COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY
Comment before noon EST, Tuesday, May 15, for a chance to win a copy of The Best Simple Recipes; one winner will be chosen at random.
If there ever were a “Cookbooks Anonymous Clubhouse,” it would be situated right in the offices of America’s Test Kitchen. Our collection of cookbooks is at 4,296-books-and-growing, an ample literary playground for our test cooks’ deep research of recipes and techniques. But the obsession also spills over the professional domain into our own personal kitchens. Who among us hasn’t fallen head over heels over a beloved book that has influenced us greatly as home cooks?
We asked around America’s Test Kitchen for stories behind their favorite cookbooks. Here are a sampling:
The Classic Italian Cook Book by Marcella Hazan. The first cookbook I read cover to cover and it was my go-to book when I had my very first apartment kitchen as a college senior.
The Swedish Table by Helene Henderson, an African-American who was raised in Sweden. She really knows her cabbage, potatoes, and gravlax (with Aquavit!) and that kind of thing. There are only 125 recipes in this slim volume but the ones I’ve tried really work. She has a recipe for something called “Pizza Salad” that changed my weeknight menu on pizza night for good.
No way I can pick just one!
Betty Crocker (my mother’s) because it was the first cookbook I had ever looked at — I probably couldn’t read when I first opened it. I spent hours and hours poring over it as a kid and never got bored. Great photos of the era, especially of cakes.
Fannie Farmer (my grandmother’s copy). Again, spent an endless amount of time reading it as a kid. Whenever I visited, I always spent some time flipping through it and loved reading my grandmother’s notes. “Elegant.” “A dud!” etc.
Julia Child’s Menu Cookbook. I’d watched all the episodes on TV many times — it’s like a time capsule of the era.
Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax. A perfect combination of great recipes, food history, and photos.
The New York Cookbook by Molly O’Neill. Really brings the people and food of New York, famous or not, to life.
Joy of cooking, hands down.
And now for the Silly Question of the Day…
What are your favorite cookbooks of all time?
Leave your silly answer in the comments!
About the Author: Christine Liu
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I have many but I remember my 1st.. as a kid it was “Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys & Girls” (pictured here) http://www.oldcookbooks.com/Dish-or-Meal-Type/Children-and-Teenagers/Betty-Crocker-s-Cook-Book-For-Boys-And-Girls-Cookbook-1957.html From 1957 it is older than I am with funny comments with the recipes from THEIR “Test Kitchen” specialists (The Kids that tried the recipes). Given it was written in 1957 some of the opinions (Boys vs Girls) are funny. Outdated but funny. Also 1s learned how to make Cinnamon Rolls, Egg Nog, Meat Loaf, Pigs in a Blanket, Hot Cocoa, and Sugar Cookies. I still have this book 40+ years later in my cupboard too.
My mother’s copy of Cafe Beaujolais cookbook. The Amazon chocolate cake recipe saved my childhood!
My favorite cookbook (for reading, primarily) is The Splendid Table, by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.
SOME of my favorites, (because the newest addition often is a new favorite!), are The Way to Cook by Julia Child, Joy of Cooking and the cookbook my grandmother made for me with all her family recipes in it!
My favorite is How to Grill, by Steven Reichlen. Great recipes, love the pictures.
I love Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorrie Greenspan
My favorite cookbook is my America’s Test Kitchen Complete TV Show Cookbook. I have already baked my way through the entire cookie chapter. I also love The Breakfast Book. I got it because Chris Kimball recommended it.
It’s got to be Joy of Cooking; I’ve used it so much the spine is broken.
my mummy’s 50s betty crocker. that is my ‘joy of cooking.”
My favorite cookbook is “Hello, Cupcake!” I love making adorable cupcakes with easy, everyday items. People are always impressed even though the decorations are so simple!
I love Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorrie Greenspan
I love ‘America’s Test Kitchen’s Family Baking Book’ and ‘Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone’ by Deborah Madison.
Other than the America’s Test Kitchen books, my go to is Mark Bittmans’s How to Cook Everything.
my fav cookbook is the best recipe. i can read it over and over again and make anything from there and know that it will taste awesome!
I have a huge cookbook collection and some may call me an addict. It’s always hard for me to answer this question since I have a hard time choosing just one. My answer is often the last one I got since it’s to one I’m usually reading and planning from, cooking from and using for inspiration.
