s/d: cookbooks!

"Did you ever see an item on a menu at a Chinese restaurant called 'Vegetable Delight?' Did you notice that the recipe was bullshit?

And it tasted like bullshit?"

Persian Cuisine by M. R. Ghanoonparvar

The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le

Great for photos, in-depth explanations, suggestions, etc. etc. As we have huge populations of both Vietnamese and Iranian immigrants in OC getting to specialized markets for the food is simple.

A few years back, I picked up Fred Plotkin's Recipes from Paradise on Ligurian cuisine, and really need to get a copy for myself. Absolutely a joy to read.

I have La Bonne Cuisine and Il Cuccaio Argento for french and italian cookery respectively.

The best cookbooks get used less and less I find as favourite recipes become imprinted in the brain.

It doesn't have a single recipe but Harold McGee's book is a must for anyone serious about cooking.

Other than that anything by Elizabeth David or Nigel Slater.

Also the Winnie the Pooh Cookery Book (AA Milne not disney, fools) rules all.

I have several Slater books but I hardly touch them as favourite recipes fix into the brain, I like his style and the fact that he always provides alternative ingredients and ideas to do different things with the same recipe

also search: anything by Yamuna Devi or Kurma Das

Fallbacks/reference: Rosso & Lukins, The New Basics
Sheila Lukins, All Around the World Cookbook
and Joy of Cooking

Lately, if I have two or three ingredients in mind and want some ideas, I generally hit epicurious.com and devise something from their search results.

I need to get a good Indian cookbook -- Madhur Jaffrey?

My collection of BBQ cookbooks grows apace too, Secrets of Championship BBQ being a particular favourite/

Jaffrey is excellent but Lord Krishna's Cuisine by Yamuna Devi is better

though Devi cooks Gaudiya Vaisnava = no onions/garlic, if that's a dealbreaker for you then go with Jaffrey

(favorite tip: "only three ingredients are really essential: good bread, butter, and a bottle of red wine")

http://www.amazon.com/Laurels-Kitchen-Bread-Book-Whole-Grain/dp/0812969677

Bread Alone by Daniel Leader is perfect if you want to make a ritual out of making your own bread. There's a great buckwheat banana bread recipe in there too.

The Tassajara Recipe Book by Edward Espe Brown is great for vegetarian things, and also for developing a sense of what makes food good.

Yes, I highly recommend it.

And this one is great if you've got kids who want to help out.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0340826363.01._PE50_OU02_SCMZZZZZZZ_V39900417_.jpg

As for destroying cookbooks - Nico Landenis 'My Gastronomy' is perhaps the only cookbook I've ever bought where I cooked nothing from it. It was just all too difficult!

The Moro books are both good yes - I like them a lot an dthey seem so enthusiastic over the food (restaurant is good too) The Fino book isn't bad either, but it's just not as.... warm if you know what I mean.

We have the first three river cafe books - barely use those.

Gennaro Contaldo's Passione book is pretty decent

(yes, I'm twisting round and checking out the cookery bookcase :)

Matt - how are *things*

-The James Beard Cookbook for interesting stuff, or interesting takes on normal stuff. I think it automatically opened to the sour cream pancake/waffle page.

-Some Better Homes & Gardens cookbook for boring stuff that I still didn't know how to make.

I absolutely swear by this.

Cough.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child and Simone Beck is great and you'll become a pretty decent cook if you use it once in a while. Truss a chicken, make a white sauce, do a gratin a few times and you're in. You must like the butter though.

I guess destroy most cookbooks that come with crock pots or other consumer appliances. Microwave cookbooks can also go away.

There is a "Recipes from Lord Krishna's Cuisine" book that's mainly the not-quite-so-intense recipes.

also my go-to book. and since i'm the only one of my roommates who brought a basic cookbook, it gets used in our house probably every other day.

i ordered this tassajara recipe book, or some variant of it, through interlibrary loan a few days ago because i've heard good things. i'm pretty excited.

i've had pretty mixed luck with the georgian feast, i'm not sure what to make of it. georgian food is just so good, but i can't ever get the khinkali to not fall apart (maybe my fault, but still!), and the khachapouri tastes like pizza without the sauce.

this is the best part. it's great for the whole "what's in my fridge/cupboard?" dilemma. just find the section of the book that deals with your particular ingredient (green peppers), and find a recipe.

too many cookbooks assume that ppl know how to cook. they don't.

also: the tassajara bread book is double-awesome.

http://static.flickr.com/109/272723017_fff3708919.jpg

The importance with this and anything else from Bittman is that it is easy to do, teaches you something about how to put a dish together, and is infinitely protean -- the possibilities of additional seasonings or ingredients to taste is obvious in a dish like this. This is only half, the rest I've set aside to work with tomorrow in terms of other seasonings.

One thing that I think would be handy for a cookbook to do, if one hasn't already, is to make an appendix of spice combinations that work well together and work well with certain foods, like just a quick reference guide, i.e., I want to grill lamb, give me some ideas.

I am very fond of my Charmaine Solomon's Vegetarian cookbook. Also, the classic aussie bible A Cooks Companion by Stephanie Alexander.

I tend to read cookbooks for inspiration though. I dont follow recepies for anything except exacting stuff like baked goods (bread, cakes etc).

Marnie Henricksson, Everyday Asian: From Soups to Noodles, From Barbecues to Curries, Your Favorite Asian Recipes Made Easy

In addition these are the ones I use most often.

Gary Rhodes New British Classics
Prue Leith Cookery Bible
Debra Mayhew The Soup Bible
Martha Lomask The American Cookbook
Anna Thomas The Vegetarian Epicure

Nearly bought a 1912 copy of Escoffier's cookbook at a book fair last weekend but was a little out my price range.

Trayce is OTM here. I have a ridiculous pile of cookbooks, including many listed upthread such as Hugh F-W's books, Slater, European Peasant Cooking, Prue Leith, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Mary Berry - even Larousse, which I'd argue is actually probably most useful for the butchery diagrams. Despite all this, however, the book I actually refer to most is Modern Practical Cookery which my Gran got with a new cooker just after the war. It's the only one I look at when I need to know how to do something specific.

Good reference: Bittman (I've heard a lot of complaints about his non-Everything books, but they might be mostly "it's not as good as the other one" complaints), Nigella Lawson's How to Eat, The Joy of Cooking, any of the Betty Crocker/Better Home and Gardens type books that are handy when you can't remember how many minutes per pound to cook a top round roast or what temperature to put a yellow cake in at. Rosengarten's Dean & Deluca cookbook is a surprisingly good general book, too, and one of the ones I gave to my ex instead of a used bookstore. I'm sure it's remaindered somewhere.

Anything by Damon Fowler or Edna Lewis is good. I use Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail a lot but most won't. Marcella for Italian, Madhur Jaffrey for Indian. Bill Smith's Seasoned in the South is worth it just for the corned ham, and as much as I hate everything about "food porn," his honeysuckle sorbet recipe is the best example of it I've read.

Destroy most books by celebrity restaurant owners, for a million reasons -- the recipes often aren't intended to be used, the chef often doesn't have much involvement with it, it's a window shopping book. Thomas Keller and Mario Batali are notable exceptions, though the only people I know who cook from the French Laundry Cookbook are people who own lab-grade water baths to do sous vide at home.

Read eGullet.org, blogs, menus, and the restaurant reviews in Food & Wine. Mario and Giada's shows are pretty good, and Paula Dean's can be -- the benefit to food TV is that if it's shot right, you know what it's supposed to look like. Steingarten's books of essays are good if you skip everything that smacks at all of science, which he's absolutely shitty at -- there's no instruction there, but knowing how to eat informs knowing how to cook. Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, likewise.

My favorite cook books are the Joy of Cooking, Cook's Illustrated The Best New Recipes, and Edna Lewis's The Taste of Country Cooking. I had a Moosewood cookbook that I liked a lot but I can't find it and I can't remember which one.

xpost - Ha! We have the French Laundry Cookbook and have never used it.

Yeah, Stripey lent this and Laurel's Kitchen to me as well. I haven't used them yet as much as Bittman but what I've checked out is really great.

Bittman is king; Slater's latest (Kitchen Diaries) is fantastic. I just got Rick Stein's new seafood book--it looks fantastic as a guide to buying and preparing fish (extensive info on fish families, tons of pictures, tons of techniques), but I'm not sold on the recipes yet, which have the drawback of having no introductory text at all (I know it's silly, but I like it when a cookbook writer tells me shit like, "this is the best dish ever! Make it!").

a) incline towards the baking/confectionery/chemistry approach to cooking;

b) have a variety of airy places in your home, of varying temperatures, where your spouse and pets won't interfere with meat hanging around;

c) like meat.

Me, I cure meat a lot, but I don't make sausage, I'm not about to try hot dogs -- to make a hot dog you need approximate temperature control during grinding, or it won't emulsify, and I'm just not that guy -- and I'm down with just making homemade corned beef, pastrami, bacon, lamb ham. You know. But it's a really good book if you're up for that whole trip.

"Mix two teaspoons of spicy paprika with each half-cup of flour you're using, and then some pepper. Whisk an egg RIGHT up to dip your chicken in. If you are mad at anyone, take it out on the chicken. Make sure your chicken pieces are perfectly dry, then stab them over and over again with a fork before dipping them in the egg wash and then the paprika flour. Deep fry them until they're golden and then let them sit awhile in a 200C oven - that lets most of the oil run off the chicken."

What I do have is the 2004 one, formatted for an odd page size -- I don't think it's quite as good (typical sophomore syndrome, I had to cull just from stuff I'd done that year), but it's something.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0y6a5c

*(c) McDonald's France; means either "It's everything that I love!" or, more sinisterly, "It's all that I love!"

I also love Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" esp. that pasta with a sauce of sausage w/ red & yellow peppers.

