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So i recently received a first edition of The Epecurian Cookbook; A Complete Treatise of Analytical And Practical Studies On The Culinary Art. by Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's from my parents. The condition is emaculate, with a copyright date of 1920. I'm curious as to how i should care for it, Right now it's standing upright in one of my bookshelfs. I own quite a few cookbooks, but this is the first which has any historical importance. P.s. It is not for sale. I just want to keep it as is.

Has anyone cooked much with this? I checked it out from the library, and it looks amazing! I don't know that I'll be buying a meat slicer, but a dessert based on a Kit Kat is pretty interesting.

He's often quoted and was such a character but I can't seem to find any translations or anthologies of his Almanach. Amazon, Alibris, Addall, the Seattle Public Library reference librarians all come up empty, any suggestions?

So i'm in barcelona and enjoying the food here quite a bit. One thing i have found a bit tough is how to ask the butchers for different cuts of beef or pork. I'm not good enough with the anotomy of the animal to figure out where to ask from so if there is an online source that translates the different names of cuts that would be great. thanks, Jonny

Does it make a difference? And, if it does, which one would you recommend? I have Marcella Hazan's original 'The Classic Italian Cookbook' so would it be worth it to get her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking if Essentials is just a combination of her earlier works. Did she tweak the recipes, and if so, which version would be better? (Its strange that the copyright for The Classic Italian Cookbook is earlier than the reported publication date I found on Internet) I also have older editions of James Beard's American Cookery and New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, and I'm just wondering if there's any signifigant changes between the older versions and the updated ones.

