Books That Age Gracefully

[Carrot Top]

Do you have (food-related) books that you've become so enamoured of that they have held your interest and remained on your shelves for twenty or more years?

Divulge their titles, do, so we all can know....

[Moopheus]

JUNK FOOD, ed. by Charles Rubin, et al. Definitely a book that keeps on giving.

[maggiethecat]

MFK, though it makes me sad to read her now--a very melancholy writer. Jane Grigson's "Food With the Famous." Kingsley Amis's "On Drink"; try really hard to find a copy of this nasty and viscious and hilarious book. It's really in a class by itself.

[Really Nice!]

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes 1 and 2 by our dear, late friend.

FoodStyle - The Art of Presenting Food Beautifully - by Molly Siple and Irene Sax

Herbs and Spices - edited by Waverly Root; speaking of which, he authored two fantastic books about food and food styles:

The Foods of France

The Foods of Italy

These two books describe the cuisine of each country by department and region. They are both great reads!

Oh, and a Peanuts Cookbook that I bought in third grade. It has a pink and green cover. Once every five years or so I'll make Charlie Brown Divinity.

[andiesenji]

The I Hate To Cook Book and all the rest of Peg Bracken's wonderful humor, even though I have always loved to cook. I like humor and especially humorous food writing.

Mary Lasswell's novels, all of which included a great deal of food discussion, description and enjoyment. I have re-read all of them many, many times. They are my "escapist" stories for when I am feeling blue or out of sorts.

There are others, but these are the mainstays.

[Squeat Mungry]

MFK, though it makes me sad to read her now--a very melancholy writer.  Jane Grigson's "Food With the Famous."  Kingsley Amis's "On Drink"; try really hard to find a copy of this nasty and viscious and hilarious book.  It's really in a class by itself.

Maggie, I think you're right about MFK, but there is something about her brand of melancholy that appeals -- and then there's the elegance of her expression.

In my opinion, the Amises pere et fils are worth reading, but I have not yet run across "On Drink". It's now on the list. Thank you.

Cheers,

Squeat

[StudentChefEclipse]

The original Calvin Trillin trilogy:

"American Fried"

"Alice, Let's Eat"

"Third Helpings"

My favorite Trillin piece: Spaghetti Carbonara Day. When I was younger and the book was new, it actually convinced me to try spaghetti carbonara.

Now I've added "Feeding a Yen" and I know that will stay on the shelf forever as well.

[Carrot Top]

Great answers to this question.

All these books have big personalities, don't they....!

Here is my list (shortened a bit so as not to rant on...)

-'Larousse Gastronomique 1971 edition' (have never seen a better edition so far in mild perusals of newer ones). This was my first real serious cooking tome, and I actually read it from A to Z. Yes, a love affair with an encyclopedia. Takes all kinds, huh?!

-MFK Fisher 'The Art of Eating'. What can compare? I've read this book many times over the years, in different locales. My favorite reading of it was in a small chilly apartment in the 9th arrondissement of Paris where I moved with my small dog and no particular intention except to ruin my bank account, one April years ago....

Last year I read 'A Life in Letters', the autobiography of MFK...and although I still love her writings, I wish I had 'kept them straight up' and had not read the underneath of her real life...it sort of sullied the experience somehow (that sounds pretensious but is not meant to be!).

-'Food' By Waverly Root. What a mix of history, reality, and knowledge put together with beautiful drawings!

-'Auberge of the Flowering Hearth' by Roy Andries de Goot. Great story....

-'Better than Store Bought' by Witty/Colchie. Simple recipes on how to make many things from scratch including cured meats and fresh cheeses.

-Evan Jones 'American Food', a fascinating book on the history of American food with some mesmerizingly wonderful recipes such as 'Fried Chicken with Waffles, Ham, and Maple-Cream Sauce' mmmmmmm.

-'The Golden Lemon' by Tobias/Morris. Cookbook with a steady stream of great recipes that all include lemon as an ingredient.

Can't wait to hunt up some of your listed favorites to take a taste!

Edited September 6, 2004 by Carrot Top (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook. The binding of my copy is a splintered mess, the pages are splattered, and next to virtually every recipe I've tried are comments about how amazing the dish is. I've found no klunkers -- an astonishing fact given that many of these are the very first dishes I cooked from most of these cuisines.

As I read more and more into particular cuisines and then return to this book, I'm always amazed at Solomon's clear, concise depictions of regions and food. She captures basic principles of each cuisine without reducing them to cliches, and she brooks little tinkering: she is not afraid, as so many cookbook authors are, to say, "If you don't have this ingredient, don't bother."

