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My son (31, some but not extensive experience cooking) asked for cookbooks this year, identifying types of food but not specific books. Top of his list was Southwestern cooking. What books do you recommend? What books do you recommend avoiding? Why?

working on my christmas list, and it's time to add a few cookbooks. anyone have any good suggestions for some tex-mex and mexican cookbooks?

I recently saw this book in the bookstore. It is somewhat in the vein of "French women don't get Fat". However, as someone who only thinks of Japanese food as sushi, the meals and guidelines for eating sounded intriguing. The book describes is written by what I would call "an upper-class" woman from Japan who lives in NY. I was intrigued because her American-born husband started eating her diet and lost weight. My doctor recently told me the lose some weight; this doctor didn't give me the chance to explain that I can exercise all I want, I only lose weight when I don't eat. However, I'm going to start exercising at the company gym which is just $20/ month. The author writes there are 7 pillars for Japanese cooking. Among them is lots of fish, lots of rice (it fills one up so there isn't any room for junk food), portion control, little or no dessert, lots of fruits and vegetables (especially Japanese fruits and vegetables) , making food look presentable and chewing to enjoy every mouthful, and lots of green tea. She presented a typical country breakfast of nori, tofu, "first" daishi soup, 1 hard boiled egg, rice, a piece of fruit, green tea plus a few other things that I forgot. My local grocery store has a lot of international food but I couldn't find dashi flakes. I would like to try this breakfast so that I'm eating more during the day and trying to break my very, very bad habit of eating a full meal after midnight (left over when I worked an evening shift at a newswire service). Could anyone comment on these type of diet and would a large Asian grocery story (which I have access to) have dashi flakes? Plus is the reason the Japanese people can eat an egg a day because there is no little meat in their diet? I appreciate any comments, negative or positive, because I've been interested in the idea of food cultures that contribute to longevity of age (see recent National Geographic article on "the secrets of aging").

I live abroad and I am not familiar with the magazines published in the US. I would like to subscribe to a magazine dedicated to cake decorating (this is what I do, in a small scale). Because of the high cost of delivery, I can afford a subscription to just one magazine. I like to read about techniques, original and unconventional ideas for cakes. Which one would you recommend? Thank you very much for your help!!

[Moderator's note: Welcome to the first "Charcuterie" topic, devoted to Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's book of the same name. This massive topic ran from Dec 2005 until July 2008, at which point the topic was closed and carefully indexed by host Chris Hennes. Click here for that index, in which you'll find all of the information our members have contributed over the years. We've also started this topic for new discussions of the recipes in Polcyn's and Ruhlman's book. -- Chris Amirault] Thread in FM&N discussing the release of Charcuterie eGullet friendly link to buy the book Alright, everyone should be familiar with these types of threads by now. So here’s what I’ve tried from this fun book so far. Cured salmon. I used half a recipe and did not have any fresh fennel on hand so I did not use it, but I did use the roasted fennel seeds. Here are some pics finished curing Served on a homemade salt and sesame bagel. It really was exceptional with a perfect texture and amazing taste. It was not at all too salty or too sweet and the fennel was a perfect addition to the salmon. I’ve always heard cured salmon is easy to make but this was really easy and I will be making it again. The bagel was smeared with cream cheese and also topped with shallots and capers. Currently I also have a 3 pound beef eye of round curing (1st cure) to make Bresaola. I forgot to take a picture of this one but I will when I add the rest of the cure a couple of days from now and will report on the final product. For Xmas, I am planning on making a couple of different sausages and probably the duck roulade. So, come on. Share your Charcuterie.

An early Christmas gift arrived today and I opened it, being not of the sort who waits. In the box were several wonderful volumes. The Cambridge World History of Food; and The Oxford Companion to Food. From my bookshelves I've pulled out Waverly Root's "Food" and Larousse Gastronomique. I've dabbled in all of these books - Larousse and Root are falling apart at the seams. Larousse I actually read in its entirety many years ago. ............................................................ Tell me, what do you think each of these volumes has to offer in their own individual way? Do they each have a "personality"? Is each of them worth reading entry-by-entry or not? Any exceptional things you have found or do you have any curious personal notes on any of these books? Would love to hear your comments before deciding if I have to read them all entry-by-entry. For that is fun in ways, but tiring, too. (Must I put this on my "to-do" list? ) All advice welcomed. Karen

