Calling all cookbook lovers

yirara

I have about 50 cookbooks all across the spectrum. What most have in common is that they are full of flavour and mostly weeknight suitable or dishes that are easy to cook in batch and freeze, like soups and stews. Got my 13th month salary a few days ago and went crazy on cookbooks. Basically I bought a lot of things from my wishlist, partly second-hand, partly new.

So far I received:
* Pimp my Rice by Nisha Katona: kind of fusion/creative rice dishes from all around the world. I love rice, and this is the perfect book for me.
* Curry Everyday by Atul Kochhar: vegetarian stew-like (I don't like the word curry) dishes from all around the world. I'm especially curious about the Middle Eastern and African sections. It's not fully authentic recipes, but more along the creative path as well, always with options to make changes. I like Vegetarian books because they give me ideas for plant-based dishes, and I can always add meat if I want to.
* Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage: Rubbish book layout and tiny type, and no info on preparation time, but the recipes, kind of a fusion of Italian, Mexican and Brazilian looks very yummy.
* Dinner in One by Melissa Clark. Basically one pan, pot, sheet dish, whatever dishes very high on taste. For someone only cooking dinners this book is perfect for me, if possibly a bit too American
* Flatbreads * Flavor by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. A real tome! Full of flatbreads all around the worlds and recipes to eat with them. Very little images, and unfortunately units are cups and spoons only ("use 1.5 cups of flour" in baking is *kitten*!) but it's been on my list for ages.
* edit: postie just brought me Food and Cooking of Chile. Just a very quick browse: looks yummy.

So that's it for now. A few more books will be arriving in the coming 1-3 weeks. What are your favourite cookbooks and why, and did you buy a new one?

snowflake954

I have an old Better Homes cookbook that has basic everything. Then I have several church cookbooks from my hometown in Minnesota. When I get nostalgic, I find something from my younger years. I've lived in Italy 37 years and mostly cook Italian--pasta, risotto, etc. I now make up as I go along. However, I love my old cookbooks.

acpgee

I have been living in Europe for about 40 years too, after moving from my native Canada. I miss the edition of the Joy of Cooking I grew up with, with the cute illustrations depicting how to skin a squirrel. I did buy a reprint of the 70s edition with drawings that are not as cute but gave it away because I got fed up with non metric measurements. I regret that because the new edition that I still own is missing some of my favourite recipes.

snowflake954

acpgee wrote: »

I have been living in Europe for about 40 years too, after moving from my native Canada. I miss the edition of the Joy of Cooking I grew up with, with the cute illustrations depicting how to skin a squirrel. I did buy a reprint of the 70s edition with drawings that are not as cute but gave it away because I got fed up with non metric measurements. I regret that because the new edition that I still own is missing some of my favourite recipes.

My recipes from home and old cookbooks are all cups and spoons. Over the years the first time I make it here, I weigh it all and pencil in next to the cups and spoons measurements. It's all ready for the next time I use the recipe.

yirara

I just don't understand how even professional cooks can publish books in cups and spoons. I mean, I've even seen a book once that stated to use two cups of mushrooms. what the... (no, i didn't buy it)

HerbsandMore

I have my Mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook, a couple for slow cookers and quite a few on using fat substitutes, some are pretty good, and a couple of high fiber ones. I did buy a Keto one, that was a waste of money since I am not a big eat meater and every fiber in my body hates the idea of eating more fat. I am not putting it down, many have great success with this way of eatin I just don't like it.g

Milak4312

I love cookbooks! I have 40ish at the moment, but have had many more. I try to pare down every so often. I especially like old cookbooks. My oldest is The Hunter Sifter Cook Book published in 1884. Most of these old recipes don't give exact measurements, oven temperatures, or times.
" Fig Biscuits
Wash and scald 1 pound of figs, then mix in enough graham flour to make a stiff dough. Cut into biscuits and bake in a quick oven."

