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Recommend Me a Cookbook!
DVG
No. 1 Honor StudentNether Institute, Evil AcademyRegistered User regular
No. 1 Honor StudentNether Institute, Evil AcademyRegistered User regular
So I rather like cooking, and while my current "Search The Webs for a recipe for a specific dish" system works well enough, I'd like to get myself a good cookbook to get ideas from, so I can expand a bit.
Preferably I'd like to find a healthy eating cookbook, and I usually cook for myself alone or me and my lady, so something geared towards a family of four or more probably isn't the best.
There are a couple on Amazon that sound promising, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has a personal recommendation on this sort of thing.
Preferably I'd like to find a healthy eating cookbook, and I usually cook for myself alone or me and my lady, so something geared towards a family of four or more probably isn't the best.
There are a couple on Amazon that sound promising, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has a personal recommendation on this sort of thing.
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I lurv this book. Mine is so well used the pages are falling out... I really ought to get myself a new copy of it. They have an anniversary edition too, I'm not entirely sure what the difference is though
Some of the recipes are a bit dated, but it's a good baseline for virtually everything. Add some flare and change up ingredients once you are comfortable with the basics.
My wife is headed to Chef school this fall she loves cooking so much. And this book gets a lot of use in our house. We have an entire bookshelf devoted to cook books and baking books - I'd say this is the one we use the most.
Face Twit Rav Gram
It can be a little overwhelming at first, but like Alton, it's very percise and has prep tips scattered throughout like how to peel tomatoes and picking good steaks.
Joy is always a good choice, though I think you want to get an older (pre-2000) edition? Thought I remember the new versions were not as well-laid out.
This is my favorite cookbook, but it's also a little overwhelming for a new cook.
The Betty Crocker Cookbook has been around forever and is designed for someone who doesn't know anything about cooking at all. There's a glossary of cooking terms and lots of detailed instructions on how to do pretty much anything. The recipes are simple, but they are very good and won't force you to hunt down lots of random ingredients. Even though I have a whole shelf of cookbooks, Betty Crocker is my go-to if I need a simple, tested recipe for something new.
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but it is a great book for beginners like myself. The main text is humourous and written by a son who learned from his mother. At the end of every recipe she chimes in with expert tips.
This book is great if you're like me and don't even know how to make mashed potatoes properly.
To me it seems like that sort of popular consensus, a couple hundred ratings, would provide a better correlation to my tastes than the writings of a given individual, no matter how talented. Since a lot of you appear to have cookbooks, what's the advantage? I just figure that if Betty Crocker's Chili or whatever is such an awesome chili then something very similar to it (or perhaps the identical one) will float to the top of the AllRecipes rankings?
If I want an awesome recipe for rack of lamb, sure. I can google it and hope that Sally From Minnesota has her measurements and flavor profile down. Or I can just check out Jaques Pepin technique, Joy Of Cooking, or Kamman's Making of a Cook.
That said, you can take any recipe and make it "healthier" just substitute butter for olive or canola oil, don't cook with fatty cuts of meat, don't drench things in butter or make too many pastries. If all you want is a "starting" point, I would pick up Joy of Cooking or Madeleine Kamman's Making Of a Cook. Tons of recipes in both. You then take these recipes and can alter them to meet your dietary needs. No need to get a specialized cook book. To me, Joy of Cooking is a little more "home-maker"y than Making of a Cook.
Because every recipe has been vetted and edited in a cookbook. And in the case of America's Test Kitchen, they have tried out all the variations of a recipe and published the one that is, in their opinion, the best one. I'm very skeptical of online ratings, and most recipes from the web are not tried and tested the way recipes published in a cookbook with a good reputation are.
Plus, laptops and kitchen counters don't mix, and printed out recipes lack helpful illustrations.
There's nothing "wrong" with looking recipes up on the internet—I do it all the time. But cookbooks do have their advantages.
I love this book but like people have said it can get a little technical.
The good side is that it addresses everything you need to know to make the dish. So while it might have technical terms and such, it explains them all. It also goes into the hows and whys of the cooking, explaining how they came up with the recipe. Its a really cool read.
The Joy of Cooking is awesome, I havent had the time to go get me one, but Ive used my mom's copy and it really is fantastic.
As for the internet, I usually go to Food Network's site, from there I can usually get several takes on the recipe and figure out which one I want to make. And they're usually all pretty good recipes using real ingredients instead of the stuff I find through google where they use pudding powder for cream pies.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
The best new recipe book is great too, but I agree it is pretty heavy. Totally great though!
Unfortunately most ones I find for japanese cooking tend to be sushi, which I dont really care about (ok, I lie I love sushi but its not what I am looking for)
I do have one that has a breakdown of alot of common vegetables, spices etc that are used in japanese cooking but it lacks alot of recipes (has a good dashi recipe tho)
Anyone have a good cookbook for Japan they could recommend, pictures are a must as well.
On the other hand, Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was an invaluable resource for me when I first really learning my way around the kitchen. While I'm not vegetarian personally, and ended up including meat in a fair number of her recipes, it has a remarkable section alphabetized by ingredient that includes a description of common varieties and their qualities, care, storage, suggested accompaniments, and finally, at least a few recipes featuring said ingredient that provide a good basis for expanding upon (some even include further ideas). Depending on your own skills, there's also a section near the beginning on various techniques (knife and otherwise) with some illustration that I found mildly useful.
I've also found that Julia Child's books are generally well-written and easy to navigate, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking is, well, a classic. Personally I find it's a must for the shelf.
As for the website side of things, I've had a Saveur subscription for years, and I make frequent reference to their website. I haven't been too pleased with their recent changes in layout and organisation, but they do still provide a great collection of recipes and techniques. While I like the physical aspect of the magazine, you won't need a subscription to make good use of their website. Note that recently they've started linking outside recipes and such that haven't necessarily been tested and edited by their own staff, but they do cover a fairly broad range in taste, and I've never been disappointed in anything of theirs I've tried my own hand at.
Edit: Seconding the below, I own a few of Mollie Katzen's Moosewood cookbooks, they're great to have around.
if you have to buy only one book, make it this one.
I also have The Silver Spoon and have found it fantastic.
My next book will be I'm Just Here for the Food. I love his shows, and have browsed this. It's great!
Says for Canadian, but it is a great book. It was what they used to teach us how to cook.
Because the dominance of the wisdom of the masses over expert opinions is the most unfortunate load of crock that has come out of the Information Era.
Joy of Cooking is the must-have. Everything after that is just gravy (though quite possibly delicious, delicious gravy.)
darkmayo: check out The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking.
http://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253658687&sr=8-1
I love Alton's books, they're fantastic. But if I could only use one for the rest of my life, it would be The Joy of Cooking.
Although the dishes aren't complex, they give you the baseline for everything from roast chicken to squirrel. This includes the plucking/skinning. You can learn to add new flavours and spices with trial and error, but waaay to many books tell you to "stuff and truss" a bird and expect you know what you're doing. Joy takes out all the guess work.
BTW the JoK's Egg Nog is crazy good.