The Essential

COOK
BOOK
Classic Recipes for a New Centur y
Amanda Hesser
March 2010

Dear Bookseller,

After six years of cooking my way through the New York Times’s recipe archive, I’m
delighted to be sharing The Essential New York Times Cookbook with you. The Times’s
archive, which stretches back to the 1850s, is the world’s most extensive collection
of recipes, and also its least-known culinary treasure.
I cooked more than 1,300 Times recipes and distilled the best into this book,
which is not at all a dutiful history but rather a thoughtful and wide-ranging collec-
tion of all the best dishes in the world. Where also will you find Pea Fritters, Shrimp
in Green Sauce, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Mousse, complete with lively headnotes,
all in one volume?
To begin the project, I turned to the loyal army of Times readers and asked them,
in an author’s query in the Sunday Magazine and in the Dining section, for their
favorite recipes. Thousands of responses flowed in, with passionate tales of dishes
people had been cooking for decades. I learned about classics like Teddie’s Apple
Cake (a rustic cake threaded with cinnamon-scented apples), Le Cirque’s Spaghetti
Primavera (a recipe so famous that three people have claimed to have invented it),
and David Eyre’s Pancake (a crepe that billows like a cloud in the oven).
Then I moved into the older archives, pre-1960, where I was introduced to Green
Goddess Salad (1948), Chicken Marengo (1908), and Raspberry Granita (1898).
And finally I swung forward to the twenty-first century to discover extraordinary
dishes like Stuck-Pot Rice, Thomas Keller’s Gazpacho, and Tangerine Sherbet.
I’m excited to have written a cookbook that is genuinely unlike any other—one
that gathers up both modern and classic recipes, tells the story of American cooking,
includes many surprises (early doughnuts, the forgotten oyster pan roast, and the best
pannacotta recipe in the world), and, most of all, provides savvy food lovers with a
book that can be a lifetime kitchen companion.

Enjoy—and happy eating!

Amanda Hesser
 Contents

1 Drinks, Cocktails, Punches, and Glogg 

2 Hors d’Oeuvres, Snacks, and Small Dishes 
3 Soups 
4 Salads 
5 Vegetables 
6 Potatoes, Corn, and Legumes 
7 Pasta, Rice, Grains, and Stuffings 
8 Sandwiches, Pizza, and Savory Pies 
9 Fish and Shellfish 
10 Poultry and Game 
11 Beef, Veal, Lamb, and Pork 
12 Sauces, Dressings, Condiments, Rubs, and Preserves 
13 Breakfast and Brunch 
14 Breads and Baking 
15 Cookies and Candy 
16 Frozen Desserts 
17 Cakes 
18 Pies, Tarts, and Other Desserts 
 1
W
D r i n k s , C o c k ta i l s , P u n c h e s , a n d G l ö gg