All of us on this site love cookbooks, and this particular forum is of course about that topic. At the risk of being controversal I want to pose a question -what is a reasonable price for a high end cookbook? Why are books by top European chefs so much more expensive than those by US based chefs? Implicit in this question is how many copies will people buy. To kick off the question here are some opening comments. I live in the US, and have some observations about the US market for cookbooks. Basically there are no "high end" cookbooks by US authors - where by high end I mean lavishly illustrated, no compromise books. What passes for the "high end" of the US market is primarily books like Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook (TFLC) - has a list price of $50. It is a convienent example, but surely not the only one. Now TFLC is a very nice cookbook, but if I compare it to European cookbooks by people who Keller might consider a peer, it does not come close in price or other factors (see below). The Ducasse Grand Livre de Cusine has a list price of $195. Ferran Adria's latest El Bulli 2003/2004 book has a list price of $350. Both Ducasse and Adria books are distributed in the US (and available on Amazon). Their street price may vary a bit, but list price is a good proxy for this discussion. In addition to these US distributed books, there are a whole host of other European cookbooks that are not distributed via conventional book stores (or Amazon) in the US and have to be bought either via a specialty store in the US (J.B. Prince, Kitchen Arts & Letters, CHIPS) or directly from Europe (I use de re Coquinaria in Spain.) These books tend to start at $100+ and many are $200+. Many are fairly slim volumes that are not as large and encyclopedic as Ducasse or Adria books. If you compare TFLC or other high end US cookbooks to these European books several things become clear. The US books are basically written for home use. They will often have lavish photos, so they can double as a coffee table book, but the text often has clear compromises in favor of home use. In some cases the books appear to be "dumbed down" - the real way the chef works is not written up and instead "simplified for home use". Meanwhile the European books (particularly Ducasse and Adria, but also others) seem to be mostly written for professionals. Passoniate amateurs can and do buy them and use them - but the books are done without compromise. That is true for the content (they don't pull punches or dumb down for the home). It is also true of the cost of just about everything. They also tend to be lavishly illustrated, and printed on high quality paper stock. In the publishing world this is an example of a well known distinction between "trade" books - sold primarily to individuals at home, and "professional" books. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that in the US all cookbooks - even those at the high end of the range are viewed as (and treated as) trade books. Culinary textbooks are an interesting case in point. They have lots of illustrations which are expensive (more on that below). They US versions tend to be about $80 to $100. That is typical of most college level textbooks. However, often there is a textbook version and then a parallel trade version that has much lower quality paper that is in the more traditional $50 range. The high price of these European books begs an interesting question - are they overpriced? I've seen postings on eGullet from people who think so. Of course it's everybodys right to have an opinion. However I wonder how much of this is due to being accustomed to (by comparison) cheap US cookbooks. A key issue what volume the book will sell. The cost of putting a high quality book together is considerable. Full color illustrations, charts and diagrams are expensive - usually about $1500 a page for really nice ones (less for simple diagrams or black and white sketches). Food photography is also expensive. So, a typical college textbook in say biology or another science has a budget of about $1 million for illustrations and writing. That is a higher level of quality than most cookbooks. However, I will make a stupid wild ass guess that a book like Ducasse Grand Livre, or the El Bulli books would easily cost $400K to $500K (and that may be low). Note that this does NOT count paying the chef/author - this is the out of pocket cost of producing the book and illustrations, and translators if needed. Of course each copy of the book also costs something to print - especially with lots of photos and high quality paper. The bookstore gets a profit, as does the publisher. Based on various estimates I think that most of these expensive cookbooks need to sell 8,000 to 10,000 copies to break even. That may be a bit high or low depending on the book - a thin book for $200 probably needs less than that. I have no idea what the sales volume is (in the US or worldwide) for books like this, but since people keep making them they can't all lose money, so the sales volume must be there to support it. Then again, Konneman, a German publisher that made the Culinaria series of expensively produced cookbooks did go bankrupt. Another way to look at this is that $200 or $300 is actually CHEAP for a cookbook. If you compare the book to the cost of dinner at Ducasse, or El Bulli, the book is the same price as dinner for ONE person (without wine.) Yet each of these books gives me a lot more lasting impact than one meal does. Indeed the cost of TFLC at $50 seems ridiculously low compared to the cost of dinner at TFL or Per Se. The new menu at Per Se is $250 per person, without wine. So it is odd that the book that contains Keller's culinary wisdom and recipes is only 20% the cost of a meal for one - i.e. about the cost of the tip! That just seems out of whack to me. It might be smart for Keller because he makes more money that way (see below), but from a fundamental value perspective, I think his wisdom is worth more than the tip on one meal for one person. Note that I am not arguing that Keller should charge more for the sake of it! His restaurants stand out as being temples of culinary perfection. I bet that he could make a cookbook that would also be an exercise in perfection - but that would require a lot more recipes, more pages, more illustrations, better paper...in short it would become a book with the production values that you find with Ducasse, Adria or other European books. That would not be possible at a $50 price point. I'm afraid that the US cookbook publishing system just won't create such a book. So we may never see the Grand Livre de Thomas Keller Note that I am just using Keller and TFLC as an example. The same could be said of books by Daniel Boloud, Eric Ripert, Jean George, Patrick Connell and many other top chefs working in the US. I think that the price point of TFLC is driven mainly by the perception that a US cookbook MUST be a trade book. Pricing it cheaper (by dumbing it down and controlling production costs) will result in much higher sales volume. The volume will more than increase as the price drops, so thus more profit is to be had from a $50 book than a $100 or $200 book. That is clearly the theory behind US based cookbooks. I am sure that for truly mass market cookbooks by Emeril or Rachael Ray, this is correct. Is it true for every chef and every book? If so, then why do the Europeans make very expensive (and very high quality) books? If they're wrong, then why do they keep doing it? If they are right then US publishers (and authors) may have overlooked a viable market niche of lower volume, and higher quality cookbooks that aim more toward professionals (and very serious amateurs). Anyway, that poses the question. I am very curious to see what eGulleters think about this, especially if somebody has more detailed facts and figures than I have presented here.

I have come to the realization that I do not enjoy the cakey goodness that so many others have come to love. I hate the frostings and did I mention, the CAKE part? So... I have been making a lot of tarts lately and I am really enjoying them. I was looking for a few books that are specifally dedicated to making Tarts. I know there are a few out there, but does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.

