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04 August 2011

What are your two or three Go-To cookbooks? What do you find yourself consulting again and again? →[More:]

For me, it's:
* The Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
* Pedaling Through Burgundy by Sarah Leah Chase
* Thirty-Minute Meals by Cooks Illustrated that I got at the grocery store check-out line that I thought would be ok but is turning out really solid.

post by: occhiblu at: 20:22 | 34 comments

I hope this is a long thread because I need recipe ideas.

posted by ethylene 04 August | 20:32

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 04 August | 20:49

Google

posted by octothorpe 04 August | 20:50

I'm a How to Cook Everything person myself, too.

posted by gaspode 04 August | 20:51

The Way to Cook, Julia Child
West Coast Seafood, Jay Harlow

posted by jamaro 04 August | 21:11

I use cookbooks mostly for ideas; I don't usually cook from recipes except when I'm baking, which is more chemistry than art.

That said, my three heavily-used cookbooks are probably:
- a mid-century Fannie Farmer Cookbook
- Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
- Cooks' Illustrated The Best Recipe (actually, mine might be The New Best Recipe, not sure)

posted by Elsa 04 August | 21:27

Great question. I have a shelf full but I tend to go back to a few.

Joy of Cooking as a basic reference - you know, the one where you start with "I want to make a gratin - how do I do the sauce again?" or "What temp do I roast chicken at again?" kind of jumping-off place.

Chez Panisse Vegetables for great seasonal "OK, I have cauliflower, what do I with it?" or "My CSA sent beet greens, WTF?" type recipes.

And finally, Best of the Best From Texas which is a huge compilation of recipes from dozens of community cookbooks. This is a treasure because it has all the standard Southern dishes plus the novelty junk-food dishes like Coca-Cola Cake. And plenty of Tex-Mex and good enchilada sauce recipes. At Thanksgiving I always turn to it for a refresher on the sweet potato bake with pecan streusel, and it's unparalleled for gooey desserts involving shredded coconut and canned Mandarin oranges and the like. I refer to it often.

posted by Miko 04 August | 21:28

Like ethylene, I hope to harvest some ideas and lots of reading material from this thread. Already, occhiblu has reminded me that I ought to pull out my Marcella Hazan and look it over.

posted by Elsa 04 August | 21:40

Remind me to think about this and tell you tomorrow. I like this question.

posted by box 04 August | 21:54

I very rarely cook from recipes anymore and even more rarely from recipe books. Generally I lurk around on Tastespotting, FoodGawker and Serious Eats and then do recipe research online when I find something interesting.

At gunpoint, I would probably plump for;

- The Woman's Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook (for Aussie basics)
- Larousse Gastronomique (for the fiddly French stuff I like to eat but can't afford)
- the ratty hand-written cookbook containing all the family recipes including Butter Cookies and other Dutch goodies

That said, I'm currently working my way through Izakaya and Washoku and having a great time of it.

posted by ninazer0 04 August | 22:00

I'm not really a cookbook person because I must have pictures of things to determine if they're tasty or not, so I use Foodgawker. Then I just bookmark the ones that look awesome (in folders by type of thing, of course) and then when I want something, I just flip through my bookmarks.

posted by sperose 04 August | 22:06

Ooh, I love Chez Panisse Vegetables. A former roommate had it. That's the one with the broccoli raab and black olive pizza, yes?

posted by occhiblu 04 August | 22:20

Yes. It has a ton of great veggie-centric recipes. I like that it's organized by veggie (instead of course or what have you) because when you have an abundance of some veggie and want to do something different, you just turn to the section, and she has appetizers, soups, main dishes, even desserts that use that veggie.

posted by Miko 04 August | 22:21

The Mark Bittman book praised above is my most used as well. Many of my meal staples come from a book called A Guy's Guide to Great Eating, which at first I thought was going to be a bit condescending, but it's actually a collection of recipes of some "manly staples" but presented with healthier ingredient substitutions. It was the book that helped me gain a bit more confidence in the kitchen.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 04 August | 22:37