•  Café au Lait (p. TK) —1856—

•  Jerry Thomas, a prominent New York bartender, writes
the seminal manual How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant’s —1862—
Companion.
•  The punch bowl is a fixture in bars. —1860s—
•  Summer fruit finds its way into cordials like the blackberry •  Home winemakers send in recipes for wines made with
one on p. TK. ginger, elderberry, blackberry, currant, rhubarb, lemon,
—1870s—
•  Recipes for brandied cherries, also known as Cherry Bounce gooseberry, and even tomato.
(p. TK), appear regularly in the food pages.
•  If you have a party, you probably serve Milk Punch (p. TK)
—1880—
or Roman Punch (p. TK).
•  A Times writer describes eggnog as “a mixture of eggs, milk,
—1895—
sugar, spices, rum, brandy, and—headache.”
•  Raspberry Vinegar (p. TK), a potent and addictive fruit
—1900—
syrup best drunk with sparkling water.
•  The Times runs a story on summer drinks such as claret cup
—1901—
and Champagne cup.
•  Early sighting of hot cocoa with marshmallows. —1910—
•  Prohibition begins. —1920—
•  Prohibition ends! Without a constitutional amendment to
—1933—
flout, people start drinking less.
•  Iced coffee arrives (p. TK). The first Starbucks will open in
—1940—
Seattle thirty one years later.
•  Jane Nickerson writes about drinks from New York’s great
bars, including the Pierre, the Waldorf-Astoria, and the Stork —1940s—
Club.
•  The Martini (p. TK). —1950s—
•  Craig Claiborne publishes a recipe for an eggnog that’s so
—1959—
thick it requires a spoon for consumption (p. TK).
•  Frank Prial is named the first wine critic for the Times. —1972—
•  Self-imposed Prohibition? Hardly any drinks make it into the •  Jell-O shots are popularized, a new and exciting way
food pages. to get drunk.
—1980s—
•  College students everywhere indulge in too many Long
Island iced teas.
•  Dale Degroff resurrects the showman bartender at New York •  Microbreweries open up around the country,
City’s Rainbow Room. breathing new life intoreviving the art of beer
—1990s—
•  Single-malt scotch fuels Wall Street’s bankers; bottled water making.
fuels Hollywood.
•  The word “Mixologist” first appeared in the Times in 1966,
—1999—
and then not again until this year.
•  Prosecco floods the mainstream with bubbly wine at prices
—2000—
a fraction of Champagne. Reims gasps.
•  Hipster bartenders in the outer boroughs begin concocting
—2002—
their own bitters.
•  Q Tonic, a naturally made upstart tonic water brand, is
—2006—
launched.
W R aspber ry G r a ni ta
“A few years ago, the making of frozen desserts was
considered to be so difficult and delicate an operation
that their accomplishment was, as a rule, relegated
to the skilled caterer or French cook,” said the Times
writer in an article on frozen desserts. But now, he
claimed, a good ice cream maker “is rapidly becom-
ing a necessary factor in every well-ordered kitchen.”
The article included recipes for frappes, Pomona ice
(orange and apple), cherry ice, milk sherbet, custard
ice cream, and this delicious granite.
Of the granita, which the writer recommended for
garden parties, he said, “This is a favorite dessert with
all who have tried it and deserves a prominent place
in the list of frozen dainties.” I couldn’t agree more. A
nice touch is the last step, in which fresh raspberries
are folded into the icy granite shortly before serving.
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
Juice of 3 small lemons, or to taste
11 cups (about 51⁄ 2 pints) raspberries
1. Combine the water and sugar in a large saucepan
and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then
reduce the heat and cook at a low boil for 15 min-
utes. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice (to
taste) and 8 cups raspberries and stir until the raspber-
ries just begin to break down. Let cool. Taste, add-
ing more lemon juice as desired. If the mixture is too
sweet, dilute with a little water.
2. Pour the mixture into a lasagna pan or similar wide
shallow pan (large enough so the raspberry mixture
isn’t more than an inch or two deep, yet small enough
to fit in your freezer), and freeze for 1 hour. Use a sturdy
fork to stir up the frozen bits, and continue doing this
every 30 minutes or so, until the granite is just shards
of raspberry ice. (It will hold overnight, so you can
take a break and finish it in the morning if needed.)
3. Thirty minutes before serving, fold in the remaining
3 cups raspberries, and return to the freezer.
S erv es 8 to 1 2
Cooking Notes
This makes a lot of granita, maybe more than you need
(and raspberries can be expensive), but the recipe can
easily be halved.
I served this in plain glass tumblers. It’s also good
with fresh cream poured on top!
J u ly 2 8 , 1 8 9 5 : “ F roz e n Ta b l e Da i n t i e s : Au g u st D e s -
s e rts Sho u l d B e I c e d C r e a ms , F ru i ts , a n d Sy ru p s .”
—1895
W Pam e la S h e rrid ’ s
S u m m e r Pasta
It took us a long time to arrive at cacio e pepe and spa-
ghetti with crab and sea urchin. In the Dark Ages of
pasta, we understood it to be a small and inconsequen-
