[PickyPrincess]

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What is your favorite cookbook that you couldn't do without? Why is it your favorite? Is it because it holds your treasured recipes, or is it the one that helped you increase your skills in the kitchen? Is it something that was handed down to you, or did you personally choose it because of the subject?

 

[Old Gnome]

Anything by Alton Brown. He doesn't just write recipes with a great deal of humor, but he subtly teaches the science of cooking alongside tasty food. I have learned more about how to cook from Mr. Brown than I have from everyone else combined. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Grandma.

 

[PickyPrincess]

I don't have any of his books but that is going to change. I used to watch all his shows and absolutely adore him. I enjoyed the fact that he went into the science of why something was done the way it was done.

That type of explanation helped me to learn more than anything!

 

[Wooleybooger]

I don't have any of his books but that is going to change. I used to watch all his shows and absolutely adore him. I enjoyed the fact that he went into the science of why something was done the way it was done.

That type of explanation helped me to learn more than anything!

I checked out his books and DVDs on Amazon, haven't bought yet. My favorite cookbook I guess would be JOY OF COOKING. It was my first book also in about 1974. I have several copies of that edition and a couple newer revisions. The newer are not quite the same as the older.
I also found on Amazon a facsimile version of the original JOY OF COOKING from the 1930's. Totally different.

 

[Shane R]

The one I have compiled myself. We tried one of those meal delivery services once and they gave us a binder to put the recipes in. I haven't ordered from them in years but I've been slowly filling up that binder. My wife had a folder she had saved from a cooking class she took in high school. Some of those are in the binder but it's mostly my stuff at this point.

 

[Old Gnome]

We have been compiling family recipes for a couple of years. I have some card stock for my printer and a large file card box. We intend to pass the recipes to our daughter eventually.

 

[Shane R]

My mother's go-to is the Betty Crocker cookbook. Someone gave her a copy as a wedding gift back in 1983. It's falling apart these days. Frankly, a lot of those recipes aren't that good.

 

[stickshift]

My mom's favorite was Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and she gave me a copy 25 years ago or so. Don't use it much but it's the only actual cookbook I use.

 

[Wooleybooger]

My mother's go-to is the Betty Crocker cookbook. Someone gave her a copy as a wedding gift back in 1983. It's falling apart these days. Frankly, a lot of those recipes aren't that good.

Is that the old thick green Betty Crocker cookbook. My wife has her mother's old green Betty Crocker cookbook also falling apart.

 

[Colbyt]

Betty is good. But, if you want scratch cooking the 1908, can't recall the name right now, is the go to one.

Edit: Metropolian cook book. I t may have been a freebie.

 

[Shane R]

Is that the old thick green Betty Crocker cookbook. My wife has her mother's old green Betty Crocker cookbook also falling apart.

Mom's is red and white checkered like the popular table cloth pattern. At least everyone had that table cloth where I grew up.

 

[stickshift]

The Better Homes and Garden book I was talking about is red and white checked - I wonder if we're talking about the same book.

 

[Roll_Bones]

There are some cook books in a drawer somewhere around here. I have never purchased a cook book in my life.
I was to busy working on technique to worry to much about specific recipes.
Most everything I make is on the fly. Its most always different no matter the dish. That could be a good or bad thing. I'm not consistent as I work with what I have on hand. But I do guaranty great results.
Now I do follow directions to the tee when baking. I use a scale to measure out ingredients. I use a good set of measuring spoons as well.
Baking requires exact measurements. I don't fool around here.

 

[tadghostal]

The red-and-white BC that we all have, and (I know this is, or was, controversial) my various Frugal Gourmet books. There are so many recipes in those latter that have become regular "home staples" that my kids grew up eating, and that we still make today. Hot Chocolate to Die For is hands-down (imo) the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Chicken with Leeks and Cream, Rice and Noodle Pilaf, Latkes - all things we make on a fairly regular basis

 

[Wooleybooger]

Maybe not. I'll have to find wife's book

My mother's go-to is the Betty Crocker cookbook. Someone gave her a copy as a wedding gift back in 1983. It's falling apart these days. Frankly, a lot of those recipes aren't that good.

Alrighty I found mother-in-law's old cookbook. It is an old circa 1944 I think Good Housekeeping cookbook. The one with the plaid cover. Used so much that the cover across the spine is missing. This book but not is such good condition.

 

[Old Gnome]

Like Bibles, the best-loved cookbooks are those that are falling apart.

 

[Wooleybooger]

Like Bibles, the best-loved cookbooks are those that are falling apart.

We also have an old family Bible that belonged to wife's grandmother.

 

[tadghostal]

I don't have any of his books but that is going to change. I used to watch all his shows and absolutely adore him. I enjoyed the fact that he went into the science of why something was done the way it was done.

That type of explanation helped me to learn more than anything!

That man changed my life, which his take on single-use/unitasker tools vs multi-use tools

 

[KitchenWench]

Hmmm...that's a tough question. I've got several favorites for different reasons, none of which make any sense to anybody else.

This is the one I learned from as a kid. The baking sections still have some of my favorite cookies and quick breads. Over the years I've photocopied many pages and added them to my own 3 ring notebooks.

My 1950s Joy of Cooking taught me a ton of technics growing up but I rarely if ever use it now. Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet) was the first celebrity chef I fell in love with and bought each of his cookbooks as they came out. Still have 'em and use 'em, too.

Right now I'm playing with an early 2000s Culinary Institute of America textbook I picked up at a thrift store about a year ago. The amount of technic I've learned is simply staggering. By the time I'm done I might just be able to make a Bernaise sauce that doesn't break!

 

[Wooleybooger]

Another of my favorites is The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhard. He is the Baking Instructor at Johnson & Wales University. Said to live in Charlotte. NC. The book gives in depth instructions on ingredients and what is happening when a dough is made. Seems like a textbook almost.