Cookbook Suggestions

[kirill]

Since moving out on my own, I've developed a taste for cooking, and I've had a lot of fun experimenting with different recipes I find online, mixing and matching, getting it just right, but this entire time I've been meaning to pick up a proper cookbook, both for inspiration, and so I can have a solid reference for the basics, since internet recipes aren't always reliable, like when I tried making french toast only to realize too late that the egg to milk ratio was way off, leaving me with something overcooked on the outside and soggy in the middle.

So I'm looking for suggestions for good starter cookbooks, ones which cover the essentials, but also, I would like any suggestions you fellows might have for additional cookbooks that I might add on, once I'm ready to start acquiring. I've seen names here and there, in the acquisitions thread for instance, but I'd definitely be curious to see your recommendations.

 

[maxman]

The Joy of Cooking will get you everywhere you need to go.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child is a must.
If you are interested in how to throw a high falootin' dinner party, look at Martha Stewart's Entertaining.
Larousse Gastronomique is a nice one to have on the shelf too.

I highly recommend looking at what a Culinary program is selling to their students.
Those books have a lot of real world how-to methods that are good too. You can sometimes find them used at the bookstores.
Hey, if they are teaching the Chefs of tomorrow, then they must have some good info in them.

 

[PugslyCat]

It kind of depends on how into it you want to go. If you don't want to be a home chef but just a well rounded home cook, the Good Housekeeping New Cook Book is kind of the gold standard. Yea, the one with the red and white plaid cover is what I'm thinking of. My mother and grandmother had early versions of this and it is still pretty good. Lots of illustrations, suggested variations on recipes, and something that most home cooks have.

Beyond that I started watching a lot of Food Network and the Cooking Channel. When I saw a TV chef that was making a lot of dishes that I wanted to try I started looking for cookbooks that they authored which featured the same style of cooking.

Remember, toques are cool!

 

[Masterkova]

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is an excellent resource to cover all the basic techniques and ingredients. I find myself picking it up all the time. It's sort of a modernized version of the Joy of Cooking in that it includes more up-to-date ingredients and recipes which don't rely so much on the old-school Continental repertoire.

 

[Rushman2112]

Leith's Cookery Bible. Everything from basic stuff, how to plan dinner parties, cuts of meat and how to cook 'em, to advanced dishes. Only drawback, very few pictures but the text and ingredients are very clear. I have some very highbrow books (French Laundry f'rinstance) but Leith's is what I refer to daily if it's checking how long something should roast, converting US into English, reminding myself how to boil spuds...

 

[Luc]

There are a few threads worth looking at:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/268747-Whats-your-favorite-cookbooks
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/197478-Best-Cookbook-Ever
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/143318-Recommend-me-a-cookbook
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/104849-The-books-the-influenced-your-cooking

Other than that, as Paul mentioned, it really depends on what you like and what you want. I am not a huge fan of French cooking myself. My strong points are mainly Mexican and Italian cooking. I really like Lebanese food too. It doesn't mean that I don't cook much French food, British, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

The cookbooks that I often reach for are the Rick Bayless - Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (I got another cookbook from Rick Bayless and it's pretty much the same with more or less detail around the recipes). That one is really complete IMO.

 

[Reckoner]

Lots of good ones mentioned. I'll add Jacques Pépin's New Complete Techniques. If you want to cook over live fire, Steven Raichlen's How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques is great (skewed more toward grilling than BBQing).

I bet your local library has plenty of great cookbooks. I usually check them out before I buy. Second-hand stores can be good, too (and don't gloss over the church cookbooks with thirty different preparations of creamy chicken casserole--they usually have some kickin' dessert recipes).

 

[Nasty Canasta]

The Joy of Cooking

+1

church cookbooks

Can't go wrong with the church books. A lot of simple, yet tasty, recipes.

 

[john parker]

And when you decide, go to AbeBooks.com to buy a used copy. Good resource. Also, if the book is still in print, Aomazon.com often has previews of pages/chapters of the books they carry.

 

[ReAndyMator]

Larousse Gastronomique is a nice one to have on the shelf too.

Larousse is, as far as I'm concerned the only cookbook you'd ever need. It's not got a huge number of recipes in it, but it teaches how to cook. How different methods work. What happens if you try different things. I've recommended it to lots of people (and often lent them my copy for a few days) - some love it (and bought it) - others prefer recipe books that specify everything (Five minutes shall be the cooking time, and the cooking time shalt be five minutes. Six minutes shalt thou not cook, neither cookest thou four, excepting that thou continuest to five. Seven minutes is right out.)

Personally I prefer to experiment.

It's more of an encyclopaedia of food and cooking.

 

[YetiDave]

For Indian cuisine - "Indian Cookery" by Madhur Jaffrey, for Chinese - Yan Kit's "Classic Chinese". Both can be bought used from Amazon for very little, in fact Indian Cookery is listed for $0.01 and $3.99 shipping

 

[jbaca]

I think Cook illustrated is also a good source for techniques tools and recipes. I've used a couple recipes from the food network too.

 

[Haggises]

If you're a complete noob, try Delia Smith's How To Cook series, or more modern but similar by Ina Garten.

 

[kirill]

Thank you all for your suggestions, when I'm ready to move on to specifics, I'm sure I'll find this thread a handy reference, for now I'm going to give Abebooks a shot, because why not, and pick up a copy of Larousse Gastronomique and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, since they're priced extremely low on the site. Another I'm definitely going to pick up is Joy of Cooking, but I think I'll visit my bookstore for that one.

Looking forward to learning!

 

[Alacrity59]

3 of the best Michael. Hey just noticed you are from Laval. I grew up in St. Lambert.

 

[kirill]

3 of the best Michael. Hey just noticed you are from Laval. I grew up in St. Lambert.

Yep, I'm a Laval boy, I have some friends who went to college there, Champlain. Glad you made the move to Ontario?

And yes, there does seem to be a concensus on those 3, I'm looking forward to recieving them, I have some reading in my future, and quite a bit of learning too, I'm sure.

 

[ThePatrician]

My wife does most of the cooking in our house, and while she doesn't cook OUT OF Joy of Cooking, she references it a lot. I've needed a chicken marinade a few times, and there is a great section about how to figure one out on your own. It's a pretty good cookbook, but an outstanding reference book. It won't steer you wrong!

 

[langod]

Get a subscription to Cook's Illustrated. Some of the best recipes in my repertoire are from there. They recipes are almost fool proof and they explain exactly why each step works.
I've got a bunch of cookbooks that I've collected over 25 years. But I find I haul them out less and less, and go to a few internet sites instead.

 

[Cfrpratt]

If you have an IPAD or an iPhone, the "all recipes" app is awesome. It has all sorts of cool little things in there.

 

[Acmemfg]

One more vote for the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I have a huge collection of culinary tomes and my '60s vintage GH book is still often taken off the shelf for both cooking reference and basic, no frills recipes. As one who has experience working as a cook in both home and professional environments, I highly recommend this book. It should be on most everyone's shelf