I've recently been volunteered to cook a going away party for my girlfriend's cousin. He's moving to indonesia for an extended post-college adventure. The email (written by my GF's mother) stated, "Sander will be cooking wonderful indonesian food." This is surprising for two reasons: 1. I'm cooking? 2. I make indonesian? The first issue is not all that terrible -- I enjoy cooking, and my guests don't mind eating, and GF mom will foot the bill for ingredients, etc... The second issue will require more research and a bit of help. I'm sure I could figure it out, but I need help with a place to start -- cookbook suggestions? Recipies? The party will probably be somewhere in the ballpark of 10-15 people, so think in the ballpark of big stews, etc... thanx. s

Our cookbooks are having a Mr. Creosote moment -- just one more, and the bookcase might explode, or at least collapse. I had a thought that perhaps we should do something similar to what's recommended for clothing: if we haven't opened a book for two (three, five, whatever) years, get rid of it. Then, of course, I start thinking that SOMEDAY I might need it. Have you ever pruned your collection? How did you decide which ones to part with? Were there any regrets later on? Did you give them away, sell them (and if so, how), or donate them to a library or charitable cause?

Due to a miscalculation of my own cooking ability I was left with a kilo of masa harina and some fresh yeast after the weekends Mexican cooking. So I combined the two. I made a fairly straight forward hearth cake mix then cooked in very slowly on on side until the bottom was brown and very crisp, while the top was soft, but cooked though. This was then filled with some bean chile that I made. Thus: OK, it was very good and with a bit of refinement it could be even better, but my question is, is this type of yeast cooking done in the Mexican kitchen (if so recipes or descriptions) or have I invented the fluffy taco?

Two new volumes packed together coming from elBulli have appeared: elBulli 2003 and elBulli 2004. It seems that Adrià and his team are going to continue the exposition of their work and releasing periodically the books which describe it. Right now, just the Spanish version is available, but I assume there must be plans to translate it to English and French. More info at elBulli's site.

As many of you are aware, Paula Wolfert's new edition of The Cooking of Southwest France, Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine has been recently released. For those in the France Forum who are not aware of Paula's influence in the English speaking world, Paula's original edition in 1983 of The Cooking of Southwest France was a first in many ways: Her work was the first to introduce to average American home cooks on a grand scale the concept of French regional cuisine. Not only was it an introduction, but a warm and friendly beckon for us to join her as she worked her way through the Southwest of France and its treasures that took American home cooking by storm; easing us into an anecdotal but at the same time thorough and rigorous approach to a careful selection of recipes from the Gascogne Languedoc and Guyenne. Many of us have cooked through Paula's original book and of course many are delighted that she has taken the time to return to the region in her new edition. She has revisited, refined, and expanded on the original tome, continuing the stories she began in her original edition, with the addition of 60 new recipes, and an expansion of her regional coverage to include the Auvergne. Susan Fahning (aka snowangel), Elie Nassar (aka foodman) and I would like to start this thread in which everyone is invited to join us in cooking our way through Paula Wolfert's new release. This thread is the place to include your notes, and share with us photos of recipes you have prepared from it. This thread will begin in the France forum and eventually be moved to the Cooking Forum. A group of eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters members were asked to test certain recipes for this new edition, and we hope those who tested recipes will share their cooking notes for any recipe that appears in the final edition. This is a "cooking with" thread, so please concentrate on the recipes in the final edition and save general discussion of the testing process itself for the upcoming eG Spotlight Conversation with Paula Wolfert, which will take place from 14 to 18 November, 2005.

3 more for me. Debbie Moose's Deviled Eggs Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Mark Bittmans How to Cook Everything Holidays [Moderator note: The original Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 3)]

Inspired by the current recipe preferences thread, I got to thinking about recipe style guides. All of the newspapers I know of have style guides, and I can't imagine that they don't exist for recipes as well. If you have experience with these, can you share some insights about them? What guidelines are you given? Do they differ from magazine to magazine, publisher to publisher? Do they crimp your style, or keep you on the straight and narrow?

I'm seeing somebody who is big into Brazilian jazz and folk music, so I thought maybe it was time to add Brazilian food to my cooking repertoire. I'm interested in something informative about the cuisine in general. Is there a Brazilian equivalent to Madhur Jaffrey?

