Best/Favorite Cookbooks

[ninjapoodles]

You can find almost any out-of-print book at Alibris.com . Give them a try!

Belinda

 

[SJ1]

I pared my down to:

Joy of Cooking, 1995 edition
American Woman's Cookbook, reprint of the 1938 edition
King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

I have a few specialty cookbooks, but I mostly use these.

They have thorough explanations.

 

[yotetrapper]

<<I learned to cook in college with Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens and Fanny Farmer>>

These are my go to cookbooks. They have just about everything in them. Great beginners cook books.

 

[amyquilt]

I'm an absolute cookbook nut! I'm very weak when it comes to "checkout cookbooks". You know the ones on the magazine racks at every checkout lane in every store?? It's a good thing they are affordably priced or I'd go broke.

 

[Rosalind]

The Charmed Kitchen by Judi Strauss. It's a little vanity press thing. Really good bread, salad dressing, everyday meal recipes. If you happen to be in the Akron, OH area, and you drive out to Bath Township, a stop at Crooked River Herb Farm is quite nice. Beware of the free-range chickens though--last time I was there, the owner had set out a tray of crackers and jellies to sample, and the chickens agreed that they were quite tasty. That was the last place I saw that cookbook.

Also, McCall's Cooking School series. The fish recipes in it are terrible, just cut that whole section out. But the cakes, appetizers, soups, souffles, desserts, are awesome. I never thought I could pull off a restaurant-quality chocolate souffle, but their method makes it easy as pie. Also their hollandaise sauce recipe is perfect--I am not a fan of mayo, so I substitute their hollandaise most of the time. It's awesome and it keeps in jars in the fridge for, like, months. The meat/poultry recipes are just so-so, certainly edible with no complaints, but not fabulous in that "OMG, did Gordon Ramsey make this himself?" way that the desserts and sauces are.

Anything by Cook's Illustrated, you can't go wrong. If they have a recipe labeled "the ultimate..." just make it, double the recipe, following the recipe to the letter. Their Ultimate Tomato Soup recipe, I tried making a triple-batch once and it STILL only lasted about two days in our house. And it was only DH and myself eating it!

 

[mirime]

<<I learned to cook in college with Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens and Fanny Farmer>>

These are my go to cookbooks. They have just about everything in them. Great beginners cook books.

My go-to is Fanny Farmer.
I'd like to at some point pick up the Betty Crocker some day.

I also really like the original "Laurel's Kitchen" but it's out of print and hard to find Mine is still kicking around, but it's pretty battle weary!

 

[ninjapoodles]

<<I learned to cook in college with Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens and Fanny Farmer>>

These are my go to cookbooks. They have just about everything in them. Great beginners cook books.

My go-to is Fanny Farmer.
I'd like to at some point pick up the Betty Crocker some day.

I also really like the original "Laurel's Kitchen" but it's out of print and hard to find Mine is still kicking around, but it's pretty battle weary!

There are TONS of copies of it at very low prices (seriously--like in the $1.99 to $5.99 range) in "good" condition at alibris.com , for those who are interested. I'd recommend that site for any out-of-print books and cookbooks. The first really amazingly thoughtful gift my husband gave me after we were married was a copy of "Horses of the Sahara," which is extremely rare, and he found it there. In really good shape, too. I will never ask him what he paid.

 

[mirime]

great thanks - I'll have to check the ISBN ? number to make sure I find the correct one!

 

[Tutter]

I remembered one!

This one isn't with a lot of food photos, though it does have some illustrations. But it's a really nice read, even if you don't cook, though I used to make the, Mother Sawyer's Bread several times a week; my family loved it!

It's called, Bentley Farm Cookbook, by Virginia Williams Bentley.

I looked for it on Amazon, and they have it, but my copy, which is original, is a hardback. The one they sell now is softcover, with something on the cover I don't recognize. If you want a nice read, you will enjoy this one!

 

[blurose]

Tutter, you'd better hang on to that cookbook. It'll cost you at least $75 to replace it at Alibris. I too love and collect old cookbooks. I picked up a nice semi-hardback, spiral-bound copy of a Watkins salad book, pub date 1946 at a garage sale last week for a quarter. What a steal! Other than yellowed with age, it is in near-perfect condition, and it has so much more in it that just "salads". It could sell for as much as $16.50 on Alibris.