Hard to pick absolute favorites, but here are a few:
-Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible were the books that introduced me to home bread baking. The recipes are marvelous and the instructions are so thorough.
-Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Remolif Shere. I love how this book is organized by fruit. The desserts are elegant without a lot of “flash.” Includes a recipe for the best almond cake I have ever tasted.
-660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. These recipes require a lot of toasting and grinding of your own spices, but the end products are worth it. I have had some disappointing experiences with “watered down” Indian recipes (ones that make too many compromises with ingredients, etc) and these taste like the real deal.
The Betty Crocker Cooky Book. I made my first years of Christmas Cookie from that book and still do.
“Leith’s Vegetable Bible” is our go-to for vegetarian cooking (even though we’re not vegetarian, we love veggie cooking). I’ve never found a recipe in it that wasn’t good, although most of them are exceptional! A bit like the ATK cookbooks (which I also LOVE), I think they’ve actually tested and refined their recipes.
Apart from that, I love my archive of oddball community cook books. Usually great for sweet stuff but hit and miss for most everything else. Sometimes there’s a diamond in the rough though… not to mention the fun that can be had reading through what was in vogue with the Volunteer Fire Department’s Lady’s Auxiliary back in 1979.
My favorite cookbook of all time is one by my grandmother in her own handwriting. I spent many hours at her side learning to cook. Her cookbook will always be my favorite.
Why yes, we do! The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook – http://blog.essexla.com/2012/04/13/louie-loves-the-cooks-illustrated-cookbook/
My fave is Rick Bayless Mexican Kitchen
uclangel422 at yahoo dot com
For sure, “Le Ricette Regionale Italiane”, by Anna Gosetti della Salda… then, “Bistro Cooking”, by Patricia Wells. “Preserving”, by Oded Schwartz and finaly, “Gifts from the Kitchen”, by Annie Riggs… LOVE these ones!
50s era Betty Crocker..only cookbook we owned so it was used a lot as I grew up and learned to cook…I still have that cookbook but don’t use it anymore because of its fragile state..but it means so much to me
The 1972 Betty Crocker cookbook is my go-to cookbook. America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is my second stop. Southern Living cookbooks are good too.
The one I go back to again and again is my Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Everything I’ve made there is good, if not outstanding.
My favorite “cookbook” used to be a folder full of pages from America’s Test Kitchen’s “Best of” magazines, but now the new Cook’s Illustrated cookbook has replaced that!
Baking Illustrated. Everything you need to know about baking with tons of helpful illustrations.
I love this baking book from the UK “Baking Bible: From the Oven to the Table” http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Bible-From-Oven-Table/dp/1407567470
It’s got some neat baked goods not commonly found in the US, but best of all, the recipes are adjusted to the US unit system in volumes!
Joy of Cooking
The one I think I’ve used the most, over the longest period of time is Sheryl London’s “The versatile grain and the elegant bean.” I like it not so much for the actual recipes, thus I can’t say it’s my favorite, per se, but every conceivable grain and legume has a few pages on the different types of products available, and their respective preparation instructions. Reference-type books like this are sometimes much more useful.
My all time fave cookbook is the Harper’s Cook Book Encyclopedia published in 1902. I found it in a thrift shop many years ago. The recipes offer an insight into the work it took at that time to prepare food. From Pigeons with Young Green Pease to Stuffed Woodcock, starting your cooking fire and it is an interesting and entertaining read!
I love all the quirky Church Lady cookbooks that communities put out as fundraisers! I inherited one from my MIL, that is almost 50yrs old, and all the recipes are handwritten. The best part? the recipes are all “tried & true” …. and can you say BUTTER makes it better? (or LARD!!)
my favorites are: ATK’s Best recipe, The Cake Bible, and the first cookbook I used: the Betty Crocker cookbook(circa 70′s & 50′s)
I have really enjoyed the Southern Living cookbook through the years. My daughters love the ones their grandmother gave them too.
I have so many favorites now it is impossible to pick just one. But the cookbook that started it all was the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. My mother had it and my grandmother before her. I think there are actually a lot of people in my family who have this book now. When I moved into my first apartment, my mom bought me a new edition, but I had to make copies from her old tattered pages because the new one didn’t have some of our family staples that were in the older versions.
