Better Homes and Gardens Soups and Stews Cook Book

by Better Homes and Gardens

Includes recipes and directions for hot and cold soups as a complement to the main course, as well as soups and stews which are served as a main dish, with suggestions for varying the basic stock recipes

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

96 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 1980

About the author

Better Homes and Gardens is the fourth best selling magazine in the United States. Better Homes and Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by the Meredith Corporation. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the United States Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson.

Better Homes and Gardens is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.

Reviews

[Vicki]

With colder weather about to hit us, soups and stews are always a hit.

The contents of this book are:
Satisfying Soups and Stews

Meal-Mate Soups which has hot and cold soups

Whole Meal Soups and Stews which has meat and poultry, fish and seafood, vegetables

Soup Making Basics has stocks, noodles, dumplings, crackers and croutons

At the end of each section there are “Quick” recipes
There are tips throughout the book.

I loved soup when I was a kid and have eaten Sirloin Burger Soup and Beef Stew on and off as an adult, but I’ve only in the last few years started liking soup and stews again. This cookbook has so many recipes that sound really good, but also a bunch that I’ve never heard of before and sound some that sound a bit strange. For example, there is a recipe for a Salami-Bean Chowder and Apple Raisin Soup which are hot soups. Cherry Wine Soup, Cottage Cheese-Tomato Soup and Orange- Apricot Soup which are cold soups.

Some of the other stranger ones are Chicken Cider Stew, Lentil-Pepperoni Soup and Chilled Beet Soup. Yuck!! I can’t stand beets.

Anyway, there are beautiful photos throughout the book and I think this is going in my permanent cookbook collection.

[Naomi]

I don’t know how one rates a cookbook, so this is how I’m gonna go: automatic 5 stars if I want to keep it around. Otherwise, 3 stars if I learned something plus additions and subtractions based on my reading experience.

An easy to read basic soup cookbook for people who generally know how to cook. +1 star

Decently organized if you are looking for something particular. +1 star

Most of the photos are not appetizing at all. -1 star

Most of the soup recipes do not sound appetizing at all. -1 star

Some nice, helpful, easy to understand tips. +1 star

I learned a few things. Never knew what a pistou was before. +3 stars

I have no desire to make any of the recipes in this book. -1 star

This is part of my cleaning off the shelves reading. I have an entire series of these Better Homes and Gardens Cook Books from 1978. I’m sure someone gave them to me when they were cleaning off their shelves. I will not repeat that act of generosity. They are extremely dated, but that’s not their fault. Better, less salt-laden versions of all of these recipes can now be found for free online, often with helpful comments from others who have tried the recipes. There’s not much philosophy, science, or history in this book unless you are interested in soups of the 1970s and 1980s. Not really a great time for food. Lots of tips on using a microwave (“micro-cooking”) to speed things up—still helpful. Lots of tips on incorporating canned soups to speed things up—also helpful if you can find low-sodium versions. Some of the fish soups looked okay. If I was rating the book solely based on the gazpacho recipe (I was strongly tempted to dnf right there), I would give it negative stars.

[Sandy (WI girl at heart)]

love cookbooks!

[Fredrick Danysh]

A collection of soup and stew recipes from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Contains both hot and cold soups.