Take this lovely Braised beef redcipe:

Brasato alla Barolo

1kg Topside, Brisket or similar
oil
butter
25g Proscuitto fat or lardo, chopped
pinch of coccoa powder
a teaspoon of rum

For the marinade

1 bottle of barolo
2 carrots sliced
2 onions
1 celery stalk
4 fresh sage leaves
1 small fresh rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
10 black peppercorns
salt

Tie up the meat and leave in the marinade for 6 or 7 hours. Drain the meat keeping the marinade. In a hevay bottomed pan heat the fats and add the meat and brown over a high heat. Pour in the marinade, deglaze the pan and cook over a low heat for 1 and a half hours. Discard the herbs, blend the stock vegetables into the sauce and add the cocoa and rum. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.

I'd use grappa or brandy in place of the rum as I hate rum and don't hacve it in the house.

As a vegetable course with that I'd have porcini, Cavolini (brussel sprouts), Cavolo Verza alla Cappucina (savoy Cabbage) or Finocchi alla diavola (Fennel)

Nigel Slater I used to love: his early books were geared towards making the best from things you could pick up easily from the shops on the way home from work, & he changed the way I thought about food. These days it's for well-off childless people who live within easy reach of Borough Market.

Also his prose style makes me feel queasy, he is irritatingly twee & there is a disingenuousness that gets on my nerves - "the blushing aubergines that found their way into my shopping bag etc".

And I have found that I have sometimes almost to double his cooking times, especially for meat: I like rare beef & lamb, but not chicken & pork.

first course: lentil soup with garlic
Second (or sometimes first instead): pasta of some kind. Usually fresh pasta such as strozzapreti, with a wonderful slowcooked ragu, or maybe just plain fresh spaghetti tossed with fried breadcrumbs and garlic/chilli
main course: veal scallopine, or involtinis, or chicken fillets, something along those lines - with hot chips and peas simmered in tons of onions
afters: figs and chest-hair-making espressos. Max's dad would always have a shot of brandy in his.

I would always be BURSTING after sunday dinners at theirs. God. I dont know how people can eat like that more than once or twice a week without DYING.

Plus, the Anglo-American bland-favoring influence here discouraged the popularity of spiky Italian flavors like you get from pickled things, brined or salt-preserved things, strong oily fish, olives.

That vinegar chicken Mr Hand mentioned, that's an Italian recipe and the probable precursor to Buffalo wings. Spicy, vinegary, messy, not an herb in sight, nothing we think of as Italian.

On returning the the UK to live, I went to work for Raymond Blanc at his Manoir aux Quat'Saisons - not as a chef, but as his PR person. He and I used to spend Mondays together in the kitchens, with him trying out new dishes and me running around behind him taking notes and turning them into proper recipes. I learned so much from him, and he is still my favourite chef by far. I almost always use one of his recipes (either from one of his books, or more usually one of his unpublished recipes from his private collection) when cooking for smart dinner parties - his food is infallibly good.

I developed an interest in collecting cookery books of all descriptions as a result of all that, and now have lots. Hundreds probably, from Escoffier to the BBC Masterchef recipes, via Marco Pierre White, Delia, Nigella, and everyone else in between.

For everyday family cooking, if I run short of ideas, I don't think you can go wrong with the cheap'n'cheerful Australian Women's Weekly range of cookbooks ... they're only about a fiver each, they're beautifully laid out with mouthwateringly pretty photographs, and some interesting meal ideas. I like them a lot.

I trawl the BBC Food website for ideas, too. It's often my starting-point over a cup of coffee on a Friday morning when planning the following week's family menu and shopping list. My word, my life's exciting :)

My gf ate there and absolutely loved it. Shestill raves about it and dreams of going there for one of there cooking seminars.

As to what Tep says about Italian cooking, see Big Night about the perils of introducing la cucina italiana into America. There isn't any more an Italian cuisine than there is a solitary French or Chinese or American one. Pasta with sauce is usually the primo of several courses. A typical traditional (though not in all regions) meal looks liie this:

L'antipasto - Appetizers
Il primo A hot dish like pasta, risotto, gnocchi, polenta or soup.
Il secondo Meat, fish, or game, usually.
Il contorno Salad or hot or cold vegetables. When I lived in Italy I acquired a taste for simple contorni like spinach or broccoli or rabe served cold with salt, lemon and olive oil.
Il dolce Dessert
Il caffè Coffee
Digestives or liquers such as grappa, limoncello, amaro, fernet, etc...

I'm trying to remember how the rice was done last time I went to a Japanese steakhouse...

also today i got the tassajara cookbook! i am sad that most of the tasty main dish recipes have tomatoes or mushrooms, which are both forbidden in my house...maybe i'll cook them if the allergic people are out sometime. the other types of recipes generally look good.

Laugh at me then. I love multi-course meals and I never understand people who go to a party and get, say, lasagna all over their salad and vinagrette all over their lasagna. Just eat one and get some of the other later and if you're worried that there isn't enough, then the hosts haven't made enough food.

Does this mean "I laugh! The milk shoots from my nose"?

Search the Surreal Gourmet's lemon and olive oil grilled salmon wrapped in romaine (?) lettuce leaves (not to be confused with his foil wrapped salmon poached in a dishwasher) from his first book -- Real Food for Pretend Chefs.

Hey all I need some help starting my library...
If anyone has followed my intermittent posts here, I live in NYC, am between jobs, and am flat broke. I have a good-sized cash infusion coming my way to keep me alive, and I figure I need to take advantage by stocking my kitchen and getting a few books. i have been eating out since i moved up here, albeit very very cheaply. my hope is that after the initial large investment (i dont have any oils, salt, pepper, etc.), my costs will go down or at least stay the same and i wont be eating unhealthy stuff all the time.

my favorite food is from italy, southeast asia and anywhere in the middle east and india. i lean towards vegetarian and usually opt for chicken when eating meat, at least at home. i like fish but the good stuff is all i cook and sort of kills my budget. i love steak and will spend a lot of money on one once i have it again. i think i am looking for at least two of the book to be more general, and one more focused.

so far my list is "how to cook everything" and possibly "saved by soup", which is one i heartily advise others to check out, but i dunno if there are enough recipes to consider that a primary book.

thanx

every kitchen should have a joy of cooking.

take a look through how to cook everything vegetarian. if you don't cook much meat at all, then it could be a better choice for you than the original. i have both and use them about equally, i think. i also love deborah madison's vegetarian cooking for everyone.
marcella cucina is an italian cookbook i like a lot, but i'm paging through it now and it might be a bit heavy on the meat/game/fish for your purposes. it's probably more of a special occasion book.

Penguin has a paperback out of Elizabeth David's Italian Cooking, originally published in 1954 and revised in the early 80s - I got it for xmas. Full of descriptions of dishes and lots of uses for various italian staples as well as suggestions (though British) for ingredient substitutions, but David is less about precise recipes and more for encouraging you to taste and adjust seasoning yourself.

Libraries are a great resource for cookbooks generally. If there's one that sounds good, I try to check it out first before investing in it.

i think ultimately that the lack of cooking meat is more a temporary budget situation rather than permanent... it seems silly to make a big deal of choosing cookbooks but funds are limited. for an italian cookbook, i just want to know how to make dope marinara, pomodoro, pesto and marsala sauces. gnocchi would be a big plus too. once i have time, money, i need to master northern italian. i dont know why, but most places specializing in it are overly expensive. in fact, eating italian in america is sorta bullshit in some ways. its funny that they still list menus here in the italian style with primi, secondi, etc. but if you look at the portions, there is no way you are going to eat all that risotto and all of that veal and add artichokes and a salad or soup and possibly desert too.

xpost
i am the wrong person for libraries. i abuse books. i make notes. i highlight. i dog-ear pages. i splash sauces. i will check out that book though.

Seconding the New Joy of Cooking (the 90s edition, which is updated with lighter recipes) and Bittman's How to Cook Everything (basic minimalist starter book that requires high-quality ingredients to work).

When I've dated vegetarian girlfriends, I found the Moosewood Collective's Sundays at Moosewood indispensable, which is their international recipe collection.

The cookbook series that I've come to rely upon first though is the one put out by the magazine Cook's Illustrated (and the American Test Kitchen TV show). I have these:

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/product/BR_BestRecipeNew_250.jpghttp://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/product/BR_BestInternationalRecipe_250.jpghttp://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/product/BR_BestLightRecipe_250.jpg

The unique thing about the Cook's Illustrated recipe anthologies is that they approach recipes as science experiments. For each recipe there is a 2-3 page writeup of their own cookbook sources, a summary of 20-30 variations attempts they made to perfect the ingredients and cooking technique, and an extremely clear set of instructions. So, the books are actually an educational delight to read. Often they'll discover entirely novel (to me) solutions to problems, like soggy eggplant parmesan, or making roux's for Cajun dishes, that have a 95% success ratio for me.

They're physically sturdy books and also fairly good values, on a $/recipe basis, if you buy at the usual online discount.

wow i think this is definitely enough to get me started, at least for the general books. i will definitely by sifting through bittman's books and the new joy of cooking this week, and will try the cook's illustrated books out too.

i also definitely have a good place to start.

for southeast asian, does anyone know of a good catchall book for the region, or should i just delve in country-by-country as the funds permit? if so, any favorite vietnamese or thai books?

sorry "i also definitely have a good place to start" with italian

Not really a cookbook recommendation, because I've bought 3 Thai cookbooks that were visually beautiful cookbooks, but the recipes were near impossible to do "correctly" with the local Asian market (Taiwanese owned).

To be honest, I've come to cook Thai curries like Thai expats themselves do, with those little tins (or if you can find them, more economical 12 oz plastic tubs) of premade curry paste (I think I've got red, green, yellow, and massaman in the pantry). Much, much easier than finding fresh lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste, kaffir lime peel, and prepping/grinding the stuff. Honest, premade Thai curry paste (with coconut milk on hand) is the best solution in the world for using up older veggies/meat in the refrigerator).

