Author Topic: Favorite cookbooks  (Read 6926 times)

jaye_p

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 66
  • Location: Ohio
Favorite cookbooks
« on: October 22, 2015, 03:50:07 PM »
The subject line is pretty self-explanatory.  List a couple of your go-to cookbooks that enable you to cook tasty food without breaking the budget.  Here are mine:

1.  _Budget Bytes_.  A no-brainer for those of us familiar with Beth's blog of the same name.
2.  _Make the Bread, Buy the Butter_.  A charming and funny look at which foods often purchased premade (think Starbucks muffins or ricotta cheese), can be made both better and cheaper at home.
3.  _Every Grain of Rice.  Everyday Chinese home cooking_.  Recipes based on fresh vegetables, small amounts of meat or tofu, and plenty of rice or noodles.  Most of these recipes require the purchase of a handful of speciality ingredients (e.g. black bean sauce, Zhenjiang vinegar, Shaoxing cooking wine) that are not very expensive, are used in almost every recipe, and make the food so very tasty.

frompa

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 405
  • Location: Pennsylvania
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2015, 04:06:11 PM »
I enjoy the classics of Julia Child "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and the Laurel's Kitchen books.  And more recently, "The Art of Fermentation" and his other book on fermentation, by Sandor Ellis Katz. 

I got "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" from the library and really enjoyed it.  It reminded of a book I read many years ago called "Better than Store-bought."

Telecaster

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3543
  • Location: Seattle, WA
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2015, 04:20:06 PM »
One of my all time faves is "The Herbfarm Cookbook" by Jerry Traunfeld.   For one, I grow herbs in my garden at home, and I feel like using fresh herbs sort of elevated my cooking.  The stuff I cook  tastes better.    I was already growing/cooking with herbs, but the Herbfarm cookbook really did bring me to the next level (IMO, of course.  I could be deluding myself).

But the other thing is, it is just a really good cookbook.   The failure of most cookbooks is that there aren't very many good recipes or at the least not many recipes that sound good and I want to try.   The Herbfarm is loaded with good recipes.   Almost every page is a delight.   Lots of good advice about growing and storing herbs too.   Indispensable if you have an herb garden, even a small one.   

chouchouu

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 340
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2015, 04:50:06 PM »
I have a book that has been in publication for over a hundred years but was only recently translated into English. "I know how to cook" by ginette mathiot. It was aimed at young housewives to give them a sound repertoire of meals. I love it so much better than modern cook books which tend to be gimmicky and have a vast range of ingredients. The cuts of meat tend to be very economical and with only a handful of extra ingredients I can cook most things on this book. While some might take longer to cook the actual prep work is minimal. It is a bit expensive but you get what you pay for, find some meat or fowl on special and it will give you ten different ways to cook it. I bought it in London because I'm Asian and Asian ingredients are quite pricey there. My food budget went down massively after I started cooking with it.

Next book is "good and cheap" by Leanne brown. It's supposed to help you keep to a $4 day budget. While a good book it suffers from the problem I mentioned with midern cook books, too many ingredients. Compared to "I know how to cook" it lists eight ingredients for French onion soup as opposed to six by the former. It also has a list of "extra ingredients" that can be added. Not including the main ingredient many of the dishes require extra ingredients that aren't commonly stocked in my pantry such as raw peanuts, sambal oelek etc. the dishes are also more time consuming but I give any book points for diverse recipes on a $4 budget.

Noodle

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1316
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2015, 08:20:10 PM »
Gosh, so many:

Cook's Illustrated Cookbook: general purpose, recipes work well
Baking: The Cake Bible and the Bread Bible (Rose Levy Beranbaum): Incredibly detailed recipes, but if you follow them they work
Express Lane Cookbooks (vegetarian and regular): Older cookbooks, but pretty straightforward and flavorful recipes without a ton of ingredients
Make it Fast, Cook It Slow: Slow cooker recipes that don't use a lot of processed ingredients and go together fast (not a lot of precooking on top of the stove)
A Homemade Life (Molly Wizenberg) and Chocolate and Zucchini (Clotilde Dusoulier): smaller cookbook/memoirs--not every recipe is cheap to make, but I found them very flavorful and pretty straightforward (and C&Z is French cooking without a) preciousness or b) insane amounts of butter...just good food)


rocketpj

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 963
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2015, 11:28:21 PM »
Oh man, cookbooks are a bit of a weakness for me.  As far as I'm concerned all cookbooks are mustachian as they provide ways to make excellent food on a modest budget.  Just don't do the prime rib recipes (often).  Thrift stores can be real goldmines for cookbooks, though there are a lot of awful cookbooks out there.