tial category, containing only lasagne and spaghetti and
meatballs. Then came the false spring of pasta salads.
Remember those? Those efficient ’70s dishes that com-
bined pasta—cooked ahead of time! served cold!—and
exotica like broccoli, pine nuts, and sun-dried toma-
toes? Eaten straight from the fridge, you got both that
chilled gumminess and the wancrunch of broccoli.
Then, when we were discovering Italy in the ’80s
and early ’90s—just before Mario Batali thoroughly
reprogrammed the Italian section of our brains around
1998—the Times published a number of recipes for
pasta with room-temperature tomato sauce. (Hot Penne
with Chilled Tomato Sauce and Charred Tuna, an early
example, can be found on p. 00.) They were a revelation
akin to the discovery by women in the 1930s that they
could wear pants. After years of thinking that all pasta
sauces were long-simmered affairs, cooks were relieved
to learn that they could simply chop a few tomatoes, add
some seasonings and hot pasta, and— viola!—dinner.
Pamela Sherrid’s summer pasta is a quintessential
crossover dish: part tomatoes and warm pasta, part pasta
salad. It includes ripe summer tomatoes, garlic, olive oil,
basil, and cubes of fresh mozzarella. Her recipe relies on
prudent technique and a slacker’s sense of pace. First
you combine the garlic, basil, and oil and let the mix-
ture marinate. Many hours later, you add tomatoes and
let it sit some more. Next, you pour the cooked rigatoni
over the tomatoes, scater the cubes of mozzarella over
the rigatoni, and gently mix the cheese into the pasta,
coating it with a buttery veil of fat, before tossing it with
the tomatoes at the bottom. If you have great tomatoes
and mozzarella and you don’t overcook the pasta, it is
a remarkably good dish. A puddle of sweet and salty
tomato broth will form at the bottom of your bowl, so
be sure to have some bread on hand to soak it up.
 5 large cloves garlic Cook the rigatoni in water that contains enough
1
⁄ 2 to 3⁄ 4 cup olive oil sea salt to taste salty. The pasta is done when it feels
12 or more basil leaves like biting into a piece of gum—you want some resis-
6 to 8 large ripe tomatoes tance when you eat it.
Salt
1 pound rigatoni S e rv i n g S ugge sti o n s
1 pound mozzarella, packaged or fresh Fried Zucchini Blossoms (p. 00), Eggplant Involtini
Country bread for serving (p. 00), Roasted Salmon with Herb Vinaigrette (p.
00), Brine-Cured Pork Chops (p. 00), Zucchini with
1. Take out your largest bowl. Cut into the bottom of Crème Fraîche Pesto (p. 00), Italian Roast Potatoes
it 5 cloves of nice, fat, juicy garlic. Pour over that 1⁄ 2 (p. 00), Summer Pudding (p. 00)
to 3⁄ 4 of a cup of your favorite olive oil. (Start with half
a cup and add the rest later if you think you need it.) M ay 26 , 1 9 9 6 : “ F e a sts Alf r e sco,” by F r a n Sc hu me r .
R ec i p e by Pa me l a She r r i d.
With scissors, snip a dozen or more basil leaves into
—1996
shreds over the bowl. Let this sit all day. The aroma in
your kitchen will be as tantalizing as it is when you’re
grilling steaks.
2. About 2 hours before dinner, chop 6 to 8 large ripe
tomatoes into the bowl.
W Bo u illab ais s e
3. When you’re ready to eat, boil enough salted water
Utterly unlike the classic brash, flame-colored bouilla-
to cook a pound of rigatoni. Add the pasta. While it is
baisse, this recipe appeals to modern tastes: it’s a rustic,
cooking (and you’ll naturally want it to be al dente),
golden Mediterranean soup that someone like Paula
cut 1 pound of mozzarella into cubes. In this instance,
Wolfert might whip up. I loved this dish and have made
I actually prefer packaged to fresh, but if you use fresh,
it regularly. The fish is poached in a saffron-and-herb-
add salt (maybe a teaspoon) to the mixture of oil,
scented oil, which seems to insulate it from overcooking.
basil, and garlic.
The saffron should be perceptible but nothing more.
4. Now, here’s where you must follow directions: Drain
the pasta. Pour it on top of the tomato, garlic, basil,
and oil mixture. Do not stir. Toss the cubed cheese
1 cup olive oil
onto the hot pasta and toss only the pasta and cheese,
2 medium tomatoes, peeled (see Cooking Note, p. 00),
so the hot pasta melts the cheese. When all the cheese
cored, seeded, and sliced
is melted, stir up from the bottom.
1 small onion, thinly sliced
5. Serve with bread to mop up the olive oil. This
1 carrot, peeled and very thinly sliced
pasta is delicious when you make it and even better
2 pinches saffron threads, or to taste
the next day, when the ingredients have had longer
1 bay leaf
to marinate.
2 sprigs parsley
2 cloves garlic
Serves 4 as a main course; 6 as a first course
1 pound each skinless cod, halibut, and bluefish fillets
(fluke or sea bass may be substituted for two of
Cooking Notes
these), skinned and cut into 2-inch pieces
Set out the mozzarella in advance so it can warm to
2 cups peeled, deveined medium shrimp (about 1 pound)
room temperature.
Juice of 1⁄ 2 lemon, or to taste
Tear the basil rather than cut it; chop the tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper1 cup fish broth
