What do you want in a cookery book?

[jackal10]

What do you want in a cookery book?

- Basic standards

- New techniques

- New and original recipes or compilation of existing

- - professional/restaurant standard (e.g mise/assemble/many component plates)

- - adaptions for home cooks

- - family style

- Glossy food porn pictures

- Celebrity chef endorsement

- Other celeb endorsement

- Just recipes or text as well, such as historical development

- Complete menus

- Special needs (e.g. kosher/veggie/gluten free/diet)

- Selection or a complete reference work

What changes it from "ok" to "must have"?

[repoman]

I like glossy pictures and I like books that don't treat the reader as if they had never cooked anything beyond a frozen pizza. I think that there is a place for more "advanced" cookbooks for experienced home cooks who want to learn a bit more.

[Carlovski]

A good cookery book for me must be more than a collection of recipes. I like to know a bit more about the dish - and more importantly it must give me a reason to want to cook it (I'm particularly thinking about Simon Hopkinson's writing here) - either. I value discussion of which steps/ingredients are most important, what can be substituted and what is vital. Suggestions for variations/twists are always welcome too.

If there is a theme to the book - a style of cooking, a region or even just an ingredient I like to read some background (Fuschia Dunlops Sichuan Cooking was particularly good in this regard).

[kitwilliams]

I WANT MEASUREMENTS BY WEIGHT!!!! (or include all options: pounds, metric and volume). (This remark is pointed at US authors/publishers.)

Sorry for the shouting...it's my pet peeve!

I want explanations. When a recipe tells you to do something a certain way, I want to know why -- and what will happen if I do it a more common way? If a cookbook author wants my trust, they need to let me know that THEY know why they are doing something that certain way, not just because another chef/instructor told them to do it that way with no explanation as well.

Pictures are lovely but I don't need them. I want good recipes, not a picture-perfect coffeetable book.

I love a little bit of history preceding the recipe...how they developed the recipe, where they were when they first experienced the dish, and what makes it so good that they wanted to includ it in their book.

[memesuze]

in addition to the above, I want suggestions as to accompanying dishes - my flavor palate isn't the best educated and I need help

[ludja]

Most important:

Good recipes are the most important.

A pleasing design and easily readable typeface/color combinations are important to me.

Explanatory paragraph preceding recipe that gives some context, details or history of the dish as appropriate.

If there are many 'unusua'l ingredients, it is useful to have a chapter/glossary that discusses the ingredients or tools.

A good index that includes careful indexing by ingredient.

Also good:

Suggestions for pairings with other foods or wine, especially if the recipe or cookbook focuses on traditional regional dishes. Whole menus are wonderful as well.

A well written introduction that gives me a sense of the author and his or her philosophy and the context or point of their book and recipes.

If appropriate, tips on how far in advance all or part of the recipe can be made, and if so, how it should be stored. This can be especially helpful with baked goods.

Weight measurements in addition to volume measurements for baked goods. Also, in recipes where it makes a difference, volume or weight measurements rather than just a descriptor of a medium sized 'somthing'.

If appropriate for the type of cookbook involved, a good bibliography.

I enjoy photos, but some of my very favorite cooksbooks have no photos, so this is not a requirement for me. I find photos more helpful for baked goods like breads, cakes, pastries or cookies.

Celebrity endorsement is not important for me. If it is a chef or cookbook author that I already admire or if I independently determine that I want the book, I'll buy it.

Edited August 15, 2006 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

The cookbooks I value most also usually have a distinct flavor/tone or philosophy that comes through the pages. That is, the author's voice and cooking style comes through. Sometimes what is captured is less the author's voice and more the feeling of a particular cuisine and culture. In both cases these are often the cookbooks that I learn the most from and also treasure. Maybe another way to describe it is the perception that there is an authentic or truthful knowledge and passion behind the writing.

