What are your favorite cookbooks of all time?
Here's my three cents-worth:
1. COOKING LIGHT magazine: Okay, I cheated right off the bat. But, darn it, I've read this magazine for years and have never prepared a recipe from it that wasn't at least good. Not haute cuisine, for sure. Just good, healthy American cooking using ingredients that are very accessible in my neck of the woods.
2. Mark Bittman's HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING: Not the most elegant cookbook visually, but the simple, fresh ingredients and fool-proof directions more than make up for it. (I also enjoy Bittman's recipes in Men's Health magazine.)
3. THE JOY OF COOKING (75th Anniversary Edition): The standard by which all other cookbboks should be measured, and the one to buy if you're only buying one--not to mention a perfect wedding gift.
PENDING: Alice Waters' THE ART OF SIMPLE FOOD. Haven't prepared any of the recipes yet, so I'll reserve judgement. But I am so far very impressed with Waters' tasty but healthful approach to fresh, seasonal ingredients. (Have got to get to Chez Panisse someday.)
A FINAL NOTE: My choices above do not reflect my overall tastes in food, which go well beyond regional American cooking. These are simply the sources I consult most often when cooking at home.
So, how about it, guys? What other good ones have I missed? And, in particular, what Asian, Italian, Mexican, and/or French cookbooks are MUST-HAVES for American cooks?
Jeff C.
Jan 05, 2008 06:44AM
I mentioned this in another thread, but I like the idea of expanding my library to include these "essential" according to the James Beard Foundation cookbooks
http://www.jamesbeard.org/about/press...
~TDQ
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A solid list. And I'm gratified, of course, to see a few of my choices on it (even if they are no-brainers).
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While the Beard list is interesting, it completely lacks "world view". Frankly, it lacks US "regional view" as well. That list is myopic at best. But I suppose the purpose Beard Foundation is to advance Amercian Cookery (not sure of the mission)?
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Hmmm...excellent point. According to the link I provided, "the James Beard Foundation is dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and nurturing America's culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate the appreciation of our culinary excellence" and it goes on to describe Mr. Beard himself as a champion of American cuisine. So, I'm not surprise to find the list lacking a world view, even though it does have a handful of cookbooks from other cuisines represented (5 books of the 20, so 25%), several of which (Bayless, Hazan and Child) are often recommended on this board:
Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, Rick Bayless
Classic Indian Cooking, Julie Sahni
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking , Marcella Hazan
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One, Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck (as well as "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child)
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes, Barbara Tropp
But, on closer examination, it is surprising that there aren't more American regional cuisines represented given the Beard foundation's MIssion. Obviously, this list would be a starting point for just some basic techniques, since the list is limited to 20. What would you add (or strike or replace), Ora, to give a home cook the fundamentals with a more world view or for a more regional American view?
~TDQ
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Apologies for butting in, but I think we have to take into consideration the time in which James Beard lived. Were he alive today, I think he would be dumfounded at the array of Asian cuisines that are now considered "everyday American."
My experience is that any institution that is founded to memorialize someone tends to cling to their view of the world at the time of their death. I somehow doubt that James Beard ever had pad thai. Maybe not even sushi, and god knows that's certainly proliferate in this country today. Japanese business men regularly fly to L.A. to have American sushi! Where's the sushi cookbook on the Beard Foundation list?.
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More importantly, what sushi cookbook would you add to the list since you live in the here and now? James Beard Foundation list aside, very few sushi cookbooks have been mentioned in this thread, no? Even by our esteemed, worldly, and diverse fellow 'hounds? And many mentioned on the James Beard Foundation list including Child, Hazan, and Tropp have also been mentioned in this thread by others, so, it doesn't sounds like the James Beard Foundation list was that far astray, it just wasn't that expansive in terms of its world view. How would you add to the list with your current knowledge and superior 'hound sensibility?
This Beard Foundation list was created in November 2007 by a committee including Pat Adrian, (The Good Cook), a division of Bookspan; Pat Brown, (Bon Appétit Magazine); Lee Svitak Dean, (Minneapolis Star-Tribune); Doralece Lipoli Dullaghan, (Sur La Table); Jan Turner Hazard, (Ladies Home Journal); Martha Holmberg,(The Oregonian); Kathleen Purvis, (The Charlotte Observer); Irene Sax, (New York University, The New York Daily News and Epicurious); Nach Waxman, (Kitchen Arts & Letters); and Rita Wolfson, (Doubleday & Co.) A decidedly American group, but a reasonable cross-section thereof, given the task at hand, I think.