I like How to Cook Everything a lot and have given it as a gift - it's great for newbie cooks. But I find I don't use it as much personally. After imbibing culinary literature for a lifetime I kind of get an idea where I'm heading and look to the books for either inspiration or clarification about a technique I don't have fully memorized. But Bittman has a pretty amazing approach. I especially like his "Minimalist" blog entries where he throws out 100 or so great combinations for salads, soups, sandwiches, main dishes, etc.

posted by Miko 04 August | 22:41

How To COok Everything is cooking 101 and I use it whenever I'm trying a new technique, but I find the actual recipes a bit a bland but it's a good, large basic reference book and I find myself going back to it a lot to remind myself of things.

posted by The Whelk 04 August | 22:49

The indian Slow Cooker and Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. I will move on when I've poked every meatless recipe in each.

posted by bearwife 04 August | 23:13

Um, not poked, cooked. Bad ipad2!

posted by bearwife 04 August | 23:14

The yellow pages, the red pages, and the google pages.

posted by apoch 04 August | 23:38

The yellow pages, the red pages, and the google pages.

:-)

posted by occhiblu 05 August | 00:06

The Joy of Cooking for basics, anything by Jeff Smith (YES, I KNOW. I bought the whole series before I knew his history. I feel kind of dirty every time I pull one of the books out of the shelf, but made the pastitsio a couple months ago to great family acclaim.) for various multicultural dishes that hold up, and Google.

Google is my go-to most lately. Especially with videos and pictures and detailed recipes. I love http://www.thaifoodtonight.com for the how-tos.

Allrecipes can be a good start, too.

posted by lilywing13 05 August | 01:11

I tend not to use cookbooks any more, finding most of what I need online. I don't like books getting all messed up, so I wouldn't usually take them into the kitchen - I have limited counter space and so the books would often end up splashed with grease, which used to pain me. It's easier now to print out a recipe and then I don't care if it gets dirty.

I'm a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa (although her TV show is getting very tired now), and intend to try her roasted pears with blue cheese and walnuts this weekend (leaving out the alcohol, of course).

I used to have Prue Leith's Cookery Bible, which was a good reference guide to British cooking, but it was so big and cumbersome that I gave it away.

I like cooking shows on TV, and will usually find the recipes I like online after I've watched it made.

posted by Senyar 05 August | 04:59

What's a red page?

posted by octothorpe 05 August | 06:26

Joy of cooking.

posted by Stewriffic 05 August | 06:44

The book I use the most is a notebook entitled "Recipes Swiped From Cookbooks That Had To Go Back To The Library."

posted by JanetLand 05 August | 06:45

Oh, I use to use a Jeff Smith book before I found out about him. It was a good book, I still use this garlic egg parmesan pasta recipe from it.
I use to use this Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook for pancakes all the time because I made them so rarely.
Someone got me the Commonsense Kitchen but I have not cracked it. I'm surrounded by big name cook books but I never use them. Name someone with a restaurant or a tv show and their book is here somewhere. My mother went through a fit of cookbook buying at some point and they never get used.
I just got the Momofuku book off the shelf, but do I ever make roasted new jersey diver scallop with kohlrabi puree and iwa nori? Never.
I amalgamate recipes off the internet and write them in a note book. I'm hoping to bind and illustrate a book of recipes that I always use at some point. It's a good thing I never got bookbinding supplies because it's going to take a while to illustrate.

posted by ethylene 05 August | 07:48

I like Cooks Country for everyday meals. I tend to use the recipes as a starting point, and jazz them up a little.

