Best and worst cookbooks

Cafe Society
21

Even though I’m biased because he’s my favorite celebrity cooking writer, I can’t praise Appetite by Nigel Slater enough. He doesn’t just write about how to cook (and he does that superbly, better than anyone I’ve ever read), but writes about how to eat, how to entertain, how to appreciate the enjoyment of cooking. And it’s as far removed from the “formula cookbook” outlined by bouv.

Slater is sadly underappreciated outside the UK–if he were as outgoing as Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson, I could imagine he’d be the UK’s answer to Alton Brown. Really.

22

Yes to Nigel! He’s my staple in the kitchen, always consult him when I have no idea what to cook. I prefer the 30-Minute Cook to Appetite though.

Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion is a treasure as well but I don’t think it is as well known outside Australia/NZ as it deserves to be.

23

Here in the Great White North we have a series of cookbooks called “Company’s Coming”. I own about a dozen of them and have never had a recipe not turn out. The ingredients are readily available at most supermarkets and the instructions are clear. Excellent for those just learning to cook (I received “Casseroles” as a graduation gift) and those looking for new taste sensations (I love Dinners Of The World).

The books are inexpensive and the original series is spiral bound so they lay flat. Haven’t found a dud yet.

Here’s a list of their offerings: http://www.companyscoming.com/index.php?par=cookbook_catalogue&cat=cookbook_list

/Ms Cyros

24

My parents subscribe to both Cook’s Illustrated and Cooking Light and lemme tell you, it really is food porn. I dare you to read either without getting hungry.

We’ve amassed quite a collection of cookbooks from both of those magazines, and they’re all pretty good. My personal favorite when I cook is Cooking Light’s 5 Ingredient / 15 Minute Cookbook (that may not be the exact name but the numbers are right) because I’m lazy and I want simple things. Just about every recipe we’ve made out of that book has been easy and delicious.

If you can catch Cook’s Illustrated’s TV show America’s Test Kitchen, I highly recommend that too. They not only make great recipes, but they explain to you what to avoid to make things turn out incredibly good instead of just so-so. I’m dying to dry the Chicken Under A Brick recipe they made the other day …

25

Like almost any category of real objects, ‘cookbook’ encompasses several different varieties of thing.

Some cookbooks are intended to teach new cooks the things every cook should know. There was a time when every new wife was given either the Good Housekeeping or Betty Crocker cookbooks just so they’d never get caught not knowing how to separate an egg or like a cakepan with waxed paper.

Some cookbooks are intended to teach the casual cook how to do some particular type of cooking. This could be some national or ethnic cuisine or some subcategory of the cooking they’re already doing, like ‘cooking with pork’ or ‘cooking light.’

Then there are the ‘food porn’ books (thanks for that term, Wile E). These are almost more books of photography than instruction manuals, but some are well enough written to be both.

OK, I’ve already gone on too long, but my point was that you’ve got to decide what you need to know about cooking before you can decide what’ll be a good cookbook for you.

It should also be noted that someone did a survey once, and a cookbook buyer actually only cooks, on average, 1 recipe from each book they buy. For those that are really into cooking, cookbooks tend more to inspire one’s own preparations rather than acting as a strict list procedures to follow like some sort of chemistry text.

To make a book suggestion, I’ve always liked the idea of Graham Kerr’s ‘The Gathering Place.’ He wrote the book while taking a cruise around the world with his wife (which was smart–I bet he wrote the cruise off as a business expense), taking time in each port to gather some recipes from the local restaurants. [Yan’s ‘Chinatown Cooking’ was a similar idea, except he brought his TV crew to each city’s Chinatown as part of the process (and they probably flew rather than coming by ship). When Kerr did ‘The Gathering Place’ as a TV series, he didn’t really talk about how it all came from that cruise.]

But my favorite part is that Kerr wrote each city up as a menu of 4 dishes. The idea is that 4 different cooks each take one dish to prepare, and then they have a dinner party to eat the whole meal. I own the book, but have never actually done anything with it, because I don’t have 3 friends that want join in such an arrangement (to be fair to my friends, I don’t want to go to the effort most of the time, myself).

26

I love this book. I think it’s a joy to read each section before the recipes.
Jeff Smith is someone I recommend to people learning to cook. His stuff is easy.typically, and tastes good.

I’ll also second the Rick Bayless suggestion, especially his book “Mexico, one plate at a time”.

Another book I’d suggest is one called “Sauces” (I don’t recall the author, but IIRC it has won the Beard award).

I also like “The NY Times” cookbook.

