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taylakaye's review
4.0
This is a great reference book. Some of it is a little Stepford-ish, but when you have an odd question about cleaning or food expiration dates or really anything else related to keeping your home in order it's a great go to for you to have handy. Just don't spend too much time reading about dust mites...you'll never sleep again.
sarahbotreads's review
4.0
I'm not technically "finished" with this one - it's a reference book, not one you really read cover to cover. I found this at my mom's house and unabashedly took it (with her permission), because, in a lot of ways, I feel like I never learned a lot of basic grown-up stuff about how to keep a house, something I feel very drawn to. This is a great resource - it's organized in very specific sections, so you can hone right in on what you're interested in (for example, I skipped a lot of the chapters on fabrics/laundry, because I feel okay about that area of my skill, but pored over the cooking/kitchen sections, because that's an area where I feel weak). The author does do a lot of "should"-ing - it will feel really didactic and a little judge-y for those people that take that to heart, but I was able to tune it out fairly easily and focus on the facts/tips/things I thought would help me.
juniper_sedai's review
4.0
I love that it wasn't just cleaning tips and tricks, but included manners and the how and why of things a lot of people still probably do because their mothers taught them to without ever explaining the reasons.
nicole_p's review
3.0
It's a good book, but a little too over-the-top for me. It would make a nice gift for a new homeowner/homemaker. Obviously, it would make a good reference book, but I also don't know just how often I'd turn to it. I read the intro sections which were warm and inspiring. Still, it's not a sit-down-and-read book for me and I just thumbed through it after the first couple of chapters.
ecstaticlistening's review
4.0
My mom got each of us a copy of this book when we left the house. It's an indispensable reference, which I turn to when trying to figure out how to clean up weird messes, remove unsightly stains, or unclog drains, and then inevitably flip through and discover a million things about housekeeping and homemaking I never even thought about. I also like the illustrations. It's handy.
hollyollyoxnfree's review against another edition
5.0
If you're interested in all the hows and whys of taking care of your home, especially after a year of being inside, this book is perfect!
thehlb's review
5.0
This is hands down the best homemaking book I've ever read. I expected to just thumb though it, but I found myself wanting to read it cover to cover.
It is the first comprehensive homemaking guide that did not fill me with guilt that I've been doing it all wrong and instead made me feel like I wanted to get up and clean my oven and then bake something in it.
I have Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, and it is very comprehensive, and had tons of checklists and pictures, but is very cold and impersonal. Whereas Martha's approach tends to be very, "You should do it this way because that's how it's done," Home Comforts gives both options and reasons for housekeeping approaches.
I found myself taking notes.
While some of the info is not anything that I will ever use (I can't imagine ever hosting a full multi-course formal dinner complete with china and crystal) most of the advice and tips are practical for beginners through experienced homemakers. I plan to include this in my personal library.
*I should note that the one criticism I have is that it does seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on sanitation and safe food handling practices, but maybe this is not common sense for newcomers to the kitchen.
It is the first comprehensive homemaking guide that did not fill me with guilt that I've been doing it all wrong and instead made me feel like I wanted to get up and clean my oven and then bake something in it.
I have Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, and it is very comprehensive, and had tons of checklists and pictures, but is very cold and impersonal. Whereas Martha's approach tends to be very, "You should do it this way because that's how it's done," Home Comforts gives both options and reasons for housekeeping approaches.
I found myself taking notes.
While some of the info is not anything that I will ever use (I can't imagine ever hosting a full multi-course formal dinner complete with china and crystal) most of the advice and tips are practical for beginners through experienced homemakers. I plan to include this in my personal library.
*I should note that the one criticism I have is that it does seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on sanitation and safe food handling practices, but maybe this is not common sense for newcomers to the kitchen.
besha's review
4.0
Ruined me for butter.
I grew up in a religiously all-food-refrigerated home. It was a revelation and a subversive joy to me as an adult to keep butter in a dish on the table.
Mendelson is emphatic that butter must always be kept “quite cool” lest it go rancid, and says that storing it properly may make you “more sensitive to rancid undertones in your butter.”
I’d never heard of butter going bad, so I checked Harold McGee. He says that it’s not accurate to say that butter goes bad—in a bacterial sense—but it does oxidize. This means a higher proportion of the short-chain fatty acids that, in small amounts, give butter its flavor, and at a higher concentration are “disgusting.”
So it’s not harmful to eat butter that’s been stored somewhere less than cool; it just tastes less good.
I would swear to you that in fifteen years I never noticed the difference, but now that I’ve read Mendelson, I can’t untaste it.
I grew up in a religiously all-food-refrigerated home. It was a revelation and a subversive joy to me as an adult to keep butter in a dish on the table.
Mendelson is emphatic that butter must always be kept “quite cool” lest it go rancid, and says that storing it properly may make you “more sensitive to rancid undertones in your butter.”
I’d never heard of butter going bad, so I checked Harold McGee. He says that it’s not accurate to say that butter goes bad—in a bacterial sense—but it does oxidize. This means a higher proportion of the short-chain fatty acids that, in small amounts, give butter its flavor, and at a higher concentration are “disgusting.”
So it’s not harmful to eat butter that’s been stored somewhere less than cool; it just tastes less good.
I would swear to you that in fifteen years I never noticed the difference, but now that I’ve read Mendelson, I can’t untaste it.