Best Teaching Cookbook

[Mi Patria]

I am a home cook who really wants to improve my cooking skills. What are the best cookbooks that offer a methodological approach to learning the key basics to cooking well? I've tried following recipes to improve my skills, but this approach is unfocused. Thx!

[Waterzoy]

Have a look at 'The Cook's Book' which focuses in detail on step-by step techniques, with photos. Various chefs from around the world have contributed but is aimed at the home cook. The editor is Jill Norman. It's had great reviews on Amazon. I'm very tempted myself, but am running short on cook-book shelf space.

Edit: You could also consider "Cookwise" by Shirley Corriher. Her interest is on ingredients and how they work together with the emphasis is on why recipes do/don't work and how to prevent problems in the first place.

Edited November 5, 2006 by Rachellindsay (log)

[Dave Hatfield]

Rachel beat me to it. I was just looking to see if "The Cook's Book" was available in the states before posting this.

I recently bought this book on a trip to the UK. What a bargain! 6 pounds at WH Smith. This is for a hardbound 847 page book which is lavishly illustrated.

As Rachel says each section is written by a well known chef and is really a tutorial on that particular aspect of cooking. For example Charile Trotter does the vegatable section which runs to over 40 pages.

There is a heavy empathisis on technique. This is NOT a recipe book. There are, of course, recipies & some very nice ones too, but the stress is on technique & how to. Its well illustrated.

I haven't had it long enough to have used it a lot, but what I have used it for has turned out well. Reading through it I get the impression that there isn't much of anything left out.

Best learning book I've ever seen.

[Pat Churchill]

I am a home cook who really wants to improve my cooking skills.  What are the best cookbooks that offer a methodological approach to learning the key basics to cooking well?  I've tried following recipes to improve my skills, but this approach is unfocused.  Thx!

←

I've put together an ebook for novice cooks. I had people like my sons in mind when I wrote it - young people fending for themselves, trying to set up a store cupbard, put together a bit of equipment, master some basic skills, learn the jargon.

You can download it free here. It's a pdf file.

Good cooking!!

[Sergio]

"The New Making of a Cook: The Art, Techniques, And Science Of Good Cooking" by Madeleine Kamman

This is a great tome (1200+ pages) which many recipes but a overall emphasis on the technique. Best of all: http://www.ecookbooks.com/products.html?re...ic=simplesearch

[andiesenji]

I would recommend This Book by Ann Willen

I purchased the book when it was first released and was immediately impressed. I have been cooking almost all of my life and have a huge collection of cookbooks. This one is as good as they come.

I have given it to absolute novice cooks, to people who have been cooking "just the basics" for years and wanted to expand their range, and also to very proficient cooks to whom any new cookbook is an adventure.

I have given it to young women, to men, and to one grandmother who retired from her law practice and wanted to spend time with her grandchildren (teens) and learn to cook along with them.

She said that if she had to choose one cookbook to take to a "desert" island, this would be the one.

She also said that she has in turn given both her daughter and daughter-in-law this book.

Just read the reviews on the Amazon site to get an idea of what a wide range of purchasers have written.

[paul o' vendange]

Well, there are many I'd recommend, each for different things (raw materials selection and preparation, food combining, regional cooking, etc.). For the fundamentals of cooking technique, 30+ years ago now, when I was a young teenager, I was given the best gift I could have asked for: La Technique, by Jacques Pepin. I worked it cover to cover, and it put me in good stead for the decades to come. This book, with La Methode, has now been combined into Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

I agree, the Madeleine Kamman book is great, as are a good many others. I believe Jacques Pepin's works were the first to almost exclusively emphasize French technique, over recipes, in introducing the popular market to French cooking. (Though Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking long preceeded La Technique, the latter is much more heavily weighted to technique).

Edited to add: After reading the above post, I'd love to read through Ms. Willan's La Varenne Pratique. It appears to be a substantial, exceedingly well done book. The editorial review indicates the book is, among other things, "close to an expanded version of Complete Techniques."

Edited November 6, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Kayakado]

Julia Child's The Way to Cook, this is my standard wedding gift for novice cooks.

Shinagel and Rosenthal's How Cooking works, this was my standard for many years. It explains why and how.

[Jean Blanchard]

All great books. One more...Cooking One on One by John Ash. Not as comprehensive but certainly lots of great information.

[judiu]

I am a home cook who really wants to improve my cooking skills.  What are the best cookbooks that offer a methodological approach to learning the key basics to cooking well?  I've tried following recipes to improve my skills, but this approach is unfocused.  Thx!

←

I've put together an ebook for novice cooks. I had people like my sons in mind when I wrote it - young people fending for themselves, trying to set up a store cupbard, put together a bit of equipment, master some basic skills, learn the jargon.

You can download it free here. It's a pdf file.

Good cooking!!

←

Pat, that ebook is a blessing! My son was just on the phone to me asking for a "How to Boil Water" type of cookbook, and then I saw this! What a GREAT idea!

[Mi Patria]

Thanks all! I look forward to learning from all of those selections.

[Pat Churchill]

Pat, that ebook is a blessing! My son was just on the phone to me asking for a "How to Boil Water" type of cookbook, and then I saw this! What a GREAT idea!

←

Thanks

[thecuriousone]

I've learned more from, Madeline Kamman's, "The Making of a Cook" than I have from any other.