Vietnamese food is easier, you just need some fish sauce and oyster sauce in the pantry and of course some hot cock sauce:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Sriracha_hot_chili_sauce.jpg/180px-Sriracha_hot_chili_sauce.jpg

For years I had Jennifer Brennan's Original Thai Cookbook, and its a solid guide that can be picked up for a dime at a lot of used bookstores.

I think a resource you should look into is the one many websites put together by young Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian expats pining for the home cooking. I'm particularly fond of the site ThaiTable.com, not least because it goes into some detail about ingredients and possible substitutions.

nice call on the website. i tend to discount that option because i dont have a printer but if the recipe is good enough, i think i may still remember how to use a pen and paper. I seriously just want to make like 6 months worth of larb gai and eat it every day. myself and pizza-by-the-slice are about to have a messy breakup.

As great as cookbooks are, the internet is my main recipe resource these days.

I'll rep for Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday, which I just gave to my mom for Christmas. His more authentic book is very good too, but the former is great for people with less access to all the ingredients and less time on their hands to screw around making sauces that take all day to prepare or pressing tortillas and the like.

i have been able to find some great recipes online. i just enjoy having books as resources. i find it especially invaluable when a book describes what pantry items to keep around for a specific cuisine. i dont tend to see that kind of background on websites. maybe i am missing something though.

for se asian, you might want to check out hot sour salty sweet by alford/duguid. it's a gorgeous book, with recipes ranging from pretty basic to very involved. drawbacks: it's kind of pricey, and if you're irritated by musings on travel/culture by artsy professional hippies then it might drive you nuts. probably worth looking at, though, since as far as i know it's one of the landmark titles pan-southeast asian cuisine.

uh, "titles of".

anyone who is a fan of cooking or cookbooks or the past should check out my all-time favorite livejournal community, "Retro Cookbooks":

http://community.livejournal.com/retro_cookbooks/

it's a hoot. lots of gelatin and olives. sometimes at the same time.

This is pretty niche, but I really love The Georgian Feast, everything's very flavorful and interesting. And I use the Fannie Farmer cookbook for random things all the time. But otherwise...I use allrecipes.com more than the collected cookbooks of everyone in my apartment!

wasn't there a thread where we talked about cook books we like? did i make that up? i want a good cuban cookbook.

― arby's, Friday, April 6, 2012 8:31 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

cookbooks are the best; i don't understand these ppl who say they never use their cookbooks

i only know one person who takes pride in never, ever using cookbooks. the results speak for themselves.

love all the jeffrey alford/naomi duguid books (hot sour salty sweet, seductions of rice, mangoes and curry leaves, beyond the great wall)
fuchsia dunlop's land of plenty, revolutionary chinese cookbook

i never use my cookbooks, but only because i'm more likely to use whatever is already in the house than to go out and buy a bunch of extra ingredients for a recipe.

Personal all-time favourites:

Fuchsia Dunlop - Sichuan Cookery
Paula Wolfert - Moroccan Cuisine
Larousse des Cuisines Régionales
Claudia Roden - The Book of Jewish Food
Marcella Hazan - The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

maaaan i have been sleeping on that hot sour salty sweet book for a long while now.

also v interested in books pertaining to: caribbean food

http://www.thewanderingpalate.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Whole-Beast-Nose-to-Tail-Eating-Fergus-Henderson-250x250.jpg

i like this too

Particular favourites are:

the Marcella Hazan seandalai lists (although confusingly my mum has two excellent Hazan cookbooks, recipes from each of which appear in Essentials so I tend to just say 'Marcella Hazan' if people ask me to recommend a cookbook.
Good Things, the Vegetable Book, English Food - all by Jane Grigson, all excellent.
Claudia Roden - Middle-Eastern Food (she's got a new book on Spanish food, which looks excellent).

Larousse Gastronomique!

Everything you will ever want to know is in there! And it's fun to read, too!

Unrelatedly, I'm in the middle of reading The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season at ElBulli. Fascinating stuff, though it's slightly causing me to think Ferran Adria is a self important cock.

have wanted larousse gastronomique for ages...

in terms of actually practicality i find nigel slater's books really good, other books i've bought are nice to read but i seldom cook the stuff in them.

robuchon's book is good tho also.

My stack of cookbooks is probably twice as tall as i am.

also v interested in books pertaining to: caribbean food

For the basics, you can't really go too far wrong with the Naparima Girls' High School Cookbook. I don't know how easy it is to get hold of, though. Sweet Hands by Ramin Ganeshram is pretty good.

I haven't really cooked anything from it yet but Creole by Babette de Rozieres is beautiful.

OTTOLENGHI - PLENTY

Any recommendations for a singleton pescetarian?

Ottolenghi's Plenty doesn't have any fish but there's lots of vegetarian stuff that can be scaled down for single servings.

My stack of cookbooks is probably twice as tall as i am.

Because i'm a massive loser, i actually checked this - and it is.

http://i.imgur.com/ha5ie.jpg?1

I Know How To Cook is a winner; I learned about it recently when in France & friends were talking up the classic French edition as being the standard cookbook every French family keeps at home for basics. The English translation seems good to me.

in terms of actually practicality i find nigel slater's books really good, other books i've bought are nice to read but i seldom cook the stuff in them.

I have the opposite feeling about Slater - I always enjoy reading his books (I have Tender 1, Real Fast Food and Thirst I think) and I do get ideas from them but I rarely actually make any of the recipes.

Paula Wolfert - Moroccan Cuisine

Most of the books in my list are well-known but I think this one is super-slept-upon...I've made ~70% of the recipes in it and every single one has turned out amazing.

I'll have to pick up the Wolfert one.

I gave my aunt a copy of Roden's Jewish Food last year and she's been raving about it ever since. She has bought at least two people copies of their own. I don't think i've given it as much attention as i should. Roden's a great writer.

"The Book of Jewish Food" is a fantastic read even before you make any of the recipes.

My favorites:

Les Halles Cookbook - Bourdain
Mastering The Art of French Cooking - Julia
Zuni Cafe Cookbook - Judy Rodgers
Naked Chef/Happy Days w Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver
A Cook's Companion - Stephanie Alexander
Baking Illustrated - America's Test Kitchen etc
California Rancho Cooking - Jaqueline Higuera McMahan (worth it just for the cornbread recipe)

I know there was a lot of Bittman-repping ITT but I much vouch for How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, a really awesome and open-ended cookbook. P great for when you have some daikon or whatevs you're not sure what to do with, he'll have 30 easy/tasty ideas for it.

I bought this:

http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Revolution-Cookbook-Sasha-Gong/dp/9881998468

and it's okay but I found out that the author is also a far-right republican :(

everyone needs to have 660 curries, i have made like 100 of them now

Oh shit - Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook is the greatest thing ever

I have plenty of room in my life for good food and for cooking. I can't seem to find enough room in my life for more than a dozen cookbooks. I've got about fifty or sixty basic stand-by dishes I cook. Beyond these, all the new dishes I see seem either to be minimal variations on the same themes I already knwo, or MUCH too complicated and time-consuming, or too reliant on exotic and/or expensive ingredients.

However, I did recently pick up a copy of James Beard's Theory and Practise of Good Cooking for $10, wherein he attempts to teach a generation of American cooks taught in high school home-ec classes how to forget about slavishly following recipes and learn to cook. It provided me with a couple of hours of sensible tutorial on various useful techniques.

Excited to have a website selling all the molecular gastronomy things. Obviously, in a London domestic kitchen, it's not going to be some synthesis of Ferran and Heston, but there's a couple of things I want to try - a jelly with cream, served with a truffle, which will actually be solidified fish and paprika stew with ailoi and the truffle being a ball of salmon flakes rolled in crushed almonds and baked. Probably be vile, but always fun to give these things a go.

Creamsupplies is excellent. They often have short-dated molecular gastronomy things on sale for pennies so i have a kitchen full of iota carrageenan and carboxymethyl cellulose to work out what to do with.

Have you managed to make anything that actually works? That was the site I was looking at, after Googling Xantana.

everything i've made from claudia roden's middle eastern book has been great. i'm thinking of getting her spain book from last year. i also got nigel slater's tender at xmas but haven't made anything from it yet because i was occupied with 660 curries. i think i'll pull it out and look at it now!

xp, nothing too ambitious yet. I've used a few things for improving the texture of ice cream and milkshakes and messed around with gelification and spherification.

I attempted to make a hot strawberry gel foam using carrageen and a nitrous whip but that didn't really work that well. Fun though!

i forgot to recommend silk road cooking by najmieh batmanglij. i think i'm gonna order a couple cookbooks because of this thread :(

i have carol field's the italian baker out from the library. trying to improve my baking skills. (according to my chef-instructor, i need to spend more time with the second rise.)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FZKALvzOL.jpg

Got this yesterday -- I predict it's going to get some serious kitchen playtime in the next few months. I can't recommend Currence's restaurants enough if you somehow find yourself in Oxford MS.

I got two cookbooks for Christmas

An Australian one -- The Country Women's Association 'Classics' Cookbook.
Mum had a small version of this when I was growing up, full of all the classic grandma baking recipes that I used to make as a kid that I am getting homesick for again.
bummed there's no lamington recipe in there but otherwise now I'm all set to make spongecakes, trifles, jelly rolls and rum balls :D

I also got the Dorie Greenspan book 'Baking: From My Home to Yours' which I'm superexcited about

AND...local used bookstore has Joy of Cooking for $5. I'm so tempted to buy it

Which Joy of Cooking version? I've got the original, one from the 70s, and one from the 80s(?) - the one from the 70s is the best. The original has questionable flavor/texture combinations throughout (and is small) and the 80s one got too much good info revised out of it.

I think it's the 75th anniversary edition? I know there's better editions than others but I figured for $5 it can't be that bad

True! Worth it, even if just for reading through imo - if it's the facsimile of the original, that's the one I've got. It's a fun glimpse at the past.

