Groups," "How to Cook Any Grain," and "5 Rules for Buying and Storing Seafood."600 demonstration photos each build on a step from the recipe to teach a core lesson, like "Cracking an Egg," "Using Pasta Water," "Recognizing Doneness," and "Crimping the Pie Shut."Detailed notes appear in blue type near selected images. Here Mark highlights what to look for during a particular step and offers handy advice and other helpful asides.Tips and variations let cooks hone their skills and be creative.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470528060
• ISBN13: 9780470528068
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 3.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Great Gift To New Cook

Really Well Written, Like That Does Include Basics. Bought One For My Son, Going To Buy Another Two Over The Next Six Months.

Excellent! Nevermind the negative reviews

First, I have to reply to the reviewer who says this is a silly knock-off of its mother book, "How to Cook Everything". Given this books title, wouldn't one expect it to be a subset of the book, "How to Cook Everything"? Well, I did. I've seen "How to Cook Everything" and that huge tome ain't going anywhere near my kitchen for some time. At any rate, for a beginning cook this is a great book. I think first and foremost what a beginning cook needs are fairly easy, but excellent recipes, to keep one motivated to cook. In fact, of the "starter" cookbooks I've tried, this one has had by far the tastiest recipes. Moreover the book's title is very appropriate as it really does cover *all* the basics everyone should know, like pesto pasta, pancakes, pizza, chocolate chip cookies, etc. I like the orginization of this book. Straightfoward groupings that make sense, like 'Breads and Breakfasts', or 'Deserts', etc. There is just enough information in here to get going and nothing more, and the info presented is clear and concise, which I like. Another nice touch is most finished products are given a recommended storage and shelf life, like cookies (just one to 2 days in a covered container on the counter). I like this as I think I would tend to leave leftovers around too long, thereby creating a negative image of a dish in my mind because I insisted eating it unfresh.

Forget the frozen dinners!

This book is the perfect cookbook for the beginning chef. As a college student used to dorm food and frozen foods, this book was great as my first real cookbook. With simple recipes, tips on how to use all cooking utensils, and definitions of most of the terms used in the recipes, I was at the stove in no time.

Great Reference Cookbook!!

Every cook, whether beginner or more advanced, should have this book. The recipes are simple enough for a beginner, but allow for experimentation for someone more advanced. There's great information on every page regarding the recipe or main ingredient. All in all, one that I would recommend to anyone!