Author(s): Irma Starkhoff Rombauer

RARE AND COLLECTIBLE | COOKING

Times and lifestyles have changed since Irma Rombauer first published the original Joy of Cooking in 1931, and for this 6th edition, the New Joy of Cooking, Ethan Becker, grandson of Irma and son of Marion Rombauer Becker, together with Maria Guarnaschelli, senior editor and vice president at Scribner's, called on top food professionals to produce a new cookbook/guide that reflects what North Americans eat and how they prepare their food today.

It's still chock full of recipes -- roughly 3,000 -- but in the new Joy, they have been revised from earlier editions to include new cooking techniques such as grilling, food processors, microwaves, and America's more recent passions for pizza, pasta, noodles, burritos, grains and noodles. Interests in healthy, leaner cuisine are reflected, along with ethnic cuisines.

There is much debate on the merits of the "old" Joy vs. the "new" Joy, and whether these changes -- replacing information on canning and preserving with grilling and flavored oils for example -- are a benefit to you as a cook. It's a matter of personal choice... both are equally comprehensive, reliable, and trustworthy kitchen companions. You must have one.

The authors just keep stuffing the pages back into their copy of Joy of Cooking, and would never part with the quirky illustrations, Irma

Simon and Shuster, 1999. First UK edition, first printing. A fine, unmarked copy in a fine d/w which is in a protective cover. Scans available if required.