Favorite Cookbooks

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by honeychile

I'm a firm believer that any cookbook, Junior League or otherwise, that has a woman's name at the end of each receipt is going to be the best you'll ever get. Only an idiot signs her name to a bad receipt!

The problem is that some people have very different ideas of what is a good recipe. I've found some real clunkers with the poor, delusional woman's name attached.

My favorite might be the Fig Newtons that are sliced and rolled in confectioner's sugar. My wife and I still laugh about that one, from a church cookbook.

[AlphaFrog]

Ok, I'm going to go ahead and spam for my friend, LeAnn's blog, because she is an awesome cook:

shecooks.org

And, MC, she's doing a Tenore CD giveaway today!

[AnchorAlumna]

The only thing I like about the BH&G cookbook was the table of measurements and list of substitutions in the very back. I was making a stew out of it early in my marriage and called her to ask what bay leaf was. "Bay leaf? Where did you get that from?" she said. When I told her, she sniffed, "That's a Yankee cookbook! Only put part of that bay leaf in, and take it out before you eat! Better yet, don't use it at all!"

But mostly I found Betty Crocker much easier to a follow, with more detailed explanations of mysterious methods. I still occasionally refer back to Betty!

Southern Living, Cooking Light and several other publications share a recipe site, www.myrecipes.com. I love reading the comments on recipes on the Web sites. Especially when people complain that they don't like it, and then list all the things they substituted!

Another good site I found was Christy Jordan's www.southernplate.com, which started as a blog. She has just published a cookbook and has been featured in several magazines. Southern favorites, good explanations, even videos of how to prepare dishes. She also offers links to a number of other good food blogs. Christy is not gourmet, but you can feed your family well and pretty cheaply, too.

[QUOTE=MysticCat;2011697My favorite might be the Fig Newtons that are sliced and rolled in confectioner's sugar. My wife and I still laugh about that one, from a church cookbook.[/QUOTE]
Don't knock it 'til you try it, my friend!

[WaterChild]

I'm a big fan of Fannie Farmer.

[PeppyGPhiB]

My all-time favorite, which makes great use of herbs and uses them to put twists on simple dishes, such as champagne-lavendar sorbet, is The Herbfarm Cookbook, by James Beard winner Jerry Traunfeld: http://www.amazon.com/Herbfarm-Cookb...2227467&sr=1-1

I use this one a lot for party foods and appetizers - Dishing with Kathy Casey: http://www.amazon.com/Dishing-Kathy-...2227742&sr=1-4

From one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle, the Icon Grill's Aroused Americana: http://www.amazon.com/Aroused-Americ...2227855&sr=1-1

If you're looking for good, classic "standard" recipes, the Williams Sonoma cookbooks are good (I have the ones on Meats and Desserts), and one cookbook I use a lot is "The Best Recipe" by Cook's Illustrated - basically a collection of popular recipes they've cooked a gazillion ways to come up with the one that offered the "best" results. The roast beef recipe in that cookbook has NEVER let me down.

I also have several Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), Jamie Oliver and Tom Douglass books. Yeah, I pretty much collect cookbooks.

[christiangirl]

Lol I can't even like. My favorite was the Disney cookbook. Everything was super simple with kid-friendly instructions. Right there on my level, lol. That's how I learned to make French toast.

[AOIIalum]

Another vote for the BH&G cookbook. I have the one I got when I got married, the newer Pink plaid one, and inherited my mom's copy. The BH&G Grilling book is also excellent, especially if you're learning how to grill.

I also am a big fan of anything by Alton Brown, any of the Southern Living books, Taste of Home, the Junior League Centennial Cookbook, and Pioneer Woman Cooks (her website is awesome too!)

My dream is to either clear out a kitchen cabinet for cookbooks or maybe have cookbook shelves installed one day. I love to read and collect cookbooks.

[Tulip86]

bbb.co.uk/food has great recipes as well!

[MysticCat]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll do it here, too. This is by far my favorite cookbook: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.



Blurb:

Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3 : 1 : 2 -- or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3 : 1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor.

Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth of cooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen -- water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs -- work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes.

My discovery in this book last night was that pound cake and sponge cake are the same thing ingredient-wise. It's just that you cream the butter and sugar in pound cake, while you whip the eggs and sugar in sponge cake. The categories in the book are:

• Doughs (Breads, Pasta, Pie, Biscuit, Cookie, Pâte à Choux)
• Batters (Pound/Spong Cake, Angel Food Cake, Quick Cakes, crepes)
• Stocks (Stocks, Clear Soups/Consummé, Roux, Beurre Manié)
• Farçir (Farçir, Sausage, Mousseline, Brine)
• Fat-Based Sauces (Mayonnaise, Vinaigrette, Hollandaise)
• Custard (Custard, Crème Anglaise, Chocolate and Caramel Sauces)

Awesome book!

[Tulip86]

I always use a few bayleaves in a stew (one per person) in you tie them together, it's easy to take them out after!

[aephi alum]

Bay leaves are a choking hazard.

[AnchorAlumna]

I had never heard of nor tasted bay leaf. I had crumbled the leaf into the stew...which made it really hard to take out. I don't remember the cookbook (probably the 1968 edition) saying anything about taking out the leaf. Or maybe I didn't read that far before throwing it in!

I don't care for the flavor of bay leaf. Guess I got too much in there...or bit on a piece...who knows? I don't remember.

[MysticCat]

My guess is that this:

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

I had crumbled the leaf into the stew...

led to this:

I don't care for the flavor of bay leaf.

[AGDee]

I use a bay leaf in my marinara sauce.. my Italian grandmother's recipe (which has no measurements, much like others have noted, other than measuring with your palm). And yes, you have to remove it.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll do it here, too. This is by far my favorite cookbook: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.



Blurb:

Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3 : 1 : 2 -- or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3 : 1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor.

Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth of cooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen -- water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs -- work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes.

My discovery in this book last night was that pound cake and sponge cake are the same thing ingredient-wise. It's just that you cream the butter and sugar in pound cake, while you whip the eggs and sugar in sponge cake. The categories in the book are:

• Doughs (Breads, Pasta, Pie, Biscuit, Cookie, Pâte à Choux)
• Batters (Pound/Spong Cake, Angel Food Cake, Quick Cakes, crepes)
• Stocks (Stocks, Clear Soups/Consummé, Roux, Beurre Manié)
• Farçir (Farçir, Sausage, Mousseline, Brine)
• Fat-Based Sauces (Mayonnaise, Vinaigrette, Hollandaise)
• Custard (Custard, Crème Anglaise, Chocolate and Caramel Sauces)

Awesome book!

When I was in high school, complaining about chemistry, this is the method my mother used to get me interested! I NEED that book!!!

Originally Posted by MysticCat

The problem is that some people have very different ideas of what is a good recipe. I've found some real clunkers with the poor, delusional woman's name attached.

My favorite might be the Fig Newtons that are sliced and rolled in confectioner's sugar. My wife and I still laugh about that one, from a church cookbook.

I think it's funny to see 16 receipts for basically the same thing, such as Coca Cola Cake ala Cora, Coca Cola Cake ala Camille, etc, etc.

My favorite from one of those books was for Honeymoon Salad: lettuce alone!