How to cheat at cooking;

by Delia Smith

In How to Cheat at Cooking , Delia has sourced a range of pre-prepared foods (from tins, chill cabinets, freezers and store cupboards) to help you short circuit cooking times and techniques. Readily available from supermarkets, delis, online food shops and farmers markets and of the very best quality these recipes using instant time savers will allow you to create fabulous food without the faff. How to Cheat is for people who don't want to cook, who think they can't cook, or simply don't have the time to cook. As Delia herself says, 'Cheating's come on a lot and there's much more available. The way it's going I can't think of anybody who wouldn't want it.'This is Delia's first book in four years and it's been created with her characteristic attention to detail. Delia is Britain's most trusted food writer and her formidable track record of over 19 million book sold speaks for itself. Comprising over 150 easy-to-follow recipes and with a refreshing contemporary design, the book is a guaranteed bestseller, not least because 2008 will mark Delia's return to our screens with a six-part primetime BBC television series.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Reference, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Delia Smith CBE is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold.

Smith is also famous for her role as joint majority shareholder at Norwich City F.C. Her partner in the shareholding is her husband, Michael Wynn-Jones. Her role at the club has attracted varying media attention, from positive when she "saved" the club from bankruptcy, to negative, when making a controversial on-pitch announcement in 2005.

Already an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours, "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".

Reviews

[Domonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff to keep in yer cupboards and in to stuff in yer freezer bags. Ooer missus. And nary an East End accent in sight mateys.

[Breige · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea personally, but I can see how it might be handy for people who don't cook that often or who are just starting out

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eugh. I am so deeply saddened by this book's existence. :(

[Rebecca tedder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous cookbook.

Not afraid to take shortcuts, and let's face it. Most of us do!

Good advice, good use of tins and packets showing that it's normal to speed things up.

[Jaynie Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing compared to her other books.

[Tracey Cotton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a really great no fuss quick and easy way to prepared meals in hurry.
Every recipe I have tried from this book has worked a treat and tastes even better.

[Cidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is the 2008 hardback edition of Delia's book on cooking using storecupboard ingredients, or ransacking the freezer aisle and buying up frozen fish, or making use of the tinned goods in your pantry. It's not a bad book really, I have most of the spices, herbs and tinned stuff she is suggesting meals for, but I have very little freezer space and hardly buy any frozen stuff or freeze much of what I cook, so freezer section perhaps not best for me then! There are a lot of full colour photos of the dishes cooked, I am a sucker for coloured photos of food as I can see what my recipe is meant to look like, rather than what it doesn't look like (which is often). There are some good recipes in here, I can tell what I've cooked from the finger marks on some of the pages. This is one of the books in boxes in my garage which got hidden when hubby stuck a lot of junk (precious stuff to him) in front of my boxes. Some interesting rubbery like smells on them and smokey ones too when hubby's been restoring one of his bikes.

[Helen Sews-Knits · Rating 1 out of 5]

Delia Smith and the ignore everything I said about how freezers and washing machines would never catch on in the 1970s and the I can’t believe they paid me to write this needlessly complicated book.

[Swmbt · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you do not live in the UK a lot of the ingredients are hard to find. I am a HUGE Delia Smith fan, just not this cook book

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those ‘second mortgage’ to buy the ingredients books! A few recipes are simple and cheap but sadly most are too expensive, technically difficult or both. 2.5/5