Search the Community

While waiting for Suvir's cookbook.... I have Betty Crocker's Indian Home cooking by the same author. Was wondering if any of you have seen his new book. and what do you think?

Has anyone had a look at this book? If so, thumbs up or down ?

Well, it looks as though we're actually coming close to the time when my book will come out. It's listed on Amazon.com for October release, but I think we're more likely looking like December-February given where the editorial process is right now. But here's the cover: Isn't it gorgeous? Well, not really, but in any event here's my question for you all: The last comprehensive manuscript update I did was in April of this year (2002). In the coming six weeks or so, I'll have a chance to do a mini feeding-frenzy wherein I get caught up on the key restaurants that have opened in 2002 -- and I also have to cut the ones that have closed or otherwise become irrelevant. I'm starting to build my lists: Closed; New; Need-to-revisit-in-light-of-chef/ownership/concept-change, etc. Anybody want to help me out with this exercise? Editorial commentary is appreciated as well -- I have to make some judgment calls regarding inclusion/exclusion and any information or testimony helps.

Hello everyone, does anyone have any information on where to purchase the El Bulli cookbook other than the el Bulli website? I've looked around online and found nothing, but I really would to add this book to my collection. Thanks

Ed, what Chinese cookbooks do you like? What is your book going to cover?

Can you give us some information about the cookbook you are writing? What will be in it and when will it be published?

I roasted a duck this weekend and I ended up with about a cup of pure white duck fat. I've never used duck fat much before (I think I used it once to roast some potatoes, and once to make duck confit). So what do u use it for?? recipes that use duck fat to add a little "something extra" would be appreciated, as well. Also, how long will it last in the fridge, stored air tight? Thanks FM

Your cookbook looks fantastic and would love to hear about your experience creating it. What (or who) convinced you to write it? Were you approached by publishing companies or did you send proposals around? Did you enjoy the experience? Is there any part of the publishing process that you would do differently if you had a choice?

Every year, I tell myself the same thing right before Christmas "I don't need another cookbook." This is true. I don't need another cookbook, but there's always that one book I really, really want -- no matter how many I already have. Sometimes, I think all the fun is in finding an out-of-print book (we've all got stories) or tracking down the perfect recipe in some obscure book. What's on your Wish List this year?

Making risotto today for dad's birthday, and so the usual $37 stockpot of delicious meat brodo is ready to be defatted and used. My question is: Must that disgusting layer of fat be thrown out, or is that like throwing out gold? Would it be gross to save for cooking, say, potatoes? Should I be ashamed of myself for even asking?

Thank you for your fascinating answers so far. I am also amazed by the photos on your website. Do you use/read cookbooks? If yes, which ones do you favor and why?

Has anyone found any outright errors in the French Laundry cookbook ? Any idea if there is a published list of errors ? Some friends and I are cooking a meal composed entirely from dishes from the French Laundry cookbook. I've spent most of my weekend practicing the first of my dishes, chestnut agnolotti with a celery root sauce. The sauce calls for 3 cups of cream, which I added, but it seems waaaaaay too much: the flavour of the cream dominates completely. I'm going to try it again with a lot less cream (maybe 1/3 cup ?) and see how it turns out. Another dish I'm doing is the truffle custard with chive chip. To make the chip, you slice the potato really thin, sandwich a chive chip between two slices, and then bake the chip with some clarified butter between two silpats at 275. A friend of mine tried this and the chips wouldn't brown, so he looked it up in McGee, who clearly states that caramelization doesn't take place at any significant rate below 310 degrees. So what's the story ? Any of you tried either of these recipes, or found errors in the book ? Suggestions ? Anyone dare me to call the French Laundry and ask for Chef Keller ? Update: I just made the celery root sauce again, this time using 1/3 cup + a splash of cream. Looks (and tastes) much better. - S

As my husband and I were careening through Selfridges yesterday (trying to run our errands) I was waylaid by a new Japanese Cookbook. I didn't really get a chance to give it a thorough lookover but I did flip through it and it looks like it may be a good one. It's a Masterclass.... the author is Japanese but now lives in England... and I can't remember what its called, something very original, like japanese cooking! Has anyone else seen this? Or have old standards that they would like to recommend? Bad Japanese daughter that I am, I can recreate many of my mother's standby dishes but have never bought a japanese cookbook.... I'd like to educate myself in the basics. I also love those moments when you read a technique that you've been doing forever just because this is what you mom did and get to hear the bell in your head go off as you realize, "Oh, so that's what that is called." Okay, I do own the Nobu cookbook and a Madhur Jaffrey that spans all of Asia, but you can't really call those Japanese cookbooks.

I haven't seen this thread, but if it exists, please point me to it. Let's say you have to narrow your cookbook collection down to five titles. (Thus, "The Desert Island Collection." But this thought experiment assumes that you're not actually on a desert island since that might narrow your ingredients to the point that cookbooks would be superfluous.) Here's mine--at the moment . . . Bittman's How to Cook Everything Schneider's New Way to Cook Alford & Duguid's Hot Sour Salty Sweet Olney's Simple French Food Slater's Appetite Your Desert Island Collection?

