SEEING-TO-BELIEVE
Sous Chef
What cookbooks that aren't newly published do you like the most?
- Thread starter SEEING-TO-BELIEVE
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Since moving, I now have two main bookcases/shelves. One with frequently used more than the other. There are no single books, it depends on the season, the dish. Plus I have a multitude of 3 ring binders, then there's my computer with copies of most of my recipes AND more recently CMT.
They're all my favourites.
They're all my favourites.
Aunt Bea
Master Chef
I never met a cookbook I didn’t like!
The old hometown fundraising cookbooks with recipes from neighbors, family and friends, are my favorites.
I do like The More With Less Cookbook and Laurel’s Kitchen.
Anything by Marion Cunningham, Edna Lewis or Beatrice Vaughan.
A Birdwatcher’s Cookbook by Erma J Fisk is one of the most poorly written cookbooks I own but it is one of my favorites.
I’ve been putting together my own collection of favorite recipes and gradually letting go of my cookbooks. ?
The old hometown fundraising cookbooks with recipes from neighbors, family and friends, are my favorites.
I do like The More With Less Cookbook and Laurel’s Kitchen.
Anything by Marion Cunningham, Edna Lewis or Beatrice Vaughan.
A Birdwatcher’s Cookbook by Erma J Fisk is one of the most poorly written cookbooks I own but it is one of my favorites.
I’ve been putting together my own collection of favorite recipes and gradually letting go of my cookbooks. ?
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Oh Golly Aunt Bea... I should be doing the same - it is time to whittle them down but I just can't seem to do it.
Marlingardener
Senior Cook
Every one of my 40+ cookbooks are old friends. I agree with Aunt Bea that the local fund raising cookbooks are great! The recipes were compiled by people who cooked every day, and did it well. I love Authentic Italian Recipes by the ladies of the Columbus Society of San Antonio, Fanfare (an assortment of recipes from the members of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra), and The Dinner Bell Rings Again, from Pennsylvania Dutch country. The latter has some very filling recipes!
Used book stores are a treasure trove for interesting cookbooks.
Used book stores are a treasure trove for interesting cookbooks.
Aunt Bea
Master Chef
Another vote for the used bookstores, thrift shops, and garage sales!
I enjoy picking up all sorts of things for pennies on the dollar.
Quite often it becomes a sort of catch-and-release where I will enjoy or experiment with something and then donate it back if it doesn't feel like a transformative keeper.
It's basically cheap entertainment.
pepperhead212
Executive Chef
I started collecting my cookbooks back in the late 70s, when they would have those huge book sales at school (they had 4 or 5 semi trucks show up, and set up an entire corridor with tables of used books!) and paperback books were 10-25¢ for those little pocketbooks, and maybe a dollar for a large one. Hardbacks were 1 or 2 dollars (remember, the new prices of many of those large books were 10-12 dollars then!). That was also when I got hooked on cooking, and I learned to look closely to make sure I wasn't getting those books that were calling for using things like a can of tomato soup (though I always liked tomato soups), or many other canned things, as I was trying to cook from scratch, to save money, and I quickly learned it tasted better!
One of the early books I got back then (I think for $1.25) was The Complete Book Of Breads, by Bernard Clayton Jr., which I think had a copyright date of 1973, but this looked unused. That's when I got hooked on baking, and I still make a bunch of those recipes, esp. the rye breads - all those things I could get at the co-op helped out, too.
There used to be a book store in the area - Atlantic Book Sore - that had incredible prices on new books, plus a used section. I never left that place without buying something!
I pretty much stopped buying, but I really have to build another bookcase.
One of the early books I got back then (I think for $1.25) was The Complete Book Of Breads, by Bernard Clayton Jr., which I think had a copyright date of 1973, but this looked unused. That's when I got hooked on baking, and I still make a bunch of those recipes, esp. the rye breads - all those things I could get at the co-op helped out, too.
There used to be a book store in the area - Atlantic Book Sore - that had incredible prices on new books, plus a used section. I never left that place without buying something!
I pretty much stopped buying, but I really have to build another bookcase.
Kathleen
Cupcake
There are times that I will read a cookbook like a novel. I go through mini-obsessions with different types of food as well. I love my cookbooks.
thymeless
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 396
Various frugal gourmet editions
I'm very fond of Joy of Cooking, I have a couple of editions and my big Danish cookbook, Mesterkokkens Store Kogebog.
pepperhead212
Executive Chef
I just used a couple recipes from his Italian CB, for New Year's dinner! There was only one of his I didn't like much - I think it was the last one.
cookieee
Sous Chef
I am a big fan of Steven Raichlen's cookbooks,(I have about 20) and Weber's cookbooks (about 15). There are a few other favorites that I keep, but most of the other odds and ends I have been going through them, copy what recipes I like, then set the book aside to be sold someday. I still have a few hundred to go through. Aggggg!!! lol
thymeless
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 396
I think that was Keeps the Feast. i didn't like that one much either.
Wow, this spoke to me! When I was forced to leave my rented flat after 13 years by my bankrupt landlord, I had to make some hard decisions about my collection of 125 cookbooks. (Mostly courtesy of 21 years working at a publisher I should mention). It was a painful few days going through them to decide which ones to keep. About 30 survived the cull, but one that was never in question was the first cookbook I ever bought, aged 14 - Cooking for the Family by Marguerite Patten - she got me through my Home Economics exam at age 16 and I have made many recipes over the years. Very dated - but some great British classics in there.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
One of my favorites The Best International Recipe from Cooks Illustrated. Chapters are organized by geographic region and contain their versions of the best-known dishes from countries around the world. I've made many of recipes from this book.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
Spag Bol, the British national dish, eh? Or is it second to chicken tikka?
I didn't say that Spag Bol was a British dish. It was not included in the recipes in my first post about a recipe book by Marguerite Patten.
In my second post, about an entirely different cook book, about "Recipes of the World" I entered an opinion that the recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese was an excellent one.
In my second post, about an entirely different cook book, about "Recipes of the World" I entered an opinion that the recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese was an excellent one.
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Marlingardener
Senior Cook
I forgot to mention La Cocina Italiana that I found at a used book store. I love that cookbook, just as I loved the magazine that the recipes were culled from. I think my favorites tend to be Italian!
Italian food has traversed large parts of the world. <3
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