I cook from this book every few weeks, which is amazing (for comparison, I don't cook from the NYT Cookbook every season, another book I got 20 years ago). And my wife's single most favorite dish in the world is Solomon's Szechuan chicken recipe.

Even if you have a slew of asian cookbooks, I'd urge you to grab this one. Though I'm sure that someone can knock her authenticity of one region or another (the Japanese section seems vulnerable to critique, for example, but I'm a rank amateur there), the simple fact that she even pulls off 1/10 of what she does is remarkable. It is also a great gift for a good western cook interested in dipping into asian cooking.

If you're interested in this cookbook, check out the stellar reviews at amazon.com. You'll particularly enjoy Solomon's Own Comments there.

I'll end my gushing by saying that I'm not paid by CS or amazon -- I'm just appreciative!

[jpdchef]

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes 1 and 2 by our dear, late friend.

FoodStyle - The Art of Presenting Food Beautifully - by Molly Siple and Irene Sax

Herbs and Spices - edited by Waverly Root; speaking of which, he authored two fantastic books about food and food styles:

The Foods of France

The Foods of Italy

These two books describe the cuisine of each country by department and region. They are both great reads!

Oh, and a Peanuts Cookbook that I bought in third grade. It has a pink and green cover. Once every five years or so I'll make Charlie Brown Divinity.

←

fyi--I found the Root books indespensible 20 yrs. ago--Replaced them just last week on a package deal from amazon(25.15 for both!--free shipping) Edited September 7, 2004 by jpdchef (log)

[hjshorter]

Home Cooking and More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin.

Fannie Farmer Cookbook - the 1986 edition edited by Marion Cunningham.

My Time-Life Foods of the World series.

[artisan02]

Do you have (food-related) books that you've become so enamoured of that they have held your interest and remained on your shelves for twenty or more years?

Divulge their titles, do, so we all can know....

←

Simple French Food, by Richard Olney.

When French Women Cook, by Madeline Kamman.

Chez Panisse Desserts.

Good Cheap Food, by Miriam Unger.

Delights and Prejudices, by James Beard.

The Good Cook series, edited by Richard Olney

Edited September 7, 2004 by artisan02 (log)

[chiffonade]

I'm sure it'll be viewed as a cliche by now but I feel that way about the old Joy of Cooking. No matter how many cookbooks I get, I refer to that one as the "deciding vote" about many subjects.

[Chris Amirault]

[My Time-Life Foods of the World series.

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Boy, I gotta say, those Foods of the World books are readily available at our local second-hand shops like Savers, and they seem just amazing. The authors read like a who's who of mid-20th century cooking.

I have so many cookbooks right now that I can't justify buying a whole set that I couldn't cook my way through in a decade.

I mean, I can't possibly, right?

[Carrot Top]

Oh, those Time-Life books are keepers alright. I'd buy 'em if I saw them in a second-hand store at a decent price, particularly if it was the entire set.

You can justify it by calling it a 'collector's item'.

Better than spending money on beanie babies, no?

[fou de Bassan]

I'd have to agree with the Solomon book. In fact, I just made the recipe for Sayur Buncis last night and it was sooo good! I also love Laurie Colwin's two books. I read them at night when I can't sleep. And of course you can justify the Time-Life series but I could never warm to the Food of Scandanavia... Maybe it's the herring? I know that Alford and Duguin's Flatbreads and Flavors isn't that old but I've worn the binding out of mine.

Edited September 9, 2004 by fou de Bassan (log)

[shelly59]

My favorite cookbook is one that was originally my great-grandmother's. It is one of those cookbooks churches used to publish, circa 1870-90 or so with an entire chapter devoted to "sick-room dainties" and another on washing and ironing.

I am not being coy about the title, the poor book has been used and read to bits and the spine and front and back covers are long gone. It has my great-grandmother's and my grandmother's hand written notes/adjustments/substitutions/critiques next to many of the recipes..plus recipes clipped from newspapers from 1880 to about 1981.

I have had this book since I was about 26 years old and I absolutely love it. The recipes are darn good and the household hints ain't half-bad, either!

[Carrot Top]

I'd like to add "The Settlement Cookbook" to this list.

[racheld]

The Stillmeadow Books, and anything else by Gladys Taber. She woke to birdsong or snowcover, drank her strong stove-perked coffee, and stirred up some sourdough pancakes from her own years-old starter. Butternut Wisdom, indeed.

They're country books, walking the woods with a dog books, pot of beans simmered all day while writing her columns books. I love the line, "I think beans in any form are elegant."

