Your Favorite (Can't Do Without) Cookbook

[MicBacchus]

I've followed the "Cookbooks - How Many Do You Own?" thread. Now I'd like to

ask - which is the one you have that you'd rescue if you could only pick one? I've

purchased several based on what many of you have purchased or written about,

but I guess I'm ultimately looking for the creme de la creme - an ultimate

collection.

[ScorchedPalate]

The one cookbook I would rescue in a fire is my three-ring binder full of printouts, magazine tear-outs, recipe cards, and such. But if you mean the one commercially-available book I would take with me if I knew I could have only one, forever, I'd be hard pressed to say. I'd want a general-purpose book, but none of the ones I currently own fits that bill. Which is probably why I have so many cookbooks!

The book I cook out of most often, and most happily, is "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" by David Waltuck. It's got a ton of recipes, and they run the gamut from back-of-the-box (shepherd's pie, sloppy joes) to ethnic (lots of chinese) to company-nice. The trick of cooking green beans is worth the price of admission alone. I can only think of one recipe I have made out of this book in the last 3 years that I didn't like, and that was because I didn't like one of the ingredients.

Rounding out the top five:

- Asian Ingredients (Bruce Cost)

- Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen

- Baking Illustrated

- LA Times California Cookbook

[edited for a grammar nit]

Edited March 28, 2005 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[canucklehead]

If only one....

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - by Marcella Hazan.

The recipes are delicous and easy - rarely needing a laundry list of ingredients and very much suited to the home kitchen. Marcella is amazing at conveying the essence of good cooking and the pleasures of a well made pasta or a slow roasted meat.

I often read it before I go to bed so that my dreams are filled with happy meals...

[WolfChef]

Me: The Escoffier Cookbook

Wife: The Joy of Cooking

They both have a spot on the counter. The rest of the hundred or so(who counts) reside elsewhere. Joy is great for it's sheer volume and diversity of recipes and Escoffier's is just pure cooking from stocks to Cherries Jubilee.

[snowangel]

Depends on the season and the year. This winter, it was All About Braising. Come early summer, it will be the St. Paul Farmer's Market Cookbook or Alice Waters Vegetable book.

I guess year round, I refer probably most often to Baking with Julia or Julia and Jacques Cooking at home.

But, most often, I reach for my recipe box. Recipes cut from newspapers, magazines, from friends, from family, and especially those recipes written by my great grandmother in spidery fountain pen.

[Marlene]

Certainly Braising with Molly. But I reach mostly for my William Sonoma series of books these day..

[andiesenji]

Joy of Cooking if I could have only one but it would be awfully traumatic leaving all the others behind. I fear I would weep uncontrollably.

[Chris Amirault]

Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook. I could not do without it; it's beaten to a pulp, not surprisingly. But I agree with andiesenji: I'd come loose from my tether if I lost my collection!

[McDuff]

1978 copy of The Great Chefs of France by Anthony Blake and Quentin Crewe. It would be on the top of the bag which had the Bocuse, Troisgros, Verge, and Guerard books, all from the 70's, in case of a fire.

[Tess]

My boyfriend and I have worn out one copy of Silver Palate New Basics and are working on a second, so I'd have to say that. It's not even that we use so many of the recipes; it's just a handy reference for looking up an ingredient and getting some ideas. Actual recipes, I use more by Julia and Marcella but the New Basics is a good book to keep out on the counter. (I might have said Joy of Cooking too and maybe I just don't consult it much any more because I have so much of it memorized.)

[Susan in FL]

That is one of the hardest questions I've ever tried to answer... For largely sentimental reasons, probably the original Silver Palate Cookbook.

[maggiethecat]

Joy of Cooking if I could have only one but it would be awfully traumatic leaving all the others behind.  I fear I would weep uncontrollably.

←

All of that, andie.

"Joy" is a Desert Island Cookbook, that includes fancy French fripperies, pancake recipes and what to do with a dead possum. And popovers.

