Cookbooks You Actually Cook From

[Claire]

This is especially for those of you who, like me, have shelves full of cook books. Which ones have you actually used, and which do you fall back on often?

[Claire]

I'll start. Joy and Betty get a lot of use, even if it is just to double check a recipe I think I have memorized. For example, my mom taught me to make negemaki, but Joy has a recipe for it, and while I don't make it exactly to recipe, I do double check to get proportions for the sauce right. Hotter Than aitch e double hockey sticks (oops, that'll get bleeped, so might as well go back and do it myself) by Jane Butel has a couple of recipes I go back to time & time again (love her scallops recipe!). The Romagnoli's Table is my all around Italian resource, All Along the Danube (Marina Polvay) for my husband's Slavic tastes, Thai Cooking by Hilaire Walden for ... well, obviously, Thai food. Le Guide de la Cuisine Traditionelle Quebecoise (Lorraine Boisvenue) when I go to make tourtiere or cook game or just want to exercise my little gray cells and remind myself I did once learn some French (although it can be a pain because my Larrouse Fr/Eng dictionary doesn't have a lot of culinary terms). Oh, the companion cookbook to the Jacques and Julie TV show gets trotted out a few times a year as well. Oh, and Jeff Smith's Immigrant Ancestors book. As for the other 100+ cookbooks, some have been used once or twice to actually cook by, but a lot have only been read as literature!

[JoAnn L.]

I do have lots of cookbooks but the one I go to most for recipes and help is my old "Betty Crocker's". It seems to have the answers to my cooking questions.

[KathyJ]

Gosh, I could get depressed.... I have way more cookbooks than I actually use! But that's a good thing, right???

Ones that I actually use....
Taste of Home-Reiman Publications
Quick Cooking-Reiman Publications
others from Reiman Publications
Amish Country Cookbook, vol 1-Das Dutchman Essenhaus
Cook's Illustrated
Rachael Ray - internet recipes
How to Cook Everything - Mark Bittman
Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

I grew up on down-home country cookin', so I still gravitate towards those kind of recipes. I love looking through the gourmet-type cookbooks/magazines though.

I'll never live long enough to cook from each book!!!

[SizzlininIN]

Originally Posted by KathyJ

Gosh, I could get depressed.... I have way more cookbooks than I actually use! But that's a good thing, right???

Ones that I actually use....
Taste of Home-Reiman Publications
Quick Cooking-Reiman Publications
others from Reiman Publications
Amish Country Cookbook, vol 1-Das Dutchman Essenhaus
Cook's Illustrated
Rachael Ray - internet recipes
How to Cook Everything - Mark Bittman
Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

I grew up on down-home country cookin', so I still gravitate towards those kind of recipes. I love looking through the gourmet-type cookbooks/magazines though.

I'll never live long enough to cook from each book!!!

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.

[vagriller]

My chili recipe is based on the one in the Betty Crocker book (the new one). My first cheesecake was from that book too. I got a bunch of new cookbooks, and haven't got to use them much yet since with the move and all. I did read one of my Bobby Flay cookbook and I suppose some of the tips in there have helped with the grilling.

[Hopz]

Paul Prudhomme's "Louisiana Kitchen"...

and this new fangled thing call the internet....

[Andy M.]

Originally Posted by Hopz

Paul Prudhomme's "Louisiana Kitchen"...

and this new fangled thing call the internet....

I picked up a copy of 'Louisiana Kitchen' at a flea market for $3.00. A great bargain. I use it as my bible for Louisiana cooking.

[Toots]

I started out when I was 12 with the Betty Crocker cookbook too. The cookbooks in regular rotation right now are:
Barefoot Contessa (all of her books actually)
Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams.
Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
Once Upon a Tart
Rick & Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures
Frank Stitt's Southern Kitchen
Best of Cooking Light

I have about 250 cookbooks, but I find I rotate through some seasonally and some I never crack open at all.

[Yakuta]

Betty Crocker
Charlene Solomons Complete Asian Cookbook
Jamie Olivers Family Dinners

Jamie's book is fantastic, he has a unique style in cooking where he just puts things together and creatively comes up with these unique and delicious dishes. I really love his cookbook.