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]

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.]

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.

 

[Corinne]

Any Amish/Mennonite/Lancaster County cookbooks.
Reiman Publications books.
Cook's Illustrated books.

 

[skilletlicker]

The New Joy of Cooking
How to Cook Everything
Sunset Easy Basics for Good Cooking, 1982
Better Homes and Gardens "Heritage of America Cookbook" 1993

The last is, without a doubt, my favorite.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cookery"
Madhur Jaffrey's "Eastern Vegetarian Cooking"
Viana La Place "Verdura"
Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" and "Pasta Fresca"

 

[Lynan]

For me

it is all of Nigella Lawsons, 2 of Bill Grangers and Kylie Kwongs ( Aussie chefs), my favourite cuisine bibles Thai Food by David Thompson and my old Thai Food Cookbook from Charmaine Soloman, and Kiwi chef Peter Gordons books get spattered often as do Julie Le Clercs!! I cant wait until cherry time to try her Cherry Pistachio Nut Roast to go with chicken or turkey again. Yum indeed. ( and I have indulged in her Lamb and 0live Pie twice this winter )
When I need comfort food, out comes my mums old handwritten cookbook or the Edmonds Cookbook, a NZ icon!!

 

[cjs]

I've thot about this question now for two days - I have so many cook related books there is no way to say my favorite 'go to'. Too many variables.

I do have one book that I go to first when I just need comfort food - a couple years ago a bunch of friends (a lot of them are now on this site...) got their family favorite recipes together and we published it!! "Share A Recipe Cookbook." It's a great book and does it ever satisfy a craving for the 'old days' foods.

I know that sounds like a shameless plug, and maybe so, but ALL the profits went to (or go to) chef scholarships!!

 

[ChefJune]

I guess I'd have to say my "go-to" book is my own, "Feastivals Cooks at Home."

I have upwards of 400 (I've lost count!) on my shelves, and I do prune regularly. When I need info I don't have, I look to Julia (I have ALL her boooks) and to Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise."

Lately, I've been cooking from the "Summer" section of Suzanne Goin's "Sunday Suppers at Lucques."

 

[bethzaring]

For me, this was a trick question. Some of the first cookbooks that came to mind were my two different editions of Joy of Cooking, but I realized that even though I am using both those books almost daily, I do not use them for recipes to cook by. It is about going to kill me to make a list of meaningful cookbooks, and not list a Joy. I also want to say that I prepare 21 meals a week. Take out or eating out is not an option due to my remote location, so I am about always thinking about food and looking at cookbooks. So here's my list of cookbooks with the recipes I use.

Whole Foods for the Whole Family 1981
Good Housekeeping Cookbook 1955
Better Homes and Gardens All time Favorite Recipes 1979
Betty Crocker Cookbook 1983
Let's Cook it Right Adelle Davis 1970
Laurel's Kitchen 1978
The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook 1991
The Michigan Bean Cookbook
Taste of Home, many annual cookbooks
various instruction/cookbooks that came with appliances:
Zojirushi Bread Machine
Cuisinart
Fagor pressure cooker
Presto pressure cooker
Rival crock pot
Kitchen Aid stand mixer

 

[SizzlininIN]

Any Amish/Mennonite/Lancaster County cookbooks.
Reiman Publications books.
Cook's Illustrated books.

I have several Amish cookbooks also. I do tend to go to these when I'm looking for dessert ideas. These I'll hang onto no matter what because I'm just fascinated with their whole way of life.

 

[sattie]

Well, about the only one I use on a regular basis or have every really used is my Steak Lover's cookbook. I use more recipes and tips out of that book than any other book that I have. Plus I consider this site a personal cook book as well!

 

[BigDog]

We have some, but not a ton. Most sit idle in the cupboard above the stove. The only one I refer to from time to time is the first WWE (back when it was WWF) Cookbook. Them boys (and girls) got some killer recipes. We've only tried about 6, mainly because the others call for cookware we don't have (i.e. dutch oven) and I haven't figured out an alternative, and can't afford to get one yet. There are a couple three recipes that we fall back on for regulars. About the only time I take out the book is to confirm recipe steps.