Favorite Cookbooks

[Robo410]

great thread/topic

I really like the new Joy of Cooking. It is a great place to start. I also like Essentials of Cooking by James Petersen, technique as well as great recipes.

I have a growing collection including several Julia Child, the Way to Cook is a good one, Saveur collection, Dutch Oven cooking, and many regional and international books. The history culture recipes techniques etc...very interesting.

I will be getting the Gourmet book as soon as it goes on special.

 

[jkath]

I like old cookbooks (1950's and earlier) that I find at estate sales and used book stores. They are so wonderful! I also like most things Reiman puts out (the Taste of Home series, etc) I love to browse through all of James McNair's books, as they are not only delicious, the photos are amazing.

 

[Ishbel]

Any recipe from one of Nick Nairn's books, ditto Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Elizabeth David, Sophie Grigson, Sue Lawrence and Claire MacDonald.

One of my most favourite books is The Scots Kitchen by F.Marian MacNeill - I have a first edition (present from my granny, who bought it when it was new in 1929!) and a newer edition as I was scared the old one would fall to bits. It's a really interesting work, part history, part cookbook. I think it's amazing that it is still available today.

 

[Constance]

I love recipe books, new and old, and have quite a collection.
I have three editions of Joy of Cooking, one from the early 40's that belonged to my great-grandmother, one from the mid-60's from which I learned to cook, and one from the 90's.
I have my Grandma White's Amish Brethren Cookbook, with handwritten notes. One page is marked with a card my daddy made her for Mother's Day when he was in the 4th grade.
My aunt worked in the Betty Crocker test kitchens when she got out of college, helping to put together their first cookbook, and I have her copy. I have lots of other old family cookbooks as well.
Another recipe book that helped me learn to cook was the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School book. Recently I bought the new version by Marion Cunningham on ebay, and was so delighted with it that I ordered a paper back version for my daughter. I've also gotten several Julia Child cookbooks from there, an old Lady's Home Journal Cookbook, and have a Paul Prudhomme one on the way.
A friend who is moving gave me his New York Times Cookbook, which has some great classic recipes, and his Leone's Italian Cookbook, a real treasure.
We have a couple of the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks, and they are excellent. The Southern Living cookbooks also have a lot of good recipes.
Except for baking or making certain sauces, I seldom follow a recipe exactly, but by reading them I get lots of ideas for my own cooking.

I have also made my own recipe book. I printed the recipes on both sides of card stock, enclosed them in poly covers, and put them in a loose leaf notebook so I can add to it whenever I wish. This was my Christmas present for my children a few years ago, and I send them new packets of pages every year now.

Here's an example of one of the pages...

 

[pdswife]

The one I use the most is

BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN
NEW COOKBOOK
10TH EDITION.

I love my Jamie Oliver and my James Mcnair's though. They are fun to
read.

I also have 5 or 6 of the "cookshelf" books. They are pretty good.
And My NEW BASICS COOKBOOK and GREAT GOOD FOOD are also nice.

Oh heck I love all cook books.

 

[kadesma]

I love recipe books, new and old, and have quite a collection.
I have three editions of Joy of Cooking, one from the early 40's that belonged to my great-grandmother, one from the mid-60's from which I learned to cook, and one from the 90's.
I have my Grandma White's Amish Brethren Cookbook, with handwritten notes. One page is marked with a card my daddy made her for Mother's Day when he was in the 4th grade.
My aunt worked in the Betty Crocker test kitchens when she got out of college, helping to put together their first cookbook, and I have her copy. I have lots of other old family cookbooks as well.
Another recipe book that helped me learn to cook was the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School book. Recently I bought the new version by Marion Cunningham on ebay, and was so delighted with it that I ordered a paper back version for my daughter. I've also gotten several Julia Child cookbooks from there, an old Lady's Home Journal Cookbook, and have a Paul Prudhomme one on the way.
A friend who is moving gave me his New York Times Cookbook, which has some great classic recipes, and his Leone's Italian Cookbook, a real treasure.
We have a couple of the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks, and they are excellent. The Southern Living cookbooks also have a lot of good recipes.
Except for baking or making certain sauces, I seldom follow a recipe exactly, but by reading them I get lots of ideas for my own cooking.

I have also made my own recipe book. I printed the recipes on both sides of card stock, enclosed them in poly covers, and put them in a loose leaf notebook so I can add to it whenever I wish. This was my Christmas present for my children a few years ago, and I send them new packets of pages every year now.

Here's an example of one of the pages...

Constance you mentioned Leone's cookbook, do you have Leone's Italian Cookbook? I do, I've learned so much from this book..Much to my m-i-l's dismay I must add.. She was Genovese so the recipes with salt pork, were a big no no to her.. But I found the book to be a wealth of information to a new cook way back then...
kadesma
Thanks for reminding me...

 

[ironchef]

I learned a ton about foods in these two books, from preperation to flavor combinations.

 

[Constance]

Kadesma, I do have that book, and I love it.
We have a lot of people in our area of Italian descent who came here in the 40's to work in the coal mines. When I decided to find a "real authentic" spaghetti sauce recipe, I found that no two women I asked had the same way of making it.

Ironchef, I'll watch for the French Laundry Cookbook on ebay.

