Cookbooks You Actually Cook From

[jessicacarr]

Same here. In fact, I've started to go through them and writing down the recipes I enjoy so that i can sell some of them to make way for new ones. I have some that I only have a couple recipes I enjoy.

One that I have found quite a few recipes from and I go to often as a guide is Culinary Arts Institute - The American Family Cookbook. Copyright 1974.

In fact, I thought I'd never be able to make my moms Chop Suey or her Sage Dressing after she passed. I'd never been able to get the dressing right even while she was alive and I'd forgot the Chop Suey recipe. So I was thrilled when my brother brought this cookbook down one Thanksgiving to help me with the dinner. Lo and behold there was a Herb Dressing recipe and after tweeking it ..... it was so much like moms........now I can make it all the time. Same for the Chop Suey. So many more great recipes in this book also. I highly recommend it. I found my copy on Ebay.

I like using the cookbooks to give me ideas.....I usually tweek the recipes though and adjust to our tastes.

I do collect the Annual Southern Living and Better Homes & Gardens so I'll hang onto those even if there's only a few recipes I like in each.

I love community cookbooks.......like those that churches subscribe. I have to admit I have a lot of these and I haven't made anything out of most.

OK...so i am not the only one! whew! as i read alot of these posts i was absolutely amased and amused by seeing that other people have the same problems as i have with cookbooks-too many and will never be able to use them all. i have probably 30-50 cookbooks. i was at a yardsale one time and got tons of Annual Southern Living and the like for was it a 10 or a 20 dollar bill?!! i knew i would hardly have any place to put them...but i couldn't help myself! My problem is, though, that i have this idea that if i get rid of any of my books, i will be missing something awesome out of them, and i certainly dont have enough time to go thru them all and extract the faves in order to get rid of some. even if i did have the time to do that...i prob couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. that's just how i am with all books! i guess that's what they call a packrat? oh dear.

 

[licia]

It seems to me many of us are in the same boat - too many cookbooks - not enough time to sort them out. I find myself going to the internet because it is usually quicker than searching thru the books.

 

[Food Inventors]

Joy of Cooking
How to cook everything
Fine Cooking Magazine Annual
Silver Palate
Moosewood

Very disappointed in recently released Gourmet Magazine comprehensive cookbook.

 

[Half Baked]

JessicaCarr

My problem is, though, that i have this idea that if i get rid of any of my books, i will be missing something awesome out of them, and i certainly dont have enough time to go thru them all and extract the faves in order to get rid of some. even if i did have the time to do that...i prob couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. that's just how i am with all books! i guess that's what they call a packrat? oh dear.

Ditto. I bought the Better Homes and Gardens Bridal Edition Cookbook for newlyweds and ended up having to get another one for them since I had broken the back, written down some recipes and pretty much used it before I wrapped it. This cookbook really has many great recipes in it.

 

[TexanFrench]

When we were clearing out my folks' place, I ended up with most of my mother's cookbooks, and she had most of her mother's. And I've gotten a few of my own. Haven't counted them all, but it's 1 bookcase plus overflow.

My favorites tend to shift, according to my mood, the weather, what's at the market, what's happening in my life. Some of the ones I keep going back to are, in no particular order:

Joy of Cooking (1971 version)
Hows & Whys of French Cooking by Alma Lach (1974)
Cooking for Company by Hedy Guisti-Lanham (1983)
San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook (1997)

These are all spattered and filled with notes. And if you ask me next month, I might have a different list!

 

[thegrova]

Okay - I have more cook books than I need or even open. Some I look through for inspiration, but do not actually cook from, some I refer to regularly.

I would have to say that by far and away the best is 'A cooks' companion by Stephanie Alexander. Yes it contains recipes, but it is organised like an A-Z of ingredients, and covers their history and how to select and things like that, before giving you recipes. It is great for those times when you have something that is in season or want to know what you can do with a particular ingredient. It also gives 'matching' recommendations, like it tells you what a particular ingredient will go well with, making it a great resource if you are thinking of being a bit creative!

 

[XeniA]

"Joy of Cooking -- 1975 edition (hands down the one I'll actually cook from -- just had it re-bound!)

"Chinese Home Cooking" -- Helen Chen (another grease-splashed, crinkly-paged one)

Xrysas Paradeisi's classic Greek cook book (in Greek, sadly, or I'd recommend it)

Only bits and pieces from other books, although I admit I'm not a big recipe person ...

 

[goodgiver]

Cookbooks

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Paula Deans very first cook book ?

 

[marigeorge]

Bet you could get it at any book store in your area.The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking is the first one, I believe, and yes, I do own it!

 

[Flourgirl]

Years ago, I read an essay in which the author has the same problem we have- too many cookbooks, too little time. She referred to her cookbooks as "volumes of unrealized potential." That says it all. I wish I could find the essay, it's from a Bon Appetite magazine for the late 1990's.

Anyway, I have an entire bookshelf devoted to cookbooks, some I've looked through only once, I use a lot of ethnic cuisine books, the ones that I really use are...

I love the Lidia Bostianich book, Lidia's Italian American Kitchen
A Taste of Old Cuba, Maria Josefa Lluria De O'Higgins (Cuban)
The Dance of Spices, Laxmi Hiremath (Indian)