My first was James Beard’s “American Cookery”
“The impoverished students’ book of cookery, drinkery, & housekeepery”
http://bookstore.reed.edu/shop_product_detail.asp?catalog_name=TXkgQ2FydA&pf_id=IMPOVERISH0876780710
My mother had a copy of this from when she was in college and it was formative for me in that presents the idea that cooking doesn’t have to strictly adhere to a recipe; contains things like ‘formulas’ for casseroles, i.e. take one of each of these classes of ingredients, combine in this manner and bake.
America’s Test Kitchen’s complete cookbook for seasons from 2001-2011 is my favorite because it has a good selection and it’s great to have a recipe go the way it’s supposed to!
My favorite cookbook is the Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV show cookbook 2001- 2010…Love It!
I love my “The New Best Recipe” from CI, but I have many that I turn to in my collection; Better Homes and Gardens, Junior League books from places I’ve lived or visited, The Bread Bible by Hensperger. My mom wrote out family favorites on 3×5 cards and laminated them for me and now I’m having my MIL do the same. I treasure those! My go-to recipes are printouts from various websites that I store in a fat folder in the kitchen drawer, but my most rumpled, dripped on, written on and smeared one is from Cook’s Illustrated and is Multigrain Bread – it’s THE BEST!
Better Homes & Gardens is always good for basics, also All Butter Sugar Packed No Holds Barred Baking Book and the Cake Bible. But really, it’s almost like asking what my favorite food is. . .just depends on what I’m doing/feeling!
Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything” and Ruhlman’s “Ratio” are the two I use most often.
The OLD, OLD version of the Settlement Cookbook that my mother had. It had ALL the old recipes for things like challah and streuselkuchen that you just cannot find these days.
The recipes ALWAYS worked and there was a little introduction to the recipe which was always fun to read.
My favorite cookbook is my dilapitated copy of
“The Joy of Cooking…”
Just adore it.
It has to be Mark Bittman’s _How to Cook Everything_ . It’s what got me started in actually cooking rather than just following recipes.
My Betty Crocker cookbook is my go to book, was a wedding gift over 35 years ago and is missing the front and back cover and has many pages with notes I have made to some recipes and lots of stained pages.
My first edition of Mastering The Art of French Cooking, signed by both Julia and Simone. (Evil Grin…)
This is going to sound so teacher’s-pet-y, but my favorite is the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (the one with the removable recipes in the ring binder)! I recommend it to people all the time because it’s perfect for people like me (aka non-chefs) who need specific, detailed instructions and full-color pictures. I also love that it includes product and equipment recommendations—it’s everything I need in one cookbook!
I bought my first cookbook when I was 22. It was a secondhand, beaten up 2 volume Meta Given’s. I still have it over 50 years later, well, my daughter does because she pinched it. It was my ONLY cookbook for a long time. I never cooked a bad dish from it, and the instructions and pictures taught me to cook. One of my favorite new cookbooks is the America’s Test Kitchen’s own, large, comprehensive “Baking.” I’ve learned a great deal about baking from it.
New Basics by Rosso & Lukins; and pretty much any Southern Living cookbook; and my fave over the past couple of years has been Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food. Also, I go back over and over to old issues of Cook’s Illustrated–the pages are stained, dog-eared, etc. but hands-down, they produce the best recipes!
What a difficult question!!! Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry are essential but not really cookbooks. I would have to say either 11 Maddison Park or Culina Mundi
Definitely my Mom’s Better Crocker cookbook. It’s seen better days but it’s one we always go back to.
My favorite cookbook will always be Craig Claiborne’s _New York Times Cookbook_, 1965 printing. This book contains a huge repertoire of interesting and delicious dishes, and not one of them is tainted by low-calorie or low-fat priorities.
well, I too suffer from the cook-book collecting addiction…still have my very first “Betty Crocker”, very tattered and worn…pages stuck together, binding taped, as well as “Fanny Farmer”. BUT no kidding, my favorite go-to is “Baking Illustrated” for baking projects and for just plain old “cookin’” I mostly use my favs from my collection of “Cooking Light” cookbooks – I know, its not just one book, but it IS one collection
.
“Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home” – simply because I had it signed by both of them. I think that was the luckiest day of my life since I was the absolute last person in line. When I approached them, they both still had the biggest smiles and were very gracious to me. I love how they do the same dish two different ways and offer troubleshooting tips as well.