I guess I was hinting at this in mentioning the importance above, to me, of introductory paragraphs, introductions and bibliography. Usually also, a certain tone or flavor is achieved by nature of the recipes chosen for the collection. In some manner, they fit together under some premise or feeling that is in addition to the promised subject in the booktitle.

edited to add: A good recipe may also have additional "trucs" or tips and if appropriate, logical substitutions or variations on the recipe. That is, the small details that allow one to undestand or absorb the recipe and that then allows even a non-professional but thoughtul cook to make variations or changes in time. If a more traditional recipe is being modififed, I enjoy learning of how the variation is different than the traditional recipe.

Edited August 15, 2006 by ludja (log)

[SuzySushi]

What other posters have said and...

I own over 400 cookbooks. They tend to fall into two camps (and these are the features that entice me to buy new ones):

1) Knowledgeable, in-depth presentation of a particular cuisine or type of food, including background information and a strong author's voice. What makes some ingredients/brands better to use than others?

2) Clear-cut recipes with ingredients lists (in order of use) followed by explicit instructions. Color photos of the finished dish and step-by-step photos or line drawings of tricky preparation steps are definite assets.

Ideally, a cookbook will fulfill all these requirements, but I'll take a well-written one without pictures over a poorly written one with pictures any day.

It should be clear from a casual perusal of the book whether it's geared toward professionals or toward home cooks.

Celebrity status and endorsements are not on my list.

[Kayakado]

I admit I buy cookbooks based on the food porn quality or recipes accompanied by compelling narratives. I also like books that are standard size so I can read them in bed, some of the big coffee table books make this difficult.

I also write comments in my cookbooks next to all the recipes I try. I love it when I buy a used cookbook and the previous owner has made notes.

My pet peeves:

poorly written and/or untested recipes

fonts that are too small when it comes to fractions and I have to hunt up my glasses, I end up writing them in by hand so i can read them later

Not including weight measurements - all my cookbooks end up having weights written in by me in parens.

Bindings that won't lay flat and fall apart easily

Edited August 16, 2006 by Kayakado (log)

[jgm]

Others have contributed some really good ideas in answer to your query, but these are the ones most important to me:

I like the idea of having suggestions for accompaniments. I really like having a little paragraph about each dish, enticing me to try it, and letting me know what to expect from it.

I also like substitution information, since I can't always get specific ingredients. Statements like, "If you can't find fresh basil, dried will do, but it will lack the flavor the original will provide" are helpful, as are "If you can't find fresh basil, try another recipe. This dish is quite lackluster without it."

Pet peeve: How much garlic is two cloves of garlic, chopped? Say 1 teaspoon if that's what you mean. Garlic cloves vary dramatically in size, as do many other produce items. A "bunch" of parsley is also vague. So is a "sprig." Some of the sprigs of basil in my garden right now have six small leaves; others have more than a dozen large leaves. Be specific, preferably by weight.

It's also confusing to me, to be told to saute something for 5 minutes. 5 minutes on your stove may equal 15 minutes on mine. Give me information about color, sound, smell, or whatever else is indicative of the point I'm supposed to reach. "Soft but not browned" is very helpful, since browning onions (or whatever) imparts a flavor not found in onions that are simply sauteed until softened.

It's also nice to know whether a dish will reheat well the next day or not.

It would also be lovely to have suggestions and information about whether I need to stick to the recipe pretty religiously, or whether I should try certain substitutions for a different character and flavor.

Extreme pet peeve: Don't tell me which foods are good for me or bad for me. When it comes to nutrition, it's more a matter of what you've decided to believe, than absolutes. When a cookbook author makes pronouncements about whether I should or should not consume certain foods, it's extremely irritating. And it also severely dates the cookbook, since "experts" change their opinions about these matters quite often.

[dividend]

Jack you should write a book in the style of your excellent EGCI courses and tutorials. I would buy it - I love the approachable, non-professional yet absolutely knowledgable approach to cooking. Like Dan Lepard's latest book.

