Author Topic: Your Most Used Cookbooks  (Read 324 times)

Offline Damocles

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Your Most Used Cookbooks
« on: June 27, 2018, 12:03:11 pm »
I have one to start off:

Flat Belly Cookbook - Used so often its binding fell apart.  Surprisingly tasty recipes for all it's a "diet" cookbook.  Korean Been Lettuce Wraps are a win.

« Last Edit: June 27, 2018, 04:55:14 pm by Damocles »

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Offline STiG

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2018, 12:25:40 pm »
For me, my most used book is the collection of recipes of my Mom's that I put together with some of her pithier sayings in the blank spaces.  Printed a bunch of them as a fundraiser and for gifts to friends and family.  Many of the pages are well stained.

Offline Amara

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2018, 01:10:13 pm »
What an interesting question! I actually have several that get used more than others. They are:

In Search of Caesar: The Ultimate Caesar Salad Cookbook. I am crazy about Caesar salads and while I think this might be self-published the many recipes are good and interesting. This is my favorite salad so this is one of my favorite books.

Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Grill and Sandwich Maker. I have given up browsing this in bed at night because it makes me drool uncontrollably even if I am still full from dinner. If you like grilled cheese sandwiches you'll love this!

Hot and Spicy Sauces & Salsas. Another thing I love so this recipe-loaded book, with sauces and salsas ranging from extremely mild to WATCH OUT! is outstanding.

Flavors First: An Indian Chef's Culinary Journey is a beautiful and entirely delicious cookbook. I favor this for summer cooking but it's good all year round.

Turkish Cooking: Traditions, Ingredients, Tastes, Techniques, 75 Classic Recipes. I found my favorite egg recipe in here: Cilbir, poached (or in my case, mostly sauteed) eggs on a bed of garlic-flavored yogurt. Yum! But their caramelized mushrooms and pomegranate broth/soup are also favorites.

Red Hot: A Cook's Encyclopedia of Fire and Spice. Do you see a trend? A massive cookbook with recipes from "all the spiciest corners of the world." I have made cheese gifts for Christmas like Chili Yogurt Cheese in Olive Oil and Spiced Feta with Chili Seeds and Olives but my favorite recipes are some of the vegetable recipes for carrots, spring onions, and a jalapeno & onion quiche.

The Onion Cookbook: Cooking with Onions, Garlic, Leeks, Spring Onions, Shallots and Chives. Since I have always loved French Onion Soup, this was a natural and it is, like the others, stained, spattered and messy with my notes. What's not to love here? This is where I got my recipe for my Christmas dinner, which features another recipe gotten from elsewhere, Chicken Bastilla. This book gave me the accompanying salad: Moroccan Orange, Onion and Olive Salad. 

I am also in the process of creating my own cookbook featuring all the gazpacho recipes I can find. And there are lots! A couple of years ago I took a class on library research and while my own research skills are extensive and intense I learned more. We had to do a project of our choosing using the new applications so I chose gazpacho. Eighty google pages later I realized I had the makings for a book like this and my total happiness (because if I could live on gazpacho and Caesar salad for the rest of my life I would). I am putting into a Word document all the recipes I can find along with my own and will be self-publishing it for me when I am done. It will also have some history and well-researched articles on the history and culture of the soup.


Offline Queen of the Night

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2018, 01:32:28 pm »
My Betty Crocker is stained and falling apart...  because it was my mom's and she used it heavily before I got my hands on it and started using it.  :)

My Joy of Cooking is still pretty pristine, except for the pages for making biscuits.  :D

The rest of them...  mostly I have them just to have them, kwim?  There are a few that get some rotation -- specialty ones, like the German cookbook or the ones with medieval recipes -- but most of my recipes are in my head.  I just really enjoy reading and collecting cookbooks.  :)

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Offline Damocles

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2018, 04:56:38 pm »
What an interesting question! I actually have several that get used more than others. They are:

In Search of Caesar: The Ultimate Caesar Salad Cookbook. I am crazy about Caesar salads and while I think this might be self-published the many recipes are good and interesting. This is my favorite salad so this is one of my favorite books.

Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Grill and Sandwich Maker. I have given up browsing this in bed at night because it makes me drool uncontrollably even if I am still full from dinner. If you like grilled cheese sandwiches you'll love this!

Hot and Spicy Sauces & Salsas. Another thing I love so this recipe-loaded book, with sauces and salsas ranging from extremely mild to WATCH OUT! is outstanding.

Flavors First: An Indian Chef's Culinary Journey is a beautiful and entirely delicious cookbook. I favor this for summer cooking but it's good all year round.

Turkish Cooking: Traditions, Ingredients, Tastes, Techniques, 75 Classic Recipes. I found my favorite egg recipe in here: Cilbir, poached (or in my case, mostly sauteed) eggs on a bed of garlic-flavored yogurt. Yum! But their caramelized mushrooms and pomegranate broth/soup are also favorites.

Red Hot: A Cook's Encyclopedia of Fire and Spice. Do you see a trend? A massive cookbook with recipes from "all the spiciest corners of the world." I have made cheese gifts for Christmas like Chili Yogurt Cheese in Olive Oil and Spiced Feta with Chili Seeds and Olives but my favorite recipes are some of the vegetable recipes for carrots, spring onions, and a jalapeno & onion quiche.

The Onion Cookbook: Cooking with Onions, Garlic, Leeks, Spring Onions, Shallots and Chives. Since I have always loved French Onion Soup, this was a natural and it is, like the others, stained, spattered and messy with my notes. What's not to love here? This is where I got my recipe for my Christmas dinner, which features another recipe gotten from elsewhere, Chicken Bastilla. This book gave me the accompanying salad: Moroccan Orange, Onion and Olive Salad. 

I am also in the process of creating my own cookbook featuring all the gazpacho recipes I can find. And there are lots! A couple of years ago I took a class on library research and while my own research skills are extensive and intense I learned more. We had to do a project of our choosing using the new applications so I chose gazpacho. Eighty google pages later I realized I had the makings for a book like this and my total happiness (because if I could live on gazpacho and Caesar salad for the rest of my life I would). I am putting into a Word document all the recipes I can find along with my own and will be self-publishing it for me when I am done. It will also have some history and well-researched articles on the history and culture of the soup.

I love Indian thanks to my wife introducing it to me when we were dating.  I'll have to check out 'Flavors First' per your recommendation.

Offline Amara

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2018, 12:03:39 am »
I love Indian thanks to my wife introducing it to me when we were dating.  I'll have to check out 'Flavors First' per your recommendation.

I know you'll like that book. Try the fruit salad with mango powder; it's delicious and so unusual! There is another Indian cookbook I once saw at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I had a book review website at the time and was wandering around when I came across a booth with six or eight people in front of it. Curious, I checked it out and found the author and her family selling this newly self-published book--Entertaining From an Indian Ethnic Kitchen. And what a book!

They spent some serious money hiring, I am sure, editors and book designers. It is so gorgeous and the food is wonderful too. I don't use it as much as the first one but still I like it a lot. And I try to keep it clean. You can find it at Amazon but I googled just now and found she has a current blog: http://komalinunna.blogspot.com/

I love Indian food too.

Offline Morrigan

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2018, 09:18:22 am »
My Updated Copy of the Betty Crocker Red Cookbook. My mom has her copy from the 1940's (it used to be my grandma's), and the covers have fallen off, but the cook book is still excellent.

My other favourites are from a Canadian cookbook series called Company's Coming. The recipes are easy to follow and really good. My cookies edition of Company's Coming is actually falling apart, but the recipes are wonderful.
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Offline Penguinzrock

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2018, 09:50:23 am »
My Betty Crocker is stained and falling apart...  because it was my mom's and she used it heavily before I got my hands on it and started using it.  :) 

I used my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook (circa 1950ish) until it fell apart. Then I scored another copy of it at a local Goodwill!  Still using it today  ;D
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Offline MrTango

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2018, 04:54:20 pm »
My Betty Crocker is stained and falling apart...  because it was my mom's and she used it heavily before I got my hands on it and started using it.  :) 

I used my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook (circa 1950ish) until it fell apart. Then I scored another copy of it at a local Goodwill!  Still using it today  ;D

Yep.  If I need a cookbook, the first thing I'll do is see if the information I'm looking for is in the Betty Crocker bridal edition.  If it's not there, then it's most likely in the red book.

