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I am participating in a class about Santa Fe and Taos. I have chosen to research the Cuisine and Indigenous Food of the Northern New Mexico. Can anyone recommend some good sources for my research? Often, Regional Cookbooks have excellent material and so I am looking for that type of reference. We will follow up the class with a week long trip in the area in April. You can bet I will comb this forum for your restaurant suggestions! Thanks for any help you can give me regarding comprehensive cookbooks.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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 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

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 !!!

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!

I've been cooking for several Tibetan Lamas and their entourages lately and I need a really good Tibetan cookbook recommendation. Any ideas?

I find the recipes in John Folse' book The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine to be very user friendly and they also turn out GREAT every time. Some of the recipes are the coconut cake recipe and of course the gumbo recipes. Right now, I have a pot of the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo on, I have just added the stock for it to simmer for about an hour before furthur additions. Has anyone else ever cooked from this book? If so, what recipes did you use with great success? I am thinking about cooking up a pot of the Death by Gumbo this next week. I have quails in the freezer and I can get my Poche's andouille from Hebert's here in town. One other thing, instead of using chicken in the pot, I am using pheasant that a friend brought from a hunt. Maybe we could start a lets cook Louisiana and say once a month do a dish together. just a thought.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a pro book on Ice creams and over at Chips Books, the 2 that catch my eye are Les Recettes Glacees by L'Ecole Lenotre http://www.chipsbooks.com/recglace.htm#recglace and the one by Ryon Emmanuel http://www.chipsbooks.com/artglace.htm. Basically, I'm looking for a book that'll teach how to make ice cream commercially. We just managed to get a huge German ice cream machine for free and are looking at how we can make add ice cream to our list of wholesale products. We want a book that can show us about using different emulsifiers, preservatives, methods, etc...etc...... Does anyone have any other recommendations? Thanks!

Currently I have Living Cookbook, but I've seen other posters refer to Mastercook. I also saw one recipe posted that had both weight and volume measurements along with baker's percentages (I'm envious). I'm finding that mine is ok, but I would like it to do more -- like be able to show both weights and volumes. And to use measurements like 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (as that is how I received a recipe). Living Cookbook also does nutrition analysis and cost analysis, which I like. But, I find maintaining the ingredient cost information is less than efficient. eGulleters, what do you use? Do you like it? Why? What do you feel it lacks?

[Moderator note: The original Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 1)] That is a Great Outdoors brand Smokey Mountain Cooker which is actually propane-powered. In many cases, that gas power is great because it makes maintaining temperature fairly easy. It's basically built for efficient hot smoking. A cast iron box sits in a frame above the heat source and the wood chunks burn pretty evenly over time. I think the manufacturer recommends using chips but I've found that chunks burn longer and produce a better smoke. Because I was too lazy yesterday to rig my dryer vent-aided cold smoker (a weekend project, it seems), I decided to try something new with the SMC. I only used the gas flame until the cherry wood chunks started to burn. Once they did, I shut down the gas entirely and loaded up the water pan with ice. From there, via the use of damper control, I was able to keep those chunks smoking for about 4 hours. It worked out great because the temperature stayed low and it was largely controllable. During those 4 hours, I dumped the melted ice from the water pan and refilled it with fresh ice 2 times. Also, one time near the end, I placed a single ice cube in the fire box to cool things down a bit. I'll be curious to see how it turned out because if it did work well, I think there's some cold-smoked salmon in my very near future. At this point, I don't foresee any reason why it may have failed. But, until you taste the final product, you never know for sure. *fingers crossed* =R=

Well, I wasn't going to buy this cookbook, but a certain bookshop that I visit an awful lot put the wrong price on it.....$24.95 instead of $34.95. In fact, I went in again on Friday, they've still got the wrong price. *cough* Carlton store *cough* The book does have a really nice feel to it. The photography is very good, reminding me of the work in Damian Pignolet's cookbook. It feels warm and comforting. And warm and comforting is the feel of many of the recipies. Flicking through it, many of the recipes are for autumn and winter, with England, France, and Italy providing the main inspirations. For instance, you'll find recipes for corned beef, duck confit, and spaghetti with cauliflower strascicata within the book. Recipes are divided into seven sections with titles like, "I love Spring and new beginnings", "A break in the heart", and "Food to warm the cockles". IT does make a change from the usual categories, and for me, it works as you look for the recipies by "feel" rather than by "key ingredient". Most sections have around 8 recipies. Each recipe opens with some comments by Ingersoll where he talks about his own history with the recipe and some notes on the ingredients and its preparation. You could almost imagine him saying the same things if he were to present the recipe on a TV show. He then follows with the list of ingredients and some very detailed instructions. Often, he'll give you a cooking process and explain how this process helps the cooking of the dish. This impresses me greatly as it can only help people understand the whys and hows of cooking. Overall, I think it's a pretty impressive cookbook. It's certainly worth the $35RRP, and I'd say that it's probably one of the best in that price bracket. I think the book is pitched at those who have developed some basic skills and want to take themselves up another level. But I think that experienced cooks will also find recipes they'll enjot too.

I'm currently reading Julia Child's memoirs, and plan to start on the new Gael Greene book after that. And then, there's nothing on the agenda, and I'm getting worried about that. What is new out there that I may be missing? What's Michael Ruhlman working on? How about Ruth Reichl? (Yes, I've read Garlic & Sapphires. Loved it.) Amanda Hesser? others?

I have my wonderfully renovated kitchen with lots of counter space. Now I need a plastic cookbook holder to prop up my cookbooks while protecting them from spatter. I've "googled" and get many different styles. Have any of you found one that you would recommend? I saw one that has a wood base and an adjustable plastic faceplate, but then I read a review by a user that said it is always coming apart and doesn't hold large books. I would appreciate any personal experience posts to help in my decision. And I thank those who reply to this post, in advance! :-)

Hi, I'm looking for pastry and baking books by japanease chefs written in english. Got an idea? site...etc

the article Is this new type of cookbook organization superior to the way in which cookbooks were originally organized?

Can anybody recommend a good serious food/cookery book on Greece? Ideally I'm looking for something equivalent to what Marcella Hazan does for Italy - lots of photos are not really a priority, rather someone who writes authoritatively and clearly about ingredients, recipes and the general philosophy of Greek food. Any suggestions welcome.