My best all around cookbook is a great big 'Cook's Illustrated Cookbook' of just about everything.  Follow any recipe and it will be perfect.  It comes out every week for one reason or another.

Jame Oliver's 'Meals in Minutes' is excellent, as is his 'Food Revolution' for basic home cooking stuff.  I have a couple more of his books that are also very good.  I usually don't like celebrity chef books as they tend to be full of pictures of the chef and a bit short on content, but his are great.

For Asian food I really love 'Spicy, Sour, Salty Sweet' by Naomi Duguid and (some other fellow).  Unbeatable Southeast Asian recipes.  Their book 'Mangoes & Curry Leaves' is a fantastic primer on Indian cooking as well.

50 Great Indian Curries (author's name escapes me).
The Soup Bible
Everyday Soup
Gastro Grilling
The Paleo Slow Cooker
Jacques & Julia (Childs) at Home
Cooking Light Around the World (great book)
The Spice Kitchen

Those are off the top of my head, but they are all great books for cooking various things.  Our cookbook shelves are usually piled pretty high as we both enjoy cooking good food.

herbgeek

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 252
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2015, 05:54:46 AM »
I have several different categories I like-

- for fancy meals/occasions, i like anything in the Silver Palate line.   These are likely out of print now.

- I have a lot of cookbooks for preserving food like jams pickles and the like.  These are the only cookbooks where I actually follow the recipe verbatim because of botulism.

- For low cost meals, I like Extending the Table which is put out by the Mennonites.  It has recipes from all over the world with native recipes.

- Then I like cookbooks that offer a basic technique, and mention a bunch of options.  I inherited (borrowed and never returned) a cookbook from my Mom that was put out by a rival to Crisco.  For every recipe, there were at least a dozen variations.  I learned to cook with what we happened to have on hand, and have confidence that it would come out fine.  Mark Bittman is supposedly coming out with a similar concept in the next few weeks I think, I pre-ordered it from Amazon.

ooeei

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1142
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2015, 06:10:03 AM »
Just picked up the Food Lab cookbook.  It talks a lot about WHY you do things in a recipe, rather than just telling you to do them.  Involves a lot of "myth busting" where the author tests out theories that most home (and celebrity) chefs are regularly told.  Does searing a steak seal in juices?  Should you start eggs in cold water to peel them easier?  Do you actually need a lot of water to make pasta?  (hint:  The answer to all 3 is no).  He used to work for Cooks Illustrated so his process is similar, just with a bit more personality.

He has a blog with the vast majority of information in the book, the book just makes it more accessible and has a few exclusive things in it.  Worth a look at the blog if you're interested in the "why" of cooking.  A lot of the recipes are pretty complex, but some are very simple and quick.  If anything you can get a helpful technique out of some reading.  I especially like his burgers and ramen. 

http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab

pancakes

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1338
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2015, 06:52:48 AM »
I love Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. All his books that I have are great but I especially love the vegetarian ones. His stuff is pretty trendy but the food is delicious and (at least in Australia) omitting meal makes most of the recipes very reasonable price wise.

I also have a book called the flavour bible that I really like. It isn't a cookbook but rather a reference for flavour pairings. If I find myself at the end of the week with no inspiration but a particular ingredient, it is perfect for sparking ideas.

use2betrix

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2489
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2015, 07:04:03 PM »
We have a family cookbook with 100% submitted recipes from our family. It has all been printed in a spiral bound book. It's around 300-400 pages of recipes.

My mother also owned a restaurant/bakery for 20 years. When she sold it she made a very nice book with all their recipes for my family.

WildJager

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 440
  • Age: 37
    • Can't complain.
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2015, 11:32:00 AM »
Google.

Seriously, we got rid of most of our cookbooks because you can find plenty of good recipes online at a moments notice.  Why cook the same thing twice when you have the world's knowledge at your fingertips?

Bracken_Joy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8927
  • Location: Oregon
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2015, 01:30:06 PM »
-Practical Paleo. The salmon cakes are to die for. And I don't like salmon usually.
-Nourishing Traditions. The science and discussion in it is... well, a little insane sounding sometimes, like the outside of a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap (anyone ever read the label???). But there are some delicious recipes in there.
-The Flavor Bible. Not a cookbook per se, but a great cooking "guide". (Ie, "Can I put mint into this taco seasoning? What else would balance with it? What can I pair with persimmons to make a chutney?)

