Favorite Cookbooks

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet:

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

All of the basics, along with some great sidebars on why certain things must be done.

[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!

[DTD Alum]

I love Bobby Flay. I have two of his cookbooks, "Grill It!" and "Boy Gets Grill" and they are fantastic. Everything I have made out of there has been a winner, I don't think there has been one dud.

My favorite thing to do however is get on Epicurious.com. I search for recipes and only make the ones with 4 forks (or 3.5 forks if it's something simpler like a side dish). Seriously, any 4 fork recipe I've had from there has been mind-blowingly good, not just "Oh, I'd make this again", but "I'd pay a ton of money for this in a restaurant."

[nittanygirl]

^^^
I'm so interested in this website.
Already found a few things to try!

[DTD Alum]

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

^^^
I'm so interested in this website.
Already found a few things to try!

It's the best. You can save all the recipes you are interested in if you make an account. I also find it helpful to always read the comments, usually I just follow the instructions verbatim, but the comments are full of tips and ideas for sides/menus. Also, I've found that for anything under 4 forks, the comments will often give really helpful suggestions for tweaking the recipe a little bit.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I tend to get my recipes online, and have had good luck with allrecipes.com and The Food Network's website...however, I've had terrible luck with cooks.com.

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

My favorite thing to do however is get on Epicurious.com.

NPR's "Morning Edition" this week is doing a series on the chaging book industry in the digital age. Yesterday it was about e-books and the local bookstore, today it was about interactive books for young people (books with associated stuff on the web, like The 39 Clues or The Amanda Project), and tomorrow:

Cookbooks in an internet/app world.

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Cookbooks in an internet/app world.

The internet & apps have made the distribution of recipes so easy.
It's awesome how easy it is to find a recipe for something.

As for apps, I had a menu planning project to do last semester with a friend (a DG! I just had to share since this is greek chat) & she found one of our very much applauded recipes by searching through an app on her blackberry

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

The internet & apps have made the distribution of recipes so easy.
It's awesome how easy it is to find a recipe for something.

Without question. (Though I'm a semi-luddite -- I have no device that uses apps.)

I'll be interested in the what the story says. The difference to me is that the internet and apps can be great for sharing recipes, but recipes alone don't really teach you how to cook or bake.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Without question. (Though I'm a semi-luddite -- I have no device that uses apps.)

I'll be interested in the what the story says. The difference to me is that the internet and apps can be great for sharing recipes, but recipes alone don't really teach you how to cook or bake.

I was in a historical society with a woman who had been my kindergarten teacher. She announced to this group that she never bothered to teach her daughter how to cook, because she had taught her to read. Her daughter's graduation present included a cookbook. In my mind (and those of others there), that was such an appalling statement, as if it excused her of any of the interaction that happens when learning to cook.

The teacher must have given her daughter some other interesting books, too, because the daughter went on to break up a few marriages before marrying a rich artist twice her age!

[AZTheta]

Honey, you crack me up!

I learned to cook Italian from my nonna (I'm named after her), who could not read or write, so what use were recipes? She taught me to sniff and smell and touch and feel for freshness when shopping. I hate buying ricotta cheese in the plastic containers now - it's all sealed in plastic including the top - I can't smell it to check it. From her, I learned to cook by touch and taste and sight and smell. I panic when people ask me for "the recipe" for something I've made. I have no idea, and I'm not being deceptive - I just put on some music and create when the mood strikes. Honestly, it never turns out exactly the same but it's always delicious. And I remember the time I spent with her.

I do refer to Marcella Hazen when I want to cook fish, however - and I recommend her cookbooks to people who want to learn to cook Italian food.

[KSUViolet06]

I have to add: www.supercook.com---recipe search site.

You enter the indregients/items you have, and it searches TONS of recipe sites (Epicurous, AllRecipes, etc) for things you can make.

Ex: I entered sour cream, penne, pasta sauce, green peppers, onions, and chicken.

It came up with this (from Allrecipes). PS. It was YUM.

[PrettyBoy]

I don't really have a particular favorite. I don't pay much attention to the titles of the ones I do buy. I look inside, see something I want to cook/try, and then I buy it.

[nittanygirl]

Just found this site today, but I've spent pretty much all afternoon on it! It's a collection of featured food blogs from across the net. I love it and have already bookmarked a few great recipe ideas to try! (Thank you StumbleUpon!)

www.tastespotting.com

[IlovemyAKA]

Originally Posted by AGDee

The Better Homes & Garden one is good for that.I imagine the basic Betty Crocker one is as well.

Thanks

[txpacer]

This list is great. I can't wait to start stocking up on some of these!