The cookbooks that made you the cook you are

[Darienne]

The cookbook which greatly contributed to making me the cook I am today still sits in my bookcase devoted to cookbooks. It has no covers...but I seem to recall a darkish green cloth cover.  It's missing the first 63 pages and I have no idea of how many pages at the back are gone, but the index is missing.  My copy ends at p.724.  It's been used and abused for over 50 years.  It contains photos, but only a few in color.  It's an ugly mess, stained and ripped, with burn marks, but I still make things out of it. 

 

I have no idea of its title, of who published it, of where I got it.  I think at the time most, if not all, of it was available in chapter paperback series.

 

I would never give it up.  

Edited November 14, 2014 by Darienne (log)

[Maedl]

The biggest catalysts in my learning to cook were my mother and grandmother. I was constantly in the kitchen, watching and learning from them.

My first cookbook exposure was to my mother's cooking bible, a fat book full of recipes and home-making advice. I don't remember the name--I called it The Happy Homemaker, but I think it was blue and I know it lived in the kitchen drawer where it was easy to access.

In the 1960s, Mom gave me a subscription to the Time-Life international series. We cooked our way through those books as they arrived. I still give those books pride of place on my bookshelves. The next books added to the collection (also presents from Mom) were The Art of Indian Cooking by Monica Dutt and a large book full of photos and recipes on Israeli cooking. By this time my Dad was asking if we ever thought of making some sort of American dish. After college, I subscribed to Gourmet and saved every copy. In the intervening years, the cookbook collection has built up to alarming numbers--but what lovely memories the books hold and what happy experiences they will continue to make possible!

[gfweb]

An addendum to my several year old post.  I got Tom Collicchio's Think Like a Chef a while ago. Its a lot like Beard's Theory and Practice,  good instruction and great recipes.

[Deryn]

Great Dinners From Life (Eleanor Graves) was probably the most influential cookbook I had during the early years of being a wife and mother. But, my mother's well marked, well stained early copy of Joy of Cooking was also up there too - for different reasons. Last weekend, I had to throw the latter book away and I cried. The former was lost during some travel episode in mid-life. But, I carry its recipe for New York Cheesecake in my heart - because before I discovered it, I think the whole Yukon thought cheesecake came out of a box and never went near an oven.

In more recent times, Great Ideas in Food, captured my interest. I could not put that book down when I received it for Christmas the year it came out, and it still means a lot to me, mostly because it was given to me by an unlikely family member who usually didn't even acknowledge my culinary interests or talents.

The last is unpublished and may never be published though I thought at one time I might make it into a real book. It is a collection of recipes my great-grandmother kept in her own hand (I have the originals). The recipes illustrate the culture and food in Evanston Illinois just before and at the turn of the 20th century - and let me taste a slice of my own history as well.

[cakewalk]

Sunset Cookbook of Breads was my first bread book, back in the early seventies. It was the first time I ever used yeast, and I learned a lot from that book because it was so straightforward. Its presentation plainly said that I could do this, there was nothing to be afraid of. I think that's an important quality for all cookbooks, not just beginner's books. I lost the book somewhere somehow, but several years ago I bought a used copy, mostly for nostalgic reasons. I rarely use it, but I love having it.

 

The Vegetarian Epicure was another great one, as has been mentioned above. I lost that book too. I still remember her zucchini quiche.  

 

I also loved the first Moosewood Cookbook, say what you will, and learned a lot from it. My favorite recipe was Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad, I'll never forget that name. Great split pea soup, too.

 

The James Beard Cookbook, that wonderful little paperback, was (and is still) a gem. One of the things I remember most about the book is Beard's enthusiasm. It came through everywhere without being gushy. The man really loved good food, and just couldn't comprehend why others did not.

 

Except for the Sunset bread book, I used the others all throughout the eighties and beyond. I was in my late twenties/early thirties, and that's when I became more interested in food. I later added many more titles to my shelves, but these are the books that got me started.

[ElainaA]

Earliest influences, cooking with my mother: Fannie Farmer - the 1933 edition that was my mother's text book as a Home Economics major at Cornell (I still have it complete with her notes. It is one of my most treasured possessions.) Also Betty Crocker - the loose leaf one with lots of pictures. One of my sisters won it in a teen version of the famous cook offs.

 

Later, learning to cook for myself and friends -

Julie Jordan's Wings of Life - Vegetarian Cooking - now held together with duct tape, with the best curried lentil soup recipe I've ever had.