I recently got the Well-fed 2 and Nom Nom Paleo cookbooks -both excellent - and have cooked delicious things from each. We've had these oven-fried fishcakes at least 5 times lately - all kinds of different seasoning suggestions. I mixed in Thai yellow curry paste and cilantro for the last batch, and ate with lime mayo.

i'm def gonna get the nom nom paleo book--everything i've made from her site has been outstanding.

yeah even though the name is incredibly annoying and embarrassing to have on one's bookshelf i might get it. i bought myself bruce aidell's meat cookbook for xmas. i need to work on cooking more out of the books i have before i get any more though.

I went back to the used bookstore -- the Joy of Cooking they had was the "all new" edition which cuts out heaps of stuff from the other editions. I decided I would hold out, I don't want a crappy version.

Got this yesterday -- I predict it's going to get some serious kitchen playtime in the next few months. I can't recommend Currence's restaurants enough if you somehow find yourself in Oxford MS.

― millions now living will never kick out the jams (WilliamC), Thursday, December 26, 2013 3:33 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man i went into the bookstore last week not really planning on getting a new cookbook but this just looked like way too much fun to leave on the shelf.

we just got both volumes of Alice Waters' Art Of Simple Cooking - my mom gave us the (new?0 2nd one, and so we picked the first one up as well. we are seriously considering a CSA membership for 2014 and these are full of good ways to use excess veggies

plus, the first one has the best caramel sauce recipe ever

CAD, please post updates when you cook from this! I made a batch of the soy-pickled shiitakes this morning and will report on them in a few days. There was a lot of pickling liquid left over, and I have a couple of ideas of what to do with it. (Mustard greens & small turnips)

CAD, please post updates when you cook from this!

i made the osso bucco and pea risotto tonight--sort of a weird first choice but all the ingredients were easy to find and it seemed like a nice wintry meal. i halved the recipe and called a few audibles but no complaints with the result. i had never made risotto! the whole time i was doing it this scene was playing in my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRp2phlJWXA

lol I always think of Top Chef in my head when I make risotto; but oh jeez that poor girl! how mortifying

I wish I could get veal shanks or lamb shanks or any other kind of shanks other than smoked ham hocks around here. I would osso bucco the hell out of the universe.

Today from the Currence book I made the pickled sweet potatoes and lemon-pickled honeycrisp apples, except I accidentally picked up a back of fujis instead of honeycrisps at the store. The pickled shiitakes are good, though it seems the soy overpowers the mushroom flavor a bit.

I really want La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life - Beatrice Peltre. Anyone been able to look at this cookbook or own it?

I've not found it at any book store I happen upon.

deborah madison's "vegetarian cooking for everyone" is my basic cookbook, almost all i need

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nlbmRddnL.jpg

also sandor katz the art of fermentation is just a joy:

http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/t/the-art-of-fermentation/9781603582865_vert-b614f1efff1f31b4ee1f12ebfe888c73a4c1c415-s6-c30.jpg

Yeah that book is insane. So far I've only done sauerkraut but one day I'll branch out.

red miso is surprisingly easy if you have a basement with cellar temperatures. i just decanted a two-year old crock of my homemade miso and it is sublime

ooooh that book looks like a good way for me to start fermenting stuff, thanks for the rec!

Yeah even if you never ferment anything it's super-entertaining; the people who ferment meat are o_O (and that's before you go reading their web forums).

*hurl*

Man I'm trained as a microbiologist and even I wouldn't get involved with meat fermentation.

I had a super wonderful sauerkraut a few months ago; they sold the juice separately as a drink and for real I would be all over drinking that stuff over soda any day!

Read at your own hurl-risk: http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/display-your-culinary-creations/high-meat-recipe-preparation-for-more-advanced-rafers/

There's this wave of fancy Southern cookbooks. That Currence book, the Edward Lee book, the Donald Link. They all have very similar names, like "Bourbon, Black Eyed Peas and Shrimp," or "Meat, Marinade and Moonshine" or "Whiskey Jars, Soup Pots and Southern Fried Cast-Iron Skillets." They all have pretty awesome recipes. I'm making the bourbon-spiked banana pudding from the Link book today, as a matter of fact.

Wish I saw this thread a couple of weeks ago, because I just went on a cookbook spree. Finally bought the Marcella Hazan Essential Italian, the first Bayless book, Molly Stevens' All About Braising and I want to say one of the many books by Melissa Clark, because I like her Times recipes. Simple, unpretentious and good.

A couple of my go-tos for the last couple of years, for the same reason, have been by Bill Granger, my favorite Aussie fresh/comfort food chef. Oh, and I've yet to be let down by Smitten Kitchen, whose recipes are the best sort of home cook concoctions/adaptations. She's got really good instincts, imo.

These pickled sweet potatoes are amazingly good. I think I'm going to make a double or triple batch, enough to have jars to process instead of just the one jar for the fridge.

I'm not somewhere I can get a hold of the book (will probably buy it when I am back in the states)--if I could twist your arm to post the recipe that would be super awesome; I am in the land of sweet potatoes (who knew Taiwan was so into sweet potatoes? They are everywhere, including a special little roasting display at the local 7-11).

OK --
Pickling liquid, saucepan:
1/2 cup sweet white wine
1 cup champagne vinegar
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Grated zest and juice of 1 medium orange
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Pickling spices, tied up in cheesecloth or a large coffee filter:
2 tablespoons peeled/chopped fresh ginger
1 whole star anise
2 tsp. peppercorns
1 medium shallot, thin sliced
2 cloves garlic, thin sliced
1 dry bay leaf
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
3 whole cloves

Bring the pickling liquid to a simmer, add the spice packet, simmer for 10 minutes. Add:
4 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into matchsticks
and simmer for 3 more minutes. I timed the 3 minutes from when the liquid came back to a bubble.

Turn off the heat, toss the spices and let the sweet potatoes cool in the liquid, then jar 'em up. I let the jar sit in the fridge for four days before tasting. I'm sure they'll just get better over the next week or two.

I didn't have light brown sugar and used dark. I didn't have champagne vinegar and used 2 parts sherry, 1 part cane and 1 part brown rice vinegars. Currence must have been using big commercial-kitchen coffee filters because it takes 2 normal ones to hold all that stuff.

Glad I had a mandoline. 4 cups of matchsticks by hand would have been a huge pain.

The Smitten Kitchen cookbook has been a hit at my house. Also this one:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0MhX5uhyV1Y/UhFanj3eOUI/AAAAAAAAXqo/0-1N0uSnW7I/s1600/1373459981_flour-too-indispensable-recipes-for-the-cafes-most-loved-sweets-savories.jpg

Includes the recipe for their famous egg sandwich.

Thanks so much WmC! I think I can pull that one off even though the kitchen setup I inherited was:

Two gas burners, which are actually totally badass and crank out the BTUs like no-one's business

One pot. No lid.

One wooden spoon

One not so sharp knife

Electric kettle

Vegetable peeler

Salt

Two small dishtowels

Chopsticks/forks/spoons/knives for eating

A few bowls, plates, mugs, glasses

To this I have added: a pot with lid and steamer insert; a cheap but somewhat sharper knife; a mixing bowl and three smaller prep bowls that can double as serving bowls; a strainer; and a filter for the sink drain.

Husband's first reaction to seeing original kitchen setup: "it's like camping!"

Gonna ask apartment owner to purchase a rice cooker for the place. There's no oven, microwave, toaster/toaster oven, crock pot, or any other kitchen appliances, but a rice maker would be a game-changer.

Grabbed Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain Of Rice from the local library after having used a bunch of the recipes via the Grauniad &c.

I just bought that the other day!

i cooked from it last night

Well now I'm really going to need a rice cooker!

I received 'Every Grain of Rice' for Christmas this year and it really delivers on being the every day Chinese cookbook. I can easily knock together a couple of dishes in the time it takes the rice cooker to deliver. I've got her Hunan and Szechuan cookbooks and they are great but the recipes do take a bit more prep work, although I love being able to do 辣子鸡，chicken with chillies at home.

Favourites so far are 豆豉鸡丁, black bean chicken, and 家常肉末芹菜， celery with minced beef. Last night did 香肠炒荷兰豆， mange tout with wind dried sausage but I think I out in too much meat and not enough ginger as the flavours didn't balance right.

While our kitchen is not quite as galley style as quincie's it doesn't have a great deal of space but does have a usable wok burner on the hob. It really made a difference vs my old place where the burners dint quite have the oomf.

Only criticism and this goes for all her books is that the pinyin has no tone marks so it takes some work with Pleco to work out how to pronounce things. ( I'm learning mandarin so this matters to me)

Burners having oomph is sooooo important; I am going to overhaul the hell out of our gas range at home someday.

My landlady is dropping off her rice cooker tonight for us to use while we are here! I hope it is not some crazy neuro fuzzy model with tons of buttons, because I cannot read Mandarin. If needed maybe I can post a pic on ILX for help ;)

Getting the hang of the timer setting on our old one in the states was well worth it for morning Porridge and Congee. Our one in Australia is just on and off.

everyone needs to have 660 curries, i have made like 100 of them now

― kim tim jim investor (harbl), Sunday, April 8, 2012 6:56 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ohmahgod there is a cookbook called '660 curries'. That sounds fantastic b/c curry's my favorite food. But uh does the book ask you to grind all the curry pastes from scratch? Because that would be asking kind of a lot.

Anyway, I got these as a Christmas present to myself, and they're all by Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero, both of whom are genius. They haven't let me down, tho I'm just starting to get into these books. Surprised they haven't been mentioned already:

* Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
* Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar
* Vegan Pie in the Sky
* Veganomicon

Hey guys, I want some like ESSENTIAL CRUCIAL COOKBOOKS! Ideally ones that just totally fucking nail a specific type of cuisine. Here's what I'm thinking:

Lidia Bastianich's "Lidia's Italian American Kitchen" (but she has like 20 cookbooks -- are there other better ones?)
Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"
maybe something French, but not something so outdated as "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

Also, maybe some essential food mags I could subscribe to? Bon Appetit rules, Food + Wine sucks, I am considering Saveur though but I have never read it and know nothing about it

I want to read about fooooood!!

all about roasting/all about braising
maybe one of rick bayless's books, i've had good luck with mexican everyday
grace young's books on stir-frying

or maybe "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" IS worth getting? idk!

i'm liking fuschia dunlop's "land of plenty" for sichuan cooking, but i've only made like two things from it so far (ma po tofu and gong bao chicken)

or maybe "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" IS worth getting? idk!

