Buy Kitchn’s December Cookbook Club Pick: Joy of Cooking

Welcome to another month, Cookbook Club-ers! Are you ready to get started? I’m thrilled to announce that Joy of Cooking will be our December pick for Cookbook Club. Specifically, we’re going to be cooking out of the 2019 version that just came out a couple weeks ago, but this is also an opportunity to crack open an old version that you might already have on your bookshelf.

Joy of Cooking is an essential cookbook. If there was a list of “cookbooks you need to cook out of before you die,” Joy of Cooking would be on it (and probably without any argument). It’s something you might have seen in your grandma’s kitchen, dog-eared and covered in some kind of sauce. The first edition came out 90 years ago and was written by Irma Rombauer — it has been updated a handful of times since then. The 2019 edition was updated and rewritten by Irma Rombauer’s great-grandson John Becker and his wife, Megan Scott. This edition has more vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free dishes for readers to enjoy.

I’ll be talking a little more next week about why we chose this cookbook, but until then I wanted to make sure you get your copy in time (buy it or find it at your local library!). And if you’re not already in Kitchn’s Facebook group for Cookbook Club, please follow along. We’ll be cooking out of the book all December to figure out why it still is so special. We’ll also be sharing a couple recipes from the book and an interview with the authors! Stay tuned — and get cooking.

Buy now: Joy of Cooking: 2019 Edition Fully Revised and Updated, $25

Find it at your library: Joy of Cooking