~TDQ
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Whew! Guess I ruffled your feathers. Sorry. But you seem to have missed my point. So from my "current knowledge and superior 'hound sensibilities," let me reiterate:
I: The James Beard Foundation was/is formulated to focus on American food from a memorialized James Beard perspective.
II: Not specifically stated but hopefully understood by most readers, it takes at least a generation, according to social scientists, for broad new cultural influences to be absorbed to a point where they are accepted as mainstream norms.
III: The Beard Foundation list of books does not (as can be expected) fully reflect the multicultural food influences that are broadly active in this country today.
Not rocket science. There's nothing wrong with the way the Beard Foundation does things. But it is a bit naive to think it reflects present day food in America. What it does, it appears to do well within the narrower confines of its scope and goals.
CHOW POLICE: If you remove this reply too, then please also remove Dairy Qeens reply to me. It's only fair.
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No feathers ruffled. As you can tell, ora made the "lacking the world view", as well as the lacking a regional U.S. view, point here ... http://www.chowhound.com/topics/476363#3385241 and I conceeded those points here http://www.chowhound.com/topics/47636... noting that, indeed, the self-described mission of the JBF is American centric, which would explain the limited world view of the list. I further expressed that it seemed strange that the JBF list wasn't better at covering the American regional cuisines, given its mission and, (as I tried, apparently not so successfully, to point out in my reply to you) given the relatively broad cross-section of "committee" members who made the JBF list.
I still think (and, of course, you're free to disagree) the James Beard list is a decent starting point for American "basics" cookbooks, and even the handful of non-American cookbooks on the list, based on recommendations for many of those same cookbooks from other 'hounds, even in this thread. (Except, I will say, I don't know why the Martha Stewart cookbook is on there...), which is the point I was trying to make to you.
Just an aside about my my personal cookbook collection: it's rather weak on American cookbooks and over-represented on cookbooks for other cuisines, and even regional cuisines, as I typically pick-up cookbooks whenever I travel both within North America and abroad ( if I can't find any in English while abroad, I buy one when I get home--it's a way to "extend" my travels) . Cookbooks and photos are my primary souvenirs of my travels. So, when I saw that James Beard list, something clicked in me because it seems to be a list of cookbooks that would be helpful in supplementing my personal collection, but I didn't notice the American-centricness of it until ora pointed it out.
I'm not sure what additional point you were making in your intial post over and above the points ora made and I conceded, and my apologies if I've completely missed it, but I agree with the point you're making in your follow-up post about generations. However, since this is a thread about listing cookbooks and you seem quite knowledgeable, I was hoping you'd list out which cookbooks you think would "round out" the James Beard list and, since you mentioned sushi specifically and (if I recall correctly) only one Japanese cookbook (not specifically sushi) has been mentioned in this thread, I was hoping you knew of a sushi cookbook to add to the list!
~TDQ
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Sorry for misunderstanding. And I seem to have missed the Ora post, or skimmed at such a rate it didn't seep in. Bad habit!
As for the Beard Foundation's "Ameri-centric" list of cookbooks, it's a valid service. I think there is a tendency among all people to subconsciously ignore the cookbooks of the cuisine they grew up with. After all, Mom cooked it and we've eaten it all of our lives. For many Americans, that means pot roast, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, pan gravy, iceberg lettuce salad, sliced tomatoes, and oatmeal. How many recipes for such staples do any of us have in our cookbook collections? Well, I do have a few cookbooks that include them, but they aren't cookbooks I use often, and when I do it's almost always for recreational reading or to research something I've run across elsewhere: The New England Yankee Cookbook. Cooking in Old Virginia (1879). Blue Ribbon Recipes. I think most cooks who collect recipe books have a few staples in their library, but nine times out of ten I think they're more the result of opportunity and impulse converging rather than a premeditated act of library building.
Sushi... I (stupidly) loaned my favorite and best sushi cookbook and never got it back. Damn! Moral: Do NOT loan ANY books! For good basic Japanese cooking I highly recommend "Home Style Japanese Cooking In Pictures," by Sadako Kohno. She does cover the basics well and succinctly for making sushi, but she simply calls it, "Vinegared Rice Rolled in Nori (Nori-maki)". Her words are clear, her pictures are worth the proverbial thousand words, and best of all her recipes taste good. That makes for a very good cookbook!
