Favorite cookbooks

[Fire Me Boy!]

I'm a cookbook fiend. I don't think I can ever have enough. and I read them like novels. I read recipes I never intend to cook, recipes I wouldn't even enjoy. I read way more cookbooks than novels.

Anyway, the wife and I are cleaning upstairs before some family come to visit, and the wife wants to get rid of some. Well, we can get rid of some. They can't all be winners.

I don't know if this is my favorite, but it holds some sentimental value. This was my first one, purchased in 1986 or 1987 from a traveling encyclopedia salesman. I was 8 or 9 years old and I convinced my mom to buy it for me. I even remember a couple recipes I cooked from it - one of the spaghetti sauce recipes, which was the first thing I made from it; the grilled Cornish game hens I made for my parents' wedding anniversary when I was 10.

It's like a reunion with an old friend.

[In58men]

Originally Posted by Fried Meat Ball!

Pepperidge Farm... Goldfish crackers... Keep up Inmem.

Oh gotcha lol

[srvy]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Justin Wilson...

Williamsburg Cookbook is excellent

Thanks thats the guy. I always got a kick out that old Cajun.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by scho63

Buying a cookbook today is just like using the yellow pages to look up a phone number-a complete waste of time.

There are probably 50,000,000,000 or more GREAT recipes online for every imaginable food and that includes many of the recipes from all the so called stars of cooking, like Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Emeril Lagasse to name a few.

Yes and no, IMO. There's a bunch of crap on the internet, too. And some of the old school recipes are difficult to find outside of a book you got from your mom.

And yeah, there's a shit ton of crap in books, too. But you generally can find authors you trust and stick with them.

And beside the point - sometimes I like to just sit down and thumb through a cookbook. Using a Kindle is an awful experience for many cookbooks.

[blaise]

I've gotten some good ones from an Andew Weil book, but I don't know which book. I just wrote the recipes down on note-cards. Mostly salads.

[srvy]

Originally Posted by scho63

Buying a cookbook today is just like using the yellow pages to look up a phone number-a complete waste of time.

There are probably 50,000,000,000 or more GREAT recipes online for every imaginable food and that includes many of the recipes from all the so called stars of cooking, like Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Emeril Lagasse to name a few.

Yes but I am a Old dude I like a book for reference.

[srvy]

This is another I like very much.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by scho63

Buying a cookbook today is just like using the yellow pages to look up a phone number-a complete waste of time.

There are probably 50,000,000,000 or more GREAT recipes online for every imaginable food and that includes many of the recipes from all the so called stars of cooking, like Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Emeril Lagasse to name a few.

I find the Yellow Pages to be helpful. I find cookbooks to be helpful.

I like having hardcopies available.

[GloucesterChief]

With a cookbook I can browse and find something I might like to try. Its a lot harder on the internet.

[HonestChieffan]

Cookbooks are like a snapshot in time based on when they were written. Online is fast and handy but reading old cookbooks opens up a whole different perspective on what and how we cook

[lewdog]

I'll have my favorite when FMB decides to publish his own.

[Lonewolf Ed]

My favorite is titled Real Beer and Good Eats. It has many recipes where beer is an ingredient or foods that pair well with beers. Cooking Danish is another of my favorites.

[BigOlChiefsfan]

The ex brought these with her - she's from Louisiana and these were her 'go to' cookbooks. If you like cajun or creole - they're from long before that stuff got popular.
http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louis.../dp/0935032029

http://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Rec...D8BJERF0XXSZZ6

Richard Olney was a cookbook writer, a good one - and this is my favorite of his books. Lulu's Provencal Table. http://www.amazon.com/Lulus-Provenca...rovencal+table

Another by Olney - http://www.amazon.com/Provence-Beaut.../ref=pd_cp_b_1

But this is my favorite old-skool Mediterranean cookbook - Honey from a weed. It will tell you how to make a lot of dishes - but it's not formatted like a cookbook. Whatever, just find a copy somewhere and enjoy. http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Weed-Fea...ey+from+a+weed

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by BigOlChiefsfan

The ex brought these with her - she's from Louisiana and these were her 'go to' cookbooks. If you like cajun or creole - they're from long before that stuff got popular.
http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louis.../dp/0935032029

http://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Rec...D8BJERF0XXSZZ6

Richard Olney was a cookbook writer, a good one - and this is my favorite of his books. Lulu's Provencal Table. http://www.amazon.com/Lulus-Provenca...rovencal+table

Another by Olney - http://www.amazon.com/Provence-Beaut.../ref=pd_cp_b_1

But this is my favorite old-skool Mediterranean cookbook - Honey from a weed. It will tell you how to make a lot of dishes - but it's not formatted like a cookbook. Whatever, just find a copy somewhere and enjoy. http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Weed-Fea...ey+from+a+weed

There are a couple of those River Road books, and they're outstanding. Bought two of them a while back when I was in Baton Rouge for work.

[cdcox]

I really like the Joy of Cooking because it is far more than a collection of recipes. It teaches you how to cook. Julia Child's cookbook, another favorite of mine, is much the same way.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I really like the Joy of Cooking because it is far more than a collection of recipes. It teaches you how to cook. Julia Child's cookbook, another favorite of mine, is much the same way.

Good call cdcox. Joy of Cooking is excellent from a knowledge perspective.

This was the first cookbook I ever purchased:



FMB, if you don't have it, I'd recommend (at least for you) Harold McGee's seminal work "On Food & Cooking:"



It's not a recipe book, but rather an encyclopedic look at the science and history behind the main aspects of cooking. I consider it a near-masterpiece level work of literature (especially the revised, 20th anniversary edition) and perhaps the reference point for food and the culinary craft.