I've glanced at it, it's a beautiful book with great photography. I'm wondering if anyone has it and has tried anything in it yet. Looks like it might be good for entertaining/special occasions, especially in the summer when certain things are in season. I'm also thinking about getting a French cookbook. I had my mother in law over and she was impressed with what I made from Batali's book, but I'd like to try French cooking, expand my horizons a bit. I can make pretty much anything from a recipie. I'd like to try one of Boulud's books, maybe even the French Laundry book. But I'm willing to take advice from others here because I really don't know what French cookbooks are worth getting. I prefer more contemporary style cooking, if that helps. And things where I'm not spending more on ingredients than I would if I actually went to the French Laundry or Robuchon.

Help! My friend asked me for PNW cookbook recommendations. She wants to buy a couple books for a chef who is moving to Portland. I'm stumped. I've recommended the Herbfarm book, but she's looking for a couple more. What else would you suggest as a good intro to Pacific NW cuisine? And why?

Over in this topic, we've been discussing books that can support a member's interest in developing technique and method. There are lots of books out there that fit the bill -- the CIA's Professional Chef, Julia Child's The Way to Cook, Anne Willan's Varenne Practique, and Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques, among others. But those books really are about western techniques, even French. That prompts the question: what are some books that focus on Asian techniques? The two that pop to my mind are Barbara Tropp's Modern Art of Chinese Cooking and Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, both of which include great sections on technical stuff. Do folks have other non-western go-to cookbooks for technique and method? I'm not wondering about recipes here; there are lots of great books out there for that. I'm talking about equivalents to Willan and Pepin for Asian techniques.

The Elegant but Easy cookbook, by Marian Burros (who has been a special guest here) and Lois Levine, was arguably one of the most impactful cookbooks for the baby boom generation. Orignally published as Elegant but Easy in 1960 and Second Helpings in 1963, the two were I think consolidated into the Elegant but Easy Cookbook in 1967. The revised edition I have comes from Macmillan and bears a 1984 copyright. It says on the cover 365,000 sold. Later editions also happened, including the New Elegant but Easy Cookbook in 1998. I thought I could start a tribute to Elegant but Easy here by pointing to my family's favorite dish from the book. We disregard most every step of the recipe, including calling it by a different name, but we owe the debt of gratitude to Burros and Levine for many a happy family hors d'oeuvre. Not that many of these ever made it out of the kitchen in my childhood home. People would gather around the stove and eat most of them before they were served. We called (and still do call) the dish "hot dogs in mustard sauce." EE calls it (I will refer to the book as EE for short) "sweet-and-sour franks." The basic proportions are 2 lbs. sliced frankfurters, 1 cup currant jelly, and 3/4 cup prepared mustard. Here's the way we did it this morning: EE recommends cutting the hot dogs "diagonally, 1/2" thick" by which EE means a bias cut. We cut each hot dog (6 per pound) into 6 pieces probably more like 1" (2 lbs. total as recommended). EE recommends currant jelly but over the years I've used many kinds of jelly and preserves. Today we used blueberry (1 cup as recommended). For the 3/4 cup mustard, we used half Zatarain's Creole Mustard and half Maille Dijon Originale. If you don't use a strongly flavored mustard with some heat to it, the end result will be too sweet. The book then recommends heating on top of a double boiler for 5 minutes, refrigerating, and then reheating and serving in a chafing dish. This system is cumbersome and doesn't work as well as simple heating in a pan. It looks kind of gross at first. Five minutes as recommended by EE is not enough. You need about 20 minutes to get everything up to temperature and thicken the sauce. A little water, about a quarter cup, should also be added at the beginning. Eventually the sauce thickens and changes to a more pleasant color. If you serve this in a nice dish it's elegant enough. We served it right out of the pot, though. Served with Champagne of course (Piper-Heidsieck Brut). The two guests we had over both remembered their parents cooking this dish. Each had variants. One family used cocktail-size franks, the other used grape jelly. The dish looks better if you use jelly and smooth mustard, however it tastes better to me when made with a higher level of preserves and some grainy mustard. The 1998 new EE edition doesn't seem to have this recipe in it and generally seems more modern and upscale which I think misses the point. If you see an older copy around you should try to get one. This style of food became passe in the 1980s and 1990s but is now retro chic and, of course, so elegant (but easy). Anybody else have EE memories, adaptations, anything? Tell all!