Those are the main ones I find myself grabbing from my bookshelves.

Websites:
Nom Nom Paleo
Budget Bytes
Pinterest (a great way to organize all your recipes, but if you use it to find recipes, you have to know how to "spot" a good recipe- some small blogs have very wonky ideas)

hyla

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 177
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #12 on: October 24, 2015, 03:16:23 PM »
1. A comprehensive reference cookbook for when you need to look up what temperature the oven needs to be to roast a chicken, how to make pie dough, what water:grain ratios are for cooking different grains, etc.  I use Joy of Cooking for this purpose, but there are others that could fill this role.
2.  Mennonite cookbooks (More with Less, Extending the Table, and Simply in Season) - as well as recipes these have lots of discussion on saving money on food and eating in season.
3.  Moosewood cookbook, Mollie Katzen - While not specifically a budget cookbook, many recipes are affordable by virtue of being vegetarian.  The Moosewood cookbooks also do a good job of incorporating international flavors without calling for obscure ingredients.
4. Wild Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz - A fermenting book.  Lots of excellent recipes to make things like saurkraut, bread, and pickles from scratch.  Also, since fermenting helps the food keep longer, possibly a good way to use garden surpluses so they don't go to waste.

Miss Prim

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 409
  • Location: Michigan
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2015, 03:46:47 PM »
Google also here!  I decide what I want to make with what I have on hand and then google recipes, print a few out that sound good and decide which one I have all the ingredients for.  Sometimes I kind of combine them.  Then, if they are good, I save them in folders.  I do have some old cookbooks, but I only use them for a few recipes that I make consistently. 

I have found in general that most cookbooks only have a few recipes that are interesting to me and a lot that I have no desire to make or have ingredients I don't like or are too complicated.

                                                                   Miss Prim

Astatine

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3676
  • Location: Australia
  • Pronouns: they/them
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2015, 04:17:09 PM »
Meals without meat by Simon & Alison Holst. It might be out of print by now but totally worth getting.

It's the rare recipe book where every recipe we've tried is great. The instructions also encourage you to experiment in different ways with each recipe, or some recipes say to use up the old odds and sods of veggies sitting in the back of the fridge. I love this cookbook so much. It's the perfect MMM cookbook in my opinion.

We also use google to find recipes but after making some really gross meals, I tend to limit myself to taste.com.au with recipes with multiple ratings greater than 4 stars. Unrated recipes are just asking for trouble.

plainjane

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1645
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #15 on: October 24, 2015, 06:11:20 PM »
An Everlasting Meal
Save with Jamie
What we eat when we eat alone
Plenty

For the first three, it is more the philosophy instead of the specific recipes that are important.  The third isn't really a recipe book anyways, and arguably neither is the first.  I often don't use cookbooks for the recipes, but rather for new ideas when I'm stuck with a list of things that are on sale and I can't think of what I might want to cook with them. 

I don't find Google is great at giving me new ideas - it just gives me the most common North American options.  It is great if I decide I want to roast a duck, but won't suggest I look up a duck and squash with tamarind "bowl" the week that duck is on sale.

Pigeon

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1298
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #16 on: October 24, 2015, 06:30:27 PM »
The Joy of Cooking.  I have two different editions. It's my go-to for lots of things.
Better Homes and Gardens
King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

I love cookbooks and read them like novels (from the library) and also have many others.  I like Martin Yan's The Feast for Chinese cooking, the Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Cookbook and Beard on Bread.

Personally, I hate Cooks Illustrated.  The recipes come out well, but are needlessly complicated and require you to dirty every dish you own.  Unfortunately, my husband loves to give me their cookbooks as gifts.  They do make entertaining reading, but my life is too short to use the recipes.

RelaxedGal

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 359
  • Age: 46
  • Location: 495 corridor, Massachusetts, USA
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #17 on: October 24, 2015, 06:48:51 PM »
  • Better Homes & Gardens How long should I bake that chicken?  How do I make a cheese sauce?  Salsa?  Good at covering the basics.
  • The manual that came with my bread machine
  • Student's Vegetarian Cookbook Something I use less now, but all the time when I was single.

All other recipes come from Google or wrappers (e.g. Tollhouse cookies!)

Bergal

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 57
  • Location: DC
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2015, 08:02:59 AM »
I have found a lot of great recipes on the Budget Bytes website. 

Others:
How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson - basic recipes and techniques along with advice on stocking a pantry so you can quickly make yummy healthy meals

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - not a budget book but good if you're into local sustainable food.  She also gives a lot of great advice on stocking the pantry and cooking techniques. 