however you want; and use any stubby tube-shaped 1
⁄ 2 cup dry white wine
pasta you like.
6 slices country bread, toasted
You should eat this as soon as the rigatoni is cooked.
Supermarket tomatoes don’t have enough flavor or
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high
juice to make the dish sparkle, so unless you can get
heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, carrot, saffron, bay
great local tomatoes, skip this one.
leaf, and parsley. Crush 1 garlic clove and add it to the
pan. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the fish, shrimp, and
lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and cook at
an active simmer for 10 minutes, taking care not to
break up the fish.
2. Add the fish broth and wine, bring to a simmer, and
simmer until the fish is just cooked through. Adjust
the seasoning, adding more saffron, lemon juice, salt,
and/or pepper as desired.
3. Rub the toasts with the remaining garlic clove. Set
a toast in the bottom of each of 6 bowls and ladle the
bouillabaisse on top.
S erv es 6
Cooking Notes
Set out your fish for 20 minutes beforehand,
Don’t boil the broth—the fish will cook through
in good time.
Serving Sugg est i o ns
Squashed Tomatoes (p. 00), Nicole Kaplan’s Gougères
(p. 00), Hot Cheese Olives (p. 00), Salade à la
Romaine (p. 00), Classic Financiers (p. 00), Meyer
Lemon Tart (p. 00)
July 3, 19 0 4: “Boui l l ab ai s s e an d C h ow d ers : A n E e l
Soup D ig ression —W h o N ow G et th e B e st V eg eta b le s
and F ruits—A D e ar Fi s h Mark et.”
—1904
W Fo n tain e b le au
Fontainebleau is much like coeur à la crème (see p. 00
for a superb recipe), in which ricotta or another fresh
cheese is blended with whipped cream and whipped
egg whites, then drained to condense it. But this is
made with yogurt, which means you end up with a
lighter, tangier, and much silkier cloud of cream. (It
may even be marginally healthier, but I couldn’t care
less, I want to eat both.)
2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
3
⁄ 4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
3 large egg whites
Fruit Sauce (see p. 00) or fresh berries, for serving
1. Line a 6-cup, perforated mold or 2 or more smaller
perforated molds with cheesecloth. Combine the
yogurt and all but 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl.
2. Whip the cream until stiff, and fold into the yogurt
mixture.
3. Whip the egg whites until stiff, add the remaining
2 tablespoons sugar, and whip until glossy, another 20
seconds. Fold the egg whites into the yogurt mixture.
4. Transfer the mixture to the lined mold(s) and place
in a bowl to catch the liquid that will drain off. Cover
and refrigerate for 24 hours, draining off the liquid
from time to time. The cheese should become fairly
firm and dry, almost like whipped cream cheese.
5. To serve, unmold the Fontainebleau onto a platter
and surround with a colorful fresh fruit sauce or fresh
berries.
Serves 8 to 1 0
Co o k i n g N ote s
When you drain the yogurt mixture, it will give off a
lot of liquid. I poured it off three times, for a total of
about 11⁄ 2 cups of liquid.
I reduced the sugar from 1 cup in the original recipe
to 3⁄ 4 cup to emphasize the tanginess of the yogurt.
I don’t have a perforated mold, so I lined a fine-
mesh sieve with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl.
M ay 6 , 1 9 8 4 : “ E n t e rta i n i n g Ab roa d / F r a n c e ; We e ke n ds
i n t he D o r d o g n e ,” by Pat r i c i a We l ls . Rec i p e a da p t e d
f ro m I s a b e lle d ’ O r n a n o a d i r ecto r o f S i s le y cos -
met i c s , i n Pa r i s , F r a n c e .
—1984
W T edd ie ’ s App l e C a ke
For reasons that elude me, cakes are reputed to require
long hours in the kitchen, when anyone who actually
makes cakes knows that cookies are the true time suck.
Cookies require out posting and multiple batches.
Cakes get mixed up and go into the oven all at once.
The most complaisant ones even cool in their pans
and require no icing.
All of which is why if you look back in the Times
archives at recipes from thirty or more years ago, when
most people cooked every day, there were many more
cake recipes. Cake was a staple you whipped up every
couple of days, after the previous one had vanished in
to crumbs.
Teddie’s apple cake is a typical standby of the
period. None of the ingredients are difficult to find—
most are probably already in your pantry. Based on oil
rather than butter, the cake has a light, airy crumb
that’s delicious while it lasts, with walnuts, raisins,
and slivers of apple threaded through the cinnamon-
scented cake. There is no icing, and no need for one.
When I asked readers for their favorite recipes from
the Times, this one was near the top, with thirty seven
votes. Like many of the most recommended recipes, it
shares three qualities: ease, good flavor, and someone’s
name in its title. Unfortunately, I still have no idea
who Teddie is.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
11⁄ 2 cups peanut, vegetable, or corn oil
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled, cored, and thickly sliced apples
