The title of this book is accurate!
This is an excellent book which includes a broad range of recipes, as well as useful information about food preparation, selection of produce and equipping a kitchen.
The recipes are straightforward to follow, even for more complex dishes.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cooking.

Very informative, handy book, but if you order from here, make sure to check it upon arrival
Very handy book to have around, I think it will be replacing my old all-inclusive basic 'recipe encyclopedia' type books like Betty Crocker, etc.

I want to put up an alert to those purchasing it here, though - I got mine a few weeks ago and was thumbing through it today, looking for a particular recipe, to find that during the binding process pages 400 - 463 had NOT been included (pretty much the entire section on Meat!) This might be a problem affecting a lot of copies, so be sure to check yours when it arrives.

Update - when I alerted Amazon to the problem with my book, the first customer service rep responded that there were no more in stock and if I sent the copy I had back I would receive a refund. I tried over and over to find the page where I could print a shipping label, link provided by the rep, but got nowhere. I contacted Amazon again and a different rep said they would send another copy out to me right away by 2-day air shipping (guess they found some more, huh?)

Of course by then I'd already gotten another copy, so a co-worker got a freebie. And a vegetarian colleague got the mis-bound one. So 3 happy people - thanks Amazon!

By far, the best go-to cookbook that I own
This is a cookbook that you can use everyday. If you have some ingredient in your pantry or fridge and need to figure out something tasty to do with it, then this is the book you should turn to. Bittman explains how to cook, prep, and store hundreds of basic ingredients, and presents many variations on preparations - all simple, easy-to-do. All of his recipes are also exceedingly easy to improvise upon, so, in the end, you actually just end up learning how to cook!

I'm a not a Cook, but these come out great!
TONS of recipes, truly of every variety, and many of them are very very simple. I'm a baker, but not a cook, and this book is perfect because he explains everything. I absolutely recommend this to everyone who needs to start or add to a cookbook collection. A great 'moving out on their own' present as well.

Where to look when all else fails
This is an excellent reference for when you can't log in (or don't want to) and have a food challenge: what do I do with Jerusalem artichokes?

This book is fast becoming stained with splashes from the kitchen (as all real cookbooks do).