 

[kadesma]

Ironchef,

I've seen Charlie Trotter on tv and I've heard of his cookbook as well as French Laundry..Now I've just got to got pick up both of them.. Of course for me cookbooks are better than novels
kadesma​

 

[kadesma]

Kadesma, I do have that book, and I love it.
We have a lot of people in our area of Italian descent who came here in the 40's to work in the coal mines. When I decided to find a "real authentic" spaghetti sauce recipe, I found that no two women I asked had the same way of making it.

Ironchef, I'll watch for the French Laundry Cookbook on ebay.

That is so tru Constance, but, I feel that is what makes Italian or any ethnic food so interesting. This is part of the reason I don't order a red Italian sauce when we eat out, they just don't seem to get that rich brown color that we get from ours..
kadesma

 

[Paint]

Le Cordon Bleu cookbook,
'The Gournet Slow Cooker' by Lynn Alley,
'Get Saucy' by Grace Parisi
'Jamie's Dinners' and 'Naked Chef' by Jamie Oliver,
'Cooking in the Nude - Quickies' by Debbie & Steve Cornwell (Full of recipes to seduce your partner, with great names like 'Ceasar and Please Her'...OK, so I bought it for my husband to try and get him to share some of the cooking, but even the promise of seduction didn't work...)
'Traditional Northamptonshire Recipes' (so I don't forget my roots, and I don't have to keep calling my Mum....)
.....plus about 40 others...

Mostly though, I like to get my recipe's from online sources, one of my favourite websites being www.deliaonline.com - England's equivalent to Julia Childs.

Paint.

 

[luvs]

my favorite is 'home cooking' cause i submitted my stuffed tuna steak recipe to a contest and it got printed.
no, wait, i like another one even better. my Grandma's (rest her soul) old, old cookbook. it's literally crumbling to pieces, but i flip through the pages very carefully and read it when i'm at my other house. i love another one she had, too. there are several cookbooks there i like to read.

 

[callie]

I love cookbooks...some of my favorites are "local" cookbooks. When I'm away from home, I always look for local church cookbooks, Junior League cookbooks, school cookbooks, etc. Usually lots of local flavor in those.

 

[Claire]

I, too, collect cookbooks and love buying old ones I pick up here & there. The cookbooks I most often use are Joy (I have two editions) and The Romagnoli's Table (Italian). For sheer laughter, The Bull Cook and Authentic Historical REcipes and Practices can't be beat. But I have several shelves full of cookbooks, not to mention a couple decades of Gourmet magazines. Cooking a new meal, Hubby and I will pull down at least three books/mags, consult them, then most of the time make up our own recipes, using them for guidelines (say, we'll like one ingredient from one recipe, another from another). Then we'll leave the books/magazines on a table, and while most people don't pick them up, some do, and conversation ensues. Friends sometimes borrow, and I've had great luck, all have always been returned, sometimes with apologies for splatters. I just laugh this off. It's a COOK book, not a museum piece, splatters are great. My favorite books fall open to my favorite recipes, and honestly, some of the books are just for reading and enjoying the pictures or concepts or background/cultural information.

 

[Claire]

Oh, when I travel, rather than buying knick-knacks and collectables that will just gather dust, a cookbook is just the ticket. TO this end I have a cookbook in French (Quebecoise) that I pull out to challenge my little gray cells. Having been on the road for years, travelling through Louisiana a lot, I must have a half dozen Cajun cookbooks .... and seldom use them!

 

[Ishbel]

I have a collection of 'local' cookery books, generally written by the expat UK community or their partners who are native to the area. I have one I bought on Tuscan food, written in some cases in almost 'pidgin' English - 'put the beef steak to the fire'.... (sounds like the Spanish inquisition )

Stray, wild and feral cats are a perennial problem on the greek islands. The Greeks love their cats, but don't want to pay to have them neutered and then don't or won't feed the kittens... The British, being animal lovers, often set up cat and dog rescue charities (the locals think the expats are 'barking' mad!). The booklet produced for the charity on Crete has some charming 'gaffes'.

When I read these books, it brightens my day - but some of the cookery instructions are quite obscure, so the cooked results are often a complete surprise

 

[buckytom]

hmm, cat souvlaki? cat-teki?

most of the new recipes i use come from the internet or local newspapers' food sections, but if i use cookbooks, my home base is fannie farmer's, reprint circa 1972. other one's i use are dom delouise's "eat this: it'll make you feel better", I & II; rachel ray's "30 minute meals" I & II; a few from emeril lagasse; "the sopranos cookbook"; and a cookbook from the wives auxilliary of the saddle brook, nj fire dept and emt's.

 

[licia]

I enjoy the Southern Living cookbooks and the church and community cookbooks I've picked up here and there. and, of course all the recipes I collect on line. However, I DON'T ever loan any of my cookbooks. I will scan a copy of a recipe for someone, but loan my cookbook - NEVER!!!! I suppose I've overdone it with cookbooks though - I have an entire bookcase full and overflowing, but I never seem to get enough books or bookcases.

 

[nytxn]

I have one from Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola called "Ciao Y'all".

It's full of yummy stuff.


(It's a signed copy too)

 

[Sandyj]

Got to love 'em!

The New Best Recipe from the editors of Cook's IllustratedI picked this up at Costco, and I've tried a couple of things, and so far, so good. I love reading about their trials - they tell you why something went wrong - why it was dry or overcooked or undercooked or the texture wasn't right. I loved reading the whole schpiel about finding the perfect macaroni & cheese recipe!

I also collect cook-books, just for the fun of reading them, and enjoy the local ones, too (church, school etc.),.

Sandyj