My tattered, missing-the-back-cover Betty Crocker cookbook.
http://themagicapron.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/to-have-and-to-hold-for-better-or-worse/
Mine would be my 85 year old grandmas original Betty Crocker cookbook… I’ve never made anything out of it though… I use my family test kitchen books the most
My go-to is Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything,” but I also love the philosophy (and recipes) in “How to Cook Without a Book” by Pam Anderson.
My mother’s incredibly worn red McCall’s Cook Book. Easily the most used book in the house. I believe the cover is completely gone by now and there are hand written notes next to recipes from everyone in the family.
Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Love this book, and refer to it for meals and ideas on my own creations!
The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook 3rd Edition — It’s my go to book for myself and it’s my go to book when I need a gift for someone’s wedding shower or someone asks for a recommendation. My copy is definitely beaten up and covered with food, but I love it!
I have my Great Aunt Lottie’s copy of her 1939 Betty Crocker cookbook, it’s in rough shape and the binder cover is not really attached. Everything is in there and it’s pretty fool proof even with todays different versions of ingredients.
I, too, have a number of “favorites.” Some of these include: Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook; Chez Panisse; Cat Cora; Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook; Joy of Cooking; Le Cordon Blue at Home; Southern Living cookbooks, including Southern Living Ultimate. I very much enjoy watching cooking programs on television ~ one of these is Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen… lots of great information and very good recipes. I enjoy community and church collections of members’ recipes. I have started cooking with my Granddaughter… we really enjoy these bonding moments!
Rick Bayless’ “Authentic Mexican” is my go-to cookbook for anything Mexican, because everything that I’ve made has been delicious! Between that and my “Best Recipe”, I’m covered for just about anything.
Oh, this is a tough, tough question……If I go by what I most frequently get out of the library it would have to be (not sucking up here – lol) The New Best Recipe. I can find absolutely any recipe I want and know, if I follow the directions, the dish will come out perfectly.
The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen taught me that vegetarian cooking is not boring.
My favorite cookbook used to be “The Williams-Sonoma cookbook”. However since I’ve discovered the magazines Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, & America’s Test Kitchen magazines and moreover the show on TV, I just can’t go back to other cookbooks. And when the “Cook’s Illutrated Cookbook” 2000 recipes came out last year, I just couldn’t resist buying it. And now it’s the only cookbook I’ve got in my kitchen. Soon I hope i’ll be able to get myself “The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV show cookbook”. All those recipes are foolproof, we can’t go wrong if we follow all the steps as described. Keep it up.
Betty Crocker’s Cookie Cookbook.
Moosewood Cookbook – original edition now missing from my collection. 20th Edition had changes to my favorite recipe. And The Joy of Chocolate.
Irene Kuo’s “The Key to Chinese Cooking” is my all time favorite cookbook.
Fannie Farmer, the original.
My favorite is the cookbook from my church. Go to it regularly.
My all time favorite cookbook is an old (circa 1935) Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. Even though I don’t think I’ll ever want to cook squirrel or possum, just knowing I have the recipes make me feel good!
The well-used one from my mother’s kitchen with aged, curling, and food-splotched pages where I first learned how to make the perfect hard-cooked egg: The Betty Crocker Cookbook.
Like many others mine was the Betty Crocker cookbook era 50′s. It was my grandmothers. I would spent hours looking at it and the pictures. One of my grandma’s friends was in it so she signed it like a yearbook. I marveled at the breads and how “well dressed” the women in it were. She passed it on to me before she died signing it (passing it on, the meals, the memories and the love.) It holds a place of honor in my kitchen.
Master Recipes by Stephen Schmidt – the basics for almost everything.
I like America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook 3rd edition.
I have learned a lot form the book. It has a lot of good info.
I started out with Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. I loved the vanilla pudding recipe. One day I decided to make the deluxe vanilla pudding. The recipe included a package of instant vanilla pudding. That made me so mad! I bought Joy of Cooking and sold BCC at my next yard sale.
Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook – an older version.
My favorite cookbook is Pam Anderson’s “Perfect Recipies for Having People Over”. Just like America’s Test Kitchen, et al, she does a lot of testing first, to perfect her recipes. She gives shortcuts, how to vary the recipe, how far ahead the recipe can be made, how to handle leftovers, and rounds out the menu by suggesting what drinks and other courses are best served with it. Totally awesome and dependable.
The cookbook that has been my favorite for fifty years is Charleston Receipts.
It has been in continuous production since Nov. 1, 1950 so I am not the only one who has found this interesting cookbook to be a favorite.
