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How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food--With 1,000
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How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food--With 1,000 Photos: A Beginner Cookbook Hardcover - 2012 - 1st Edition

by Mark Bittman

With "How to Cook Everything--The Basics," Bittman reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat to cooking building-block meals Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know. Includes 171 recipes and more than 1,000 instructive photographs.


Summary

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.

From the publisher

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.

From the rear cover

"Mark is an important voice in American home cooking, and this new book is essential for anyone wanting tasty, easy, fresh recipes."
--Jamie Oliver, Celebrity Chef and Activist

Photography by Romulo Yanes

Since its publication in 1998, Mark Bittman's award-winning How to Cook Everything has become an indispensable kitchen staple. This modern classic serves as both an endlessly inspiring recipe collection and comprehensive reference for cooks of all ages and abilities.

Now, with "How to Cook Everything The Basics," Bittman has provided a book for true beginners and perennial students, one that captures the pleasure and simplicity of everyday home cooking and makes it accessible to everyone, in full-color, step-by-step action.

The Basics is the ultimate confidence-builder. Whether you're just learning your way around a stove or are hungry for detailed guidance, Bittman's sensible approach, along with instructive, realistic photography, offers just the encouragement you need.

"How to Cook Everything The Basics" is a rare cookbook that teaches by example. Each of the 1,000 gorgeous photographs and 185 recipes has a story to tell and a lesson to share (you'll find a list of them in the back of the book), all in a casual, unfussy way that makes meals as enjoyable to prepare as they are to eat.

The Basics also provides commonsense advice on how to stock your kitchen with equipment and ingredients, while special features scattered throughout offer useful information on general techniques like cooking pasta, choosing and using seafood, making bread, and 26 other skills for identifying and preparing foods from vegetables and beans to meats, soups, and desserts.

Along the way, Bittman's practical tips and variations, descriptive visual cues, and straightforward explanations will help you recognize doneness, taste and adjust seasoning, and learn to trust your instincts. "How to Cook Everything The Basics" is the next best thing to having America's favorite home cook right in the kitchen with you.

From the jacket flap

"Mark is an important voice in American home cooking, and this new book is essential for anyone wanting tasty, easy, fresh recipes."
--Jamie Oliver, Celebrity Chef and Activist

Photography by Romulo Yanes

Since its publication in 1998, Mark Bittman's award-winning How to Cook Everything has become an indispensable kitchen staple. This modern classic serves as both an endlessly inspiring recipe collection and comprehensive reference for cooks of all ages and abilities.

Now, with "How to Cook Everything The Basics," Bittman has provided a book for true beginners and perennial students, one that captures the pleasure and simplicity of everyday home cooking and makes it accessible to everyone, in full-color, step-by-step action.

The Basics is the ultimate confidence-builder. Whether you're just learning your way around a stove or are hungry for detailed guidance, Bittman's sensible approach, along with instructive, realistic photography, offers just the encouragement you need.

"How to Cook Everything The Basics" is a rare cookbook that teaches by example. Each of the 1,000 gorgeous photographs and 185 recipes has a story to tell and a lesson to share (you'll find a list of them in the back of the book), all in a casual, unfussy way that makes meals as enjoyable to prepare as they are to eat.

The Basics also provides commonsense advice on how to stock your kitchen with equipment and ingredients, while special features scattered throughout offer useful information on general techniques like cooking pasta, choosing and using seafood, making bread, and 26 other skills for identifying and preparing foods from vegetables and beans to meats, soups, and desserts.

Along the way, Bittman's practical tips and variations, descriptive visual cues, and straightforward explanations will help you recognize doneness, taste and adjust seasoning, and learn to trust your instincts. "How to Cook Everything The Basics" is the next best thing to having America's favorite home cook right in the kitchen with you.

Details

  • Title How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food--With 1,000 Photos: A Beginner Cookbook
  • Author Mark Bittman
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 496
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Houghton Mifflin, Qb35
  • Date 2012-03-05
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Dust Cover, Illustrated, Index, Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780470528068 / 0470528060
  • Weight 3.5 lbs (1.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.25 x 8.32 x 1.62 in (23.50 x 21.13 x 4.11 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Cooking, Cookbooks
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011048881
  • Dewey Decimal Code 641.5

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 03/01/2012, Page 37
  • New York Times Book Review, 11/18/2012, Page 12
  • Publishers Weekly, 02/06/2012, Page 56
  • Shelf Awareness, 03/23/2012, Page 0

About the author

Mark Bittman is one of the country's best-known, most widely respected food writers. His "How to Cook Everything" books, with one million copies in print, are a mainstay of the modern kitchen. Bittman writes for the Opinion section of the "New York Times" on food policy and cooking and is a columnist for the "New York Times" magazine. He is regularly featured on the "Today Show" in How To Cook Everything Today cooking segments. For 13 years he wrote "The Minimalist" column and now a "Minimalist" cooking show is featured on the Cooking Channel. The "How to Cook Everything" series is highly respected: the first edition of the flagship book "How to Cook Everything" won both the IACP and James Beard Awards, and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" won the 2008 IACP award. He is also the author of "Food Matters," "Food Matters Cookbook," "Fish," and "Leafy Greens."
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