Since Chinese cooking is primarily an imprvisational precedure once you have a few basic techniques down, I only have two Chinese cookbooks. One is unfortunately not yet unpacked two and a half years AFTER the move! God, I hope it's in one of the boxes in the garage! It contains the greatest sweet and sour recipe known to man. It's a small spiral bound cookbook written around the time of WWII by a group of nuns in China, to raise funds for their work. I understand it's a sought after collector's item and hard to come by. Can't recall the name.
The Chinese cookbook I do have at hand is called "Chinese Snacks" by Huang Su-Huei. Incredible illustrations and a wide variety of Chinese recipes you won't find in any U.S. Chinese restaurant I've ever been to. One of my favorite recipes is a sweet dim sum she calls "Steamed Long Life Cake." It's a yeast dough filled with dates, then formed into a peach and steamed. Gorgeous and delicious. In many ways, I find her versions of Chinese dishes more akin to traditional Japanese kaiseki presentations, in that her dishes are designed to visually stimulate the appetite before coming near the taste buds. An excellent book.
I must confess I don't own any Thai or Vietnamese cook books. I do browse them, but impusle and opportunity have not yet coincided. That, plus there are tons and tons of recipes of all ethnicities availbable on the internet, so that has seriously damped my enthusiasm for needing to add more bookshelves.
As for Indian cookbooks, well, I'm allergic to garbanzo beans and have my tandoori marinade memorized, so I gave my only Indian cookbook to a friend. And Google serves me well.
Sub-Saharan African cooking seems to be gaining in public attention. Expeience has taught me caution on that count. A Nigerian student of my acquaintance volunteered to cook Nigerian food for me. God, I hope she is not a typical Nigerian cook! She boiled two pounds of white rice for three people! Can you imagine? And she made a chicken and shrimp "stew" by deep fat frying the chicken pieces for half an hour, then adding them to a pot with pureed red bell peppers and onions and a few other things and boiling them for an hour, then adding the shrimp and boiling an additional hour. As I said, for the sake of all Nigeria, I hope she is not a typical Nigerian cook! She cooked it here in my kitchen, and I'm still wondering if she had really ever cooked before or just wanted to play with my kitchen toys? But I have been reading sub-Saharan African restuarant menus on line, and some of the dishes sound quite interesting. I suspect that regional African food may be the next major food interest in this country. We certainly have a wide population base that will be attracted to it if only because they're wondering about their possible heritage.
As for the James Beard Institute, I find their lists interesting, but that's about as far as it goes simply because I have yet to find a list for anything, including all of the "Top 100" lists that are so plentiful, to really be all that illuminating. I knew a lot of people like "Casablanca" before AFI made it "official." I find single recommendations for single books, movies, music to be a lot more useful. But then I've never claimed not to be strange. '-)
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Hey, these are fantastic additions, thank you! And, yeah, only lend out cookbooks that are still in print lest you never get them back!
P.S. No worries about the misunderstanding, tone is especially hard to read on a message board, I think!
~TDQ
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Thank you! :-)
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It appears he ate sashimi way back in the 70's or earlier. I was reading a collection of his essays a few days ago, and it is apparent enough when he talks about raw fish and how eating it makes it clear that it is a crime to overcook fish. This would be from Beard on Food.
Your points are interesting. Myself, I don't think of food like that as American. But Americans eat all sorts of Asian food routinely, as you say. Puzzling.
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I have the 1975 annd the 1997 editions of the Joy of Cooking and go to both of them more often than any other cookbook it have!
P
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Yes. JOC and MTAOFC (Julia Child). As most CH'ers, I consider myself a cookbook afficianado, and these two are hands down the very best I have ever used.
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I have three large bookcases in my dining room crammed with cookbooks and JOC and MTAOFC are the ones I go to most often. I have the new Joy, the 1997 and 1975 versions, and one from the late 60s. I would add to these the 60s Fannie Farmer cookbook. I have made gallons, washtubs, barrels of the FF lemon curd (lemon cheese, she called it) over my career, and she's got my go-to chiffon cake recipe too.
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Currently (meaning: for the past year or so) I am smitten by Judy Rodgers' Zuni Cafe Cookbook. What lovingly detailed instructions and sensory descriptions. For example, five dense pages of copy to explain how to make (the best) roasted chicken!
Other titles that I still return to often, sometimes after more than 30 years:
• Craig Claiborne's New York Time Cookbook
• Silver Palate (both)
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child, et al.)