― belami young (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, October 22, 2014 9:26 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's very interesting to read, not actually super fun to cook from imo

Madhur Jaffrey is the go-to Indian cookbook author, but her books have been retitled and combined so it's hard to figure out which is the go-to. I have old library copies of A Taste of India and Indian Cooking.
Yotam Ottolenghi's books are great - Israeli/Mediterranean/Levant food - but I haven't cooked much from them yet. Jerusalem, Plenty and the new one Plenty More (latter two are vegetarian)

Saveur is a little more fancy-pants in the written/travel section than Bon Appetit but it's still a good read IMO.
You should watch The Mind of a Chef on Netflix and PBS.

Every time I read Food + Wine it's just like wanky bourgie resort horeseshit and not about FOOOOD, like I just want COOL FOOD SHIT

show me some 25 year old crust punk pastry chef in Omaha covered in tattoos who talks about how much he fucking loves FOOOOOOD idgaf abt the fucking Maldives

MTAOFC is fun as a game: Open to random page and pick one recipe with your eyes closed kind of thing. Attempt on a winter Sunday afternoon when you can just order takeout if it all goes wrong. Be prepared to eat a weird dinner with like one 3-hour-preparation dish and a side of toast.

Otherwise, nah.

show me some 25 year old crust punk pastry chef in Omaha covered in tattoos who talks about how much he fucking loves FOOOOOOD

not answering this question but yesterday I got Sean Brock's southern cookbook Heritage. I really enjoyed his take on food from The Mind of a Chef - one part delicious, one part cultural anthropology. The book is gorgeous but I haven't had a chance to look at the recipes yet.

stevie you could also consider getting cook's illustrated, its approach can be a little joyless but they do have cool recipes and you do learn stuff.

kenji lopez-alt's stuff on seriouseats is similar but a lot more fun imo.

If you have an iPad, the Modernist Cuisine At Home app is sweet. I assume the book is good too but they're always sealed at B&N.

Saw this as S/M Cookbooks, then disappointed by the actuality. However, gotten good recipes and shopping tips, esp. re vegetables, from Eating On The Wild Side, blanking on author's name (it's not really Wild stuff, but making the most, nutrition & tastiness-wise, of yer local grocery and non-Escoffier skills)

I'm guilty of using the internet as my cookbook of first resort for the last few years, but these have places of honor on my shelf:

Mark Miller: Coyote Cafe
John Egerton: Southern Food
Sheila Lukins: All Around the World Cookbook
Rosso & Lukins: The New Basics
the Vietnamese and Thai volumes in the Wei-Chuan series, which I picked up eons ago and haven't seen since (haven't looked hard though)
Dragonwagon/Brown: The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook
Breakfast at Brennan's

I like John Currence's book from a year or 2 ago - Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey - but after making a few of the pickle recipes, I haven't messed with it much.

I have a tablet but it is not an iPad (which is annoying bcz How to Cook Everything app is IPAD ONLY, fuck that); i will check otu Modernist Cuisine at Home though!

these are my standard reference cookbooks that i consider authoritative and consult almost every time i cook the cuisines they cover, they are all text- and recipe-heavy with little photography (sometimes the marker of whether i think a cookbook is any good -- the more photos, the less i tend to use it):

mexican: "art of mexican cooking", diana kennedy. this is authoritative, exhaustive and such a beautiful, well-designed book. she is so thorough and detailed and at the same time very accessible. she is very particular and doesn't tolerate bullshit and i love it. you could also probably get "the cuisines of mexico." she is similar to julia child in that her husband worked abroad and she mastered the cooking.

indian: "classic indian vegetarian and grain cooking", julie sahni. more fun and interesting than madhur jaffrey imo, even though jaffrey is great too, it's just that jaffrey has so many books and many of them are "cooking of the orient" and "world vegetarian" and with sahni i know that i am getting all india.

vegetarian: "vegetarian cooking for everyone", deborah madison. another beautiful, unpretentious book with tons of background on handling all kinds of vegetables. i'm not a huge fan of the vegan pop-chefs like the "veganomican" or "vegan cupcakes take over the world" authors. madison is a more classic vegetarian who learned her cooking at chez panisse and the san francisco zen center, then started greens (an early local-sourced, seasonally-based restaurant).

fermented foods: "art of fermentation", sandor ellix katz. this is a fucking phenomenal and exhaustive book covering fermented foods and beverages from hundreds of different cuisines. katz runs workshops all over and does intensive training sessions at this queer community in rural tennessee where he lives. it's super fun to read, too.

good god it's $80 for an app! EIGHTY

will second 'vegetarian cooking for everyone' - was super helpful to me when i was really inexperienced in the kitchen and i still use it probably weekly

'how to cook everything' is similarly useful although i would balk at paying $80 for the ipad version

i bought my bf a copy of maida heatter's 'book of great desserts' because it was on a list of best cookbooks and he swears by it - ive never cooked anything from it but have eaten enough to agree its p good

feel like i am not interested in ipad versions of any cookbook. part of the fun is to gradually end up with a super-worn-in and weathered book that shows evidence of use and love and has stains and swelled pages and bookmarks and hand-written annotation. we've had some books for years and years that i will probably hand down to my kids.

I dig Saveur, never really read any other similar magazines. A lot more travel or place focused than strictly recipes but I find it pretty useful. Seems like most of the ads are actually about food or kitchen stuff too, other cooking magazines feel like they're all luxury SUVs, shiny Vegas hotels, $15,000 ranges, etc.

Other books I've really loved or cooked a lot from:

Plenty (mentioned above)
Thai Food - David Thompson
Classic Indian Cooking - Julie Sahni
Cradle of Flavor - James Oselund (former Saveur editor, this book is all Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia)
Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet - Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand)
The Border Cookbook - Cheryl Alters Jamison (my first cookbook after Joy of Cooking, when I lived in Arizona and the one that really got me interested in cooking)

ooh i need to get the border cookbook, rad

I am a niche market:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q0o0T5NFL.jpg

Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet

I have this one -- need to take another look at it.

this thread rules

whenever we're going through a vegan phase this cookbook is pretty essential:

http://www.vrg.org/bookstore/images/vrg/vegansoulkitchen.jpg

Vegan Soul Kitchen is a great title. In this vein I'd also recommend the Donna Klein books The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen and Vegan Italiano, as practical regional veg cookbooks.

A lot of the stuff on this shelf is better suited to a coffee table (yes, I've a copy of Great Chefs Cook Vegan), and I don't have the hours for then entrees in the Moskowitz/Romero books.

And no, I don't have the Sriracha cookbook. Its sat there on my wishlist for a couple years.

yea i'm not a fan of moskowitz and romero. i find their whole style really grating and (that "hip", informal, jokester writing with no funny jokes) and tbh i don't find their recipes that good.

great chefs cook vegan has beautiful photographs but fuck it is a SHITTY fucking cookbook. nothing in there that i want to eat. makes me think of every fancy restaurant that doesn't have anything vegan or vegetarian on the menu and the chef whips you up something pretty but that provides basically no sustenance and never has any legumes or other foods vegetarians rely on for fat and protein. that comes off shitty i know b/c any chef whipping you up something on the fly that is not on the menu based on a special request is SUPER FUCKING GENEROUS, but that doesn't mean i want a cookbook of that shit.

'how to cook everything' is similarly useful although i would balk at paying $80 for the ipad version

$80 is the Modernist Cuisine App - not too bad since the book is over a hundred. Lots of neat little touches in how it works - videos, recipe scaling, etc..

i will rep hard for MAOFC

you will never have a better boeuf bourguignon than jc's version

if you are super against the datedness though i get it

bourdain's les halles cookbook is a good option instead. lots of all-day French classics that are daunting but fun to master

i have both, dig them equally

feel like i am not interested in ipad versions of any cookbook. part of the fun is to gradually end up with a super-worn-in and weathered book that shows evidence of use and love and has stains and swelled pages and bookmarks and hand-written annotation. we've had some books for years and years that i will probably hand down to my kids.

― marcos, Wednesday, October 22, 2014 3:56 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^

this is right on,
i am not together enough to have done this for myself, but, it would be nice, too, to buy a nice cloth-bound book to be copying recipes into, & to eventually have the soup-spattered master list, frayed & unbound, pages steam-buckled, cycles of ballpoint pens come & gone, a casual record of time passing

fyi there are several <$1 copies of the border cookbook on amazon, it looks rad and i just ordered one.

Did I mention it already? Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, by Maricel Presilla, is a freaking tour de force, and I've yet to be disappointed by its recipes. The grilled skirt steak with chimichurri is just one particularly sublime yet simple example along many.

ooh i need to get the border cookbook, rad

I haven't opened this one in probably ten years but it really was the first "specialty" cookbook I owned and I had pretty good luck with a lot of the recipes. I used to make the carne seca a lot and should do that again.