I found this website for a cookbook publisher/development house called Tasty Central.com http://www.tastycentral.com/projects.html They listed this book, coauthoured by Roy Finamore. Being extremely interested I tried to contact roy but to no avail. Any help/info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

With the recent release of The Seasoning of a Chef by Chef Doug Psaltis I was wondering what thoughts and opinions readers may have? An accurate account of a young chefs rise to the top in the restaurant industry? Or a slap in the face " No pun intended" to prior employers? Link below to Newsday article. http://www.newsday.com/features/food/ny-fd...y-homepage-mezz

My father just had a stent put in to remove a blocked artery. Needless to say, the family's now trying to eat "heart healthy", which is both low salt and low fat. I'm a beginner baker, but I do bake from scratch occasionally, which is more then my mother does...if it comes in a package, she'll buy it. Anyway, I'd like to make the occasional sweet treat for them, but I really don't have enough skill to beging to adapt recipes myself. Hence, I turn to egullet. Does anyone have a recommendation for a low fat pastry cookbook? Thanks!

my friend and her 9 year old are going to be visiting for the weekend and we'd like to put together a menu that will be fun for her to get involved with. Her mom doesn't cook at all and last time she was here we made mac and cheese, fried dill pickles and ribs....she had a ball. What are some fun things to make with kids? We are taking her out to an Italian restaurant for her bday the night before so I'd like to stay away from noodles....... thanks!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly...1585306,00.html This looks to be comming out in good old England in a week or two and I'm very interested in grabbing a copy, but does anyone here already have it, and is it worth adding to the collection? It's pretty huge at over 1,200 pages. Read more at the above link.

I looked at some of the recipes in wybauw's book, and while I have some good pastry and chocolate experience, as an "amateur" I don't have access to all the ingredients he mentions in some of his recipes. The coconut chocolate lists ingredients like sorbitol, mycryo butter and inverted sugar. [i am still in the process of reading the book on a detail level, but had a craving for a "Mounds" bar so I figured, I'd try making one myself] I think for inverted sugar I can use corn syrup. But what are your comments about the other items he lists in his ingredients. How about list in the front of the book. Jeff

Here is a link to the definitive (?) sous vide tech & cookbook, authored by Michelin starred chef Joan Roca.. http://www.chipsbooks.com/sousroca.htm JBPrince doesn't appear to be carrying it yet, KA&L probably are. 169.95 ain't cheap but I'm sure this is worth every penny. Enjoy.

I have to admit that when I first read the teaser description of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home on Amazon last fall, I was worried. Had Mario gone the way of Rachel Ray and FoodTV in general and surrendered to the “quick and easy” path that seems to plague the cookbook shelves at bookstores these days? As it turns out, there was nothing to be worried about. This is still the same old Mario, who can give a 5 second breakdown of Pugliese cuisine, make an obscure reference to a Rolling Stones song, and grill an octopus tentacle without pausing for a breath in between. So, while the subtitle includes the word “simple”, this is not the stuff of other FTV shows like Everyday Italian or 30 Minute Meals. You’ll find sweet and sour calves’ tongue, tripe, the aforementioned grilled octopus, and an anchovy and almond soup in these pages. In fact I’d say that “simple” is in fact a misnomer or at the least a relative term here: recipes do call for making the pasta yourself, or making your own mustard fruits, Cremona-style. The book is staggering in its scope and depth, and nearly every recipe has a beautiful, artfully composed full-color photograph by Beatriz da Costa to accompany it. It’s laid out in the usual Italian fashion, flowing from antipasti, to soups, to pasta, then onto seafood, meat, vegetables, and desserts. As always, his pasta recipes, both for dried and fresh pasta, seem to be the standout, and truly are “simple”, if you can get past making some of the pastas yourself. Peppered throughout are essays by Mario or other guest writers on Italian wine, the glories of cooking cephalopods, why ducks aren’t as popular in the U.S, and other varied topics, and Mario shares some of his dry, esoteric worldview in almost every pre-recipe writeup: when you break down a chicken, keep the thighs and legs and feed the breasts to the dog. That said, anyone familiar with his previous books will be a little dismayed at the number of recycled recipes here. Too, some recipes are only subtly different from one another, with only a minor variation in technique or ingredient to stand apart. The book starts with two fried cauliflower fritters, and there’s three antipasti recipes for clams on the half-shell. I’d rather have seen them rolled up into one master recipe, with variations listed afterwards, rather than blow a whole extra page and photo on them. Mario begins in the introduction by surveying his previous works as an overview of where he was at at each point in his career when he wrote them, and then continuing right up to this book, a summation of his total experiences with three cooking and two travel shows, and an ever-growing army of successful New York restaurants. It’s a look at the state of Italian food and cooking today, and he does indeed swing from Italian-American staples, to arch-regional specialties never dreamed of on these shores, to trademark, only-in-a Batali-owned-restaurant dishes. Mario’s strength has always been to walk the line between professional, restaurant-level cuisine and simple home-style cooking, and this is no exception. It’s hard not to argue that it doesn’t deserve a place on the cookbook shelf. Certainly anyone looking to get their first Mario cookbook should now begin (and almost end) here, but those with more familiarity of his previous works may have some misgivings. I gave a few of the recipes from this book a spin and made a weeknight meal for some friends. Here’s the menu: Antipasto: Prosciutto and Grilled Figs (page 100) Pasta: Spaghetti with Green Olive Sauce (Page 168) Main: Grilled Jumbo Shrimp with White Beans, Rosemary, and Mint Oil (Page 268) Vegetable: Asparagus with Citrus, Parsley, and Garlic (Page 418) Dessert: Peaches with Primitivo Syrup (Page 486) Total cook time from walking in the door to serving the antipasto: Almost exactly 90 minutes. No significant challenges or special techniques in making these items, the title gives almost an exact description of the ingredients. About the thing requiring an unusual technique was making the red wine syrup for the peaches, but seeing as how this was one of my first successful desserts back when I was learning how to cook, it can’t be that outlandish.