The books are dated by their devices, their appliances, the cutting of wood, the political references, but I still re-read them and the great three-ring of her columns I clipped for years from women's magazines. There's a great peace to the telling, day-to-day happenings small as a new-found bird nest, and the immense quiet of a snowbound week with a full larder, a woodbox to hand, and the sure knowledge that no one could break the solitude before the melt.

On a par in one volume is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Cross Creek, with the orange groves, the corn patch, the Gullah cook whose loyalty and fierce companionship season each day as richly as her rough hands season the collards and pone and pie. The book is one long hot Summer stretching a lifetime, of swamps and the delectable froglegs and fish they yield, of coffee with cream that mounds on the spoon, of a canoe trip with her feet straddling a Dutch oven of homemade rolls which rose in the heat of the sun as they paddled. They stopped for the night, piled coals on the pan, and ate feathery rolls with pan-fried fish just pulled from the water they had ridden all afternoon.

I still re-read sections of my Larousse just for the beauty of the words and images, and just bought a 1926 French edition, which I've been meaning to get to all Winter. Might be nice to see what it gains in the translation.

And, of course, there are all my Foxfires. Cliche lined up on a shelf.

My favorite of all, I think, is the little spiral-bound cookbook from a church in Alabama. It was in a house we rented for a time, along with everything else which had belonged to the owner, an elderly woman who had gone into a nursing home. We slept in her beds, gathered the clean, fragrant sheets from her clothesline every week, ate from her cut-glass sherbet dishes, read her books.

When we were leaving, I knew the son was to auction off all the belongings, so I asked the realtor if I might buy the little cookbook with its margin-filled writing from its owner's hand. She gave it to me, and I've had it almost twenty years now. I smile every time I look at the flyleaf---in her beautifully-formed letters taught in another time, it reads:

Butter Scot Pie. Look on page where pie are.

Edited March 18, 2007 by racheld (log)

[Miami Danny]

James Beard. His writing is conversational, and he makes all of his recipes sound so simple to prepare.

Craig Claiborne. His NYTimes Int'l Cookbook got me started cooking-Chop Suey, anyone?

Edited March 18, 2007 by Miami Danny (log)

[thecuriousone]

The time life foods of the world series is one of my most treasured possessions. Wherever I am, they will be. Madeline Kamman, when french women cook, and Creole Feast, edited my Toni Morrison

[azurite]

On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee. I have the 1984 & 2004 editions. I like the 1984 edition better in some ways. Don't agree with everything he says but I love that he has SEM photos of yeast and the molecular structures of glucose and fructose (at least in the '84 edition). Even now when I look through either edition, I learn something new and interesting or am reminded of something I used to know but had forgotten.

I also like Laurie Colwin's books and the Fanny Farmer cookbook. The latter was given to me years ago (am not saying just how many) by a college roommate when I became interested in baking. It was a paperback edition but I kept it for many years, taped it back together, until I found a hardcover edition (the 11th) that I liked. I got it mostly because it had the recipe for applesauce cake that I like. Not all editions seem to have it.

Interesting thread, I've gotten several ideas of books to read.

azurite

[Carrot Top]

I'd like to add "Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery" by Jane Grigson, first published in 1967. Classic, informational without being precious or self-important, an all-around good reference that will not lose in value or tone as time goes by.

[MaxH]

Some favorite durable US cookbooks, and a durable sandwich misconception.

By the standard that a few outstanding practical recipes justify getting a cookbook, the Gourmet Cookbook (1950) abundantly delivers. (Supplements followed its publication -- I have a small collection -- and lately a new book under its venerable title. But this is the original Gourmet. Quirky, ubiquitous, and at last count the dominant mention under its name in Internet archives.) Recipes in it such as herb-stuffed broilers, English herb cheese, various desserts and mushroom dishes demonstrate why this is so.

Elsewhere I've often recommended an appetizing underground classic: Louis Pullig de Gouy's Sandwich Manual for Professionals (1939), more readily available in the 1980s reprint, The Ultimate Sandwich Book (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1982, ISBN 0894711636 or 0894711644). Variations on the hamburger now forgotten (or "discovered"). 63 pages on "Club, or Three-Decker" sandwich recipes at several per page. De Gouy emphasized that the person Sandwich himself (18th-century playboy earl) is important for naming, not inventing, it. De Gouy cited Greek, Roman, and Babylonian taste for "a wedge of meat between two slabs of bread" but traced the modern sandwich to a popularization by the teacher Rabbi Prince Hillel after 70 BC with residue in symbolic Passover custom (unleavened bread with bitter herbs and haroseth, chopped nuts and apple). "This is to prove that sandwiches are as old as bread and cheese, and Romans and Danes and Saxons and Normans must have eaten them from one end of England to another." (That's highly abridged in the 1982 reprint.) Despite these publications, people continue eagerly to mix up the inventing of sandwiches with the naming. (With added vigor via Internet, Wikipedia, etc.)