Actually, some of those courses exemplify what I want in a cookbook. I think the course on Mexican Table Salsas is a great example. We get:

- some history

- an explanation of tools without being fussy

- a comfortable style that says, hey, I know the average home cook will takes shortcuts, here's where it works or doesn't, here's why you'll want specialty tools if you really get into it

- a clear, nicely illustrated example of several different styles

- the chart at the end, with examples of how to make the subject your own

Those courses (and distillations of their accompanying Q&A's) ought be compiled into a book.

I personally dislike both spiral bindings (makes the book feel cheap), and pretty dust jackets (it's just going to get tattered anyway). I love wide margins and non-glossy paper so I can make pencil notes.

I think Rose Levy Berenbaum writes great recipes - some might find them overy convoluted, but she does a great job of conveying in words parts of baking that are intangible until you see them, particularly in The Bread Bible.

EDIT - forgot to second the love for weights/measures, when appropriate. But sometimes it's not necassary, so I think you need to pick your audience. I don't like to be told 2 1/8 teaspoons minced garlic. Stuff like onions and garlic, people are mostly likely going to eyeball anyway. But for baking? Weights please.

It's also confusing to me, to be told to saute something for 5 minutes. 5 minutes on your stove may equal 15 minutes on mine. Give me information about color, sound, smell, or whatever else is indicative of the point I'm supposed to reach. "Soft but not browned" is very helpful, since browning onions (or whatever) imparts a flavor not found in onions that are simply sauteed until softened.

I agree with this! Marcella Hazen does a good job with this, I think, using phrases like "until you smell garlic" or "until the oil floats free from the sauce."

Edited August 16, 2006 by dividend (log)

[Chufi]

I like explanations as to why I should or should not do something.

Instead of "let the toasted hazelnuts cool before decorating the cake"

I like: "don't put the hazelnuts on the cake while still warm, or they will melt the frosting". This will stop me in my tracks beause I am always impatient.

I guess I don't like too detailed instructions or rules. I was recently reading through Bugialli's Southern Italian book, and in almost every single recipe he tells me to put some sort of mixture "in an earthenware or glass bowl" (I'm paraphrasing, I forgot the exact words, don't know why after reading them 50 times? ) anyway this just annoys me.. I have stainless steel bowls all over the kitchen that are just as good to put a ravioli stuffing in as a glass bowl.. unless he has some sort of reason for glass, but then he should tell me!!

These are just details though. I agree with Ludja that I like the voice of the author to come through. Marcella's voice is not Julia's, but there is a time for both.

I do find that has I collect more and more books, and sometimes not have the time to read them as carefully as I'd like, that pictures can be a big help to lure me into a recipe.

[memesuze]

don't have the second half of the recipe be on the turned page, unless it's a three-pager - I like to lay the recipe out and be able to look at all at once several times while I'm cooking - prevents a few "oooops"

[lcdm]

It would be helpful to have a CD or website (in addition to print) to show you exactly how something is done or how something looks. This way a person familiar with the recipe dosen't need to be bothered with the extra pages (or explaination) but the novice would have the ability to look it up/view it.

[Caroline923]

I am a dessert-aholic - so for those recipes - your input on what makes them unique would help - there are tons of recipes for desserts of the same name - and we all have our preferences or need to meet the special requests of a client - so to explain what is unique about your finished product would help in thte decision of what to bake. In addition, any advance preparation that can be done and freezing times are always beneficial to those of us in a pinch for time...

[Kouign Aman]

don't have the second half of the recipe be on the turned page, unless it's a three-pager - I like to lay the recipe out and be able to look at all at once several times while I'm cooking - prevents a few "oooops"

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What she said. Page flipping is annoying. And this means there are pages that will need anecdotes or pictures to fill them up. Those are good places for nifty explanations and variations too.

Theme. I want a theme. I've got Joy, Mom has McCall's, the Tenor has Betty Crocker. That's plenty of generic american cooking and basic skills.