It's also one of those books where certain pages are all stained and and beat up so I can open to recipes I've made a lot right away.

border cookbook is really really good, i got it as a christmas present in 2014 and it's become one of my favorite cookbooks

like "southwestern" or "border cuisine" has become such a watered-down concept so it is really nice to be reminded (since i don't live in the southwest) that this is an incredibly rich & varied cooking tradition

yeah we love that book around our place

Topopo Chicken Salad is a classic

this one, pray tell?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Border-Cookbook-Authentic-Southwest/dp/1558321039/ref=zg_bs_4315_24

been tryna up my SW game since I realized all I ever cook is like pasta

should be taking delivery of Jerusalem today --- any recs on what to start with

not sure if its in that one but the meatballs in tahini sauce are amazing

yea that's the one stevie

xxp

i'm gonna get it

cool! iirc there are copies on amazon for like a buck

Just snagged it for $0.01 with $3.99 shipping and it was freeeee bcz I had Amazon credit!!! v cool

should be taking delivery of Jerusalem today --- any recs on what to start with

― jason waterfalls (gbx), Tuesday, September 29, 2015 11:56 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

***parsley and barley salad***
salmon steaks in chraimeh sauce
beef meatballs with fava beans and lemon (best in spring with fresh favas but make it anyway)

kewl

may have to pick up supplies on the way home

everyone should get the honey & co cookbook btw fyi

hey has anyone fucked w/ Thai cookbooks Pok Pok or Simple Thai Food? From what I understand David Thompson's Thai Food was the definitive text but was also idk like crazy complex? I've never fucked w/ it. I want something that is authentic and NOT Americanized w/ curries that actually use tamarind, cane sugar, kaffir lime, etc., but I am fine if they don't take 6 hours and an entire afternoon to prepare.

also should I get the Smitten Kitchen or The Kitchn cookbooks? Also ppl just give me tips for quintessential cookbooks always, I want all of the best cookbooks!!!

Might be worth looking at Jean-Pierre Gabriel's Thailand: The Cookbook as well. I find Thompson's books too much work but from what i've seen of the Gabriel one, it's less fiddly.

i was curious about pok pok but i imagined it would be one of those impractical books where you never use it.

i recently bought claudia roden's spanish book and it's brilliant, had been looking for something like this for some time, really recommend it.

I want the Pok Pok book, a chef friend of mine has it. I will ask her abt it next chance I get.

This is my favorite and most used Thai cookbook: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0962878308?keywords=thai%20cooking%20ravadi&qid=1445534366&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2
Written by the owner of the Emerald of Siam in Richland WA (I used to eat there all the time).

Instead of smitten kitchen or thekitchn get Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab cookbook, he's the guy behind Serious Eats Food Lab section

we found these in a thrift store last weekend:

https://www.whisknyc.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_3983.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5103KJYfN-L._SL500_SX350_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

i would never call kenji's book an either/or with something like the smitten kitchen cookbook, like it's a technique-driven book mostly for carnivores with no sweets, so pretty much the opposite of what smitten kitchen is up to.

chef friend re: Pok Pok:

"It's complicated but really pretty. I have it but have never cooked out of it yet. If I had time to execute the recipes in there I would."

That's how I feel about the Thompson Thai book - really pretty but everything's waaaaay too complicated, like "how dare you use a food processor to make this curry paste, you need to do everything in a mortar and pestle and IN THIS EXACT ORDER". I just don't care enough anymore.

the pok pok is less ridiculous than the thompson book (which is just crazy)

also pok pok book has some recipes that take multiple days; but also quite a few that dont.

i recommend it!

but thai food is my favourite food; i might have more patience than others

I think I've already promoted it here, but Steve Raichlen's "Miami Spice" is a little gem.

I also really like Deborah Madison's original "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (haven't seen the updated version). It is my go-to when I come home from the farmer's market with something I don't have a clue what to do with.

"Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking" is great for weekday curries! As long as you have access to fresh curry leaves you are all set (I go to a Sri Lankan market, but I also see them at Indian grocers and large international grocery stores like Grand Mart, Lotte, etc.)

I'll rep for Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday, which I just gave to my mom for Christmas. His more authentic book is very good too, but the former is great for people with less access to all the ingredients and less time on their hands to screw around making sauces that take all day to prepare or pressing tortillas and the like.

yeah, I got this one a few weeks ago and everything has been really solid that I've made so far.

I promised to get a colleague who a) can't boil and egg and b) lives in Serbia a basic cookery book.

What would be a good, simple, Italian-leaning, not-particularly-adventurous-with-ingredients option? Nigella Lawson?

*an egg

marcella hazan, as vaunted upthread, might be a good bet. I've only learnt her recipes second hand from my brother who is a devotee, but some very simple & extremely delicious stuff which is v satisfying to cook

Thanks! I will investigate.

Delia.

maybe even Jamie Oliver?

i reckon nigel slater 100 per cent. real fast food is like a paperback, really basic, cheap good dishes, it's like "how to cook" but still has some brilliant recipes, basic use of herbs and spices, all the foundations.

maybe the 30-minute cook or real cooking if you want something a bit fancier. think real fast food actually has how to boil an egg, or close to it anyway.

he cooks across cultures p well and he goes through store cupboard stuff and that kind of thing. the paperback real fast food (like the shape of a novel) might be a bit low key as a gift, is the only thing, dunno if it comes in a nicer form.

I do love Real Fast Food but it's got no pictures, which I think of as being useful for a beginner.

thats true... some of his books have photos tho. and i agree w/ localgarda they are great

i don't find pics mad useful personally, though i got a copy of claudia roden's italian book recently that was a small paperback and the size of the pages compared to the complexity of the recipes has ensured i've barely opened it. don't think real fast food has this problem.

i guess i just find i've prob used the slater books more than any others, especially when i was first beginning to cook a lot.

Delia's complete cookery thingamabob was my bible when I first started out; a decent size to prop open on a worktop, and easy-to-follow instructions for pretty much everything you might thing of. Like a book of platonic essence recipes.

Slater's probably my favourite overall. Jamie Oliver feels like a younger, hipper, slightly less sophisticated version of him. I love Ottolenghi too but he's fiddly as fuck.

yeah ottolenghi has way too many ingredients always. he did a piece in the guardian last year that was like "lol i know i always have too many ingredients so try these shorter recipes!" and it was still way too many ingredients.

i don't mind cooking something that takes time and effort, i have no real upper limit on it especially if entertaining. but for the amount of ingredients used i never want to cook any of ottolenghi's dishes.

i might argue real fast food not having pictures is actually a plus bc it deemphasises set-piece cookery. as for many it was my genuine total beginner book too and in retrospect what it was rly good at was just nudging u to appreciate that an extra 5% effort is nbd and can be v rewarding

interesting to think about whether and in what ways it might seem dated now

last several years of slater are bad btw dude fell the fuck off

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Things-Eat-Lucas-Hollweg/dp/0007364075?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

big fan of lucas hollweg who was the (scandalously deposed for gizzy bloody erskine) sunday times cookery guy now waitrose magazine columnist (probably for best as he is an awful toff who should never be on tv). like slater but much more refined and low key creative in engaging encouraging ways, very well considered recipes, never too many outre ingredients, totally underrated

yeah true about slater, even his recipes in the paper, once a must-read, are kinda weird now, i liked his old knack of taking stuff that's in vogue and tweaking it for your store cupboard but the recipes just seem a bit weird now.

must take a look at hollweg. there isn't much in the papers i rely on anymore, but i tend to just improvise simple things a bit more in the last year, with nice ingredients.

ottolengman gets a cliche bad rep at this point imo... his books are still really good, only getting better in fact. his recipes are the best possible version of the given idea but they give you plenty of room for compromise if u don't use them like a car repair manual

still yet to see a fucking aleppo chilli in my entire life tho

if u want a hollweg testimonial i once attended a bbq thing an ex of mine i hadnt seen since was at and i'd noticed she'd brought along one of the salads out his book which i knew she did not own at the time of break up. the fury inside of me that day

florence knight i also like in that general vein, small notch up in terms of difficulty/being arsed though

i like the us website serious eats - it can be pretty simple and good, among all the recipes for burgers or ribs or whatever.

yeah the kenji-lopez-alt-ctrl-delete science bits there are v interesting occasionally. his method for making store-bought mozzarella not be a big ball of used chewing gum is a lifechanger

i just bought his book! i haven't spent much time with it yet tho

there was a big collection of his summer grilling recipes recently and it was awesome, like quick aioli, 5-minute marinated chicken breast, grilled asparagus, loads of really good things you can make after a normal work day when you want to do something else with your evening as well as cooking.

damnit i forgot to spread the word that the Cooks Illustrated "The Science of Good Cooking" was part of Amazon's silly Prime Day yday (albeit at like $19 instead of the regular $25 so nothing crazy)

I am v excited for it.

Our cookbooks stayed in boxes for a few months after we moved house, but now they are free! I feel like I've been cooking the same things every week, looking forward to getting back in the what's cooking? game.

http://i.imgur.com/03Lqm3X.jpg

That Roden book of Jewish food is excellent.

yeah it's one of the best

Got my bf Ruby Tandoh's second book for Xmas and her knack for unusual but completely amazing flavour combinations is just great

haha initially missed the "my bf" part of that post and was like "whoa 2017 must've gotten really weird if lex is cooking now" :)

i miss my cookbooks, they are all boxed up in our attic since we moved. we're renting right now and looking for a house so i probably won't unpack them until we move again

still love food but can't cook! xp

this ruby tandoh lady is new to me. looks like she can cook but in her spare time she crusades against a healthy eating strawman or something?

the wellness/clean eating trend is definitely not a strawman, it's kind of ubiquitous and she's usually quite specific about who she's targeting (the hemsley sisters, deliciously ella etc etc)

spent some time w/ meera sodha's 'fresh india' over the weekend. v agreeable and undemanding, think i will enjoy

most recent acquisition is francis mallmann's seven fires which deserves a mention on here. i had never heard of the guy but i guess he's basically the most famous chef in argentina as well as a genuine-seeming example of the poet/adventurer/most-interesting-man-in-the-world type who happens to be able to cook.

it's billed as a grilling book but it's actually an intro to extremely aggressive open-fire cooking that none of us will ever be in position to do combined with a useful selection of original recipes that represent argentine food as a spanish/french/italian/german fusion cuisine. charred sliced fennel and zucchini with parmesan. tomatoes and olives with burnt ricotta salata. simple grilled shrimp with spaetzle (flavored with more parm and scallions). potato salad that uses toasted almonds for depth. tons of fresh oregano. did i mention he loves burning stuff? this book has lots of super-simple flavor combinations that i've never seen anywhere else.

it also has a recipe for cooking a whole cow over an open fire (you need a winch and 4 able-bodied adults from the look of the photos) which may be useful for the incipient apocalypse.

