How many people does it take to make the perfect brownie? How long does it take to film a season of America’s Test Kitchen? Join us every week as we explore the Secrets of the Test Kitchen.
Meet the America’s Test Kitchen library, one of the largest private cookbook collections in America, with more than 4,000 items. It’s a vital part of the Test Kitchen’s day-to-day operations because the first step in our recipe development process is research. When the test cooks are assigned a new recipe, they hit the books. The library, maintained by Assistant Test Kitchen Director Gina Nistico and the library interns, has seemingly everything, from Ad Hoc at Home to The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
Here are 9 facts about the Test Kitchen library:
1. Most Expensive Book
Ringing up at $500, Modernist Cuisine is the most expensive acquisition in the library. The six-volume set contains more than 2,000 pages of stunning photography – and recipes to make your own foams, gels, and emulsions in your home kitchen (if your home kitchen is outfitted with equipment like a centrifuge, and ingredients like liquid nitrogen).
2. Newest Cookbook
The newest addition in the library is Finger Lakes Feast, which focuses on wholesome cooking from the region, including Dinosaur BBQ sauce and Tomato Pie. It will be published in November, but the library has a preview copy.
3. Oldest Cookbook
The library’s oldest book is The Every-Day Cook-Book and Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes by Miss E. Neil, published in 1884. The book instructs 19th-century housewives on how to cook dishes from Mock-Turtle Soup to Pickled Walnuts (the recipe for which, she notes, is “Very Good”).
4. Grossest Book
The stand-out title for biggest “Ick!” factor is That Amazing Ingredient: Mayonnaise! While expected recipes like All-American Macaroni Salad make an appearance, recipes such as Chocolate Chip Cookies may cause a double-take, and the Lasagna Roll-Ups contain only cooked lasagna noodles, ham, broccoli, and a mayo-cheese sauce.
5. Heaviest Cookbook
After the Hunt: Louisiana’s Authoritative Collection of Wild Game and Game Fish Cookery is the single heaviest cookbook in the library, weighing in at 9 lbs, 9 oz with 854 pages. It will not only tell you how to cook your beaver tail, but how to first kill the beaver.
6. Smallest Cookbook
The smallest cookbook in the library, How To Make Salads and Sandwiches, measures under six inches tall, and weighs in at just 0.4 oz. A 1904 promotional booklet for Slade’s Salad Cream, this tiny cookbook (just 16 pages) assures readers that “Slade’s” is synonymous with “pure.”
7. Most Referenced Cookbooks
While there is no official check-out system, library interns re-shelf every book taken out – and take note of the repeat offenders. Joy of Cooking and Boston Cooking-School Cook Book are the two most frequently referenced books, as test cooks often start with the basics when developing a new recipe.
8. The America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook Collection
All 78 publications from America’s Test Kitchen are available in the library – from the oldest (The Cook’s Illustrated 1993 Annual) to most recent (Pasta Revolution).
9. How It’s Organized
America’s Test Kitchen will eschew tradition in search of a better way: the books are not organized by the familiar Dewey Decimal system. Instead, we’ve developed our own organization system where books are sorted by themes –from type of cuisine to type of ingredient.
What’s the most memorable book in your cookbook collection? Let us know in the comments for a chance to win a copy of The Best Simple Recipe. The winner will be notified by email on Tuesday, Aug. 7.
About the Author: Marshall Bright
83 Comments
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Unoriginal perhaps, but “The Joy of Cooking.”
Isaac Hayes’ cookbook, ‘Cooking with Heart and Soul’ was gifted to me to ensure I had South Park’s infamous chef’s ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ recipe.
The most memorable cook book in my collection is The Complete America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook.
I was given a 1917 volume entitled, “A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, with Bettina’s Best Recipes.” The book is laid as the story of the fictional title character, a newlywed housewife who is prone to kitchen blunders, but eventually overcomes them and shares her tips and menus with the reader.