[s_sevilla]

no so much HOW to cook, but the why's, what's, and other w's behind cooking from "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee....this book goes a long way in stoking passion for food.

[andiesenji]

(snip)

Edited to add: After reading the above post, I'd love to read through Ms. Willan's La Varenne Pratique.  It appears to be a substantial, exceedingly well done book.  The editorial review indicates the book is, among other things, "close to an expanded version of Complete Techniques."

←

She includes some basic information that is rarely found in other cookbooks, including diagrams of retail cuts of meat in both the US and the French cuts of beef, veal, lamb and pork, as well as how to bard and tie, bone and roll various cuts. Also instructions for game and birds.

She even includes a chapter on microwave cooking, something that is generally ignored by many cookbook writers.

The wife of one of the doctors who used to sublease from us took one of Willan's cooking courses in France in the early '80s and she gave me The Cookng Of Burgundy And The Lyonnais, one of Willan's early books.

[jsmith]

I like the Joy of Cooking, though it doesn't seem to be popular here. The format is nice:

A section detailing the technique, and the critical points.

Next a very basic, standard recipe.

After the recipe, usually 5-10 recipes building on the previous recipe that mostly give you ideas for expanding on the standard recipe.

It doesn't go into really high end cooking techniques, but I find it great for learning the basics.

[jgm]

Welcome to eGullet, MiPatria!

If you hang out here enough, you'll learn to cook!

The important part, no matter which book you're cooking from, is ask questions. Like you, I am a home cook, and when I first joined I was a little intimidated by eG, since many people here are professionals in the food industry. It's important for you to know that I have never, ever been ridiculed or treated in the least bit negative manner, no matter how basic the question I asked.

Learn to use the search function, to see what's already here; check out the eGullet Culinary Institute for some beautifully done basic courses, and just dive in and do it.

Sally Schneider has a couple of cookbooks to check out at some point, "A New Way to Cook" and a new one, "The Improvisational Cook." Once you get comfortable with the basics, these two books will help you launch out on your own, and would be a nice complement to the books already recommended.

[Shaya]

La Varenne Pratique. Just love it. My Mom gave it to me just as I was in university, and I've been referring to it ever since. I pick up techniques from there witnout even knowing I was doing so.

Pat, I intend to look at your ebook as well. Thanks!

Edited November 16, 2006 by Shaya (log)

[moosnsqrl]

It's important for you to know that I have never, ever been ridiculed or treated in the least bit negative manner, no matter how basic the question I asked. 

Oh, dear! How could we have overlooked your hazing?

Kidding aside, though, jgm is right - why, there's even a thread for the most embarassingly simple cooking question that you're almost afraid to ask!

[C_Ruark]

Welcome MP,

My first cookbook was the Betty Crocker binder-style one. Still has some good info. These days I like the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (ISBN 193361501X). Will be given out during the holidays. ATK produces the Cook's Illustrated magazine; very, very helpful pub.

Some authors to checkout:

Mario Batali - Ingredients lists aren't overly complex, so you can hone specific skills like braising, and basic tomato and/or cream sauces. I like M's cooking philosophy.

Anthony Bourdain - especially the Les Halles Cookbook - Another stripped down "it's all about the food" type book; recipes are usually just a few steps so again, you can focus on technique.

Julia Child - Read everything! Very good for technique.

John-Georges Vongerichten - Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef - Recipes were just a bit challenging (and I'm schooled). But, after a while I fell in step with the way he constructs the tastes and tones of his food.

[deltadoc]

All of the suggestions so far are excellent. However, based on my sense of your original posted question, I think you'd be best advised to obtain an "older" version of Joy of Cooking. Like maybe the one from the 1960's.

It was my first cookbook, and I learned a lot from reading it.

Wayne Gisslen's book, Professional Cooking, is also very good, once you learn the basics from Joy of Cooking. It almost has too much detail in it, but serves as an excellent backup and reference source. Beware that he has lots of typos and someone didn't proofread the version I have (#5?) very well at all!

doc

[snowangel]

I'd be using the library and check out every recommendation here you can get your hands on, as well as Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" and see what speaks to you. And, then there are the books like "Cutting Up in the Kitchen" which will tell you all about meat cuts in America.

[highchef]

I am a home cook who really wants to improve my cooking skills.  What are the best cookbooks that offer a methodological approach to learning the key basics to cooking well?  I've tried following recipes to improve my skills, but this approach is unfocused.  Thx!

←

I asked this question another way to Dorie Greenspan when she was kind enough to be here. It's on this thread. She seconds Joy Of Cooking. The list is pretty good..

[FlavoursGal]

Check out "Maran Illustrated Cooking Basics" (www.maran.com/cooking.htm). It's a step-by-step guide to all of the basic culinary techniques (plus some more advanced ones), with full-colour photographs accompanying each step.

The recipes in the book all contain 10 or fewer ingredients. A great book, at a great price - check it out at amazon.com or indigo.ca.

[Jmahl]

Wonderful thread-Although I have several of the books mentioned I often fall back on Craig Claiborn's New York Times Cookbook - I own two editions, the 1975 edition and the 1990 revised, good recipies, excellent instructions. You can learn a lot of basics here.

For the joy of good food.

Jmahl