I have a fairly extensive collection of cookbooks, including some that are now antiques and many that fall into the “vintage” category.
I own a ton of them, but JOY OF COOKING is the go to bible of everything. Bless that book.
Bittmans’s “How to Cook Everything”
I agree with Joy of Cooking. Hands down. Most useful cookbook purchase ever. In fact, I have 2. My Grandmother’s from the 50′s and the most current (my mother refuses to part with my great-grandmother’s copy which is even older).
America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.
The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines by Jeff Smith. It was my very first cookbook, which I bought for myself as a teen. I used to watch The Frugal Gourmet on PBS, along w Jacques Pepin. Those were the first cooking shows I loved. This cookbook is filled with food history from Italy, Greece and China, three wonderful cuisines.
I don’t think I could pick just one. My mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook certainly holds a special place in my heart, but now I mainly rely on recipes I’ve compiled myself from many sources, including, of course, ATK.
Back when I was in college, I received Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook” for Christmas. I think it was from my grandmother, but I’m no longer sure at this point. I don’t know why I was given it since I’d never been particularly interested in cookbooks or cooking, but I opened it up and was hooked. The pictures were amazing; between them and the text, all the instructions were completely clear and easy to understand. They made it seem like anyone could do could make anything in there then take those skills and build on them. I spent the next couple of days staying up late reading it from cover to cover, something I never imagined I would want to do with a cookbook. Now its a quarter century later & I have no idea how many cookbooks I’ve accumulated, but it’s definitely in the triple digits and it all started with that long ago, unexpected Christmas gift.
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. The three ring binder. The Betty Crocker one is similar, but it’s just not the same.
My favorite cook book I can always refer back to is:the older version of Better Homes and Gardens Cook book!
Mine is thick Red Book!
Vintage: Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. The three ring binder. I agree with MLSmith.
Currently: The Joy of Cooking is my favorite.
My heartfelt favorite is the Baton Rouge Junior League River Road Cookbook. I actually have 3 copies of it! My mother’s original (which is really in pieces), the “new” copy I bought for her in the 70′s, and the hardback 50th anniversary copy I purchased for myself a couple of years ago. It is definitive of all the southern/creole/cajun cooking i do. My second fav is America’s Test Kitchen Complete TV Show Cookbook. I just love that book! And have not been disappointed with any recipe I’ve tried in it.
Joy of Cooking, Gourmet, and ATK’s Best Skillet Recipes.
Picking a favorite cookbook is like picking a favorite child. It can’t be done. I love them all!!
Mine is the “Pocket Cookbook” first published in the 50′s. It is so popular that my mother gave each of us kids a copy as we got married. We have all used ours so much they, pretty much, disintegrated over the years. Mom has the only surviving copy in the family and it is held together with a rubber band. It was a great basic cookbook with basic recipes and suggestions to modify them. Most of all, it has the recipe for donuts my father used to make when we were kids.
As someone who thinks far too often about the “best cookbooks of all time,” I would say…
About Cookery (De Re Coquinara), attributed to Apicius. In a way this was the most influential cook book of all because it was the first.
The premiere cookbook of the Renaissance was Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera Dell’Arte De Cucinare from 1577. He was the chef for Pope Pius V, and his recipes wound up influencing all of Europe in some manner.
Another powerful work was Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery, the first truly American cook book. Published in 1796, it incorporates American produce for the first time. It went through many editions and is still popular in facsimile today.
Catherine Beecher’s sister (Harriet) may be more famous now to Americans, but Catherine was a true crusader for women’s causes. She opened several schools for women and wrote textbooks for them. Among her masterpieces stands Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book (1846), designed to teach women the art of cookery. Before this, schools that taught cooking were not usually accompanied by cookbooks. The famous cooking schools (notably those of Boston and Philadelphia) would later publish cookbooks of their own.
The Boston Cooking School Cook Book (published in 1896 by Fannie Merritt Farmer) was not the first recipe book from the school, but it was the most influential. Farmer’s cookbook has gone through 13 editions and MANY printings. It was far more descriptive (and therefore more instructive) than earlier cookbooks — assuring it timeless popularity.
Irma Rombauer’s 1931 landmark, The Joy of Cooking, was the next in line, historically. It first came out with a minuscule press run, but Rombauer soon learned how popular it was. Once again, it’s secret was in having better descriptions and spelling out the ingredients. It’s one of the most popular of all time, and for good reason.