• Marcella Hazan's first Italian book
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You must be about my age. Those were the cookbooks where I learned to cook. I would also like to add Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts and others by her.
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Yeah, I guess my choices date me. I forgot to list Jean Anderson's Processor Cooking cookbook (vintage 70s). I got it when I received my first and only food processor—the original Cuisinart. Her cookbook introduced me to hummus (remember, this was the 1970s!), baba ganoush, dips, pureed vegetable soups, and so on.
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Here are a few of my older favorites that don’t get much mention on this board.
For holiday cooking, I wouldn’t want to live without either “John Clancy’s Christmas Cookbook” or “Thanksgiving Dinner” by Anthony Dias Blue. Excellent recipes, and good ideas.
“Jean Anderson Cooks” has one terrific recipe after another. I don’t think Jean Anderson gets anywhere near the recognition she deserves.
“Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen.” I’ll be making his seafood and sausage gumbo, and my friends will continue asking for it, until the day I die.
“The French Menu Cookbook” by Richard Olney. Because he really knew his stuff and every recipe’s a classic.
“The Art of Fine Baking” by Paula Peck. Before there was a Rose Levy Berenbaum
“Simply French: Patricia Wells Presents the Cuisine of Joel Roubuchon.” Sort of the Zuni Cookbook of the early 90s, and just as revelatory.
“The Foods and Wines of Spain” by Penelope Casas. Still the best.
And one new(ish) book, just because I don’t think it’s as popular as it ought to be: “The New Gourmet Cookbook” edited by Ruth Reichl. This book has amazed me week after week since I first got it. It’s not, for the most part, fancy dinner party, two-days-in-preparation food. It’s for those days when you don’t know what to do with the chicken thighs you have in the freezer or what to serve the bunch of teenagers who will be coming home hungry from a soccer game. I always find something I want to cook, and it’s always good, often, very, very good. I’ve made three dozen recipes from the book so far and there isn’t one I wouldn’t repeat.
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Haha, JoanN, my mom and I are making Paul Prudhomme's seafood and sausage gumbo today. And I completely agree on his cookbook, that one would definitely be on my list.
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Agree 100% on Jean Anderson, the new book on Southern cooking is a joy and the Portugal one inspired me to go to Lisbon on vacation. "Cooks" is wonderful too, the peach soufflé is a dream.
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Bittman, previously mentioned; the Goldbecks' American Wholefoods Cuisine; Diet for a Small Planet; the Mennonite Central Committee's old More-with-Less Cookbook; and an old Betty Crocker if I need to look up something really basic.
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My favorite for Americana:
America Cooks by the Browns
http://www.vintagecookbook.com/0ecb60...
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1. Vegetarian Celebrations by Nava Atlas
2. The Best Light Recipe by America's Test Kitchen
3. A Fork in the Road by Chef Paul Prudhomme
4. Betty Crocker Cookbook
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Bittman's How to Cook Everything
Joy of Cooking (1997 edition)
-these two answer most of the questions I have
Extending the Table--A World Community Cookbook (also a Mennonite Central Committee Book)
- I enjoy the recipes, but the text makes me feel so grateful for what I have
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Deborah Madison)
- I have never made a bad recipe from this book
Das Mittelmeer Kochbuch (the Mediterranean cookbook)
- a present from one of my Dad's Germany trips--beautiful photography and tasty recipes from France, Spain, Italy, Turkey (yes, a limited subset of Mediterraneana)
The Cooking of Provincial France (MFK Fisher)
- the sheer joy of her words and the wonderful (now very dated) pictures always drum up nostalgia (for that which I never experienced in the first place!)
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On your last selection do you mean the Time Life Foods of the World one? If so- I agree it always inspires me as do every one of the volumes. My most "get an inspiration" set.
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Yes, torty, that's the one! It's the only one I own (bought it at an AAUP used-book sale almost 20 years ago). What are your favorites? I may have to go used-book shopping again!
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Not necessarily in order, it depends on what I am looking for:
The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey
The German Cookbook by Mini Sheraton
1,000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles
My "go-to" book for basics is a 1973 edition of Good Housekeeping
Joy of Cooking is another "go-to" book.
I love Bittman's as a gift for college students, recent grads and anybody setting up their first home away from parents.
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La Technique by Jacque Pepin
Some may argue it is not a cookbook - but a way to cook.