The dedication page, in all it’s un-PC glory, says it all: “To every other little bride who has a ‘Bob’ to please/ And says she’s tried and tried and tried to cook with skill and ease,/ And can’t!—we offer here as guide Bettina’s Recipes!/To her whose ‘Bob’ is prone to wear a sad and hungry look,/Because the maid he thought so fair is—well—she just can’t cook!/To her we say: do not despair; Just try Bettina’s Book!”
The one that comes to mind is “Sundays at Moosewood”, as it was my first book that reached in to a variety of ethnic nooks – Eastern European, Southern, Chinese, Indian, African… The stories and descriptions really helped me learn about these traditions, and not be afraid to try something completely new.
My most-referred is Mark Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything” (for obvious reasons), and my latest obsession is Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” (the book is gorgeous, and you really can make Thomas Keller recipes at home!).
I turn time and time again to Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”. It’s like reading Shakespeare; open it to any page, and you’ve struck gold!
I collect cookbooks whenever I travel. If it’s a local cookbook about local food – it finds its way onto my shelves whether it’s about blueberry dishes in Oregon, Indonesian Rice dishes, or Asian dishes from an English cookbook I picked up in a market stall in Kashgar, China. One of my favorites is called “The Stinking Rose”. It’s a garlic cookbook I picked up in a restaurant of the same name in San Fransisco, and it’s got some great, and unusual, recipes in it.
The most memorable cookbook in my collection is:
Lee Bailey’s Country Desserts (ISBN 0-517-88444-5)
I love that there is a photo for every recipe and that there is no attempt to make them fancy or pretty. Every recipe I’ve tried comes out perfectly.
Simple, hearty, textured recipes.
If my house were on fire, I’d grab this book.
james
wow impressive
I have a bread book from Vermont by John McLure. The recipes and flavor of these breads are fantastic! It’s Called Baba A Louis Bakery Bread Book. The Secret Book of the Bread. I make about 24 loaves a week (350 total loaves for the two years I have been doing this!) for a farm share here in Maine using these recipes. It also helped me to develop my very own whole wheat bread recipe.
I also work as a personal chef for a professional family of seven and I use nothing but Cooks Illustrated… they just work.. takes the headache of a poor recipe out of the job. HUGE help, Thanks!
My next favorites are the from Cresent Dragonwagan for vegan meals, King Arthur Whole Wheat baking book and a niffty one called The “21″ Cookbook by Michael Lomonaco I like the cold poached salmon and another for lobster pot pie with tarragon biscuits.. yum…
One of my prize “finds” found searching in a used book store was a hidden away, mint condition, hard cover 1st edition of “San Francisco Firehouse Favorites” (1965). I love it as a historic document to a bygone era in San Francisco as well as a link to an enduring tradition today of firehouse cuisine. All the various Engines are represented by number, name and various pictures. The Chicken Fricasee with fresh tagliarini is prefaced with “His colleagues say Art Treganza is ‘without a doubt, the best cook in the Fire Department.’ They say his Chicken Fricassee is part of their proof”. I treasure this book
My 1978 Betty Crocker Cookbook. I learned to cook everything from that book!
At my bridal shower, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook of handed-down family recipes. It’s wonderful to be able to make something that my husband’s grandma used to make.
Cooks Illustrated Cookbook is my go-to book for everything. I can everything in this book. It stays in my kitchen and it is not shelved with the rest of my cookbooks.
Honestly the first cookbook I ever bought, I did myself, and it was Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook. I grew up with three older sisters who always cooked when my mother didn’t. I preferred playing in the woods while they cooked dinner, so I never really picked up any tricks of the trade. As I grew older I realized I had missed out. I work at an independent bookstore so I have some handy tools to research cookbooks and that was the one for me!
The most memorable cookbook in my collection is the 1959 Pillsbury Best 1000 Best Of The Bake-Off that used to be in my mom’s kitchen. I learned to bake with my mom from this cookbook, starting with chopping the nuts and chocolate for brownies, and her little handwritten notes are all over it. When I moved out to start my own home she gave it to me, and now it has my notes in it too!
