Betty Crocker Classic Cookbook Review

by Betty Crocker Editors

Overall 4.67 of 5 view all 3 reviews

Mel182
Springfield, VA

Helpful and some creative ideas

an avid reader

Pros

Informative, Easy, Simple, Traditional, Classical, Good for beginners

Cons

Lack of flair, Too long, Unchallenging for expert cooks

NOV

2008

Betty Crocker Classic Cookbook —

The Betty Crocker Classic Cookbook is informative and creative. There is a great deal of informative interesting combinations and recipes. Overall I would recommend it to friends, however I was dissapointed in the lack of flair some of the recipes had. I am a gourmet so maybe I am on the minority side of opinions here but cooking is an artform, and everything in this book was catered more towards traditional, common, boring tastes. Nearly everything was made up of seafood, pork, beef, chicken, turkey. That is fine and dandy, however, the combinations were expected, boring, simple. There was was very little flair in the recipes. Most of which can be excelled by certain herbs, spices, or garnishes. There was no foreign influences, no interesting combinations. It was the standard cookbook that I would expect to find in any average person's home. Coming from a household name like Betty Crocker, I expected more. Perhaps I was expecting too much. With respect to utilization, it was a very easy cook book. The recipes were simple, and straightforward. The book itself has the same standard features every decent cookbook has. A glossary of terms, Examples., Metric Conversions, Photographs, Descriptions of utensils, an Introduction, Ingrediants. On a domestic, traditional level, I think most people would be able to do the recipes fairly easily. It is not rocket science. However, I as always been known for it's great variety of food categories with delicious recipes.

Let's go over what most of the books all have. The first few sections I call the Helpful Sections because they have lots of good general cooking information. There's the equivalent page that shows size/amount of whole food and how much it equals to when cut. For example - one pound of blueberries equals three cups, or one medium mango equals one cup sliced mangoes. Then there's the cooking basics. It goes over measuring dry and liquid items, and how different it is to measure things like brown sugar and dried herbs. There are kitchen supplies, what they are and what they do. There is a glossary of cooking terms, a guide to all thins hot (in the chile section); and what it means when a recipe calls for chopped, cubed, diced, minced or sliced food. This is a great guide for those new to the kitchen scene. Also included in this book are more helpful sections for all things egg; a guide to mushrooms; spices 101 - flavor, common use, substitutions; nutrition basics; and how to safely store food. There are menus for casual family dining with recipes used from the book. There is also a section on how to set tables for any occasion. And of course there's also the index and metric section that comes in very handy. There's the normal sections for snacks, meat, cakes and breads and in-between the recipes there are great tips for the topic at hand. For instance, in the bread section there are tips for kneading yeast, making sour milk and there are tips for crockery cooking as well.