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
Vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a
9-inch tube pan. Sift together the flour, salt, cinna-
mon, and baking soda.
2. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer with a
paddle (or in a bowl with a hand mixer) for 5 minutes.
Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.
Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla, apples,
walnuts, and raisins and stir until combined.
3. Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 1
hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in
the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before
turning out.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.
Serves 8
Co o k i n g N ote s
If mixing the batter in a mixer, use a paddle attach-
ment and turn the speed to low once you add the flour
mixture, or the texture of the cake will be tough. Even
better, mix the rest by hand.
The recipe called for Red Delicious or McIntosh
apples, but I’d recommend a variety that’s brighter
in flavor and firmer in texture, such as a Honeycrisp,
Macoun, or Granny Smith.
The apple slices can be halved if you want a more
uniform texture.
This cake can be eaten at any time of day, including
breakfast. If you serve it for dessert, the recipe sug-
gested a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. I prefer
to whip 1⁄ 2 cup of heavy cream to soft peaks, then fold
in crème fraîche to taste.
Readers
“I most recently baked this cake for Thanksgiving
2004. There was a small piece left over and several
days later (it keeps beautifully), I wrapped it in alumi-
num foil and took it to NYC for my son and daughter-
in-law. He took it from me and started looking around
his kitchen. When I questioned him, he said he had to
hide it from his wife.”
Rochelle Rogers-Lippin, Huntington, NY, letter
S e p t e mb e r 3 0, 1 9 7 3 : “ J u st D e s s e rts ,” by J e a n He w i tt.
R ec i p e by T e ddi e .
—1973
W Forget- I t M e r i ng ue To rt e
Meringue has long been a by-product of other des-
serts, an economical way to use up leftover egg whites.
Lemon meringue pie is a kind of finger exercise for
the thrifty baker (see p. 00 for a great one), while
meringue cookies and macaroons (p. 00) tend to be
provoked more by guilt than by ambition.
This meringue torte from the 1970s—an almond-
scented meringue cake piled with whipped cream—is
a more inspired enterprise. The dessert is reminiscent
of Pavlova (p. 00), except that it’s baked in a tube
pan and comes out more like a cake. Or, as Craig
Claiborne and Pierre Franey, who got the recipe from
Molly Chappellet, an owner of Chappellet Vineyards
in the Napa Valley, described it, “When the meringue
comes from the oven, it looks like a disaster.”
And it does—like a saggy, toasted marshmallow
shaped like a tire. But its cosmetic failings can all be
tidied up with whipped cream and a boozy raspberry
sauce. The unusual part of the recipe is all the time
the dish spends in the oven. The night before serving,
you plop the meringue into the tube pan, slip it into a
425-degree oven, and turn off the heat. Then you prom-
ise yourself not to peek until morning, at which point
it’s done, earning its full name: Forget-It Meringue Torte.
3. Push up the removable bottom of the pan. Cut
away the top crust; reserve the crust and any crumbs.
Unmold the cake onto a plate. Whip the cream with
a 1 tablespoon sugar, then ice the cake with it. Chop
the reserved crust to make crumbs, then sprinkle them
around the sides and top of the cake, pressing gently.
4. Combine the raspberries, the remaining 1⁄ 2 cup
sugar, and kirsch in a bowl. Stir until the sugar is dis-
solved. Serve the cake sliced, with the sauce spooned
on the side.
Serves 1 2
Co o k i n g N ote s
The original recipe calls for kirsch, sugar, and frozen
raspberries. Feel free to use fresh ones if they’re in
season.
This dessert is best made on a dry day. Humidity
will turn the torte into a sticky, droopy mess. I’ve tried
it.
A p r i l 2 , 1 9 7 8 : “ Fo o d : Ov e r n i g ht S u cc e s s ,” by Cr a i g
C la i b o r n e w i t h P i e r r e F r a n e y. Rec i p e a da p t e d f ro m
M o lly Cha p p e llet, a n ow n e r o f C ha p p e l let V i n e-
ya r ds i n N a pa Va lle y, Ca l i fo r n i a .
—1978

11⁄ 2 cups egg whites (from 9 to 11 eggs)

1
⁄ 4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1
⁄ 2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup heavy cream
Three 10-ounce packages frozen raspberries, defrosted, or
1 quart fresh raspberries
2 tablespoons kirsch or framboise liqueur

1. Heat the oven 425 degrees. Butter an angel food

cake pan with a removable bottom. In a mixer on
medium speed, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add
the cream of tartar. With the mixer on high speed,
gradually add 21⁄ 2 cups sugar. Add the vanilla and
almond extracts and beat to stiff, glossy peaks.
2. Spoon the meringue into the buttered pan. Level
the top. Place in the oven and turn off the heat. Do
not open the door until the oven is cool. The torte
will look messy, but do not worry.