Hi , I'm always somewhat hesitant to prepare schezuan dishes since the recipes I seem to find rarely lead me to results that replicate what I get at a good restaurant. However, both me and my husband are very fond of schezuan cooking and would love to prepare our favorite food at home. Does anyone know of a good book that might be able to help me get started? thanks in advance, w@w

by Andy Lynes <img align="right" src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1122484662/gallery_29805_1195_21231.jpg">You can often find Journalists rummaging through the dim parlour of human misery, searching for an everyday tragedy to hang a few thousand words on. As a food writer, I'm spared that indignity. I am free to concentrate on the celebration of my chosen subject, which doesn't mean I'm above ransacking my own sordid past for the sake of an idea or two. Why not dredge my childhood experiences as a Jehovah's Witness in order to examine the subject of religious dietary restrictions? The Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) organization dates back to the late 19th century, when Charles Taze Russell set up a breakaway sect of the Christian Congregationalist church in Pennsylvania. It's an extremist religion, with "distinctive" beliefs and teachings. Although mostly harmless (there are no JW suicide bombers for example), the religion has many of the characteristics of a cult, and has been accused of brainwashing its followers. I managed to avoid becoming a Christian automaton, but that didn't stop me from being the one thing every school child dreads: different. As the sole Witness in my school, I alone remained in my seat as everyone else filed out for the morning religious assembly which, conducted along Church of England lines, was akin to satanic ritual in the eyes of JWs. My classmates were endlessly curious as to why I didn't celebrate Christmas, Easter or my birthday, but I found it was best to avoid getting into details about my beliefs. It was difficult to remain popular, or indeed healthy, and explain that I was going to live forever in an earthly paradise while the best they could hope for was a prolonged skinny dip in the lake of fire in Hades. Looking back, eternal life in return for a enduring a few hours a week of sermonizing and hymn singing in the prefabricated gloom of the local Kingdom Hall seems like a pretty good deal. But in 1975, the year JW's had scheduled for God's Kingdom to come, I was only ten years old -- and not quite ready for such a major change in circumstance. Besides the sheer inconvenience that Armageddon was bound to cause, there was the small matter of being one David Carradine short of a complete set of "Kung Fu" bubblegum cards, and a new Led Zeppelin album to look forward to. My mother's preparations for the impending apocalypse weren't much more advanced than my own. They consisted entirely of filling a cupboard in the living room with tinned York Ham and baked beans. The plan appeared to be that, while God was busy removing wickedness and suffering from the face of the planet, and humanity perished all around us, we would have and a nice supper of cold meat and Heinz’s finest to see us through. Jehovah's Witnesses have many bizarre beliefs, but their most controversial teaching is that "taking blood into body through mouth or veins violates God's laws." For me, that simply meant that the meat I ate as a child had to be well done. No blood could ooze onto my plate for fear of incurring the wrath of the almighty and scotching my chances of entering the new Eden. It also meant that it was not until my 20's that I first tasted black pudding. Hardly an enormous sacrifice, especially when compared to a less fortunate member of my local congregation. Her family's refusal to allow her a transfusion during the emergency surgery that followed a car accident had rather more dreadful consequences than a boudin noir-free diet, the most serious of which was death. It was perhaps this incident above all that turned me off not only Jehovah's Witnesses, but the idea of organized religion itself. As I approached my mid-teens, the rules that governed my existence as a JW became intolerable. As much as I tried, I could make no sense of the restrictions placed upon me, and I simply rejected them all. I went from faithful to faithless overnight. Don't steal, kill or shag your next door neighbour's wife I can live with (you should see my next door neighbours wife), in fact I'm broadly in agreement with Christian values as a moral code by which to live one’s life. But the restrictions on diet imposed by the world's religions are unfathomable to me. Is it really logical to imagine that an all-powerful being that regularly ignores genocide, famine and plague could care a stuff about what we put in our mouths? If history tells us anything, it's that if there is