27

<hijack>
I just yesterday finished reading Toast by him. Loved it! I’ll have to check out his cookbooks.
</hijack>

28

I have the Fanny Farmer cookbook more helpful on the main than Joy of Cooking.

For worst - White Trash Cookbook has few peers.

29

Nigel Slater is great. I gave copies of Appetite to several people for Christmas, and got one for myself. I need to get Real Fast Food, and his desserts one. Yum.

I think The Complete I Hate To Cook, by Peg Bracken, is still in print. If it isn’t it should be.

I really like Nigella Lawson for food porn and John Thorne for interesting food writing.

30

I really like How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson (of Cook’s Illustrated, not Baywatch). It does include recipes, but the focus is on great instruction in some basic techniques. Also, it sets a very high standard for whether the end result actually tastes and looks good.

I get a lot of mileage out of Cooking Light, but their recipes rely very heavily on onions. My stomach has begun to rebel.

Another plug for the Moosewood vegetarian cookbooks.

I have Lora Brody’s Slow Cooker cookbook and was not impressed. I am not looking for that much prep work for a slow cooker recipe, when you can get such good results with 1) brown the hunk of meat 2) throw some tasty stuff in there with it and 3) cook until done.

31

Avoid the one called “To Serve Man”. I hear getting the main ingredients involves a LOT of legal hassle…

32

I’d have to also agree with the votes for Jeff Smith’s Frugal Gourmet books. As Alton Brown himself says in the appendix to *I’m Just Here For The Food[\i],

(paraphrased) I don’t know what the man may or may not have done in his private life, he knows how to cook.

I would also recommend Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines. Greek, Italian (Roman), and Chinese. Good stuff. :slight_smile:

33

I’m in total agreement with the Cook’s Illustrated books. THE BEST RECIPE usually does produce the BEST food. Yum.
My current fave is BAREFOOT IN PARIS: wonderful tasting food that is easy to prepare and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
I am also partial to Martha Stewart’s many books. No matter what you make, it tastes good! But watch out for her Iced Watermelon recipe in which she advises you to purchase a watermelon. Put it in a tub of ice water overnight. Slice and serve. Now really! Did we need that???

34

The Perfect Cookbook really is the perfect cookbook. All its recipes are:

  • useful, not just there for the wow, gastroporn factor
  • simple
  • actually work really well

Claudia Rodens Middle Eastern Cokbook

I am amazed no one has mentioned Stephanie AlexandersThe Cooks Companion.

35

btw these are the best cookbooks above.

Not sure about the worst. Perhaps “Men Cooking” written in the 50’s, I think, has weird and wonderfull recipes from a range of men who are not professional cooks but each contributes a favorite recipe. IIRC, the best was a dolphin soup - enough to feed 50.

36

Here 'tis

37

Another vote here for Nigel Slater’s cookbooks. The man takes such obvious joy in food, it’s hard not to drool as you read. My problem with his book Appetite is that I don’t live where he does, with fresh fish mongers and open air markets!

I’d also recommend Ann Hodgman’s books - Beat This, Beat That, and One Bite Won’t Kill You. HOWEVER - only about half her recipes are worth the trouble, but the books are SO worth reading because they’re the funniest cookbooks ever.

I like Susan Powter’s book C’mon America, Let’s Eat! for low-fat recipes that really do taste good. She uses more salt than I like, but the recipes come out fine without as much salt.

38

I don’t have that one and didn’t know about it. I’ll see if I can find it. Thanks for the info. :slight_smile:

39

I despise The Moosewood Cookbooks. They represent everything I hate.

I’m vegetarian, but I hatethe practice of filling up vegetarian cookbooks with undercooked, undersalted, underflavored low-fat crap, watered down pseudo-ethnic cusine and “healthy” stuff nobody in their right mind would eat- whole meals out of seeds and nuts, maltreated tofu and bizarre meat substitutes (just throw some raw bulgar wheatin with ground lima beans and call it chicken!). These books are full of it- pointless substitutions (yogurt when the recipe needs some robust sour cream, for example), tasteless fake ethnic food and stuff like mealy walnut-stuffed zuchinni that only serve people’s expectations that veg food should be a strange, tastless and painful ordeal. Nothing I’ve cooked from any of their cookbooks has ever turned out well. Vegetarians are better off culling what they can from solid non-veg cookbooks (which is what I do most of the time) and the few great veg cookbooks (Madhur Jaffrey’s **World of Far East comes to mind).

40

I’d also recommend the Jeff Smith cookbooks. I don’t know if they’re out of print or not, but I see them quite a bit in the thrift stores and used book stores. I think some people may have gotten rid of them in the wake of his sex scandal. If you like hunting through those type of shops, you’re sure to find them.