Craig Claiborne's New New York Times Cookbook

by Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey

This book is both an instrument for serious cooking and a personal statement about the preparation and eating of food. It contains more than 1,000 recipes, from regional and ethnic cuisine to outstanding haute cuisine.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

751 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 1979

About the author

Craig Claiborne was a restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor of the New York Times. He was the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography. Over the course of his career, he made many contributions to gastronomy and food writing in the United States.

Reviews

[Mimi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quickly, walk away from this edition as fast as you can. It's printed on what I would call war scrap newsprint, Disintegrating as fast as I can turn the pages. It's a great cookbook but get the previous edition if you can. It is much sturdily put together. Make sure it has the hummus and tabouli recipes. Best ever. Later editions leave them out for some mysterious reason. Did I say best? Really yuuummmmmmmmmm!!!!!

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To eat without thought or reflection is a profanity." (page 13)

Recipes in here I want to try:

Alsatian Meat Pie (page 112)
Pizza with Anchovies and Cheese (p. 116)
Chicken and Sausage with Olive and Anchovy Sauce (p. 268)
Fosenjohn [duck and meatballs in walnut sauce] (p. 304)
Coulibiac of Salmon (p. 340)
Preparing a Whole Artichoke for Stuffing (p. 469)
Croissants (p. 556)
Dacquoise (p. 633)

Dacquoise, "one of the finest and most sought-after desserts in fine restaurants," is meringue layers with buttercream filling. This is something I tasted at a meringue bakery in NYC, and it was amazing. Interestingly, Claiborne writes that he first tasted it at Windows on the World, the restaurant that was at the World Trade Center.

Coulibiac is something I had never heard of before, but now desperately want to taste and also attempt cooking - it looks RIDICULOUSLY complicated! "Any cook who is skilled enough to prepare a brioche dough, a standard French crepe and a cream sauce is equal to the task."

Reading this book also made me realize there are just some basic cooking things I would really like to learn (ie, prepping an artichoke, and making croissants).

Also, the preface (or "De Gustibus," as it's delightfully called), is full of so many interesting facts and anecdotes. The invention of Caesar salad? Mexico. A salmon mousse story (maybe the inspiration for the infamous Monty Python sketch?). Great lines, such as, "Chili is conceivably America's greatest contribution to the world's cuisine." Five paragraphs slamming iceburg lettuce ("If we are unkind to iceberg lettuce, you should hear us on maraschino cherries!").

[Rose Gowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never cooked from this book, but I'm reading it & pretending I lead a rather swank existence in 70's New York. Funny, these 70's recipes seem fresh again.

[Patti McDermott]

When I bought this, I thought it was an update of the original NYT cookbook by Craig Claiborne. It was not. Still, it's an interesting reference.

[Andrea Stoeckel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own a well used version