I have had this edition for a while. It's been burned and battered. Some of the pages have obviously been left open while cooking but I still go to it time and again. It's like a good friend, reliable, easy to deal with and always available. I've taught my son to make biscuits and pancakes using these simple recipes. Sometimes I experiment but I can do that relying on the foundations that Mark Bittman put into his recipes. It's a great starter cookbook.

Good book. Great photos and explanations of recipes. Well-organized. But the pasta section was all about dried pasta, no fresh, homemade dough. But it does cover a few recipes for italian and asian noodles. Also covers grains other than just rice with one recipe each for quinoa, bulgur, and polenta. Great section on cooking meat with information on buying, choosing cuts of meat, searing and cooking, and checking doneness. At least 8-13 recipes per meat section (most for chicken). Good basic book. The egg section answered my question about poached eggs. I've tried many directions, but never considered the temperature of the water or the how high the bowl is from the water when I slip the egg in. Now, my poached eggs are perfect!

Best cookbook for beginners I have ever read. I am an avid cook, and cookbook junkie, so that should speak volumes! Bittman makes cooking accessible for everyone...don't know how to boil water? Don't fret! There are actually directions and a picture to help you. This book is also great for the seasoned cook for the 'upgrades' Bittman suggests for each dish. I will be buying a copy for myself as well as for all future housewarming/shower/graduation gifts.

Accidentally marked this as open and mark as read on my ipad... I use this cook book often... Bittman is the master.

Ordinarily the reader should exercise a great degree of scepticism when faced with a book that describes itself with superlatives. How to cook everything? All you need? Yet, this time, such caution might be a tad unnecessary.
This is a book that could be one of those truly great first cookbooks for a younger person, perhaps someone off to college or someone moving out from the hotel of mother and father. Yet probably nobody except top chefs should feel a embarrassed by this book as you might think you know everything but…
Nothing is taken for granted. The author starts with a great overview about setting up your pantry (store cupboard) and your kitchen with the necessary (rather than “desirable” or “faddy”) tools. It was pleasing to see the tool list split between the “absolute minimum” and “other handy tools” – a good thing if you are on a tight budget. A further extensive list of items for baking and roasting is made for those who want to try their hand at that – if you don’t, don’t buy the stuff. Simple, huh?
Everything is taken one step at a time whilst the text is informative and concise in nature. The reader is not patronised – you have to read the text carefully to get the most out of the book rather than just look at the pretty pictures, but is that such a hard thing to do? Even, ‘speaking’ as a more experienced cook, the text seems to be friendly, approachable and informative and certainly some ageing memory cells have become refreshed in the process. It is surprising how much we can forget, take for granted or perhaps never learned – especially if one has not received formal culinary training.
All of the various preparation and cooking techniques are explained in surprisingly few words and pictures, yet one does not feel cheated. You might think that terms such as mincing, slicing, boiling and sautéing are familiar, after all they appear as common words in recipes, but often they might not be as familiar as you think. Many of us think we know every term but sometimes there can be a subtle meaning we’ve never learned. With this book there’s no misunderstanding. Not entirely sure what sautéing is? No problem. A few seconds research and your mind is refreshed. There is no need to feel ashamed – and if you have poor self-confidence and don’t live alone then you can make a protective book cover out of brown paper and write on it “very advanced cooking recipes” or something similar!
The book is quite light on self-reinforcement that “you can do it!”. This is not a bad thing as such faux encouragement can begin to grate after a time. The author set “in a nutshell” five key points which this reviewer feels encapsulate things perfectly: Anything you cook at home will be good, read the recipe before starting, it is okay to serve dishes warm or at room temp, trust your senses and be safe – but not insane – about cleanliness.
After the first few sessions ‘back at school’ you start to be let loose on cooking breakfast, the most important meal of the day it is said. Here you find the recipes begin to be mingled between words of advice and various mini tutorials. All the way through the book are brilliant, everyday colour photographs that just seem to grab the text and encourage you to read, read and read. It is not “visual pornography” in an aspirational way but just good, honest, clean in-your-face imagery. Don’t understand? You need to get this book and see for yourself.
The real basic, staple foods are covered in great detail. Nothing is left to chance. For example making scrambled eggs has two full pages with lots of hints, tips and photographs (fried eggs also get two pages). The book goes beyond the do this and that, so loved by many other cookery books, and actually tells you why a particular methodology is important. This is great to see as there is a much greater likelihood that you will recall this in the future (and possibly have use for the same knowledge when making other recipes). Naturally, each recipe is easy to read and understand, has all the key information you should require and it even has an estimation of the time taken to make the dish. A book that understands how great and helpful such a small thing can be!
The recipes and knowledge just keep on flowing. After the breakfast chapter, everything else is filed within appetisers & snacks, salads, soups & stews, pasta & grains, vegetables & beans, meat, poultry, seafood, breads & desserts. There is even a mini tutorial about how to make your own menus, a separate broken out list of lessons within the book, such as “preparing seafood, trimming whole fish” and a very comprehensive index.
This is more than JUST a good recipe book. This is more than JUST another teach your self to cook book. As a combined unit it is a very comprehensive, great basic primer for the beginner, the adventurous cook and, dare we say it, even for the person who thinks they know everything but might just admit that they could always see ‘how someone else does things….’
Would it be hyperbole to say that this could be THE first book you should buy if you don’t have any other resources? Possibly… go to a bookstore, pick it up, look at it and see if you really do put it back. Can you?

