the joy of cooking by irma s rombauer 1943

The index lists 93 Rombauer classics that have been in 'Joy' since 1936. Like the chocolate cake known as the 'Rombauer Special' (above), they've been tweaked and revised to bring them up to date. The canned soups that she introduced in 1943 are gone, except for timeless oldies such as the green bean casserole made with canned cream of mushroom soup and canned fried onions and the tomato soup cake, also known as 'mystery cake.' There are 76, because this book covers everything you can think of, all types of food preparation, basic recipes, new ingredients unknown to Rombauer, new equipment and techniques such as sous vide.

I thought that was impressive until I counted the index pages in the 2019 edition. The index to my 1943 edition of 'Joy' is 60 pages long. On the book cover and title page, their names follow those who built 'Joy' into an American classic-Rombauer, her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker, Marion's son and John's father. The 2019 revision was produced by her great grandson, John Becker, and his wife, Megan Scott (above). Rombauer, who self-published that initial book, were alive now, this is the sort of book she would write, tailored to the needs and interests of contemporary home cooks. New immigration has changed the population, introducing dishes not known when the first 'Joy' appeared in 1931.

This massive book, loaded with more than 4,000 recipes, has gone heavily into ethnic foods to reflect the way Americans cook today. In the same place that I would find banana bread, pancakes, meatloaf and chicken noodle soup-the brand new edition of 'Joy of Cooking.' If I wanted a recipe for India's gobi Manchurian, Korean kimchi jjigae, Mexican goat birria or Thai massaman curry, where would I look?

The joy of cooking by irma s rombauer 1943