This is my pet peeve about recipes: It always says something like: Prep time, 10 minutes. It is never 10 minutes! It would be if someone assembled and measured out and chopped and otherwise prepared all the ingredients. But even for simple recipes, it always takes me a lot longer to get the dish done.

posted by Kangaroo 05 August | 07:49

Like others have said, I've looked at a lot of cookbooks, and I use a lot of online resources. And so the cookbooks I turn to repeatedly are mostly more about ways of thinking than they are lists of recipes and pretty pictures (though I love that kind of cookbook too):

Starting With Ingredients, Aliza Green. Great for after a trip to an ethnic grocery, or after you see what's in the CSA basket this month (worth a mention: The Illustrated Cook's Book of Ingredients).

Ratio, Michael Ruhlman. Demystifies the science part of cooking as well as anything I've ever read (honorable mentions: Mark Bittman, Alton Brown, My Bread).

Veganomicon, Isa Chandra Moskovitz. Fat-masterpiece ethnic cookbooks have some of the same qualities I like in this one--it's a broad exploration of a sometimes-intimidating little aspect of cooking.

posted by box 05 August | 08:09

My two favourite cookbooks are my Meatless Gourmet cookbook, which has awesome bean casserole recipes, and my Good Housekeeping cookbook, copyright 1957. My mother got it and another cookbook at her bridal shower in 1962 and mostly used the other one. It has a chapter called "When He Carves" and offers recipes for casseroles with potato chips crumbled on top and tips on how to control your own, your husband's and your children's weight plus other anachronisms. However, it is a good basic cookbook with a kick ass baking section.

I also just as often turn to a binder I have that is full of favourite recipes I got from the internet, friends and family. I set this binder up years ago and it has tab dividers and each page is enclosed in a plastic sheath. Then I have a small collection of other more specialized cookbooks, such as the Shaker cookbook I bought at a Value Village and the fundraising cookbook my company put together and some "Company's Coming" topical booklets on cooking with apples, appetizers, and cookies, etc. And when I don't have a suitable recipe for something, I turn to the internet. If I like the way the recipe turns out, it goes in the binder.

posted by Orange Swan 05 August | 08:24

Joy of Cooking for the basics - every Thanksgiving I must remember how to roast a turkey and they're my go to for biscuits and pie crust and banana bread.

The Horn of the Moon Cookbook is my all time favorite. I don't really use it all that much anymore - I've internalized the recipes by now - but it's still just a great, great cookbook.

And then, um, hmmm, mostly the internet. I do keep cookbooks in the kitchen; I like it when they get all banged up and stained as it is a mark of honor. Last year we were using something called the Food Lover's Weight Loss Cookbook a lot but it was wildly uneven. I have my priceless copy of the Alice's Restaurant cookbook in the kitchen even though I can't remember the last time I actually used it. And, like Orange Swan, I have a huge binder full of things cut out and copied from other things. It started out organized and now is anything but - it won't even close, it's crammed so full - but I still use it all the time. My pickle recipes that I cut out of the Baltimore Sun in the 80s are all in there and my friend's italian mother in law's Sunday gravy and, oh, everything.

posted by mygothlaundry 05 August | 09:20

anything by Jeff Smith (YES, I KNOW. I bought the whole series before I knew his history.

I have his full series. YES, I KNOW but I also listen to music and look at art by disgusting reprobate people. Cooking being an art as well, I don't think his creepy activities change the quality of the recipes in the books at all, so I still use them. His Guinness Beef Stew in Immigrant Ancestors is amazing - I usually make it for St. Patrick' Day, since I don't like corned beef (and I think this is more actually Irish anyway).

posted by Miko 05 August | 10:50

Oh, those disgusting reprobate artists. They are everywhere.

posted by ethylene 05 August | 11:08

octothorpe, the red pages are like the yellow pages, but instead of being organized by type of business, they're listed in alphabetical order.

posted by apoch 05 August | 20:11

I love The Making of a Cook by Madeline Kamman because it explains the why and how of things. It has my go-to souffle recipe.
I use an old copy of The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook for basics like pancakes and muffins.

Mostly I use two binders full of clippings (one just for sweets - I love baking )

posted by mightshould 05 August | 20:42

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