Marcella Hazan's two books that introduced much of US to northern Italian cooking also indirectly helped spur the original Internet food forum 25 years ago, which quickly became popular. Though participants didn't dwell on that connection, they did cite Marcella's books and The Romagnolis' Table, whose durable pragmatic pasta ideas I still use.

Kenneth Lo, expatriate Chinese writer, teacher, and cook, is credited as a mentor by some US Chinese-émigré chefs. He wrote popular English-language cookbooks in the 1970s including Chinese Regional Cooking (ISBN 0394738705, "used and new from $1.55" recently on amazon) and Chinese Cooking on Next to Nothing. I posted about the first title to rec.food.cooking in 1988 (some people have copies of the posting but it's not currently in public archives). Lo, writing mostly in England, owned and partly translated the 11-volume 1963 edition of the national cookbook (Famous Dishes of China, Peking: Ministry of Commerce Foods and Drinks Management Department). Eloquent evocations of China itself, attention to underlying principles and folk recipes, condemnation of shortcuts like MSG (Lo was hardly the only Chinese chef to disparage MSG). I have several other titles. For some reason, some later and British editions have a different tone, and I spot also a different view of Lo among some British readers -- would like to understand this story better sometime.

In the late 1940s, many mainstream US cookbooks seemed bent on eradicating savor and subtlety (in favor of canned soups and green food coloring and "Thousand Island" salad dressing [1]). The 1943 Joy of Cooking (already a "brand," remote from the original book) even demonstrated that it was possible to season a cookbook full of savory dishes with exactly salt, pepper, and paprika. Into this scene, Morrison Wood brought wine and garlic and spices and life, remaining a minor mainstream classic for 30 years (plus supplements and spin-offs). More, posted 1992.

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[1] "Thousand Island" is a mayonnaise sauce appearing in US cookbooks by 1948 (de Gouy's Gold Cook Book for example, revised edition; Wood lists it also), commonly used on lettuce salads. In original recipes it's a very mild "Russian" dressing with further mayonnaise and whipped cream. As discussed periodically, it sometimes appears on Reuben Sandwiches, though some prefer the more robust classic "Russian Dressing." (If the ages of humankind are accountable Stone, Bronze, Iron, etc., then the ages of the US can be further subdivided. The last half of the 20th Century was the Age of Mayonnaise.)

[Carrot Top]

Elsewhere I've often recommended an appetizing underground classic: Louis Pullig de Gouy's Sandwich Manual for Professionals (1939), more readily available in the 1980s reprint, The Ultimate Sandwich Book (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1982, ISBN 0894711636 or 0894711644).  Variations on the hamburger now forgotten (or "discovered").  63 pages on "Club, or Three-Decker" sandwich recipes at several per page.  De Gouy emphasized that the person Sandwich himself (18th-century playboy earl) is important for naming, not inventing, it. 

←

Louis de Gouy is indeed one of the most prolific and entertaining cookbook writers I've ever read. Not to mention that he was also a professional chef who could walk the walk as well as talk the talk, too. I loved the sandwich book - what a collection!

And his commentary . . . direct, brusque and humorous in his own way, is simply marvellous. Almost Thurber-esque if Thurber decided not to plot and structure but simply to stick in a paragraph here and there.

The Romagnolis' Table, whose durable pragmatic pasta ideas I still use.

Classic, simple, non-fluffy but well-based Italian-American food put together with no simpering or hesitations, no frills or furbelows. Excellent.

[1] "Thousand Island" is a mayonnaise sauce appearing in US cookbooks by 1948 (de Gouy's Gold Cook Book for example, revised edition; Wood lists it also), commonly used on lettuce salads.  In original recipes it's a very mild "Russian" dressing with further mayonnaise and whipped cream.  As discussed periodically, it sometimes appears on Reuben Sandwiches, though some prefer the more robust classic "Russian Dressing."  (If the ages of humankind are accountable Stone, Bronze, Iron, etc., then the ages of the US can be further subdivided.  The last half of the 20th Century was the Age of Mayonnaise.)

I always found DeGouy's Gold Cook Book easier to stomach for referencing details of classic recipes than Escoffier. Much preferred it, along with a 1970 edition of Larousse.

Great choices.

And the Age of Mayonnaise. Yes.