Had to know what you were doing back then, lol.

acpgee

The oldest cookbook in our house has a foreword dated from 1934 and is from the Househoodschool Laan van Meerdervoort 's-Gravenhage belonging to my dutch husband. It probably used to belong to his mom. I tried making ginger bread from it once and noticed no quantities were given for salt and cardomon and no oven temperatures either.

yirara

acpgee wrote: »

The oldest cookbook in our house has a foreword dated from 1934 and is from the Househoodschool Laan van Meerdervoort 's-Gravenhage belonging to my dutch husband. It probably used to belong to his mom. I tried making ginger bread from it once and noticed no quantities were given for salt and cardomon and no oven temperatures either.

Wow, you can read this book online!
https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/groo068rece01_01/index.php
That's seriously cool! I might cook a stappot, using one of those really old recipes

DebbsSeattle

I wish I could buy more cookbooks. If Mr. sees one more cookbook come in I’m going to be divorced. I have about 400 plus all my small magazine/special issue types in magazine boxes. Of course, I’m a good cook from the 30 years of self educating from said books…but that is why I’m on this journey to reclaim my physique. Enjoy the learning and inspiration!

speress

I created my own cookbook by adding interesting recipes from the internet.

siberiantarragon

I forget to make recipes from cookbooks but I own two of them. I got the Hungry Student Vegetarian Cookbook a couple of months ago. My partner is vegetarian so I cook vegetarian at home and got this cookbook for more ideas on what to make. I got this book because the recipes are probably fast and don't make a ton of dishes. I also have the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook from 1980. I got that one off Ebay for nostalgia reasons because we had that one when I was a kid but I also plan to make some recipes from it. It has pretty much everything in it related to cooking, from a huge variety of recipes, to guides of how to choose good quality produce, to what size to chop things for different recipes. Being an 80s cookbook it is very meat-heavy but there's a lot of vegetarian recipes in there too.

mtaratoot

I have a lot of cookbooks. Nowhere near 50, but quite a few. I usually don't cook directly from recipes; I'll look up a few and get a general idea and then get cookin'. Some of my cookbooks I've had over 30 years for sure. I was a vegetarian for about 30 years, and I for sure used Mollie Katzen's books as references. I would make a version of her Shepherd's Pie for thanksgiving for YEARS. It's kind of dated, and it is for sure very heavy on the butter. I've also got a copy of Laurel's Kitchen. I remember growing up, my mom had a copy of Diet For a Small Planet and Recipes For a Small Planet. I picked up a used copy many years ago, but seldom look at it.

There's a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. It has no publication date listed, but it is the 1956 edition. It's still a good basic reference book. My mom had one growing up; I am sure I found this one in the used bookstore or Goodwill. Yes, it has a small section on squirrel. I should tell that to the Eastern Gray Squirrel (an invasive species where I live) who raids my suet feeder that I'm just fattening it up....

I also have a copy of The American Woman's Cook Book 1956 edition. I don't know where I picked it up, but it also is a decent reference. The Culinary Arts Institute published the first edition in 1943. It also has a section on squirrel. Are you listening mister rodent? Squirrel actually is pretty tasty, but they are fairly difficult to skin.

I probably have a dozen more ranging from Asian pasta to natural foods to wild-crafted foods to Southwest cuisine. I also have a notebook of my own collected recipes and even some I've written down of my own creation.

My favorite probably are still the Katzen books - Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

Not long ago, someone bought me what isn't really a cookbook, but might be thought of as one in a broad sense. It's called "On Food and Cooking; The Science and Lore of the Kitchen." It covers an awful lot of material, but none of it in depth. Want to learn the science behind caramelization and the Maillard reaction? This book covers it. Looking for how to store potatoes? Look no farther. Interested in learning how emulsification works? There's even microscopy images of mayonnaise formation with different amounts of oil and egg. Looking for information about the formation and dangers of nitrosamines in meat? It's covered. Want information about squirrels? Wrong book. It's interesting to thumb through, but it's kind of huge.