With inspiration from eGullet and others, I have decided that I would like to 'get back into' cooking. I have spent a long time doing the most simple and unimaginative cuisine I could get away with, for the sake of convenience, or I eat out quite a bit. I used to cook a lot more, 5-6 years ago, but simply fell into the busy life rut. In order for the recommendation to mean something, I'll give you something of a background as to where I am: I'm a self-trained cook, mostly from growing up engrossed in cooking shows, and reading basic cook books that I come into contact with. I have a diverse palate, and appreciate a wide variety of international foods. However, I have limited exposure to 'haute cuisine', and because I'm not exactly Daddy Warbucks, limited exposure to fine cuisine in general, so when it comes to cooking high-end food, I lack a depth of tasting to compare. On the other hand, I'm creative and passionate in the kitchen when I take the time to make something. I can take dinners intended to be simple and introduce spice and complexity pretty successfully, as far as my family is concerned. I'm familiar with a great deal of food, with food pairings, and to be honest, often times my creativity exceeds my talent. Sure, it's nice to know you can braise this or that, poach another thing, and sauce it thusly, and it would be tasty, but it's entirely another to execute it yourself. I pay attention to a lot of the science of cooking and spend quite a bit of time researching "why"? I would like to expand my cooking experience. I would like a book that covers basic methods and techniques, and can help me grow from my current level. I prefer books that offer a good deal of pictoral feedback as well, preferrably pictures but illustrations would be okay. If the book brought some focus on the basic french methods (such as mother sauces, etc) without being entirely devoted to french cuisine, that might be nice, too. Also, I can do more than one book, but would prefer any "starter kit" to be limited to 3-5 books. Help me, eGullet-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

The invasive Species Cookbook: Conservation through Gastronomy is available at www.bradfordstreetpress.com The idea of the book is to increase interest in the issue of invasive species and to reduce them in number by eating them in as many interesting ways as possible.

I am interested in this book "What to drink with what you eat" but as it is not a British book I can't go and flick through it in a UK bookshop....I'd have to order it unseen from Amazon. If you have this book would you mind letting me know what you think. Is the advice good and useful? Thanks.

Interesting books will be published in 2007: - The essentail Baker - The best bake sale cookbook - The art of desserts - icebox cakes - panna cotta - The sweet spot: asian inspired desserts - Apassion for Baking "Marcy Goldmen" Know any more?

Hey egullet ! What's the best thing you ever had from a forno oven ? We're making excellent pizzas and focaccia sandwiches plus french onion soup from our stone deck, gas fired forno. Now I'm ready to bump up the evening menu and I'm looking for some cool ideas for both small plate and entree items. So.... have you had something amazing from this style of oven ? Or do you have a great idea that you'd make if you had a forno of your own ? Help me out egulleters !!!

Let's be clear, now. I'm not talking about MFK Fisher or the Thornes. Books with recipes tossed into them now and then don't count. I'm talking about books whose raison d'etre is helping you cook food. Of those books clearly designed to be cookbooks, are there any that you like to curl up with and read? Why read them? What makes a cookbook a page-turner that you just have to finish? Right now, my bedside reading is Colman Andrews's Catalan Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret. I bought it to prepare for a trip to Barcelona and have been immersed it in whenever I get a chance. His commitment to the cuisine itself, to the persnickety, strange details, and to that which cannot quite translate for American consumption makes for very compelling reading to me. There's also something wonderful about his assertion that this "brown food" (his description!) is one of the triumphs of world cuisine. The last time I felt this way about a cookbook was when I got my hands on Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating. A radically different book than Andrews's, with prose that Hemingway would have found sparse, but one that displays a sensibility about and sensitivity toward the eating of killed animals that is evocative. I read it in one night, and then read it again the next day. Those are two of my cover-to-cover favorites. Yours?