The one cookbook we use the most in our household is The LooneySpoons series.
kaylynnj[at]gmail.com
It is a little red white and green book called “Thank You Mister Columbus, the Choice Cuisine of Italy” by Ruth Chier Rosen, dated 1956. It is a small book in a little matching box. Very cute! I always found it funny that the recipe for deviled eggs is “Eggs with Mayonnaise” and is made with capers and anchovy fillets.
If it’s not a particular ethnic dish, I would have to go with the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook as my “go to” source.
This is the first cookbook I got after my divorce, Steven Raichlen: BBQ USA BOOK. I got the 2 grills and not much else so figured I better learn to cook with what I had. I still use multiple recipes in this book including all my homemade BBQ sauces.
My collection is not quite on par with yours, but I do have a 1912 edition of “Lowney’s Cook Book, Illustrated in Colors; a New Guide for the Housekeeper, Especially Intended as a Full Record of Delicious dishes, Sufficient for Any Well-To-do family, Clear Enough for the Beginner and Complete Enough For Ambitious Providers”, and a 1924 edition of “The Boston Cooking School Cookbook” but I think the neatest one is an 1894 “Home Comfort Range Cook Book” that was issued by the “Authority of the World’s Columbian Exposition”!
My first and most memorable is James Beard’s American Cookery.
How is Modernist Cuisine not the heaviest cookbook at 40lbs?
A 1949 edition of Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book. It’s so much better than the newer ones. I don’t know why they changed some of the recipes that they did.
Mine is America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I love cookbooks, and am slowly making a collection, but out of all of them, this is the one I use the most. The cookbook I use the next most is Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I check a lot of cookbooks out of the library and have a running list of the ones I want to buy some day.
For me, the cookbook that gets use on an almost daily basis is The First Edition of the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook! I really need a new copy!!!
1921 The New Dr. Price Cook Book. Mine was given to me, and is a bit crumbling at some of the edges – it is for recipes with baking powder, the newest thing (at the time). I love reading the recipes and finding new ideas from back then. And I luvvvvv cookbooks!!!!!
Vegetarian Pasta Cookbook.
America’s Test Kitchen: The Complete TV Show Cookbook. The best, hands down!
It’s not a cookbook but an envelope of my Great Grandmothers hand written recipes. The most beautiful part of this collection, in addition to having the old family recipes, is seeing her finger prints in smudges of food and grease left behind. Cooking and family are my greatest treasures. With love to Grandma Rose!
Cookingchic1@gmail.com
My first upgrade from lightbulb cooking (Easy Bake Oven) was through William Sonoma’s “Kids Cooking: Scrumptious Recipes for Cooks Ages 9 to 13″. I was seven and I was beyond excited to have an grown-up cookbook with “real” recipes. I still make that chocolate cake for birthdays. Now that I’m a few years older, I reference “America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook” for the basics and the not-so-basics, I don’t know what I would do without it.
I love my oldest books :
The Boston Cooking School by Fannie Merritt Farmer 1914
Economy Cook Book by Maria Mcilvaine Gilmore 1918. and
Favorite Recipes Cook Book edited by Marion Harris Neil 1931. This last one came from my Mothers book shelf but she, alough a good cook, never to my knowledge used a cookbook . My favorite dinner she made was roast beef and Yorkshire Puddig . I still use her same pan when I bake the pudding. I often check these books out along with The Joy of Cooking when I am exploring a new or researching an old recipe one or just reading for the pleasure of it.
My mom made a collection of favorite family recipes for everyone, but I’d have to say my most memorable “cookbook” is the one I’m compiling myself, filled with tried-and-true recipes that I’ve picked up from all over the place. It’s sort of a documentation of my own progress as a home cook.
I have two cookbooks I prize. One I acquired years ago, Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table (on the food of Emilia Romagna, Italy, where my nonna was from). Another, I bought recently at a Julie Dannenbaum auction, an autographed copy, all in Italian, of Il Grande Manuale della Cucina Regionale, by Stella Donati. I hope it will improve my Italian.
