Most Unanimously Successful COTM?

Question

I don't often follow these cookbook of the month discussions, so I have a very specific question: which cookbooks have appeared to provide the most unanimously and consistently successful recipes?

I don't mean the most-loved cookbooks, or the most interesting. I don't mean the most popular ones. Not ones containing a few especially stupendous recipes. I mean ones which cause the crowd to report consistent surprising success ("surprise" because I'm not looking for the least incompetent cookbook, where no recipes bomb; I'm looking for ones provoking "oh my god, everything works beyond my wildest dreams", reported by a large swathe of chowhound posters).

I'd actually prefer to hear from silent lurkers over opinionated regulars, because any one person's opinion (however expert) is 1. just one person's opinion, and 2. can't reflect experience with all recipes in all books. If you've been reading along quietly for years, which books hit this mark?

Answer

Perhaps because of low-expectations, but I remember many "happily surprised" comments for the Margaritaviille cookbook (June 2019) and also Chrissy Teigen month (March 2019).

The index that ties to all COTM top-threads (which have links to sections for reporting results) is here https://www.chowhound.com/cookbook_of_the_month_archive

Answer

Two I thought were successful:
Six Seasons
https://www.chowhound.com/post/october-2017-cotm-seasons-1063133?page=2
Deep Run Roots
https://www.chowhound.com/post/july-2017-cotm-deep-run-roots-1059206

Answer

I’d say Polpo was one. It proved very popular, yes, but that was in large part due to people wanting to cook more and more out of it because the recipes were so successful.

Answer

For me it was Jerusalem. I just kept finding more and more to make as I read the threads and it was pretty much all delicious. I still use lots of the recipes regularly.

Answer

I've only very occasionally followed the Cookbook of the Month, but I can vouch for cooking from davidlebovitz.com.

When Lebovitz recently posted about cutting back on posting dessert recipes recipes due to complaints about the amount of sugar in them, I created a spreadsheet to chart how many recipes I've cooked from his website and his books. It's over sixty, including sweet, savory, beverages and condiments. Many of them are household favorites.

For the record, the people who complained about the amount of sugar in his dessert recipes are wrong. He calls for restrained amounts of sugar in his recipes.

I make homemade candy to pass out at Halloween; sadly not this year. Lebovitz's candy recipes have greatly increased my popularity in our neighborhood. My dream is that he will write a candy cookbook.

I very much appreciate that his recipes include metric weights.

Answer

I'm a lurker, and I honestly don't recall which COTMs have been surprisingly successful or not - but I do want to say that I really like THIS post, which has me taking a closer look at some of these. Thank you for the conversation!

Answer

I follow the COTM discussions, but whether I participate really depends on the cookbook and whether it’s a style/cuisine my family will eat (the heathens are picky!). We really liked Bread Toast Crumbs and have been very happy with just about everything we’ve made from it, as well as Alexandra Stafford’s blog. I haven’t really cared for the recipes we tried from Margaritaville or for Melissa Clark’s Dinner in an Instant (aside from the spaghetti and meatballs, that one was a keeper). 

... which brings me to another point: accessibility of the COTM cookbooks. I usually request the interesting ones from our library to try them out before committing to a purchase, but that’s not always possible. COTMs with online presence (especially those selected this year!) are much more accessibly to everyone, and seem to lead to greater participation.

Answer

I agree with the posters who said Fuchsia Dunlop and Polpo (Russell Norman). Also Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

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Most Unanimously Successful COTM?

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