Rediscovering the ‘Joy’

For years “Joy of Cooking” was a household staple, an almost mandatory gift at weddings, graduations and housewarmings.

Especially during its 1970s heyday, “Joy” was the bible of the kitchen, its instructions covering everything from setting a table to boning a duck.

Then food became entertainment, and the map of the American kitchen was redrawn by celebrity chefs and glossy monthlies that turned food into sport. Books such as “Joy” started to feel quaint, if not dated.

Hoping to recapture its relevance, as well as celebrate its 75th anniversary, the “Joy of Cooking” brand (Scribner) is being relaunched with a new, even more comprehensive – and more worldly – edition this month. But in a world of Iron Chefs, Emeril and dozens of weighty cookbooks, can its folksy voice and encyclopedic approach still work?

The remaking of Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker’s classic – a four-year project – was the work of many hands. The test kitchen went through more than half a ton of protein and 3,000 eggs. Testers reportedly gained an average of 7 pounds.

And while the 2006 edition covers new ground – fresh herb teas, breakfast bars, sushi – it also borrows much from the enduring 1975 edition, restoring the voices of Rombauer and Becker (it was Rombauer who offered the cheerful instruction: “Stand facing the stove.”).

Ethan Becker, son of Marion Rombauer Becker and grandson of Irma Rombauer, says that the new edition turns away from the cheflike ambitions of the sometimes-criticized 1997 edition, and returns to a more inclusive approach by design.

“The book is really back to being the one-stop friendly reference it was before,” he says. Rather than having the flavor of a restaurant kitchen, it has addressed modern trends by including more ethnic recipes, appealing to atavistic tastes (hearth cooking and game) and separating out quick meals in the index.

“It’s a quick food book, it’s an ethnic cuisine cookbook, a dictionary reference,” Becker said. “I always tell people, if you cook from the ‘Joy’ for a year, follow every reference and read it, at the end of the year you will have gone to cooking school five minutes at a time.”

But Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl wonders if the new “Joy” isn’t trying to do too much.

Retro recipes like “mystery cake” (a ‘50s classic made with canned tomato soup) sit uneasily alongside directions for making tofu from scratch. “Do the same people really want all these things? I don’t think so,” says Reichl, who recently edited her magazine’s own comprehensive cookbook. Better, she believes, to “let (cookbooks) live in their own time.”

Barbara Haber, culinary historian and former curator of Harvard’s Schlesinger Library, fondly recalls the wit and verve of Rombauer’s prose. “Julia Child used to call her Mrs. Joy.”

But Haber says “people are making their claims in different ways” now, with cookbook memoirs like Madhur Jaffrey’s and composite masterworks like those issued by cooking magazines.

Indeed, the field is cluttered with weighty contenders vying to supplant “Joy.” There’s Mark Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything,” with a simple but essential repertoire for novices. And Cook’s Illustrated’s “The New Best Recipe,” long on technique and exhaustively tested. Or Reichl’s multiethnic “The Gourmet Cookbook” and the built-for-comfort “Bon Appetit Cookbook,” both reader-tested and massive in scope.

As David Strymish, founder of Internet cookbook retailer ecookbooks.com, says: “It’s the modern world. Everyone’s learned to do everything.”

Yet “Joy” still can brag of assets the others lack. Its practice of listing ingredients within the recipe rather than before allows it to dominate with sheer numbers – 4,500 recipes rather than the more typical 1,000. And it remains encyclopedic (durian, tobiko, texmati rice), with a muscular index and number-crunching weight and volume charts.

Reichl says, “I would be unhappy not to have one of (the versions).” If the voice can be a bit longwinded, it’s also “sort of foolproof, how it takes you step-by-step through recipes. It has a lot of basic information, how to soak beans, how to cook dried hominy, the kind of stuff no other book will give you.”

Strymish is looking forward to seeing how the showdown pans out. He suspects that, at least at the outset, “Joy” won’t approach the sales of the books from Gourmet and Bon Appetit, at least in part because many people already own an earlier edition.

(Becker says advance sales have been good, selling 12,000 copies in six minutes at 7 on a Saturday morning on the QVC shopping channel, for example.)

Strymish says sales in the long term probably will be more revealing.

“Over time, it may catch up through slow and steady sales. It absolutely has iconic status,” he says.

The 75th anniversary edition of this kitchen classic contains traditional as well as more worldly recipes, all written in the book’s trademark style of including the list of ingredients in the body of the recipe.

Corn bread, muffins or sticks

Have all ingredients at room temperature, about 70 degrees. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease the pan or pans with butter, oil or bacon drippings. Place in the oven until sizzling hot.

Whisk together in a large bowl:

1 1/4 cups yellow or white cornmeal, preferably stone-ground

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 to 4 tablespoons sugar (by taste)

3/4 teaspoon salt

Add:

1 or 2 large eggs, beaten (2 eggs produce a richer bread)

2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter, bacon drippings or vegetable oil

1 cup milk

Combine with a few rapid strokes. Scrape the batter into the hot pan or pans. Bake sticks about 12 minutes, corn bread and muffins 15 to 18 minutes, until nicely browned. Serve immediately.

Yield: One 8-inch square bread, about 15 muffins, or about 20 sticks.

Approximate nutrition per serving: 93 calories, 2.6 grams fat (1.3 grams saturated, 25 percent fat calories), 15 grams carbohydrate, 19 milligrams cholesterol,

Sautéed Boneless Chicken Breasts

Have ready:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Trim any fat around the edges. If you wish, remove the white tendon running through each tenderloin. Sprinkle both sides with:

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Spread on a plate:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Coat the chicken on both sides with the flour; shake off the excess. Heat in a heavy 10- to 12-inch skillet over medium heat until fragrant and nut-brown:

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Add:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Swirl the butter and oil together. Sauté for exactly 4 minutes. Using tongs, turn the chicken and cook until firm to the touch, 3 to 5 minutes more.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving, based on 4: 249 calories, 8 grams fat (3.8 grams saturated, 31 percent fat calories), 35 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, 105 milligrams cholesterol, less than 1 gram dietary fiber, 271 milligrams sodium.

Coconut Lime Salad

Serve this salad beside grilled fish. Mango and papaya are great additions.

Combine in a large bowl:

2 cups grated fresh coconut

1 cup seeded and grated cucumber

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Grated zest and juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: 5 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 166 calories, 16 grams fat (10 grams saturated, 83 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 3 grams dietary fiber, 356 milligrams sodium.