My most memorable cookbook is by a Chinese author, the translated title is “Dr. Luke Lin’s guide to toxin-free living: a pharmacopoeia of meal plans with tips on maintaining sound dietary habits and a wholesome lifestyle.” Not only did I slave for 21 days (it’s a 3-week cleansing diet), I had to make meals without salt (miso paste was the only permissable flavoring agent), sugar, dairy, or meat. So yeah, memorable because of it was a horrifying experience! But I did lose weight so the book stays in my collection. LOL.
I do have a question regarding “When the test cooks are assigned a new recipe”, who assigns them recipes? Is there a reason why (and how) certain test cooks get assigned certain recipes?
A book called “The Naparima Girls Highschool Cookbook”. It hails from Trinidad & Tobago where I grew up. I now live in the Pacific NW and there is nowhere nearby that sells Caribbean food. I use this cookbook to make something when I feel particularly nostalgic and want a fix of the Trini version of comfort food.
I have a collection of about 85 cookbooks from the 1940s-1960s. I am obsessed with photos and illustrations of food from that era!
Of all the vintage cookbooks in my collection, the most interesting is probably a signed copy of the “Cordon Bleu Cookbook” from 1951 by Dione Lucas.
The other great ones are a Jell-O recipe book from the 1950s and some recipe pamphlets for Kretschmer Wheat Germ.
Check out my blog to see some examples: http://razzmyberriescooking.blogspot.com/2011/01/1950s-cookbook-images.html
My most memorable – although not my most used – is Food And Drink in Medieval Poland: Discovering a Cuisine of the Past, by Maria Dembinska. History and recipes in one place. Someday, when I feel the need for an over-the-top rich soup I will make the Beer Soup with Cheese and Eggs.
My best cook book is a three ring binder that has all the recipes that I have printed in plastic sleeves that I can take out and use and they are protected. It only has recipes that I want to use!
Hard to chose – cookbooks become like your children and they’re all special in their own way. Finally picked “The Complete Asian Cookbook” by Charmaine Solomon. I got it when I was living in my first apartment in college and it had recipes for all the Indian, Indonesian, and Chinese recipes my best friend and I missed from home, Suriname. We were able to make them without that much cooking experience and they tasted perfect – as from home. Thirty years later it’s easy to see it’s the book on my shelf that’s seen the most use.
Just last night the binding completely separated from my copy of The New Best Recipe. It gets the most overall use in my cookbook collection. I also love my collection of 1940′s-1970′s LDS (Mormon) ward cookbooks. My Grandmother and Mother both have recipes in some of those books. For a period of time it seems anything and everything, from Lasagna to Enchiladas, had a can of cream of chicken soup in it.
Love my Good Housekeeping cookbook, received from my mother-in-law as a wedding present (a LONG time ago).
Hi lilylillylillie, great question on recipe assignments! We survey recipe ideas to our readers and choose ones that generate the most amount of interest, plus a few wildcards — ones we just can’t resist developing! The executive editors use that feedback to assign the recipes to the test cooks. You can peep our whole recipe development process here: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/foodles/2012/05/our-12-step-path-to-recipe-perfection-infographic/
We own over 230 cookbooks (my hubby is the cook). The most memorable change from time to time as we get the latest trendy chef book but one thing is certain is that our America’s Test Kitchen books are the most often used. Other books are for special occasions but ATK books are for everyday life family good food. My daughters (now 9 and 13) started to cook using the Family Baking Book (binder) with its easy step-by-step images.
Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook is amazing. Great recipes, great instruction, tips, and ideas. LOVE IT!!!!
“How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman is the cookbook that demystified cooking for me. His approach involves a lot of encouragement, which is exactly what I needed to conquer my fear of cooking.
My parents have a red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that I love. They got it as a wedding gift 30 years ago. My dad makes all of my holiday favorites from it- chicken and noodles and sticky buns are my special favorites! I have a newer version but you can’t beat an old classic!
My grandmother’s original Fannie Farmer Cookbook! Very sentimental! Has her notes on recipes! I inherited the cookbook when she passed approximately 10 years ago.
My Betty Crocker Cookbook. I got it for Christmas one year and didn’t put it down all day! I’m also pretty into my Cooks Country Cookbook. I love reading all the tests and trials that the recipes go through!