It may not be the book I pull out most often, cookbook flirt that I am, but if I were limited to one: no contest.

[Mayhaw Man]

One you can get: The Cotton Country Collection

One you can't get: The Cookbook

They're both pretty great.

[Susan G]

Fanny Farmer.........the most recently updated, not my Gram's 1933 edition!

It's a great jumping-off point for the American repertoire........and I'm loving the large print and easy-on-the-eye serif.

[evilhomer]

laurie colwin's two books (ought to count as one, you could hide them easily within an escoffier)

[highchef]

I've followed the "Cookbooks - How Many Do You Own?" thread.  Now I'd like to

ask - which is the one you have that you'd rescue if you could only pick one?  I've

purchased several based on what many of you have purchased or written about, 

but I guess I'm ultimately looking for the creme de la creme - an ultimate

collection.

←

where are you from?

[highchef]

The French Chef..Julia Child

edited to explain...as a new wife I knew nothing about cooking, but had major access to a beautiful garden. tomatos, peppers, eggplant etc. all grown with love. A woman who was teaching me to sew told me to buy this cookbook as I was ruining the produce. My first ratatouille, cassoullet, etc. came from there. I don't know that it saved my marriage, but it really helped! Since then I have bought hundreds of cookbooks but none have had the impact that little paperback has.

Edited March 29, 2005 by highchef (log)

[purplewiz]

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. It was my first cookbook and it's still where I go when I'm looking for good basic recipes. I have lots of other books that I like, but this one's still my reference.

I've made notes on many of the recipes, and losing those would be the worst!

Marcia.

[eje]

which is the one you have that you'd rescue if you could only pick one?  I've

←

Well, I'm not gonna be able to pick just one.

The ones that were the most important to me when I was first learning to cook were, "Kitchen Primer" by Craig Claiborne, a paperback two volume edition of "The Joy of Cooking" from the eighties, and "Classic Chinese Cuisine" by Nina Simonds. I don't go back to Joy or Kitchen Basics for recipes much anymore; but, I still make quite a few dishes from Classic Chinese Cuisine.

For baking, bread especially, and medium to advanced home cooking, I think it is hard to beat Julia Child's "The Way to Cook". I often use the procedures or amounts in Way to judge recipes I find on the Internet.

Erik

edited to fix title of Claiborne book

Edited March 29, 2005 by eje (log)

[PCL]

I would have thought that the Larousse in its modern form would've made an appearance on this thread by now.

I can agree with the Escoffier as a possible 'there can be only one' candidate as it provides basic technique with minimal fuss, but it is just classical cuisine.

'The Book' however, is an encyclopaedia that also happens to have loads of recipes no? covering a range of cultures. Something for everyone.

[CtznCane]

There are many cookbooks I have that I think are excellent. If you asked, pick your top 5, or even top 3, now then there is some room to really debate the merits. For just one though? No contest. Joy of Cooking. While I can improvise on many things, if I need to know the basics, that is the source.

[MicBacchus]

I've followed the "Cookbooks - How Many Do You Own?" thread.   Now I'd like to

ask - which is the one you have that you'd rescue if you could only pick one?  I've

purchased several based on what many of you have purchased or written about, 

but I guess I'm ultimately looking for the creme de la creme - an ultimate

collection.

←

where are you from?

←

Maryland - altho I lived for 2 yrs. in Baton Rouge and fell in love with Cajun/Creole cooking

Edited March 29, 2005 by MicBacchus (log)

[reverendtmac]

A New Way to Cook, by Sally Schnieder. It's the one I go to for 95% of my basics...

[weinoo]

Julia's "The Way to Cook" used to be my go-to book - wonderfully illustrated as well.

But lately I find myself turning to Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." As a friend said when he saw all my cookbooks, if you have that, why do you need any of the others?

[DTBarton]

Lots of faves already mentioned here, Joy of Cooking, Hazan's Italian, Larousse.

I am also very fond of the Chinese cookbooks by Pei Mei.