How to Cook Everything – The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food, written by Mark Bittman and published by Wiley. ISBN 9780470528068, 496 pages. Typical price: GBP13. YYYYY.


// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //

This book lowkey taught me how to cook. A great gift for college students or any beginner up against a learning curve in the kitchen

Leafed through this cookbook and really enjoyed it. There is a lot of great information for any level of cook. I wish there was some way to transport this cookbook to my younger self,....oh the cooking mistakes I've made having been a self taught cook. Nowadays, I'm a decent from scratch cook, but I've never been able to gain any confidence in my cooking, especially in the baking department and I can concede that even after my many years of cooking, I still have a lot of interesting cooking related techniques to learn. The photos make this book an absolute delight for me as I tend to learn best when there are plenty of visuals to reference. Hope to use this as my very own cooking school so that I don't rely on winging through my cooking and baking more than I have to.

Everything. Everything. Everything Everything EVER.

Very good basic information and good recipes and pictures. Lots of options on top of the basic recipes. Would be a very good book for someone interested in cooking but unsure how to go about buying food and starting to cook.

100 recipes from the author's "How to Cook Everything" that he thinks are basic, plus some that are "good to know".

Exactly what it says, it does. Mark Bittman, the original minimalist, will teach you how to make virtually anything with just a few simple ingredients and tools. Perfect for the new chef or the old, looking for classic recipes that will stand the test of time.

I like having a single reference sources for specific knowledge. There is a consistency to presentation, writing style, and the cooking time estimates work well. Like all good cook books, it’s nice to have preselected recipes instead of having to google my way forward.
The book has explanation sections like ‘Building Flavour’ and ‘Bean Basics’ that make it more than just a collection of recipes but a teacher to being an independent cook, without following a recipes word for word.

The side notes with variations hint at how recipes can be adapted and changed. There are three points in the book that I’m very happy where written. The first is that food served does not need to be fresh off the stove, timing dishes requires experience, so it is nice the author makes it clear that it is OK if some dishes cool before eating. The second is that soup stock can just be water. I’ve always been hesitant in making soup because of the stock, but the author writes water can be used, any soup is better than no soup. Finally than anything you make from scratch will be healthier than preprocessed store bought alternatives.

The instructions are clear but they do use pounds and cups instead of kilograms and milliliteres. I would like a section about stringing recipes together for a week plan to not waste ingredients.

Recommended Recipes:
Sausage and Peppers

Recipes to Avoid:
Baked Eggs with Onions and Cheese