I combined my literature degree with a love of cooking and developed a cookbook obsession. My collection numbers over 2,000. (I have the book you are giving away; so, don’t select me to win).
My most memorable cookbook is, “When French Women Cook” by Madeleine Kamman. It is so beautifully written that I want to move into each chapter and live there.
My most memorable one is not really a cookbook, per se, but a manual. It was written by my husband’s grandfather when he was inthe army, and was published in the early 1960′s. It is all about how to set up a mess hall with the kitchen and pantry, listing the supplies needed to feed an army. it has about thirty pages of recipes that will, quite literally, feed an army. It also gives menu ideas for when visiting dignataries come to the base.
My most memorable cookbook is The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. I picked it up when I lived in Australia a couple of years ago because I wanted recipes that included ingredients unique to that continent. This one has it all, including tips for preparing kangaroo.
I have been a recipe collector for a long time, so when I had a wedding shower in 1989, all the guests were asked to write up their favorite or most memorable recipe, why it was special to them and how they hoped the recipe would help me in my marital journey. All the recipes were compiled in a cookbook that I still treasure and talk about to this day.
I have a homemade cookbook with all my favorite family recipes in it… things I grew up with, things my grandmas make during the holidays, etc. I love it!
I feel like such a brown-noser, but first place I go when I need a guaranteed success is my ATK collection. I not only find pretty much whatever I need (not to mention, a core rotation of favorites/regulars) but they’re excellent reading material on road trips. Present company excluded, nothing beats my Alice Medrich baking books. “Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts” is incredible.
The most important book to me on my shelf right now is actually one of yours — the latest edition of America’s Test Kitchen’s Cookbook. It’s a great reference for skills and tools — and most importantly, recipes!
I used my mom’s The Best Recipe when I made chocolate chip cookies for the 1st time in college. Now, I prefer the more grown-up version using browned butter and that is a winner amongst everyone I know.
And I refer to Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes to make my own adaptations. I love this cookbook by MS because there is a picture for each recipe.
I have what I think is an original Boston Cooking School Cookbook (at least it *seems* as old as pre 1900)… with notes in the margins from my great-grandmother and grandmother. I find it fascinating to see the outdated ingredients, methods and typical foods of the time.
I recently found Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking Volume 1 at a sale and have found it to be very interesting to say the least! The contents put a lot into perspective for me regarding cooking habits, expectations, and approaches as this book was published in the mid-50′s (when my mom was a child). I can see a lot of the things she’s done in this book.
After my mother passed away, I was fortunate enough to obtain all her cookbooks, The White House cookbook to a Crisco pamplet. I still have them all. With my own collection, it takes up two shelves. My ‘go to’ and most favoritest has got to be the cookbook published by a local church a looooong time ago. One particular recipe that I use, I obtained from a recipe magazine and from the story assumed it was a ‘new’ creation. Just last week, I came upon the exact same recipe in the church cookbook. Gonna stick with it.
I go to my Better Homes and Gardens a lot, but when I’m baking, it’s a book called “Bread Bible” (I believe). It’s got a black dust jacket, and has FANTASTIC recipes including my bread machine go-to for pizza crust and a stellar honey- buttermilk dough recipe (I make rolls). The one closest to my heart, though . . . The Cooking with Jacques and Julia that was a housewarming gift from my Granny. I love Jacques, I love Julia, and I love my Granny. It was a trifecta!
My go to books are always Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country, I get all the magazines also and it pretty well covers all my needs. The reason is I like to make sure I follow the methods because if you do that everything turns out perfect. I do have some favorite dishes I grew up with and I try to use cooks methods from their recipes to make those foods even better than I remember as a kid.
The Alinea Cookbook that my husband gave me as a wedding gift. It’s autographed by everyone who worked on the book, including Grant Achatz! I haven’t been brave enough to try any of the recipes yet (I seem to defer to my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook at almost every meal instead), but it’s a fascinating read!