Maybe I should peruse the library and used bookstores to see if there's something else I want to add to the shelf.

mtaratoot

I went to the library today as part of my walk. I wanted to see if the Daily Dog Trainer (the thing that calls itself a local newspaper) had any coverage of a very weird wreck last night. Apparently, a truck carrying a van went under a bridge and didn't fit. The van got scraped off the truck and was wedged under the overpass nose-down. Not a word.

But I did pick up a couple books I had been meaning to grab. While there, I perused the cooking and cookbook section. I will not need to buy any cookbooks. There are feet and feet and feet of shelves with all varieties. I already had three books I was going to bring home, so I left some for later and made a note to go back and get 'em, but I saw one that I just had to grab. It's not a cookbook per se. I bet it will be an interesting read, although I have no idea if I'll make any changes in my diet. The book was published in 2014 and is written by Daniella Martin. The title is: "EDIBLE; An Adventure Into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet."

Wish me luck.

AnnPT77

I don't use cookbooks much anymore, and then mostly either for (1) general ideas about flavor profiles and combinations, (2) the way to make something (like a lot of baked goods) that contain what I think of as "structural ingredients" - things that need to be in certain proportions to produce the end product reasonably.

I have a couple of 3-foot-ish (1m ish) shelves of cookbooks. The ones I use most these days (still rare):

Cookwise by Shirley Corriher (it's food science with recipes - good ones: the Southern buttermilk biscuits are amazing)

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (when I want ideas for something fancy-ish that non-veg people may like, such as for a potluck)

Mrs. Restino's Country kitchen: The complete wood stove cookbook by Susan Restino (I don't have a woodstove, but I like her pizza dough recipe as a starting point to riff on, and there are some other good basics in there, in a "make it kinda like this but you can substitute that if you don't have this" form that matches how I cook)

Family Meals and Hospitality", by Lewis/Peckham/Hovey, 1960 edition. (It was my high school Home Economics class book, has all kinds of basics, substitutions, general instructions and such in it.) I put a thread in Debate sometime back to share the overview nutrition and weight loss advice from this book, which was kind of fun and in some ways unexpected: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10625791/mainstream-eating-guidance-1960/p1 )

I have various cookbooks about cuisines that aren't what I was born to (Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, African, etc.), some about canning and preserving books (used to do that), couple of chocolate cookbooks, the 1970s Small Planet cookbooks from when I first became vegetarian, Greene on Greens by Bert Greene (which I got as a gift but is a decent book for someone needing ideas for cooking veggies), and some other offbeat stuff (liqueur making, tamales, desserts, Nero Wolfe cookbook (!), Theory and Practice of Good Cooking by James Beard, probably at least one book about cooking wild game (late husband was a hunter) . . . .

It's too many, but right now it seems like more trouble to get rid of some than just to keep them.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I got rid of a few. I have about 15. I tend to go through phases of using recipes from one book at a time. My current favourite is the Good Housekeeping meals in 30 minutes. It’a not a purist cooks book in that it uses quite a few prepared ingredients.

yirara

Ugh... so I basically sold a huge pile of vinyl that I've not listened to in ages because no player and not my taste anymore and ended up with two more Callax shelf boxes for cookbook. Which are nearly full now. I'm currently choosing a random cookbook I've not looked at for ages and am trying to find at least one recipe I'd like to cook. And cook it. If not the book goes towards my local Small Library. One less by now, one recipe cooked (for three days) and one more book lined up to cook from.

mtaratoot

That's a recipe for success....

Had to say it.

yirara

LOL!

Lynngoddard125

I collect Better Homes and Gardens Vintage Cook books. I find the vintage books have fewer ingredients, more creativity and ingredients I have on hand. I have over twenty vintage cookbooks.

yirara

I love books with lots of spices. I just bought the Nutmeg Trail (and cooked a few things already) and Spice Kitchen (just released). My kitchen is full of odd spices and spice mixes I mostly made myself. Plus a chili bookbook. Have not received that one yet.