My latest fascination... The Library Thing... a dead easy way to catalog and compare your book collections. Of obvious applicability to those with burgeoning cookbook collections - this is mine: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?ta...ery&view=jtseng Extremely easy to use and surprisingly addictive. Enjoy J

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone. I have tidied up my list of freely available historic cookbooks, checked all links, and thought that some of you may be interested. It is at <a href="http://www.mydatabus.com/public/TheOldFoodie/z/Online_Historic_Cookbooks3.pdf">Online_Historic_Cookbooks3.pdf</a> I do want some feedback please - there are bound to be errors, and if you have any to add it would be especially welcome. I'll keep you up-to-date with any changes. If any of you would prefer the Excel spreadsheet from which the pdf was derived, just pm or email me and I'll send. [edited to ask about feedback - I hit the post button too soon - must be that New Year Champagne!] Janet

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...KX0DER&v=glance I was looking for some books to buy and I found this one ,isnt available yet , but you can preorder. Does anyone knows about this book? Worth to preorder it and buy it, it looks good . By the way it ships in March.

Greetings and pre-new years salutations. A dear friend of mine was gifted an evening (Jan. 9, 2007) with Chef Rautureau or Rover's in Seattle, where he will come to her house and prepare a meal with wine complements. Neither she or I have the cookbook yet as Amazon is due to deliver it anytime. I haven't had a chance to get to Rover's yet as well. She has asked me to request feedback from you all as she needs to get back to him by the begining of January. Any good recipes you have tried from the cookbook? What do you think would make a great meal? Many thanks... wl

Is one generally preferable to the other? It seems like having both Larousse Gastronomique and On Food & Cooking seems a little redundant, although I'm sure people bought both just to have them. If anyone has a better option, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

I realized this past year that I have a habit that I can't explain. I love to buy new cookbooks and yet I rarely consult cookbooks unless looking for a very specific recipe. A little background. My sweet wife and I have been married for 28 years and love to cook and entertain. She has a knack for hors d'oeuvres and desserts while I am more the entree and side dishes guy. For every-day meals we split up who fixes the evening meal (the only one we're together to eat during the week) based upon who gets home first that day. An example of my everyday cooking is a meal from last week. I seasoned 4 chicken breasts and initially sauted them to about 75% doneless. I then added chicken broth and white wine and brought it to the simmer. When the breasts were done I removed them from the pan and reduced the broth/wine mixture then added in some sour cream. I served the breasts with pasta and steamed vegetables, napping the breasts and covering the pasta with the sauce. So here's the question. I will spend gift cards that I could use anywhere in a book store buying more cookbooks - adding to a collection that may only be consulted 2 or 3 times a year. Am I alone or are their other cookbook addicts out there that share this trait? I'm not troubled by this - just curious. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Just for debate, following on from the restaurant topic.... In no particular order: Tom Aikens - Cooking Giorgio Locatelli - Made in Italy David Everitt-Matthias - Esscence

I have this book checked out of the library after seeing/hearing about Snowangel/Susan's success with the Baked Eggs in Maple Toast Cups (pg. 243) in the cookbook roulette thread. I think I'm gonna have to buy a copy. I suppose some my disparage a "best of" cookbook like they might eschew buying "best of" CDs, but some of us they are a boon -- another knowledgeable person has done some of the footwork for us and found us some reliable dishes to try. Sometimes I enjoy the hunt, but sometimes it's nice to have someone say, "Make this -- you'll like it," and that is what Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens have done in this volume. Its subtitle is "Indispensible Dishes from Legendary Chefs and Undiscovered Cooks," which gives an accurate taste of what you'll find. The Zuni Cafe's Roast Chicken and Bread Salad is in here (Wow -- how did I not know about this? Maybe because I live far from Zuni Cafe?), but so is Skillet Blueberry Cobbler by someone named Ezra Stovall, via "gang email." Of course this cookbook isn't comprehensive -- there are only 150 recipes, after all -- but just about everything in it sounds good to me. So far, I've made the following and I'm just getting started: Tagliatelle With Creme Fraiche and Arugula (except mine was with linguini and frisee) Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad Braised Green Beans with Tomato and Fennel Double Corn Polenta Here's what I hope to try next: Cheddar Walnut Crisps Smoked Salmon Rolls with Arugula, Mascarpone, Chives, and Capers Manly Meatballs Carrot, Parsley, and Pine Nut Salad with Fried Goat Cheese Monte's Ham (It's party season, you know. ) So, has anybody else been playing with this book? Tell me.