a deity up there, non-interventionism is its by-word. If we accept that God created the world, and that he put all creatures on the earth for a purpose, it doesn't take a genius to work out what the majority of the animal kingdom is for. Giraffes I grant you are a bit of a puzzle, but a pig is an altogether more straightforward matter. Can you ride it, plough a field with it, put it your lap and stroke it? No, you can't. Can you ram a spit up its arse, out through its mouth and roast it over an open fire? Why, it appears to be just the right size! Then there's cattle. Hmm, seems to be rather a lot of them doesn't there? We've put some of the stupid ugly brutes to work, but what can we possibly do with all the rest? Seems such a waste to have them just standing around. Well, we could try tanning their hides, I suppose, but then what would we do with all that left over flesh? I think I'll have a plate of chips and bearnaise sauce and think about it. So what could possibly be the cause of this petty-mindedness in the omnipotent one? Revenge for nailing his only begotten son to a piece of wood, perhaps? Or maybe he derives some sort of twisted pleasure from watching humanity wrestle with the conflict between their appetites and their beliefs. After all, everyone needs a hobby, especially if you are a being without beginning or end stuck in eternity (which would explain why Ken Barlow is a druid in his spare time). A more likely explanation for the existence of dietary restrictions is that they are purely a construct of religion, a simple way to help delineate one faith from another. Despite their apparent random nature, they enable followers to demonstrate their faith, in a practical way. on a daily basis, to advertise their devoutness to others and to reinforce it in themselves. As an agnostic, I choose to worship at the church of gastronomy. As luck would have it, it has no restrictions on what I can consume. I celebrate the glory of creation by eating as much of it as I possibly can, in all its varied delights. My church is broad, as are its people. Despite that, there is room for everyone; all creeds, colours and cooking abilities. Our bible is the cookbook -- any cookbook (except of course those with the words "Ainsley Harriot" written across the front) -- and every recipe is a revelation. When we cook, we give praise to the Gods of nourishment, and when we eat, we commune with the eternal. Pass the bacon sarnies and let us pray. (We're thrilled to see a new Mashed column from Andy. It was a mainstay of the old Daily Gullet. Be sure to check out previous entries here. -- the Editors) <i>Andy Lynes is a freelance food writer based in Brighton, England. His work appears in Restaurant magazine, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, olive magazine, Square Meal Trade Brief and other publications. His first restaurant review for The Guardian newspaper will appear in August. Andy sits on the committee of the UK's Guild of Food Writers and edits its newsletter. Andy was a founding affiliate of eGullet.org and is a former Dean of the eGCI. He is currently the UK forum host and sits on the editorial board of the </i>Daily Gullet<i>. Andy lives in Brighton with his wife Gill, children George (12) and Alice (7) and Lulu the German Shorthaired Pointer. </i>

Hi all, I was wondering if I could enlist you for some help. I returned to Montreal 2 years ago after a long absence and I 'm really loving the food and restaurants here-- o.k. maybe not so much the mexican or some of the take out chinese, but who's counting? I digress. So what I was wondering was if I could get some cookbook reccomendations for quebecios chefs. They can be in french, that's no problem. And since I happily cook meat for others, but I am not a huge fan of meat/ poultry and am alergic to seafood, I'm looking for books that are not too heavy on animal protein. I'm not looking for a vegetarian cookbook, but am trying to avoid books that are 75% meat and seafood recipes (this is what I encountered with Daniel Vezina's books). Right now I don't have too much to rely on other than a la Distasio, which I watch pretty regularily. Seems like a lot of her guests are celebrities, and not chefs though. Having recieved her book as an xmas gift, I will say that it's a good reference book for timing oven roasted vegetables and has some quick ideas for busy cooks, but I don't find myself running to it to try something different. I should also mention that I am not really a fan of Jamie Oliverish books either, which maybe part of my problem with distasio. I like recipes that are dead on (as in Alain Ducasse dead on). I hate books that don't give specific quanties or use vague terms like add x ingredient to taste. (I know quite well what my taste is and I buy books in order to NOT make things to my taste). Thanks in advance, chantal