O_O

here's some mallmann content for ya:

https://vinepair.com/articles/francis-mallmann/

his chef's table was awesome. just cooking giant fish over fire in patagonia. I think he was one of several chefs that did pit cooking in that first season, as well.

some people really hate argentine cooking and it sounds like it'd be a struggle if you didn't want to eat a lot of meat all the time, but that looks entertaining. reading about things I could never or just won't ever cook can be a lot of fun even if it's not of any practical use.

I got Seven Fires as a gift from my Aussie bro in law (who likes to dig holes in the ground and cook things over fire). I was worried that that is exactly what it would be, but was pleasantly surprised that many (all?) of the recipes include grill and/or oven instructions.

My partner has just bought Thug Kitchen, subtitled Eat Like You Give a Fuck. The contents are titled 'track list'. Sample text: "Whisk together the flour and water in a big bowl until a batter forms with no chunks. Did you already fuck it up and it's all chunky? Start that shit over again." It has some good recipes but I don't know if I'll be able to read them with my eyes rolled all the way to the back of my head.

:/

ya i can't handle sassy cookbooks

when i was vegan a long time ago this book called "veganomicon" was all the rage and the instructions were all sassy and i couldn't deal

the only conversational instructions i can tolerate are Julia Child's and even then she sticks to the goddam point

most others can gtfo

some black marker may be called for.

thug kitchen is trash

Deborah Madison's writing is simple and elegant

Diana Kennedy is a little bossy but she knows her shit so I love it

ya i can't handle sassy cookbooks

― marcos, Tuesday, September 12, 2017 3:50 PM (eleven minutes ago)

Does anyone else remember the original directions on the Carroll Shelby Chili Mix, the stuff in a little brown bag? "If you're planning to feed any women, children or sissies, you'd better leave out the small red packet, which is cayenne pepper."

Thug Kitchen is so obnoxious I didn't even notice it was veggie at first. It's like someone turned in a first draft and then the editor replaced half the words with profanity.

I got it as a gift from a well intentioned friend, so I have to keep it around.

just made soup again adapted from a recipe in 'modernist cuisine at home' and have to say -- it's good

my sister asked for the thug kitchen a couple years ago and i got it for her and it's wince-inducing to the max but idk i guess the recipes are ok??

I got two of fuchsia dunlop's books out of library - land of plenty and Chinese revolutionary cookbook - about szechuan and hunanese food respectively and I found them quite enjoyable and interesting reads, and i got some good recipes out of them despite them being, as I had expected admittedly, more meat focused than is helpful for a non-carnivorous type like myself

Fish fragrant eggplant, mapo tofu, and smacked cucumbers are basically my favourite things to eat now

her ma po tofu is the fuckin best

sorry smacked cucumbers sounds v lol to me

This is super entry level for the purposes of this thread but I got Mary Berry's <i>Everyday</i> and it kicks ass. Someone on here once said that, with all the other UK cookbook types you can get disasters if you lack skills but with Mary as long as you reasonably follow the instructions there's no way you won't produce something pleasant and that's OTM.

based on this great article i picked up a used copy of irene kuo's the key to Chinese cooking

https://food52.com/blog/19289-how-america-lost-the-key-to-chinese-cooking

back when the article was first published used copies disappeared and you could only find them for like $400. market seems to have readjusted itself and now you can find them for under $50 although i think back before the article you could cop a copy for $10 or less

people should also check out the mission chinese cookbook. danny bowien is a real punk and i think a lot of you would like it.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/chinese-food-and-the-joy-of-inauthentic-cooking

I have Dunlops Every Grain of Rice. Some great looking stuff and probably as easy as it can ever be. The heavy lifting is mostly in finding some of the ingredients. I just have to keep a running list for when I am by a place that sells some of the spices and stuff.

i've been enjoying martin morales ceviche lately, lots of ceviche recipes of course but beyond those i think it is one of the better peruvian cookbooks out there

there is also tony custer's art of peruvian cooking but there are weird translation issues and some ingredient descriptions and measurements are off, seemed like it wasn't edited well even though it looks beautiful

spent some time w/ meera sodha's 'fresh india' over the weekend. v agreeable and undemanding, think i will enjoy

My bday present from my partner, I don't think I have ever cooked so many recipes from the same cookbook in such a short period of time. All excellent!

I have never bought a cookbook before ( I think we somehow acquired a moosewood, joy of cooking and jaffrey book over the years and had to get rid of them two moves ago) and was thinking about splurging on a nice new book. I had the Larousse Gastr., Bocuse and Japanese Cooking, A simple art on my short list. If I want a recipe I usually just look online. So after reading this entire thread am thinking I should get the Art of Fermentation or the Noma book instead.

ime there are cookbooks you cook from and cookbooks you read and learn from. which type are you looking for?

Reference books. I don't think I would cook from a cookbook. I have a friend that has loads that I skim through and then am like bleh. They are pretty sometimes but they are too heavy for me to collect (I move a lot).

Like, I am more likely to watch a video online and cross reference 5 different recipe sources if I want to make a new dish.

Although, I was looking at the new Ottolenghi book just now.

xp I’ve got a lot of use out of Japanese Cooking, as someone who had never cooked Japanese food before it given me a load of new regular meals. It seems like it still has plenty to offer people who are better versed in Japanese cookery (it covers a wide breadth of cooking styles and recipes).

The art of fermentation is an interesting read, but if you want something with actual step by step instructions on making things then the Noma book is much better. I’m in the middle of creating my first batch of yellow pea shoyu which I’m excited about and also slightly scared of. If I survive eating it I’ll post back here.

japanese cooking: a simple art would be great for you

ok done. Getting that one. I might just watch a couple of fermentation videos first before branching into that. I have way too many hobbies as it is that I don't do.

Thomas Keller and some other books are on kindle unlimited, which offers a 30 day free trial

I thought about a Keller book but thought I might need equipment I don't want to buy plus we don't make any meat at home.

Keller likes meat. I haven't gotten to it yet, but you might like the Six Seasons book that is also on kindle unlimited.

I have like 20 cookbooks but only ones I regularly cook from are:

Bayless's Mexican Everyday
Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking

^similar concepts, different cuisines

'Simple' is awesome

i don't own it but i snapped pics of a few recipes from a friend who does and they were all delish

yeah my parents have it and i took a few pics

paging WmC--made the "top shelf" chicken & DUMPLINGS! from pickles pigs and whiskey today. i've been in a lousy mood (probably because it's may and my heat is still coming on) so i gave myself a project.

the ricotta gnudi is a pretty inspired dumpling variant/replacement! i was worried that they would be too messy but they actually crisped up nicely in a nonstick pan. the whole dish is comfort food in the absolute best sense. also despite using every pot pan and bowl i have (not really but it felt that way) i got it done in about 2 hours and got 2 extra quarts of chicken broth for my trouble.

Today I went to a 4 hour cooking class with Andrea Nguyen. She is amazing, and to Vietnamese food what Madhur Jaffrey is to Indian food. Also, I got to go inside Christopher Kimbell’s new digs, which are really really nice, clean, and bow-tied.

@cad what type of DUMPLINGS!? Biscuity or doughy?

that sounds awesome!

currence's recipe uses ricotta gnudi in place of traditional DUMPLINGS!, though he does recommend a quick biscuit type as a possible substitute.

I confess I haven't looked at the Currence book in years, but I just took a look and that recipe sounds great. I haven't made gnudi in years...need to get back to that.

i hadn't looked at it in ages either. it's not a weeknight level of effort and i need to be in the mood for his style of food.

do y'all use a gnudi board?

i don’t have a gnocchi board. the gnudi i made were sticky enough that rolling them out on something would have been challenging.

anyone have a taco book they might be able to recommend? have picked up a couple but they're very "sea urchin taco" and "obscure part of the snark taco" - looking for something more traditional but still inspired

I have a very pretty taco book that I got as a gift but I have never used it

what you really need is a good tortilleria

the only dedicated taco book i can recall is the one by alex stupak. i flipped through it in the bookstore and it did not connect with me.

i should get back into making tortillas one of these days

i have the stupak one -- agreed re connecting. looks nice, though

i keep meaning to get a tortilla press but i also live in new mexico so its like why bother

Had a job once where we made corn tortillas for breakfast tacos to order. They were SO easy and delish. when I moved last year was certain I'd wanna get a press. But there's a tortilleria in town so can't be bothered rn.

I get loads of taco ideas from Instagram pics fwiw multiplexpost

good french cookbook?

what kind of "french"?

Complete Robuchon is both classic and actually useful imo.

what kind of "french"?

― seandalai, Friday, May 24, 2019 5:02 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what are the different kinds?

i wanna start going to butcher and asking for some nasty cuts of pork and cooking them in tasty french fashion

it’s out of print but paula wolfert’s the cooking of southwest france takes a pretty deep dive that you might find appealing. obviously there’s an entire section devoted to cassoulet.

the country cooking of france by anne willen is a pretty book and a nice overview of unfussy french cooking.

thx! will check these all out. ‘unfussy’ is def important to me

Julia Childs!

I feel like french is always fussy. Although I have made foie gras in the microwave.

i dont mind some fussiness but i guess i want minimal fuss conditional on still being good. my mom once showed me some french recipe that had like 34 steps

it's always time consuming but most of the good stuff isn't fussy at all

Yeah I would say Julia or Jacques Pepin. I still really want one of the Bocuse books but I know I will never make anything from it.

i have said this before on ilx but mastering the art of french cooking is very interesting to read and not much fun to cook from. i would strongly recommend getting something more contemporary if you actually want to cook from it. (i can't speak to any of the later julia books, maybe they're great idk).

i disagree re Mastering The Art of French Cooking - i have cooked from it a lot, it’s like Julia’s hanging out talking to you

but i can see how it might not be to everyone’s taste re wordiness & such

The 1997 edition of the Joy of Cooking is the best of the versions of ‘Joy’, and one of the best books of any kind I’ve ever had in my possession. Incredibly versatile and useful, although it skimps on all but the most basic non-western recipes.

