“The recipes (tested by home cooks nationwide) reflect the foundation of contemporary American cuisine”

Richard Perry has created a cookbook using methods that would have been wildly futuristic in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s the first— cookbook tested entirely by the public, which sent feedback via e-mail. And then there were the bloggers who tested recipes, and got their own readers to try them and leave comments online.

It’s ironic the cookbook spawned all this high-tech culinary conversation, because Richard—whose friends call him Rick—was only looking back when he conceived of “The Good Home Cookbook” (Collectors Press, $29.95, 512 pages).

Two years ago, Rick came up with the idea of creating a cookbook of classic American recipes. “But we didn’t want shabby recipes,” he says. “We wanted classics that look and taste good.”

Aren’t books like this already in bookstores? Yes, Rick says, “but those anthologies have changed with the times. They have peanut sauces and Thai food and tofu. They’re low-fat and low-carb.” Somewhere along the way, he felt, the classics had been lost.

Rick wanted all the classics—the book includes more than 1,000 dishes. So he and editors at Collectors Press, the Tigard publishing company Rick founded in 1992, made a long list of recipes they thought best represented mid-20th century American cookery.

These aren’t your mother’s recipes. In fact, with only one exception (Rick’s wife, Lisa, provided her grandmother’s recipe for “Ham With Red Eye”), Rick and his editors created them after studying vintage cookbooks from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s and by combining key ingredients found in multiple recipes for the same dish.

“Meatloaf, for example,” Rick says. “We took basic meatloaf recipes from old cookbooks and created a list of what we felt were the quintessential ingredients in meatloaf.”

Many of the vintage cookbooks Rick and his staff consulted were from Rick’s own collection. He’s been crazy about cooking since he hung around his mother’s kitchen in Lake Oswego when he was growing up in the 1960s and ’70s. “I always loved to cook,” he says. His grandparents had a fruit-and-vegetable stand when Rick was a kid, and he has warm memories of huge family meals his grandmother would spend the day preparing.

In the 1980s, Rick went to culinary school and became a chef. Since he left the restaurant business, he’s published quite a few books about food. But those were picture books or nostalgic specialty cookbooks. This was going to be a lot more comprehensive.

Still, “we thought we could do it in a year,” Rick says, “until a friend who owns another publishing company laughed and said, ‘You’re going to test over a thousand recipes in a year?’ I said, ‘Sure we are.’ In hindsight, I see the humor.”

After they came up with lists of ingredients and created step-by-step instructions, it was time to test recipes. “I started doing it at home and thought, ‘This is ridiculous,’ ” Rick says. “Not only do you have to test a recipe; if it doesn’t come out right, you have to fix it, then test it again. We could be at it for 10 years.”

So they sent a publicity release to magazines and newspapers across the country, asking for volunteer recipe testers. “We had over 1,700 respondents,” Rick says.

Each had to fill out an online questionnaire and explain his or her qualifications. Answers ranged from “I started a culinary club at my school” to “I like anything covered with gravy. Please send info.”

About 700 were selected. “We had recipe testers from all 50 states,” Rick says. “We had firemen, stay-at-home dads” and professional testers for food corporations, who offered their services for free.

Each recipe was sent to a number of testers. Regional recipes were sent to testers in that region.

Testers had to fill out another online form after preparing recipes. “We asked, ‘Is there any instruction you would change?’ ‘Would you make it again?’ ‘How would you improve it?’”

Rick and Lisa went through several hundred replies a day. If a recipe got consistent complaints, Rick went to his kitchen and adapted it, adding salt to a casserole, thickening a soup, extending the amount of gravy to accompany a roast. Then the recipes went to more testers.

Rick enjoyed the testers’ comments. “We’d have whole families writing,” he says. “They’d send things like, ‘Johnny never touches green beans, but he devoured the green bean casserole.’ There were a lot of humorous notes.”

Testers who had their own blogs passed along comments from their readers. “It was fun,” Rick says. “Without trying or even thinking about it, by necessity we became the first public recipe-tested cookbook. It was all by accident; we just made it up as we went along.”

Rick emphasizes that his editors put in years of work. But so did he. “I’ve seriously worn out pans in my kitchen,” he says. “I cooked every single night.”

