Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love the new edition. Love, love, love it! When it arrived, I sat down and started reading it. This will sound silly, but I actually CRIED because it was so fantastic and brought back so many good memories. I have used the 1975 edition since I started to cook. It was the first book I would turn to when I wanted to see the "standard" recipe for anything. I loved the friendly tone and always found the recipes reliable, producing consistently tasty results. Its only weakness was that it had become a bit dated, in terms of modern tastes and food trends. I was excited when a new edition of Joy was released in 1997. It turned out to be a total disaster. Among other things, it lacked recipes for pickling and canning, ice cream and lots of other American standards. Additionally, the 1997 edition eliminated the friendly tone and instructions I had come to love. Worst of all, the recipes were not reliable. I made a few really bad dishes from it before I stopped using it almost completely. Its only strength was in its updated instructions for cooking meat, fish and poultry. This new edition is a tremendous achievement. It keeps the down-to-earth tone of the older editions while providing a perfect selection of old favorites and new (primarily ethnic) dishes that are widely eaten in the US. The ice cream and pickling/canning sections are restored. It's actually an improvement on the 1976 edition, and that's saying something! I love this edition. I'm throwing out the 1997 edition and eventually I may even part with my old 1975 copy, though it has tremendous nostalgia value for me.