The New York Times Cookbook

The Vegetarian Epicure (mushrooms Berkeley!)

 

Still later:

Julia Child's The Way to Cook

Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking

Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

 

Elaina

Edited November 15, 2014 by ElainaA (log)

[pbear]

I have no idea of its title, of who published it, of where I got it.

 

Psst, I realize it's been five years, but see Post #15, which you said in the next one probably is the answer.

 

As for the topic, I'm very much a cookbook cook, so a complete answer would include a couple hundred titles, including many mentioned above.  If I had to pick only a handful, I'd end up picking just one, Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook (second edition), which is the main one from which I picked up my sensibilities for how to write a recipe.  From there, I've had the pleasure of synthesizing recipes from many sources, sometimes a dozen for a single dish.  For me, preserving those syntheses in words I could revisit years later and get the same results is a big thing.  That's something I learned from many, but chief among them Claiborne.

[Gaius46]

It's not a cookbook per se but Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" has probably taught me more about food and cooking than anything else.

[scubadoo97]

Not big into cookbooks. What has advanced my cooking skills and repertoire has been food forums starting with eGullet

Edited November 16, 2014 by scubadoo97 (log)

[Darienne]

Psst, I realize it's been five years, but see Post #15, which you said in the next one probably is the answer.

 

And if I could be embarrassed, I would be.  Thanks so much, pbear, for your post.

And now we've been married 54 1/2 years and I am even older than then.  And evidently losing my steel-trap memory quite rapidly.  Thanks again.

 

And ditto here about eGullet being very important in making me the cook I have become as noted by scubadoo97.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Darienne (log)

[pbear]

Went back and forth over whether to say something.  In the end, I decided you'd probably rather be reminded.  Glad I chose correctly.

[Matt L]

So many. But one that has always stuck (and Ive come back to year after year for inspiration, despite it not strictly being a cookbook and Infirst read it in the late 90s) is Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything. Not least for his proto-modernist potato mash, now easier and less fuss with the aid of a Sansaire rather than a jog of cold water and a thermometer...

Edited December 27, 2014 by Matt L (log)

[gulfporter]

I married young and knew little about cooking.  My in-laws gave me a few cookbooks, good ones, by James Beard, Julia Child and Craig Claiborne.  I looked at them, but all we could afford at the time were cheap hamburger (sold in those 5 pound rolls) and pancake mix.  Like I said, we were young (19 and 20) and food was not a big deal to us.  

 

As we aged and as our careers/business flourished, we started paying more attention to food (we could finally afford to go to restaurants where you didn't order at the counter).  

 

Sometime in the 80's, my in-laws gave me subscriptions to both Gourmet and Bon Appetit (my FIL at age 91 still renews my BA).  

 

It was these magazines that brought out my interest in cooking.  Maybe it was the slick presentations (as I recall the cookbooks were mostly line drawings of food).  I made a point to make one recipe a week from one of the current magazine issues.  I did this up until we retired in 2003.  I still enjoy BA and probably make a recipe from their current issue once or twice a month. 

[Martin Fisher]

Wow....there are so many great cookbooks that have been influential....I've been collecting since I was a teenager....it was really the only way for a farm-tied country boy to learn about uncommon cuisine.

I must say that I think the James Beard books were the most influential....I love the way he writes..it's almost like he's standing there talking directly to you.

The first James Beard recipe I made was the Sally Lunn in "Beard on Bread"..that was in 1982..fond memories.

[gfweb]

Beard is great. His "Theory and Practice of Good Cooking" cost me about $2 on a remainder table and has been worth many fold more.  He teaches the novice so well.

[rotuts]

Betty Crocker  , ' loose leaf binder '  mid '50s

 

Fannie Farmer ,  also mid-'50's

 

Betty had Pictures, mostly black and white, and drawings

 

I was "  about  "  5.

 

still use the FF.  for Pound Cake.

 

when I was in college, Vol. II of Mastering the Art  came out.  My copy was still warm 'off-the-presses'

 

I read it cover to cover in one sitting.

 

You could make French Bread  [ Baguette ] in the USA ?

 

Didn't have to go to France ?

 

Edited December 28, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[CatPoet]

My first cookbook ever was   Vi  bakar och lagar mat.   ( We bake and cook food), yes it is a kids cookbook but at age  3  you have to start some where and my second cookbook is a really  good starter cookbook called  Vår Kokbok  ( our cookbook) and  it explains even  complicated cooking in a easy and understandable way.

 

Without these  books none of the other cook books would have felt so easy to tackle.