The book was released this month, and it’s had some good reviews. “My hope is everybody buys the book and it gets worn and torn,” he says, “and the pages are dog-eared and get splotches on them, like my 50-year-old cookbooks.”

He thinks it’s the kind of cookbook that will sit out on people’s counters. “It’s turquoise and it looks really good sitting on top of the Yellow Pages,” he says.

Margie Boule: 503-221-8450; marboule@aol.com

The Good Home Cookbook, edited by Richard J. Perry (Collector’s Press, $29.95) has a very interesting twist. Every recipe in the book was tested by someone like you and me. More than 700 American families, in all 50 states, were recruited to take part in this public recipe tested cookbook. Each recipe was evaluated, tested and retested, often up to 10 times, before accepted for inclusion.

Many of the recipes are oldies but goodies, the American standards that seem to fall by the wayside in days of low-fat substitutes. The book feels retro-chic with its ’50s turquoise cover. Illustrations are equally as kitschy within the book’s pages. If you want to know how to make a New England boiled dinner or tapioca or chili dogs, this is the place. It’s a little treasure book.

http://chefnikaela.blogspot.com/2006/10/there-are-few-of-my-favorite-things.html

...The Good Home Cookbook. I swear I am buying these for every culinary ill equiped woman for Christmas. My sister Hayley, and Alison, you guys can be sure this will be your Christmas gift, so with that said, you can gauge how much I am spending on you! This book is so very cool. It’s the modern day Betty Crocker Cookbook, but with more! It has sections on Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, but also Desserts, Pies and Cakes, Breads, and Drinks. The layout makes it easy to find a good recipe fast, and the simplicity of the recipes will be appreciated by all. You know, sometime or another, everyone needs a decent, quick, Spiced Pumpkin Bread! Trust me you’ll like it and use it! Easy enough for the culinarinarily challenged or the experienced chef.

The Good Home Cookbook is a fantastic all-in-one type of cookbook. It has more than 1,000 recipes and covers just about classic American recipe that you can think of, from apple pie to New England Clam Chowder.

Now, you may be thinking that there are other cookbooks that tackle this very same topic, but there is something distinctly different about this book. Its value is in how the recipes were tested. The author/editor, chef Richard J Perry, recruited more than 700 families from all 50 states to test the recipes up to 10 times before revising any problems and putting them into the book. Using a recipe in the book is similar to using a highly rated recipe on a user-supported recipe website, except that you don't have to sort through anything by an index to find exactly what you want.

I can personally vouch for some of the recipes in this book, since I was one of the recipe-testers, as were a number of other food bloggers. I tested about six recipes, as well as several others after getting a copy of the finished book, and had good results with all of them. The instructions are concise and the dishes are often simple, yet flavorful. Some of my favorites included: sweet potato pie, cheese bread (a must-try if you get the book) and black walnut cake. Is it obvious I went with the baking recipes?

On the off-chance than any of you were testers as well, go ahead and note the recipes you tested in the comments and any links if you posted pictures on your blog!

Found at: http://www.slashfood.com/category/cookbook-of-the-day/

There’s nothing ‘updated for today’s tastes’ hereóand I mean that in the best way possible. Author Richard Perry was meticulous in finding the most classic, unchanged recipes he could find to re-create the dishes his mother and grandmothers made, so that when you make them at home youíll enjoy great home cooking, the way it used to be.

Perry is a former chef and he knows all about international cuisine, but he figures you can get a recipe for cold sesame noodles elsewhere. In this book the food is straight-up American regional. In the lunch chapter, for example, you’ll find Philly Cheese Steaks and New Orleans Fried Oyster Poí Boy Sandwiches. If there are any ‘ethnic’ foods, they’re the kind brought over by immigrants long agoólike Weiner Schnitzel and Baked Ziti.

“This book really takes me back down memory lane. Check out the recipe for Creamed Onions online; this side was a must-have at our house every Thanksgiving.”

