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| Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking | 
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| Author: Delia Smith
Creator: Photography Copyright John Kernick
Publisher: Ebury Press
Category: Book
List Price: £20.00
Buy New: £8.89
You Save: £11.11 (56%)
New (39) Used (9) from £5.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 180
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 7.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0091922291
EAN: 9780091922290
Publication Date: February 15, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Excellent book says my mother May 23, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
I am typing this as dictated by my 73 year old mother. I have my own copy of Delia's new book - she has been looking at for a good few months now and then asked me to get her a copy. She has cooked all her life for a family through all stages young and old. She is now on her own but still does lots of entertaining and has the grandchildren to stay. So this is her view of Delia's new How to Cheat at Cooking (the 1971 version still on her shelf).
'It is fantastic to see how Delia has realised how so very many people, singles and families are desperate for help right now. The strange food obsessed world we live in gives such mixed messages to all age groups/varying stages of affluence/knowledge. There are a good few other cooks who I admire (Nigel Slater and Jamie in particular) but I ALWAYS come back to Delia - especially when I want to be really, really sure it is going to work. The most important point here is QUALITY. Lots of people have misinterpreted what Delia has said. Over and over she has tried to get across that QUALITY is the key. I trust Delia, millions of people obviously do. She is the highest selling cookery book writer in the country. So when some of the small time chefs and others writing on this board protest (without knowing their facts) it makes me very angry.
I don't want to rant on like a crazed old lady!! But I so want to encourage people who may have been influenced by some of the nonsense reporting to just GIVE IT A GO. I have eaten beautiful meals prepared by my daughter (and am starting myself now) from the book and television. The pastry cases are a WOW -
as good as my own. The casseroles are wonderful. Puds easy peasy and yet taste so very, very good.
So please if you have looked at these messages - just ignore the One Star folks. They have obviously
1. not got the book. 2. not cooked from the book. 3. not eaten from the book.
Plus having read many newspaper reports
1. Delia obviously does not benefit finanacially from the foodie ingredients
2. The goods in cans/jars are not full of preservatives.
So one old biddy is signing off for a large glass of cold white wine and the delicious Spanish Pork Stew which my daughter, children and friends have prepared for supper tonight. We will gather around the table and share good food which has been prepared easily and using excellent ingredients. Isn't that just what Delia set out to do?' Get 'real' people not foodie fanatics around the table eating and eating well. Goodnight all.'
On that note I best serve up the pud - the brilliant pancakes with sour cherries - before she carries on!!
Perfect for those leaving home! May 23, 2008
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have recently left home to live with my boyfriend and this book has saved my life. At home i couldnt cook at all even though my mother and grandmothers are all wonderful cooks. Me and my boyfriend dont have alot of money to spend on food and we worry alot about waste food so we try to use everything we buy. This book is perfect for anyone whos just left home and is learning how to best buy and use food. We think the tinned and frozen ingredients are genius as we only use exactly what we need and the rest can wait months before we make the recipe again. Have used many of these recipes to feed relatives visiting our new little house (my sister and her boyfriend love the lazy summer soup).
Also worth considering is Delias Cookery Course, this amazing book helped us choose what to buy to kit out our first kitchen and is always on standby for the british classics my mother can make from memory but i never seem to learn (gravy, yorkshire puds, crumbles and sponge cakes).
 Sends out the wrong message... May 13, 2008
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
This book is totally backward and sending out the wrong message...the RIGHT idea is to try and get people back into the kitchen by tempting them with quick and easy recipes that are made from fresh ingredients. As some people have said anyway - most of the ingredients are much more expensive than buying fresh and how hard IS IT to make some blooming mash potato or fry up some mince?? Seriously?! If you're too lazy to do that, you'd be too lazy to bother making delia's "cheat" recipes anyway.
There are so many decent things we can make in LESS time than most of delias recipes take using FRESH ingredients for half the price...so, why on earth would we choose to do this? You may as well just buy a ready meal, it will take much less time, cost less and probably not taste much worse.
The point? If you REALLY want to stop buying ready-meals - then start cooking, for real! There are plenty of cook books on amazon for quick meals - try Delias chum Nigel Slater! His fast food books are actually inspiring, rather than leaving you with a horrible deflated feeling.
Warning: This book has one seriously bitter after taste.
Avoid at all costs!
Offensive May 9, 2008
7 out of 21 found this review helpful
This book doesn't tell you how to cook what so ever, you might as well go and buy ready meals. Using a can of mince in a dish has to be a sin, and I think she must have been slipped a back hander from the supermarkets for all the product placement there is. British food has improved greatly over the last 10 years, and she is trying to take it back 20 years by using frozen or tinned ingredients, instead of fresh produce. I recommend Jamie Oliver or Nigel Slater if you want to learn how to cook.
 Ingredients not available everywhere. May 7, 2008
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
Took me agessssss to get some of the ingredients to make some of these recipes, and what seemed to be such a good idea, I think it would of been less time to actually just get the 'hard way?' ingredients in the first place.
What I think Delia hasn't realised is, that alot of the ingredients she reals off, are items that some northern supermarkets don't stock. Such a shame I only found that out 'after' buying the book.
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