One of the best-selling and most important cookbooks of all time should rack up some new highs this fall when Scribner releases the special 75th anniversary issue of The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer. Joy was the only cookbook named by the New York Public Library on its list of the 150 most influential books of the twentieth century, a significant honor indeed. The new version will be the ninth edition and, after some major revisions in the past, it is now backtracking to restore some of the charm and down-hominess of earlier editions. The book was last updated in 1997, although a reissue of the original 1931 edition was put out in 1998.
Ethan Becker, grandson of Rombauer, who took over the Joy helm in 1976 from his mother, Marion Rombauer, told Publishers Weekly that the cookbook has always evoked a "strong sense of ownership" as readers check out new editions to see if their favorite recipes are still comfortably in place. The brand new version brings the book back to its roots after a foray into different, and for the most part unpopular, realms in the 1997 edition.
In the Beginning
Rombauer self-published the book in 1931 and peddled it to friends and neighbors from her apartment in St. Louis. Newly widowed at the time, Rombauer already had a reputation as a charming and accomplished hostess so she set out to teach women struggling with Depression era hardships the tricks and techniques she had picked up over the years. The book was illustrated by her daughter Marion and was designed, not for gourmet palates, but to teach budding cooks how to develop enough culinary competence to put a good meal on the table. After four years of this kitchen-table marketing, word began to spread and the book was picked up and published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. Marion took over stewardship of the book in 1955 when her mother's health began to fail. Marion ruled the roost for years and held on long enough to produce the still hugely popular 1975 edition before succumbing to cancer the following year. Irma died in 1962.
One Step Forward - Two Steps Back
The Joy of Cooking was taken over by Scribner's in 1997 and their new edition, with Becker on board as co-author, was released shortly after with very mixed reviews. The book has never gone out of print, and is still available new in at least three different incarnations.
More than just an update, the new edition will attempt to recapture the allure of earlier editions, most notably the 1975 version, which remains in print today alongside the 1997 one. The 1997 version was a major overhaul and included lots of low-fat and restaurant-style recipes, nearly all from scratch and some quite complex. The writing style changed in 1997 as well, with a crew of world famous chefs ghost writing large chunks of it, thereby dispensing with the earlier down-home, neighborly, and often comical language favored by Rombauer. It was a disappointment to many fans who felt Rombauer's spirit, simplicity, and humor were the heart and soul of the book and that her irrepressible presence was completely stripped from a book which resembled the original in title and format only.
Irma Returns
The new 2006 version will re-introduce some favorites dropped in 1997 and re-incorporate, judiciously, some convenience food, a favorite of author Rombauer who wanted to appeal to the busy housewife more than the gourmet cook. She was particularly fond of canned soup, a propensity that occasionally produced some alarming concoctions. It will also pay less heed to calorie counts and will restore some rich and fatty favorites that were totally abandoned in an overzealous nod to the health-conscious in the 1997 version. Also returning will be Rombauer's voice, corny jokes and all, replacing the wordy and somewhat pedantic style of the last edition.
As in previous editions, the recipe structure will follow the model set down originally by Rombauer. Instead of listing ingredients at the beginning of each recipe, they are incorporated into the text of the recipe itself - a format some people love and others find annoying. It does, however, save a massive amount of space and allows many more recipes to be packed into the hefty 1,152 page volume. The new book will contain a whopping 4,500 recipes. The bulk of them, about 4,000, will either be carried over from the original or will be slightly reworked versions to accommodate modern ingredients and cooking methods. The remaining 500 will be brand new.
Publication is scheduled for October, just in time for a big holiday sales bonanza and Scribner says it will put $500,000 into a media blitz along with bookseller giveaways like refrigerator magnets and aprons. The Joy of Cooking has sold more than 15 million copies since its modest beginnings in Irma's St. Louis kitchen and Scribner is banking on this new and improved anniversary edition to boost that total a whole lot higher.