The American Woman’s Cook Book (1939) and its companion piece, the Encyclopedic Cook Book (1948) were both published by the Culinary Arts Institute under the oversight of Ruth Berolzheimer and from genius publisher Leonard S. Davidow. Their superior organization and tabbed format made it easy for cooks to find the recipes they were looking for — and the descriptions themselves were easy to cook.
One of the “big” publishers of cooking materials has been Washburn-Crosby (General Mills). With the creation of their signature character, Betty Crocker, the company has published a vast number of helpful books and pamphlets — for a time running a successful radio program. With all of that momentum, the first edition of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook (1950) grew into the best-selling cookbook of all time. The recipes are easy to make and well organized, and there are photos of many of the completed recipes. Every cook has to have a copy, and indeed, you’ll find it on many American shelves. Definitely one of the best.
Can you have just one favorite? In the interest of brevity I’ll keep it to my 4 primary favorites although even that’s hard; Joy of Cooking, Cook’s Illustrated Best Recipes, A New Way to Cook by Sally Schneider, and last but not least Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. If you twisted my arm, I would say out of those — it would have to be a New Way to Cook… but please don’t tell my other cookbooks.
“Understanding Baking: The Art and Science of Baking” by Joseph Amendola & Nicole Rees
Baking Illustrated is the ne plus ultra cookbook in my collection. The pages are worn out and stained but I see them as badges of honor from frequent use.
the black/red/white plaid Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook from the 60′s! I still use it and have notes from my mother and myself with additions and changes to recipes. My second favorite is my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.
I was fortunate to be given one half of my Mother’s cookbooks, many of which are Lady’s Auxiliary type as well as many by Public TV cooks like Justin Wilson and The Frugal Gourmet. My fave, however, is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Artisan Bread by Yvonne Ruperti. It filled in all my blanks and afforded me several “Well, duh!” moments. Now to find someone to share with…
My favorite cookie book is the Swedish Cakes and Cookies – I have one from my mom – 20 years old and love every cookie in it (it is in swedish) – Also I love my American Test kitchens big cookbook! My lifesaver!
It would have to be Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. Paperback book received in 1979 when i got married. Has just about any basic recipe you can think of. The covers are held on with wide strips of packaging tape, the pages frayed and stained. I will use this cookbook forever!
The first cookbooks I got that I really used were The Cake Bible and Baking With Julia when I was in high school and baking a lot. I’ve read both cover to cover and they’ve been an inspiration. I got The Best Recipe when I started living on my own and cooking for myself, but nowdays the cookbook I use most is the iphone version of Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.
america’s test kitchen family cookbook. but i use my online subscription for all the newer season’s recipes!
Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies – It was a gift from a Persian friend, and I love learning about different cultures through their food.
This is why we do what we do – your undeniable, lifelong devotion to cookbooks. Thank you for sharing your favorites. Congrats to this week’s random winner, Karen, who may one day get to really display everything she’s learned from Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. Everyone, be sure to check out our newest giveaways at http://americastestkitchenfeed.com/topics/giveaway/
WOW! Thanks so much! Looking forward to a new cookbook!
I enjoy reading Joy of Cooking, but not cooking from it – instead, I reach for: The Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash (I just met her and was finally able to thank her for years of happy cooking); The Best of Sunset Magazine (Lane Publishing – and all the other Sunset specific cuisine thinner books); The Doubleday Cookbook, by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna; The Los Angeles Times cookbook (best pumpkin bread ever). I have an embarrassing collection, and at library book sales gravitate toward those with lots of stains and scribbled notes! leave notes in _your_ cookbooks – your future grandchildren will appreciate them all the more.
Well, I thought I had one (two, actually), but Frank
(May 12, 2012 at 10:35 am) beat me to it! My Mom’s copy of The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook (and yes, I have the 1939 version, too) were what I grew up with as our go-to cookbook. Mom threw hers out because it wore out (my sister and I nearly died! we’d've had it re-bound!), but I found hard-back copies and bought for me, my sibs, and friends. Taught you everything from butchering (even an opposum) to 5-star-restaurant table settings. The only recipes that failed were the cookies – coulda been me . I also remember (and think I have, somewhere) her “Galloping Gourmet” books – but they were mostly for reading, not research. Favorites now include anything from ATK or Alton Brown, because of the explanations and attention to details.