A French cookbook that lots of French people use, even if only for mostly simple things, is « Je Sais Cuisiner » by Ginette Mathiot. I think there is an English translation now, but the French version is a cheap paperback. It’s been around since the 1930s.

what kind of "french"?

― seandalai, Friday, May 24, 2019 5:02 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what are the different kinds?

i wanna start going to butcher and asking for some nasty cuts of pork and cooking them in tasty french fashion

― flopson, Friday, 24 May 2019 21:20 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There are many regional styles (Brittany=seafood+crepes, Normandy=apples and cream, southwest=foie gras+chestnuts, Alsace=plums+choucroute+flammkueche) as well as the classic bourgeois food culture (all those sauces with names). This is a great overview on the regional side with easy recipes (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Larousse-cuisines-régionales-Alix-Baboin-Jaubert/dp/2035604508) but I don't think there's an English version. I don't have the Wolfert book but she's awesome so I'm sure it's awesome too.

(aside: Paula Wolfert's Moroccan Cuisine was as life-changing for me in my twenties as The World of Arthur Russell or Love Saves the Day, it's the reason I have a bookcase dedicated to cookbooks)

A French cookbook in English that's never let us down is Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. I'll vouch in particular for her salads, which have become standbys chez nous. Also the chocolate cake, which is like a 20 minute prep tops; you can go for it when you learn late that a friend'll drop by and you'd like to have something after dinner. It's not elaborate, but French people tend to avoid making elaborate desserts at home; that's what a patisserie is for. But simple French desserts are often made at home and they're a joy.

The 1997 edition of the Joy of Cooking

This is the first cookbook I bought (in June 1998 I believe) and it's what really got me into cooking. The book is beat to hell now with a broken spine and covered in pancake and cornbread batter and gravy and but it's still my definitive source for a number of things.

what you really need is a good tortilleria

i live in london, UK, so that's a hard no, but i have a tortilla press and imported masa flour!

I'm interested in either a cookbook or just a book in general that is as comprehensive an overview of Chinese cuisines as is possible. Has anyone looked at "All Under Heaven" by Carolyn Phillips or "China: The Cookbook" by Kei Lum Chan and Diora Fong Chan? Or are there any others you'd recommend?

This is totally not what you want but when I saw this had been revived I thought I'd mention that we have been enjoying the recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop's "The Food of Sichuan" which was (re?)published late last year.

I'm not familiar with it, but maybe All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012KJYR48/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Not suggesting buying it from amazon, of course.

are you anti-blog bc

https://thewoksoflife.com/

Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon has been my bible for 20+ years

You’ll prob have to get it used, i think it is out of print here

The Complete Asian Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/1743791968/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Rp83EbS8V1AWC

oh wow Woks of Life looks GREAT!!!

we are a fuchsia dunlop household. her books are wonderful

woks of life is, in fact, great

yeah I don't know how many books she has but she has two very good books on Sichuan and Hunan cuisine

xp

fuchsia rules, I've seen tons of really wonderful books from her and others on individual cuisines, but not a whole lot that are like "ok here are all the diff regions and the types of food they prepare and how they've influenced or been influenced by these other regions etc etc etc"

ya she’s basically exclusively szech

Another vote for Fuschia Dunlop.

As well as the Hunan and two Sichuan books she has a couple of others.

‘Every grain of rice’ which is a more general every day Chinese cookery book.

‘The land of fish and rice’ which is cuisine from the Jiangnan (Lower Yangtze) Région

All highly recommended and highly accessible but Every grain of rice is the one I use the most as it is really focussed on everyday cookery.

I've cooked about half the Sichuan book and idk max 3 recipes from "The land of fish and rice". Not sure I have an explanation.

She's great in any case, her memoir is a good read too.

I’m probably about the same ratio. I think I just love the spicy bombast of Sichuan food.

where is the love for OLIA HERCULES? I've been working my way through Kaukasis and Summer Kitchens, and I have a pot of bubbling green tomatoes at the ferment, but ultimately I'lll just say she has a love of food that everyone should engage with.

i've had kaukasis on my cookbooks list probably since it came out but never bought it. what does she do with green tomatoes? i am supposedly getting a batch in my farm share tomorrow and have never worked with them.

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt put out a kids book with recipes if anyone wants to cook with their progeny

nice of kenji to remind anyone who missed it the first 5000 times that he is a dad

lol do u need a minute cad

haha he had a kid and then instantly altered all of his bios to read like this: J. Kenji López-Alt is a stay-at-home dad who moonlights as the Chief Culinary Consultant of Serious Eats.....

I lost track of him after the Food Lab book came out and he cut back on writing to open a restaurant, didn't even realize he had his own cooking channel until last month. His videos rack up a crazy number of views for a guy wearing a GoPro and chatting.

his videos are good! he's still one of the best out there at teaching people how to actually cook but could otherwise stand to relax a bit.

His videos are good fun, I trust his recipes and I enjoy peeping at his kitchen and fridge

kenji's zucchini basil soup (on youtube) is KILLER

His pressure cooker chile con carne is a winter staple.

Nice. ive always wanted a pressure cooker

pressure cookers are great

Instapot mania seems to have died down but I still use mine once or twice a week. The stovetop pressure cooker I had wasn't worth the effort for the extra pressure.

don't have place for a pressure cooker, and am not sure I need to cook my food that much faster, but I liked reading about that J. Kenji Lopez-Alt Chili Con Carne recipe

it calls for a dutch oven, which I do have

yeah had to grudgingly admit the instant pot is way better than a stovetop pc

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/quick-and-easy-pressure-cooker-chicken-lentil-bacon-stew-recipe.html

another incredibly good cold weather recipe but I swap out the bone-in/skin-on thighs for boneless and a little bit of gelatin powder. Pressure cooked chicken skin is gross and more trouble than it's worth to fish out.

made that one a few times, it's quite good

I have tried more recipes from Ottolenghi's "Jerusalem" than most other cookbooks over the last few years I think. After many years I'm still impressed by Patricia Wells' "Bistro Cooking" especially, but also "The Best Recipe" book, the Silver Palate books, and Madhur Jaffrey's books

i've had kaukasis on my cookbooks list probably since it came out but never bought it. what does she do with green tomatoes? i am supposedly getting a batch in my farm share tomorrow and have never worked with them.

― call all destroyer, Saturday, 24 October 2020 01:58 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Recipe in Kaukasis is a mostly-straight fermentation recipe - cover in brine with various flavourings, leave bubble away for a week or two until they taste fizzy. There's another great/simple fried green tomatoes recipe in Summer Kitchens - the secret is to cover them in a huge amount of cheese after frying.

yeah had to grudgingly admit the instant pot is way better than a stovetop pc

― call all destroyer, Sunday, 25 October 2020 1:04 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it has a sauté function, can't say i'm a big fan of it because it tends to get too hot and hard to control but it's ok for browning meat or onions before pressure cooking

Re: Instant Pot, it's better than a standard pressure cooker, imo, but not better than a slow cooker. Or at least not a 1:1 replacement. If you want to use it as a slow cooker, you have to kind of adjust the time/temperature to compensate. Fwiw, my Dutch oven is pretty much my most go-to big pot.

I heard something good about a cookbook called "Feast," apparently a broad survey of Islamic cuisine around the world, but I saw one review that said the book was OK but ultimately not for "most American kitchens." I figured, OK, it's going to be some rube bristling at hummus or sumac or something, but no, it was a recipe for ... roast camel hump. And I thought, yeah, that is pretty exotic. Can I even buy a camel hump? A quick look suggested no, at least not easily. But I soon enough came across the cookbook author's blog expressing big enthusiasm for camel hump, and, curious, read up to see where she got it. And she concedes that the easiest way to get a camel hump is ... from someone cooking an entire camel. Not a big one, mind, just a small one, but an entire camel all the same, which I'm pretty confident isn't any easier a get. And I thought, you know, this cookbook is probably not for me.

i've never used it as a slow cooker and also haven't used my slow cooker (iirc) since i got it. there's probably nothing i would slow cook instead of pressure cooking for 1 hr - 90 min.

i've never encountered a recipe for camel hump! i think i have a book with sheep's brains, but no hump. even if i could get that i'm not sure i would cook it because what if i don't like it? there is a grocery store here that i think is owned by yemenis and has a butcher shop attached to it, could probably get a place like that to order a camel hump. probably deliciously fatty.

really? tell me more... my stovetop one has broken and i’m looking at replacing. was thinking that browning things would be the biggest issue with instant pot?

― just sayin, Sunday, October 25, 2020 8:48 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

for me the stovetop pressure cooker involved just enough monitoring that it outweighed the convenience factor. having to wait around for it to come up to pressure so i could reduce the heat (my stovetop is aggressive) and then making sure that it stayed at a happy pressure meant i was just staying in the kitchen as much as i would for any other operation, where ideally if i wanted to do a pot of beans it would be a set and forget operation. so the instant pot takes care of all of that.

the saute function isn't amazing but does the job for onions and stuff. if i needed to brown something really carefully i guess i would do it in a saute pan, deglaze and transfer to the instant pot, but that hasn't come up.

A lot of instant pot recipes we've found and like aren't just toss everything into the pot and let it go types. They typically involve growing meat or veggies first on sautés before locking everything else in there. Honestly, we love to use the IP most for hardboiled eggs!

Anyway, for the record: https://www.anissas.com/camel-hump-finally/

I bought Jerusalem right before moving and never quite “bonded” with it for lack of a better term, I really should go through it again for ideas