If I can't find it in either place, the next thing I do is see if Alton Brown did a Good Eats episode on it.
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Offline Winterlight

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2018, 07:53:45 pm »
A lot of what I cook comes from online sources or things I've adapted, but I love reading cookbooks. The Beany Malone Cookbook is a favorite, as is The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. And I really like literary cookbooks, like the Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook and the Little House Cookbook and The Secret Garden Cookbook. They're so much fun to read.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2018, 07:56:04 pm by Winterlight »
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
Caroline Lake Ingalls
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Offline annikahansen

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2018, 09:47:54 pm »
Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless - Everything has been a winner. Recipes aren't too complicated. He gives variations on each recipe like make it vegetarian or use a slow cooker.

Indian Food Under Pressure: Authentic Indian Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker by Ashley Thomas. Again you don't need a million ingredients to make her recipes. I bought an Instant Pot and keep going back to her recipes. She also has a website full of recipes at https://myheartbeets.com/. She will also respond to you on Facebook if you have any questions.

The Joy of Cooking - Mine is an early 90s edition that I got when I moved to my first apartment. It is a great reference.

I also like my magazines that I have kept from Cooks Illustrated. I should really just buy one of their cookbooks. I really appreciate that they spell out why their way is the best and what happens if you do it other ways.

Offline Athersgeo

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2018, 04:41:56 am »
I have three:
1) Loraine Pascal's Home Cooking Made Easy - it is everything it says on the tin; I've literally never had one of her recipes fail me and the ingredients are all things you'd find in a reasonably sized supermarket
2) The Usborne Book of Desserts - I've had this book more than thirty years and it's got the best brownie recipe I've ever tried. It also has an awesome gingerbread recipe, a basic and easy to follow meringue recipe and a few other things that I've made over the years with slightly less regularity. (Granted the injunctions to "Ask a parent to help you with this bit" do make me giggle a bit these days!)
3) Stir Fry (ready to eat) by Caroline Hwang - the recipes I've tried are easy enough and quick to whip up and she does make suggestions for what you can use if you can't track down some of the more obscure ingredients. She's also included recipes for all the base sauces, so it's definitely a good grounding in East Asian cooking (she covers Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and Korean recipes)

Offline STiG

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2018, 08:06:54 am »
My go to is 'Better Homes and Gardens'.  I have one from the late 80's and one from the 50's.  I haven't had a recipe I've tried fail.  It is also interesting to see the difference between the two editions with some of the recipes.  Lower fat and sugar, for example.  Sometimes, though, you just have to make that 50's version!

Offline Queen of the Night

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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2018, 04:40:02 pm »
I'mma veer off topic for a second and mention my most treasured cookbooks. 

I have painstakingly, over many years of thrift-shop hunting, gathered a full collection of the Time-Life Foods of the World cookbooks.  (Yes, I know it's easier now, but this was mostly before eBay was a thing.)

I love, love, love those books!  I seldom make anything from them, but they're terrific reading, and the things I have made from them have been wonderful.  And authentic!  They were beautifully researched and photographed, and they're a last glimpse of a time before fusion cuisine and Diet Everything.

Yes, I'm a nerd.  :D 
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Re: Your Most Used Cookbooks
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2018, 02:40:59 am »
My grandmother gave me the red Betty Crocker cookbook when I got married. I used it a lot and it's in tatters, but still in my kitchen. Later, I got my aunt's copy of the 1950 version of the same book, which I liked better. The 1970ish version relied on mixes and ready-made stuff that was popular at the time, before we moved back to more natural cooking. I have a few others, but not really any room to store them, so now I get most recipes by searching online.
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