My most fun cookbook is called “Compulsive Cookery: A Guide to the Fine Art of Neurotic Gastronomy” by Dr. Maureen Bendick. I bought it in 1973 when I was a psychology major in college, and it has great recipe titles, and the recipes are pretty tasty too! For instance, for the neuroses Exhibitionism, the recipe is Rump Round. Group Therapy has Fondue as the recipe, Fetishism has Bosom de Poulet, Anal Personality has Oxtail Ragout, and Compulsive Overeating has Overstuffed Mushrooms – and so on. There are many more, and no only do you have delicious recipes, but you have great psychology explanations – very humorous and fun!!
The most memorable of my cookbook collection is probably a first edition I found of Elizabeth David’s “French Provincial Cooking”. For me, it really reads like a cookbook should read, rather than just a list of recipes. It’s beautifully written, and it gives me a true sense of what each dish (and chapter) meant to her, and no matter how many times I read it, I learn something new every time. Considering the era in which she compiled the book (post-war Britain), it also serves as an incredible insight to how she transformed perceptions and paved the way for the other great culinary authors that followed.
That’s not to say it’s also my favorite or most cherished… but the way she writes is simply unforgettable! (and don’t ask what my favorite cookbooks are… we’ll be here forever!)
The most memorable book in my collection is a transcribed family recipe book from the 1860 – 1920′s. My sister was given the family reicpe books (10) and as a gift she transcribed all of the recipes into a spiral bound book. The difficulty with the recipes is that since they were written down as they were handed down, frequently the recipes are simply a list of ingredients, sometimes including a bake until done. Very rarely were temperatures or times included. But it is a cool book.
Keep Cooking the Maine Way by Marjorie Standish is probably the most used cookbook in my house. It has all of the old-school church recipes like stained glass cookies and hard sauce and the very best double batch brownie recipe I’ve ever used!
Oh, I just had to comment on this. I have a book that is half cookbook. The title is “Happy Living: A Guidebook for Brides”. It was given to my older sister in 1969 when she was getting married. The place where she was buying her furniture, Rubinstein’s Furniture, gave it to her as a gift. Rita never cooked so she immediately gave it to me. The book talks about how to arrange furniture and decorate (which I never really used) but I used the recipes. It contains about 150 pages of recipes. My favorite was the chapter called “The Bride Cooks Breakfast”. They have the menu and then the recipes. How to arrange the table, where to put the silverware, etc… They have a pancake breakfast, a play day breakfast, low-calorie breakfast. etc. Corned beef hash, french toast, coffee cakes, cheese scrambled eggs. Shepherd’s Pie, Lamb kidneys with Rosemary, meat loafs and company desserts.
Very basic recipes to difficult recipes and then a chapter on entertaining with how to mix drinks. It is very entertaining now to read. “Once the honeymoon is over, the daily breakfast will settle down pretty much to routine, based on the type of work your husband is engaged in, his working hours, and his eating habit……..” Oh my we have come a long way ladies
Rosemary
My most fun and memorable cookbook is called “Compulsive Cookery: A Guide to the Fine Art of Neurotic Gastronomy” by Dr. Maureen Bendick. I bought it in 1973 when I was a psychology major in college, and it has great recipe titles, and the recipes are pretty tasty too! The different recipes are all related to different neuroses: Group Therapy has Fondue as the recipe, Compulsive Overeating has Overstuffed Mushrooms, Amnesia has Unforgettable Veal, Hysteria has Strawberry Glee, Obsessive Compulsive Personality has Perfectly Square Ravioli – and so on. There are many more, and not only do you have delicious recipes, but you have great psychology explanations – very humorous and fun!!
I think one of the most memorable I currently have in my kitchen is my two Make-A-Mix Cookery and More Make-A-Mix. I hate getting store bought mixes just to save time, so when my mom pulled these out right before I moved with my husband, I was extremely excited. The copyrights are 1978 and 1980 respectively, but you can really find some golden oldies that make it easier to make food faster. I especially can’t wait to try the bread bowls. Bread that is actually in the shape of a bowl. So cool!
