# Recommendations for a food encyclopedia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237 "2009-01-07T17:00:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/1 "2009-01-07T17:00:57Z")
I enjoy cooking (and I really enjoy the eating) but I often find myself limited to using recipes instead of just “whipping something up” because I’m not an expert of basic tips/techniques for various ingredients. For example, which green vegetables should I blanch before sauteeing? How long should you boil/roast the different varieties of potatoes? Of course these are just examples of the types of questions I often find myself facing so a general food resource book would be of tremendous help. I figure there must be some sort of “food encyclopedia” out there that gives information on a wide array of ingredients and how to utilize them. Does anyone have any recommendations? Other must-have cookbook recommendations would be appreciated, as I’m quickly running out of recipes from my copy of Alton Brown’s _I’m Just Here for the Food_, which I suppose is my only current source of information (other than thousands of hours of watching the Food Network). ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/2 "2009-01-07T17:21:10Z")
“On Food and Cooking” by Harold McGee. It’s **excellent** and has been recently revised. The Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. The Joy of Cooking, but nothing newer than the 1964 (?) edition, which I got as a wedding gift in 1965. Do not buy the Oxford Companion to Food, it is entirely useless. Larousse Gastronomique is interesting and excellent, but not very North American. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/3 "2009-01-07T17:29:50Z")
[QUOTE=vision] The Joy of Cooking, but nothing newer than the **1964 (?) edition**, which I got as a wedding gift in 1965. [/QUOTE] 1972 edition. After that they get lousy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/4 "2009-01-07T17:30:32Z")
> [@vison](#): > > Do not buy the Oxford Companion to Food, it is entirely useless. It depends on what your definition of “useful” is. If you want to know the origin and history of a particular food, it’s great. It’s just not a cookbook. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/5 "2009-01-07T17:38:12Z")
> [@Pochacco](#): > > It depends on what your definition of “useful” is. If you want to know the origin and history of a particular food, it’s great. It’s just not a cookbook. It’s not a cookbook at all. And I found it almost entirely useless as a reference work. Larousse is infinitely superior. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/6 "2009-01-07T17:45:49Z")
“On Food and Cooking” is good, but it’s not much in the way of supplying you with recipes, though. It’ll tell you how things (almost everything) should be cooked, but if you’re looking for “add a tablespoon of this and a cup of that; roast at 350” type of stuff, that ain’t it. If you’re a fan of Alton Brown’s show, you’ll find that he probably relied heavily on this book to do it. Sometimes quoting the book verbatim. You mention you already have AB’s _IJHFTF_. In that book he gives an analogy about directions to his house, and a map to his house. This book is definitely a map. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/7 "2009-01-07T17:47:58Z")
> [@vison](#): > > The Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst. This is great. It was converted to online form as the [Food Dictionary](http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/) at [epicurious.com](http://epicurious.com). I typeset and edit cookbooks, and we’ve settled on this as our ‘style guide’ for deciding which cheeses and wines are capitalized (Brie yes, cheddar no), which spelling variant to use, and where the accents go in all the French cooking terms. Though I expect there might be better books for general food advice, this is as close to an encylopedia as I’ve found. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/8 "2009-01-07T17:48:35Z")
It’s not a cookbook, although it does have 1000 recipes, but [Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks](http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Food-Tips-Cooking-Tricks/dp/1579543014) has a ton of information in it in easy to read format. [The New Best Recipe](http://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-All-New/dp/0936184744/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231350191&sr=1-9) simply rocks if you like to know the Whys of the kitchen. They break down every aspect of every recipe and optimize it, with some good explanations (and a few guesses) as to why what works best works best. So you can not only make the best damn green bean casserole ever, but in the process you learn why blanching makes green beans so awesome, and you can do that for any number of your own recipes. It’s printed by Cook’s Illustrated, and while I don’t have any of their other books or magazines, I’ll go ahead and recommend them sight unseen just on the strength of this one book I do have. And good ol’ AB has more books, of course. I’m particularly fond of [I’m Just Here For the Food](http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Version/dp/158479559X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231350384&sr=1-1) and [Alton Brown’s Gear For Your Kitchen](http://www.amazon.com/Alton-Browns-Gear-Your-Kitchen/dp/1584796960/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231350384&sr=1-3). In the next 5 years, I’m going to have a dozen kids and godkids who are going away to college and/or moving out for greener pastures, and this duo will be my gift to all of them. Great for beginning cooks. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/9 "2009-01-07T17:57:15Z")
