Your first cookbooks

[grnidkjun]

My first cookbook.. I was about 11 or 12 ys old. The Muppet Cookbook!
Actually had a recipe for lemon chicken in there that was quite good and easy for someone young to roast a whole chicken. That is .. once I learned that "pat the chicken dry" did not mean hold the bird up by the legs and whack it dry! Tender bird though!

 

[JamesS]

I'm pretty sure my first would have been a Boy Scout booklet on cooking used as a guide for the cooking merit badge.

Here's the modern day equivalent:

http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&c2=BOOKS_LIT&C3=MB_PAMPHLET&C4=&LV=3&item=35879&prodid=35879^8^01RTL&

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Better Homes & Gardens

That was the cookbook my Mother had. Dad bought me the BH&G Junior Cookbook once I showed an interest in cooking. I have four different editions of BH&G, they sure have changed over the years. I have also inherited all the cookbooks Mom used and her recipe box.

The recipes I hold most dear: the notecards from the lunchroom lady who priinted out the recipes for those dishes I liked in the cafeteria at school. Her name was Izola...wonderful woman.

 

[Julio]

Today I received my first cook book "Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book". I took a quick look through and it has alot of information and tips & tricks on how to do things.

 

[Barbara L]

The first cookbook I ever used was my mom's '50s edition Betty Crocker Cookbook. The first cookbook I bought for myself was Joy of Cooking, in 1978. As a teenager, I spent a lot of time copying recipes from cookbooks I got at the library, especially Swedish cookbooks. Several months before she died in 2000, my mom bought me a Swedish cookbook at the Mall of the Americas.

Barbara

 

[PrincessFiona60]

As a teenager, I spent a lot of time copying recipes from cookbooks I got at the library...
Barbara

You sure you're not my Identical Twin??? I did the same thing.

 

[Barbara L]

You sure you're not my Identical Twin??? I did the same thing.

I've been wondering lately, after reading some of your posts, if we might be twins.

Barbara

 

[Joshatdot]

 

[Linux]

Three books in close succession fired my love for cooking:

The Cookery of England by Elizabeth Ayrton
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David

Incredibly, Amazon UK are selling Elizabeth Ayrton's book, "16 Used", for just one British penny, plus postage. Now how's that for a bargain?

I have since passed them onto Moon Flower who is inspired.

 

[Claire]

The first cookbook I learned from was Better Homes & Gardens, my mom's. The first cookbook I owned was Betty Crocker. Both were good for real basics, and their binder format made them easy to use. I literally wore Betty out and my husband replaced her, but only after going through the old copy and moving tried & true recipes that weren't the same into the new binder.

 

[Moon Flower]

Three books in close succession fired my love for cooking:

The Cookery of England by Elizabeth Ayrton
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David

Incredibly, Amazon UK are selling Elizabeth Ayrton's book, "16 Used", for just one British penny, plus postage. Now how's that for a bargain?

I have since passed them onto Moon Flower who is inspired.

Actually, An Omelete and a Glass of Wine isn't a cookbook, but an amazing account of Elizabeth David's life around her experiences of food. Mum gave me the book to inspire me on how to make Omellette Moliere. The book not only helped me make the best omelettes in my family, but got me fired up on cooking. A brilliant book.

 

[Julio]

I didn't like the binder in the betty crocker picture cook book that I gave it to my nephew. I had found someone on ebay selling the 1998 hardcopy brand news in excellent conditions for really cheat $10.00 I prefer hardcover books better.

I got my 2nd cookbook Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day.

 

[gage]

my first cookbook --1971 newly living together before getting married we were fine dining on steakettes and KD dinner (@ 2 for 17 cents ) we thought we better do something or die. The Complete Cookery Encyclopedia --thomas allen toronto

 

[hels]

Hi everyone.
Im looking for a good book for making soups, does anyone know to one or have a good recipe?
I've found a good sight for little handy tips : Granny Tips ! Grandma's tips, tricks, remedies and recipes.
Does anyone know to one?
Thanks

 

[noodlesandstuff]

Incredibly, Amazon UK are selling Elizabeth Ayrton's book, "16 Used", for just one British penny, plus postage. Now how's that for a bargain?

wow, thank you for the heads up! I've been wanting to learn english cooking for a while, but it's not easy getting recommendations for good english cookbooks as it's misinterpreted as a bad cuisine. That's a great price and there are only 9 left now. I just wish I could see the table of contents to know what there is.

As for my first cookbook, I bought a few random ones in early highschool/middle school, but I've only now gotten really involved. I've gotten Julia Child's mastering the art of french cooking and recommend it, as for age I bought it this week, and I'm 20. It's not my first cookbook, but it's the first that's influenced me.


can't wait for Ayrton's book!

 

[Furrbrain]

I learned on Better Homes and Gardens, Cook it Right and Rumfords all back in 75ish. I have a couple hundred cookbooks now but pretty sure I don't have those originals anymore! Go figure! FWIW BH&G is on sale at the local Wally for under $20, so maybe I'll do a nostalgia buy.

 

[JGDean]

Better Homes and Gardens from the early 50's. I inherited it from a favorite Aunt. She must have been like me in never following the recipe exactly as she had copious notes in the margins on how to improve the recipe.

 

[Zhizara]

Better Homes and Gardens from the early 50's. I inherited it from a favorite Aunt. She must have been like me in never following the recipe exactly as she had copious notes in the margins on how to improve the recipe.

How lucky for you!

 

[mkaylady]

My mother and grandmothers did not cook from cookbooks. Being from Sorrento, Italy, they did not need instructions on cooking. I learned from watching my mother, who was a fabulous cook. However, when I got married, in the mid 60's I bought The Joy of Cooking and then I bought Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I found that I loved to just read cookbooks so it became a hobby of mine to collect cookbooks and I now have hundreds of them. At this point, I would like to start selling some of them off.

I just came back from Costco and they had a lot of great new cookbooks there. Sunset, and the Bon Appetit, and one called Things Cooks Love put out by Sur La Table. I really wanted a couple of them but was thinking I need to get rid of some that I have first.

 

[moltogordo]

The first two cookbooks I ever owned were gifts on the same Christmas from my Mother (who was a talented chef, very French trained), and my sister. They were "Southern Cooking" by Mrs. S.R.Dull from my Mom, and "Ginger Tea Makes Friends", a trendy little '60's gem by James Barber, who wrote a food column for the Vancouver Sun back then. I was in grade 11 or 12, I believe.

That same year, for my birthday, Mom gave me a copy of Mme. Jehene Benoit's "Encylopedia of Canadian Cooking" and "The Joys of Jewish Cooking" (we're Catholic, not Jewish, but love that Old World stuff, can't think of the author off the top of my head right now.

After that, I bought my own copy of Beryl Marton's "Out of the Garden into the Kitchen" and "The Black Family Reunion Cookbook" and those volumes with the above ones served me for years, and probably fixed my style of rustic cooking.

When I got into "trendy" cuisine, I bought Bobby Flay's "Bold American Food" and "The Vegetable Book" by Annie Bell, and these listed volumes form the backbone of my limited skills.