Product Description

In this cookbook, Sheila Lukins celebrates American cooking with over 600 classic recipes, including: mashed Yukon golds; peachy keen pie; burger stuffed with Maytag blue cheese; Denver western omelette with breakfast salsa; and vegetable jambalaya.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45304 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 605 pages

Customer Reviews

Go on - treat yourself
This book is one that has my cookery-shelf ultimate accolade - not chevrons or crowns in this case, but several pages with greasy thumb-marks, and at least three places where the book just falls open by itself (her recipe for Country Cornbread being one). In fact the only problem that I have with it is that it is so fat and so packed with goodies that it makes my wrists ache when I read it for too long! It's just the kind of cookery book that finds favour on my shelves - well thought out, clear and friendly. In fact, it very much feels as if you are having a chat over one of Sheila's delicious muffins or fried green tomato sandwiches (yes, as served at The Whistlestop Café).

Which is another good thing about the book - not only does Sheila give her favourite US recipes, you are party to her travels (with food of course) around the country as she collects the best of regional cooking. There are some great asides, interviews and snippets of information. And she has managed to get friends and restaurant owners to part with memorable recipes, which, unlike some restaurant recipes, you could easily achieve t home - and find even easier to eat.

A few words of warning. Some may not care for the colour scheme in the book - it is very red, white and blue (lots of very blue-printed text), but personally I liked it, and also felt that the small line illustrations (are they engravings, woodcuts or etchings, I wonder?) set-off the text nicely. Also, this is not a book to buy if you have to see a photograph of the finished dish in order to be able to cook it, because there are none. Everything is of course measured in US cups, and with US cooker settings (Farenheit) which does not present too much of a difficulty as there are some translations for other users.

So go on, treat yourself to a glass of The Champagne of the South (iced tea) use up that glut of green tomatoes, and take yourself off on a tour of America - you owe your taste-buds no less.

A must for those wishing to "cook American"!
I ordered this book from AOL on a whim and it's one of the best cook books I've ever ordered. It's pages are brimming with recipes, all of which are fairly easy to make and cook. Best of all Sheila Lukins travels from East to West, and North to South of the USA to bring you everything from Clam Chowder to Meat Loaf, Muffins to Ice Tea.

The only drawback I had with the book was the occasional mention of an American ingredient that I couldn't find here in the UK. For example, half-and-half and solid vegetable shortening. (For anyone interested I've been led to understand that half-and-half is half milk, half cream but I'm still trying to find out what the English equivalent of vegetable shortening is!)

As a final note here's a variation on one of Ms Lukins recipies. When making the country cornbread on page 214 try adding some grated mature chedder cheese (about a cup full) and a tablespoon of minced jalapeno peppers. Both ingredients give the bread a little extra "zing"!

Anyway - buy the book and settle back to enjot the wonders of American cooking.

The most informative cookbook I've ever bought
Even though I may be biased towards a book about American cooking (because I'm a massive fan of all things from the USA), this is one of the best recipe books I've ever seen. It is packed with over 600 recipes, anecdotes, product information, snippets of history and lists of restaurants and stockists. All in all, a bible of American cooking.

The delicious recipes are varied and cover everything from breakfast through to dinners (split into meat categories), sides and the all-American desserts, plus cocktails and appetisers to serve with them. I don't think I'll need to look at another cook book for a very long time! Some are simple but many are complex, meaning that this is not just a straight-forward book for the novice chef. Cooks looking to try more adventurous dishes will also be satisfied.