This is from a member of The Good Cook Book Club.

http://www.starchefs.com/news/press_releases/html/newsdetails.php?news_id=1135

Boston, MA (October 1, 2006) - THE GOOD HOME COOKBOOK (Collectors Press/October 2006/$29.95) edited by chef and editor Richard J. Perry is a collection of more than 1,000 classic recipes that commemorate and preserve our distinctly American cuisine. From breakfast to dinner and soup to dessert, the book features recipes from the past that most of us are familiar with and easy directions for getting them on the table. The collection celebrates the hearty back-to-basic dishes that became staples in postwar modern American kitchens - long before calorie counting and low-calorie cooking were born.

Employing a twist not traditionally used by cookbook publishers-with a goal of providing absolute authenticity to the book-editor Perry recruited more than 700 American families in all 50 states to take part in the first-ever public recipe tested cookbook. Each recipe was evaluated, tested and retested-often up to ten times-before being accepted for inclusion. Some of the delicious recipes that readers will find inside include:

• Cheese Blintzes
• Chicken Fricassee
• Southern Barbecued Pork Spareribs
• Seafood Paella
• Cheesy Potato Casserole
• Meatball-Tomato Soup

A simple, user-friendly format makes the cookbook a snap to use, with easy-to-follow instructions, conversion charts, menu planning, garnish ideas, and more. Original vintage-style illustrations make the retro-chic volume an instant classic and collector's item for aspiring gourmands/culinary enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels.

Conceived and published to ensure that the recipes of our past don't get lost in time, forgotten or overshadowed by microwave ovens and easy, pre-prepared meals, THE GOOD HOME COOKBOOK will not only act as a monument to foundational American recipes but also serve as the basis for readers to create their own family classics for years to come.

About the Editor
A classically trained chef, Richard J. Perry is a member of the IACP, has written three additional cookbooks, and has been featured on the Food Network and Travel Channel as well as a myriad of national magazines, newspapers and regional radio and television programs. He lives in Portland, OR.

FabulousFoods.com

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/shop/prods/bookrev/good_home_cookbook.html

In the tradition of huge, comprehensive, all-purpose cookbooks such as The Joy of Cooking comes a new entry with a new twist -- all the recipes in the massive Good Home Cookbook have been tested by actual American families, to make sure that you will get the same results in your home kitchen.

In an exhaustive effort, editor Richard Perry and his team identified over 1000 recipes that form the foundation of American cuisine. Then over 700 home cooks from all fifty states tested and re-tested the recipes (some as many ten times) to create the first ever public recipe tested cookbook.

The recipes are simple and easy to prepare with clear, concise, no-nonsense instructions. This isn't fancy fare, but good American cooking that most of us were raised on.

This book was conceived and published to ensure that the recipes of our past don't get lost in time -- something the publishers of this website can thoroughly get behind, since that was our inspiration as well. If you only had one cookbook on your shelf, this book is a good choice, as it covers such a wide variety of recipes and cooking styles.

Recipe chapters include:Breakfast; Lunch; Appetizers; Salads; Soups; Fish and Shellfish; Poultry; meat; Grilling; Pasta and Rice; Vegetables; Breads and Toppings; Pies, Cakes, and Cookies; Other Desserts and Sweets; Drinks.

In addition to recipes, the appendices give a lot of great practical cooking information and instruction. Appendices include: Utensils and Equipment; Cooking Terms; Herbs and Spices; Canning and Pickling; Freezing and Thawing; Presentation and Garnishing; Holiday Menus; Conversion Chart.

Kirkus Reviews

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/kirkusreviews/reports/cooking_entertaining_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002800056

Authentic American fare, culled from countless cookbooks and tested in home kitchens across the country.

After scouring a massive collection of vintage cookbooks, Perry did something extraordinaryóhe took the recipes straight to the people, utilizing a network of home cooks as his recipe testers. The results are extraordinary. There are regional favorites, like "Boston Baked Beans," "Tex-Mex Chili," "Shrimp Creole" and "Southern Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy," as well as dishes that clearly reflect the influences of other countries, such as the Ukranian beet soup, "Borsht," Korean "Kal-Bi Short Ribs," a Cuban dish of shredded meat called "Ropa Vieja," "Caribbean Pork Roast" and "Swedish Meatballs." Finally, there are delicious examples of quintessential American dishes, from cheeseburgers to "Waldorf Salad" to "Apple Brown Betty." Perry's repertoire is so extensive that readers will find both inspiration and comfort in his carefully compiled collection.

An unpretentious celebration of the American home kitchen.