I've heard this series referenced by a talented cook I know, as well as heard it mentioned on some egullet threads..and today, while leafing through Sara Moulton Cooks at Home (great Spice cookie recipe in there) I noticed she also reccomends finding a used set of this series. Any comments?

There are a thousands of Italian cookbooks out there. Which books have you found most useful and which books are the best at dealing with ingredients that are hard to find outside of Italy? My current favorite is Food and Memories of Abruzzo by Anna Teresa Callen.

An difficult question I know, but how do you come up with ideas for cookbooks when it appears that everything has been done over and over again? (This from someone with a fairly serious cookbook habit that finds it a physical impossibility to walk past a book shop in case there's a cookery related volume he hasn't seen before or already purchased).

I know these books have been mentioned to death here, but I cannot divine the answer to my question from previous threads. I wish to learn to prepare Thai food at home. There are some nice restaurants in Columbus, but none of them near enough to where I live, so there you have it. I know there's a place called Bangkok Grocery, so it seems like I should be able to buy any necessary ingredients. I know HSSS doesn't focus exclusively on Thai food. Which one of these two books should I get (or is there another one entirely that would be better than either)? Also: Darn you people and your larb thread. I don't have a car at work and therefore will be unable to obtain any sort of Thai food until at least seven hours from now.

What are some of your favorite cookbooks and/or authors? And how did they influence your writing and cooking as it is today? Thank you.

My nephew is getting married in a couple of months. I don't have a heck of a lot to spend on a wedding present, but I like Ivan and his bride quite a bit, and want to give them something they'll enjoy. Since we're known in the family as the gourmet cooks (which is a nicer way of saying that the rest of them can't cook to save their lives), the obvious candidates are food related. I'm thinking of giving them a solid cookbook and, perhaps, one of the wedding spice boxes from penzeys.com. I have something like 200 cookbooks in my collection, but few of them seem suitable for a new couple starting out. A high percentage of my personal favorites are ethnic or too specific (such as Kafka's Roasting, which has the right "heft" for a gift like this). I'd prefer a title that'll help them get started, the one book they turn to repeatedly, probably because it's the only major one they own. So it should probably cover the entire meal rather than just the entree. (I don't think they're afraid of cooking, but they're definitely beginners.) Also, I don't want to pick a cookbook that has a lot of recipes for expensive foods that twenty-somethings can't afford (which is why I eliminated Roasting, as beautiful a book as it is). That was the problem with the "Cooking School" book we bought, lo, 23 years ago (damn, now I feel old). It had lots of good "beginner" recipes, but too many of them were for lobster and prime rib -- not exactly what I could afford on my then-salary of $185 a week. I was considering something like Witt's Classic American Food Without Fuss but (a) it seems to be out of print and (b) it seems like a cheap gift, even if it's the most useful. (Ivan wouldn't care, but my sister would sniff) My husband suggests the Jamisons' Real American Breakfast, which is a possibility (and a great book, if you haven't seen it), but I'm looking for more suggestions. Esther

Name it.

Salt-of-the-earth Cunningham still has spice

What Chinese cookbooks are your favorites? Most helpful? Least helpful? Why?

Many of us have grown up with cookbooks from a local church, the PTA, Women's Club, and other organizations. The recipes are usually submitted by women and, here in the South, reflect much of what we consider to be southern culinary heritage. Meals were meant to be simple, filling, and made of relatively inexpensive ingredients. Game, fish and other readily available meat sources were often used. You could find chapters dedicated to pickles and other canned goods. John T. Edge of the University of Mississippi's Southern Foodways Alliance published a compilation of recipes he gathered from southern community and church cookbooks. This book, "A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South" (Link to Amazon) was published a few years ago and did a great job of describing what we generally think of as "southern cooking." Mrs. Varmint's grandmother published many recipes in these types of books, and she was later featured in a hard-bound publication, "Coastal Carolina Cooking" (Link to Amazon) I was fortunate to receive this past Christmas a gift from my mother-in-law that could truly be described as a labor of love: a compendium of my wife's grandmother's recipes. It's amazing what she cooked. More amazing are the recipes that weren't included, as they were committed only to memory. How to make shad (and to de-bone it) and its roe. Fig preserves. Coconut cake. Wild turkey stew. I'm glad to have received the written memories, but it's a shame we didn't get the others out of her. What are your favorite church cookbook recipes? Do you use one cookbook in particular? I encourage you to post your favorite recipes in the eGullet recipe archive, too.

Do you have one cookbook that has been used so much it is falling apart and possibly held together with tape? Does it automatically open to your favorite pages, because you have pushed on the binding too ahrd too many times? Are the pages stained with drops of now unidentifiable food? So what book in your collection does this describe? For me it is the New Basics, though I don't use it as much any more, for a while it was my favorite (ok my only!) cookbook and it tends to open to page 746, the lemon shortbread recipe.