“A Book of Practical Recipes for the Housewife” published by the Detroit Times. A well weathered book I inherited from my grandma and great aunt, it contains “recipes and household helps” contributed by over 13,000 housewives that hold up in the kitchen to this day. Lots of handwritten notes in the margins make this a truly treasured and memorable cookbook.
The last gift I got from my grandmother before she passed away was a set of first editions of both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. While most of my cookbooks are in a cabinet in the kitchen, these are proudly displayed on the bookshelf in the living room. Grandmere and I both read cookbooks like novels, so this was especially appropriate for her to give me.
One of the most memorable cookbooks in my collection is – The Frances Parkinson Keyes Cookbook – published in 1955. She was one of my favorite authors for years – and her cookbook covers all the regions where the backgrounds from her books were set – and where she actually lived – while she wrote her books – (up to 1955) i.e. New England, Washington D.C./Virginia, New Orleans/Louisiana, and Continental Europe. The version of Macaroni and Cheese in this book is so very simple and absolutely exquisite. I got this book when I was in high school in 1956 and still use it…..it is wonderful!
I collect cookbooks when I travel, so each book is memorable because it reminds me of my trip ( I have books from Italy, Ireland, England, Alaska, and Maine). My most recent acquisition is “Cool Dishes” by Nanna Rognvaldardottir from when I traveled to Iceland. Luckily it is a very small cookbook because my husband and I were backpacking/hiking and I had to carry it on my back for over two weeks! Although I haven’t tried making any of the dishes in the book yet (it is difficult to find puffin and skyr here in the states), it reminds me of the amazingly delicious fish buffet that I had in the small town of Isafjordur and the yummy desserts that were kindly given to us when we accidently crashed a family reunion in the West fjords. It was truly an amazing trip!
I regularly refer to my favorite recipe magazine: America’s Test Kitchen 100 best! That and my own collection of favorite recipes from magazines, Epicurious, and other cookbooks.
The Naparima Girls High School cookbook, aka The Multi-Cultural Cuisine of Trinidad & Tobago & the Caribbean. It’s a great, comprehensive reference for the cuisine of the region generally, and my homeland specifically. It’s not without error, but fantastic nonetheless.
Besides ones from America’s Test Kitchen, my most memorable cookbook is a recipe booklet from Sun-Maid raisins from a few years ago. Rice pudding with raisins? Okay. Raisins in a slaw recipe? Sorry, I haven’t gotten to that yet.
“Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Cookbook” , illustrated by Andy Warhol.
I have a community cookbook from my great aunt’s church. The only recipe I use from it is hers for freezer pickles (delicious)—but it’s so fun to read because so many recipes are truly scary!
I have a cookbook called the The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook by Kitty Maynard that I find myself going to often. It has great baked goods and appetizers. Being a Librarian myself, I am interested in how you have organized the Test Kitchen Library. Would you mind sharing your classification scheme? Thanks!
Hi Ilene- Thanks for the question! The library is organized by several different classifications- types of cuisine (country or region of origin), main ingredient (such a a book devoted to chicken), meal or course, and several others (all the health food books are together, for example). There is also a section for restaurant and celebrity chef books, and a reference area with non-fiction books and memoirs on cooking and food.
Most memorable for me would be the Mennonite Community Cookbook Favorite Family Recipes by Mary Emma Showalter. It is the cooking bible my sweet Mennonite mother-in-law has used her entire married life (57 years). It has been reprinted for many, many years. I bought a copy on ebay 15 years ago. It has many recipes and also stories about Mennonite culture which I have enjoyed reading. It is the food culture of my husband’s boyhood. I have used several of the canning recipes and have bookmarked the ‘family’ favorites of my husband’s youth.
Thanks everyone for sharing your most memorable cookbooks– from old family favorites to new classics (and quite a few from the America’s Test Kitchen family!). Congratulations to this week’s random winner, Beth, whose favorite cookbook is a compilation of recipes given to her at her wedding– what a thoughtful present for a newly married couple. Everyone, we’ll continue having a weekly give-away as part of our “Secrets of the Test Kitchen” series. You can find them all here- http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/topics/secrets-of-the-test-kitchen/.