If I only had one cookbook the Joy of Cooking would be it!

Yes. If I had to limit myself to only one cookbook Joy of Cooking would have to be the one I would choose. Meredith, over at Simon and Schuster, offered to send me a new copy of the 75th anniversary edition, Joy of Cooking and I jumped at the chance.

And wow. I'm glad I did. Not only have they retested 4000 of the most beloved recipes in the book, but they've added 500 additional recipes. Back is butter! Pork fat and those wonderful ingredients cooks know make food taste better! This cookbook will teach you more than your grandmother! Because if your grandmother is like ours, she's forgotten techniques, or has the recipes in her head, and that doesn't help you especially if you live 500 miles away!

Do yourself a favor and add this one to your Christmas wishlist!

Some of the things I love about this book.

1. The section called Know your Ingredients. You can flip through the pages and learn about all kinds of neat ingredients. The chocolate section alone is so neat. It explains the difference between unsweetened, bittersweet, milk and white chocolates. Also the difference between a couverture and frosting.

2. Cooking methods and techniques. The section on high altitude cooking really helps one understand the problems altitude can create!

3. It has a great equivalents and substitutions section.

4. 4500 recipes! If you an't find it in here do you really need it?