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I find myself increasingly coming back to the Mario Batali books (Babbo et al). What's wonderful about his books is that the recipes are simple, yet unique. They are grounded in tradition yet inspire some novel flavor combinations. That's rare.
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My favorite cookbook to use in getting quick offers of dinner out is "Diet for the Sick", from the late 1800's filled with hundreds of variations on "mush". I would thumb through it & my SO would immediately suggest a nice dinner out! :)
My favorite for actually cooking, well I have hundreds & refer to many often for inspiration. For solid info regarding techniques I love the old Good Cook series from Time Life. Also use the '70's edition of Joy for temperatures, new ideas for specific cuts of meat. A new one I use frequently (and wish I had had years ago) is a cooking reference rather than a recipe book called Timing is Everything by Jack Piccolo. This book is unsurpassed in its scope - if it can be cooked, here are guidelines & times for how to do it! The New Gourmet Cookbook, mentioned in an earlier post, has been working its way up my rotation ladder. There have been some very solid, tasty dishes from this book.
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I have been doing very well on offers for a dinner out lately. I hope that is not a commentary on my cooking. But may have to stock "Diet for the Sick' for any future lean spells.
For a couple more frivolous or specialized books, I would nominate The Last Course by Claudia Fleming (a dessert book) and Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider. Also Home Baking by Jeffry Alford and Naomi Duguid.
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I can't believe THE LAST COURSE (Claudia Fleming) is OUT OF PRINT!!! That's criminal. Amazon has new/used copies starting at $195!
I have over 1,000 cookbooks, and my excuse is that I also write them. But my favorites are:
1. Anything by Julia Child. Anything.
2. Marcella Hazan's ESSENTIALS OF CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKING
3. THE JOY OF COOKING (I have 5 editions, all wonderful in different ways)
4. Anything by Mark Bittman or James Peterson or--oh!!--James Beard
5. Just to name something recent, BISTRO LAURENT TOURONDEL is a very fine book.
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At the rate the cost of The Last Course is escalating, maybe I will hold on to my copy so that it can help fund my retirement!
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How approachable is BISTRO LAURENT TOURONDEL? About as complicated as Hamersley's Bistro Cooking at Home?
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Most of Tourondel's recipes are at least approachable. A few are complicated, but every one I've tried has had sumptuous results.
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does the BLT cookbook contain his popover recipe that they send home with diners in his restaurants? they're positively divine.
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Yes, the gruyère popover recipe is in the BLT Cookbook.
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thanks. ever had them? they're INSANE.
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I shipped out my copy of The Last Course to a fellow hound who really wanted it. I never baked anything from it -- just seemed too fussy for me, and not the way I bake. Spending almost $200 for this book is just plain crazy.
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I love the tapioca coconut "soup" that Fleming used to make at Gramercy Tavern, and the recipe is in THE LAST COURSE, but every time I've made it, I've had to soak the pearl tapiocas overnight or the recipe doesn't work at all. I asked her about that once, and she said it's important to get tapioca that isn't too old, but I have yet to see an expiration date on a box or bag of pearl tapioca, so I just soak them, and the recipe then works beautifully.
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Thanks Tom. Very good to know that. I have the book, have been tempted by the recipe and bought the pearls (Quite a while ago now!) So now I will know what to do.
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I love Eliz. Schneider! Vegetables had been on my wish list for years & just received it as a gift. Would love to have her book on fruit too.
Diet for the Sick is quite an interesting look at that period - the line between cooking & healing was not very wide. People probably used mustard more as a poultice than a condiment!
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If anyone is interested, you can access an electronic copy of the original "Diet for the Sick" here: http://tinyurl.com/24hyf4
While I love the feel of "the real thing" in my hands, I'm very grateful for the bookshelf space saved by these electronic freebies!
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1. Minimalist Cooks Dinner - Bittman
2. Appetite - Nigel Slater
3. Chinese Cooking - Ken Hom
4. Bistro - Patricia Wells
5. Peace, Love BBQ.
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As mentioned by others, an early 1970s edition of the Joy of Cooking is the one I consider most indispensable. It's tarnished and tattered and the binding is breaking but I'll never part with it.
Among my other cookbooks, the only one I consider truly essential is a well illustrated 1980s edition of Chinese Cookery by Rose Cheng & Michelle Morris.
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I have that!!!!! Agreed - it is very good. I have a bunch of other Chinese cookbooks, but it is a sure-fire winner.
Matt
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The Cheng & Morris cookbook sounds promising. Unfortunately, an Amazon search turns up zilch...
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