Cookbooks You Actually Cook From

[Ishbel]

I tend to use my cookery books in cycles of 'favourites'. Some stay permanently on the list, others are swapped for a newer favourite!

Jamie Oliver's Italy cookbook is a current favourite.
Also I use many of the recipes from various Nick Nairn books - I've been on a few courses at his cookery school and love his food philosphy
Lady Claire MacDonald
Sue Lawrence
Antonio Carluccio
Nigella
Raymond Blanc
Rick Stein for fish
Gordon Rankin
Madhur Jaffrey
Gary Rhodes for new twists on traditional British food
And also Delia!

I just wish Sean Hill would bring out a cookery book....... I do miss his Merchant House restaurant, but now he's opening a brasserie type place somewhere in Gloucestershire. Another reason to take a trip to the Cotswolds, I suspect.

 

[abjcooking]

Most of the recipes I use I get from online, but I would say that for books I use my Jack Daniel's cookbook and several cookbooks my mom put together for Junior League and other organizations.

 

[Corinne]

I have a new entry! When I get a new cookbook I normally go thru it with a package of Post-It Flags & mark all the recipes that look like they are worth trying. (I do a fair amount of cooking for large groups so I keep that in mind as I look at the recipes.)
I picked up a book at Borders yesterday in the Bargain section. I'm not done going thru it yet but it's loaded with Post-It Flags! It's called "Easy Casseroles Cookbook" by Barbara C. Jones. Published by Cookbook Resources.

For those of you who like the Taste of Home & church type cookbooks like I do, this one will be a winner for you! It was only 5 or 6 dollars & well worth the money! Just good down home country cooking. Nothing fancy.

 

[auntdot]

We have far too many cookbooks, over 400 (just did a rough count).

Why? Heck if I know. But we enjoy them and will never be able to eat a minute fraction of the recipes therein contained.

Normally we cook without a recipe.

But the recipes we do regularly follow are from Julia's books.

 

[DaCook]

My favourite is my Five Roses Cookbook, circa 1955 that I inhereited from my mom, and my highschool home economics books. They contain, some good baking and cooking recipes, in the basics. But I am also partial to June's book Festivals Cooks at Home.

 

[Claire]

I really cannot more highly recommend cookbooks than buying your local organization's cookbook. PLEASE buy one for any young person you know who is just starting out on their own. THese recipes are tried and true, using local ingredients and to local tastes. For example I have a couple from Hawaii that really reflect the cosmopolitan tastes there. I have a few from Virginia that really take advantage of the shellfish and hams there. When you buy these books, you're usually supporting a good cause, and you aren't just making something that someone in a million-dollar restaurant kitchen can make, you're making something that someone perfected on their regular old electric range and using ingredients you can get at your own local grocery.

 

[lulu]

I read my cookbooks as an alternative to eating a lot of the time. Sometimes I sit done read and feel as if I have had aa huge lunch, so in that sense I use them all, after all, there has to be variation in ones diet, whether imaginary or real!

When it come to cooking, like most people here, I have a problm sticking to recipes, but good references are Nigella Lawson's books, Prue Leith, and a NZ book called Edmonds, which has good quick basics but nothing fancy!

I think the rest are used in as much as they have become a reafernce in my mind and effect what i cook and how I play with recipes. I have just packed up eight store boxes of cook books, and I will miss them all!

 

[ChefJune]

My favourite is my Five Roses Cookbook, circa 1955 that I inhereited from my mom, and my highschool home economics books. They contain, some good baking and cooking recipes, in the basics. But I am also partial to June's book Festivals Cooks at Home.

....... and I didn't pay her to say that.... honest!

 

[ChefJune]

I really cannot more highly recommend cookbooks than buying your local organization's cookbook. PLEASE buy one for any young person you know who is just starting out on their own. THese recipes are tried and true, using local ingredients and to local tastes. For example I have a couple from Hawaii that really reflect the cosmopolitan tastes there. I have a few from Virginia that really take advantage of the shellfish and hams there. When you buy these books, you're usually supporting a good cause, and you aren't just making something that someone in a million-dollar restaurant kitchen can make, you're making something that someone perfected on their regular old electric range and using ingredients you can get at your own local grocery.