Rather than buying a book, I’d recommend a subscription to the Cook’s Illustrated website. It’s about $20/year, and you get all their recipes, up to and including the current issue of the magazine. It’s easily searchable, and you can print out recipes you like. Even if you only pony up for one year, you can probably get enough recipes off it in a year to keep you busy forever. Also recommended are Mark Bittman’s recipes from the New York Times. The website is free, and Bittman tends to cook very simple, very yummy food. He has a book called [How to Cook Everything](http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231350919&sr=8-1) that gets rave reviews as well. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/10 "2009-01-07T18:30:01Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Rather than buying a book, I’d recommend a subscription to the Cook’s Illustrated website. It’s about $20/year, and you get all their recipes, up to and including the current issue of the magazine. It’s easily searchable, and you can print out recipes you like. Even if you only pony up for one year, you can probably get enough recipes off it in a year to keep you busy forever. > > Also recommended are Mark Bittman’s recipes from the New York Times. The website is free, and Bittman tends to cook very simple, very yummy food. He has a book called [How to Cook Everything](http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231350919&sr=8-1) that gets rave reviews as well. This is excellent advice. America’s Test Kitchen publishes Cooks’ Illustrated and Cooks’ Country, and the website. Mark Bittman is also great. I have hundreds of cookbooks and actually rarely use any particular recipe. But they’re fun and interesting to read. I used to subscribe to Gourmet and to Fine Cooking and Bon Appetit, but gave them up years ago. Too “up market” for me, too full of grinning yuppies gathered around Viking ranges. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/11 "2009-01-07T19:04:05Z")
I’m going to third the motion for both “How To Cook Everything” and a pre-1972 “Joy of Cooking”. I don’t have the Bittman at home, mostly because I can’t justify buying yet another all-purpose cookbook to my already oversized collection… but the copy of Joy my mother gave me is so well-loved that it’s now held together by rubber bands and is still referenced every couple of weeks for basics like pancake batter or roast chicken. If you’d like a good all-purpose baking encyclopedia (because everyone should have one of those on hand, IMO), you should also get your hands on a copy of [Baking With Julia](http://www.amazon.ca/Baking-Julia-Knead-Flute-Savor/dp/0688146570) by Julia Child and Dorie Greenspan. It’s gorgeous, beautifully written with clear instructions, and insanely comprehensive. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/12 "2009-01-07T19:41:26Z")
Not a cookbook or “how to” encyclopedia, but Len Dieghton’s [ABC of French Food](http://www.amazon.com/ABC-French-Food-Len-Deighton/dp/0553057596) is a fun read. I reread it at least once a year and I don’t even cook! It’s very conversational and it delves into the past of French cuisine as well as highlighting some of the early-to-mid-20th Century superstars of the Michelin Guide. I would definitely recommend it even if it doesn’t quite fit the OP’s request. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/13 "2009-01-07T20:40:11Z")
> [@vison](#): > > Too “up market” for me, too full of grinning yuppies gathered around Viking ranges. Tell me about it. I’ve always liked Mark Bittman, but he turned into my imaginary boyfriend when [this](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/mark-bittmans-bad-kitchen/?scp=2&sq=mark%20bittman%20kitchen&st=cse) article came out, detailing how he cooks just fine in a tiny kitchen filled with inexpensive tools. In fact, I need to print that article out and read it every time I get the urge to remodel my already-spacious kitchen to fit a fancy 6 burner stove. As it is, I don’t live in Manhattan like Bittman does, so I have the space for such luxuries as a toaster (4-slot!) and a food processor. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/14 "2009-01-07T22:28:39Z")
The Professional Cook is suitably encyclopedic and is on sale at Amazon right now. Also, I’l third (or fourth) McGee and Cooks Illustrated. Do you have Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here For More Food? It’s similar to his first book, only it covers baking. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/15 "2009-01-07T22:48:29Z")
I’m quite fond of the Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, tho’ I am sadly unfamiliar with their website. I’d like to recommend Jeremy Steingarten’s food books including _The Man Who Ate Everything_. Enjoyable read, and reliable recipes. He writes about the differences small changes in ingredients can make. edited to answer actual question: I like the big green _Oxford Companion to Food_ but I use it when I’m wondering about the history of a particular ingredient. It answers questions like, did they have broccoli in the middle ages? ---
**Author:** ![Across](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Across](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Across)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/16 "2009-01-07T23:09:29Z")
It might be too Southern Hemisphere, but I’ve found [The Cook’s Companion](http://www.stephaniealexander.com.au/mybooks.htm) is a constantly useful reference. It’s an encyclopaedia - each entry has an overview of the food’s history, basic info on how to prepare and a selection of recipes. I was given [Cook With Jamie](http://www.jamieoliver.com/jme/books/info/cook-with-jamie/100003.html) by a friend who is a trained chef. I don’t know it as well as the Companion, but glancing through it, it’s divided by chapter into meat, seafood, dessert, vegetables etc. Each chapter gives an overview of basic preparation and cooking techniques as well as example recipes. Like the blurb says, it’s a book aimed at teaching you how to cook full stop, rather than how to cook a particular selection of recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/17 "2009-01-07T23:18:43Z")
Oddly, I am a big fan of **The Oxford Companion to Food** , but it is currently out of print. I second a subscription to **Cooks’ Illustrated.** ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/18 "2009-01-08T00:58:16Z")
I’d disagree with _The Man Who Ate Everything_ as far as the OP’s needs go… while it’s a wonderfully entertaining read and Jeffrey Steingarten is my secret imaginary husband who doesn’t know it yet, it’s not really all that comprehensive as a cookbook. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/19 "2009-01-09T13:51:16Z")
Thanks for the recommendations! What’s the deal with the pre-72 Joy of Cooking only? I looked up an edition history that only shows a 1962 revision and a 1975 revision. What’s so special about 1972? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237/20 "2009-01-10T00:04:58Z")
The 1972 version is the last version before the authors started trying to take all the fat out of the recipes. It was the 70’s, and fat was very, very bad for you. They also dumbed many of the recipes down. On the upside, some of the more horrible bits of sexism got edited out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-for-a-food-encyclopedia/480237.md?page=2)