GreenSheep

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2015, 05:44:33 AM »
Every single thing in Angela Liddon's "Oh She Glows" is delicious. She also has a blog (ohsheglows.com) with more fantastic recipes, and she's coming out with a second cookbook soon. And if you don't want to take just my word for it, then 1000+ mostly-5-star reviews on Amazon can't be wrong.

Yes, all of her recipes are completely free of animal products. However, even meat-eaters I've served her stuff to devour it. And she doesn't ask you to buy expensive (and gross) fake cheeses, soy meats, etc. Just real foods.

http://www.amazon.com/Oh-She-Glows-Cookbook-Recipes-ebook/dp/B00DGZL190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446032500&sr=1-1&keywords=oh+she+glows

HazelStone

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 118
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2015, 06:43:21 AM »
How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman. Mom gave it to me for Christmas when I was eighteen or so, before the World Wide Web exploded with cooking sites. Several of my "OMG PLEASE bring x" recipes for social gatherings come from it, and I use it as a baseline when I want to try something new.

I am about to order "The Food Lab" for my husband as an early Hanukkah gift. He has gotten big into sous vide cooking and I've jokingly started to refer to the Serious Eats website as "The Gospel According to Kenji."

onehair

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 406
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2015, 11:35:01 AM »
Taste of Home cookbook.  Recipes from easy to complicated using ingredients easily obtained.
Sylvia's Family Soul cookbook from the late owner of Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem.  Good old fashioned soul food.
My late grandmother's Montgomery Ward microwave cookbook she got when she bought one of her microwave ovens.  I was prepared to hate it but the more I go through it the more I see things to make in it.
Charcuterie by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman.

ooeei

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1142
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #22 on: October 28, 2015, 12:26:24 PM »
How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman. Mom gave it to me for Christmas when I was eighteen or so, before the World Wide Web exploded with cooking sites. Several of my "OMG PLEASE bring x" recipes for social gatherings come from it, and I use it as a baseline when I want to try something new.

I am about to order "The Food Lab" for my husband as an early Hanukkah gift. He has gotten big into sous vide cooking and I've jokingly started to refer to the Serious Eats website as "The Gospel According to Kenji."

"Praise be to Him."

Digital Dogma

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 423
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #23 on: October 28, 2015, 02:09:28 PM »
"Backyard BBQ: The Art of Smokology" - I've learned how to BBQ cheap cuts of meat in my home-made smoker (constructed entirely from scrap metal by me, using my own unique design and a free wood stove) that I freeze for longevity. Its got some fancy recipes, and some simple ones, but it gives you a great idea of various methods you can apply to pretty much anything you're smoking. I make large batches of BBQ sauce on my own using ketchup from Costco as a base, freeze the BBQ sauce, and scoop it out with a spoon from the freezer since it sets up like jelly. Nothing tastes better to me :)

Petuniajo

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 94
  • Location: Southeastern US
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #24 on: October 28, 2015, 03:31:27 PM »
Mark Bittman also has "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian"--my personal favorite, and I am not even vegetarian. Basic "how to" info on how to make everything from scratch.

kite

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 900
Re: Favorite cookbooks
« Reply #25 on: October 28, 2015, 03:50:09 PM »
An Everlasting Meal
Save with Jamie
What we eat when we eat alone
Plenty

For the first three, it is more the philosophy instead of the specific recipes that are important.  The third isn't really a recipe book anyways, and arguably neither is the first.  I often don't use cookbooks for the recipes, but rather for new ideas when I'm stuck with a list of things that are on sale and I can't think of what I might want to cook with them. 

I don't find Google is great at giving me new ideas - it just gives me the most common North American options.  It is great if I decide I want to roast a duck, but won't suggest I look up a duck and squash with tamarind "bowl" the week that duck is on sale.



I'd put Everlasting Meal on my top-ten list of best books ever.  It's in league with the Bible, Shakespeare's Complete Works, James Joyce and Mark Twain.
Don't get me wrong, I love me some Julia Child, the folks at Cooks Illustrated, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Alton Brown, Marcella Hazan and plenty of others.

But Everlasting Meal is so much more than a cookbook.  It's a read-this-book-and-you-no-longer-need-cookbooks-ever kind of book.     

If you need hand-holding that covers recipes and meal planning including exactly what to buy in what quantities to feed your family for week after week after week without too much boredom and spaghetti, Leanne Ely has a series called Saving Dinner.