That's true, BUT..... and its a big one.... a lot of these "tried and true" recipes have not been tested by the compilers of the book. and altho they may be tried and true. they are often poorly written. The persons who make these recipes often forget ingredients... or steps in the process when they are writing them down. This makes the recipes, especially for novice cooks, sometimes impossible to create successfully. It helps, when you're buying one of these books, to know someone who knows the recipes and can advise you which ones work.

 

[Romany123]

Culinary artist is always at my side, Great book IMHO

 

[Romany123]

June , Jean
We will soon have to start up a must have book list.

 

[purrfectlydevine]

That's true, BUT..... and its a big one.... a lot of these "tried and true" recipes have not been tested by the compilers of the book. and altho they may be tried and true. they are often poorly written. The persons who make these recipes often forget ingredients... or steps in the process when they are writing them down. This makes the recipes, especially for novice cooks, sometimes impossible to create successfully. It helps, when you're buying one of these books, to know someone who knows the recipes and can advise you which ones work.

True all the way around. One thing I've noticed is that there are often several submissions of similar recipes so my advice would be to look at all of them and compare. If one seems to be missing something that all the others have, that would not be the one to use.

A tip I read somewhere--If you have a cookbook that you only use for a few recipes and want to get rid of that book, copy those few recipes and place them or tape them over the recipe for that dish in your most used cookbook. When you use the index to find the page for example beef stew, is on, your preferred recipe will be right there.

 

[cjs]

"Culinary artist is always at my side,"- by my side also and it's getting pretty dogeared and smudgy...

A book list - yes, Dave - it's almost August!!!!!! Santa needs to start saving his/her $$$$

 

[expatgirl]

Don't you just love getting a new cookbook? The best present I ever got was from my father-in-law who compiled all of my mother-in-laws favorite recipes (she was a great cook!!) into a folder. Took him a long time and he titled it "Mary's Recipes".
Other food spattered and falling apart favorites:

Pirate's Pantry----trove of Cajun recipes
Cotton Country Collection--comfort food
Lemon Grass Kitchen--wonderful Vietnames and Thai recipes
Breads of the World by Mariana Honig
Joy of Cooking (my preinternet "google" bible----great recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies and marinade for beef and pork)

 

[Robo410]

The New All Purpose Joy of Cooking
Julia CHild's Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Marcia Adams' Heartland Cooking
Many recipes from the files of Food Network
James Petersen's THe Essentials of Cooking

I reach for these first and have used them a lot. I have shelves of cook books.

 

[Romany123]

"Culinary artist is always at my side,"- by my side also and it's getting pretty dogeared and smudgy...

A book list - yes, Dave - it's almost August!!!!!! Santa needs to start saving his/her $$$$

You know I like the list early, last year I ended up buying them before Christmas lol.
As they start appearing Caroline,s usual comment is, " I see the book list is out" lol.

 

[silentmeow]

The Joy of Wokking by Martin Yan. It's pages are dotted with splatters and pages are dog eared but we have a history and I just love the book. My son wants it when I'm done with it, not a new clean copy but my used and abused copy. Second favorite, Joy of Cooking, the first edition. It contains the basics of cooking anything and everything!

 

[kyles]

A Cooks Companion by Stephanie Alexander. It's an absolute necessity in my kitchen. It's organised in ingredients, so is great if you have a glut of something, or see something you've never dealt with before.

Charmaine Solomon (like Yakuta) gets a lot of use. I have grown up with various editions of her books, she's an absolute authority on Asian cookery.

The two fat ladies books get a lot of use, as does Nigella, I adore Forever Summer, but have all her others too.

 

[Ishbel]

I forgot to mention Silver Spoon. Bought it a while back and love dipping into the book.

http://www.phaidon.com/silverspoon/

 

[Romany123]

Quote The two fat ladies books get a lot of use,

What a great series that was, I loved it