Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook (Betty Crocker) at Chef2Chef

Hundreds of black-and-white photos, animated drawings, and quaint color spreads of prepared dishes aid you in using the recipes. Beginners learn how to measure ingredients, choose the best economical cuts of meat, and cut up round and sheet cakes for serving. There is even a section on how to set the table. This loose-leaf book contains enough recipes to fill a 12-page, double-column index. Best of all, perhaps, is the "Shortcut" section, where useful tips include cleaning a grater of cheese residue by rubbing it with a piece of stale bread. These are interspersed with 15 ways to recuperate from overwork. One suggestion is to lie down on the kitchen floor on your back and relax for three to five minutes. Still a good idea, though few people have a kitchen large enough to try this. --Dana Jacobi

Book Description
It's the book that started it all, the well-loved edition that first bought Betty Crocker cookbooks into American homes and hearts. Published in 1950, this ground-breaking title made cooking easy, it made cooking appealing, and best of all, it made cooking fun. Packed full of practical tips, useful hints, and lavish color photography, this was the book that shaped cooking for generations, the book that people remember. Every recipe you -- or your mother -- ever wanted is here, from pigs in blankets, to Emergency Steak to Chicken Tomato Aspic. Enjoy the clever ideas throughout -- twelve months of birthday cake ideas, showing how to decorate a cake to match each month's gem stone, pointers to make setting up a kitchen easy, or hints to make housework more pleasant. Feel a part of history when making Home Front Macaroni, developed during WW II rationing to stretch meat. Get into the spirit of fun with a Betty Crocker "Cookie Shine" or cookie baking party. People who grew up with this book will want it for the memories; those who are new to the book will want it for its charm and its intelligent approach to cooking. It's a perfect keepsake and a great gift.

Reader Reviews
I grew up watching my wonderful mother use an original copy of this cookbook. She received it as a wedding present. She still has the original....which will someday be passed on to me. The pages still bear traces of all those wonderful baking experiences I shared with mom...chocolate, butter, flour. The original got so much use,that between her learning to become the great Betty Crocker cook she became and her teaching me all she had learned, some of the pages managed to come away from the binding. I remember mentioning to mom how nice it would be if her book was in a binder. Someone must have read my mind because here it is.....the reproduction, in all it's original splendor....bound! Thanks for a wonderful, loving cookbook. Besides my copy, I have since purchase one for each of my three sisters, and one for mom as well.