Anyway most used cookbooks around Casa de Rick are: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
The previously mentioned Joy of Cooking, but I split my time between the current version, and the one given to me when I was 12 and just starting to cook (Copyright 1964) Paula Dean’s books are the ultimate guide to comfort food
My wife is a big Rachael Ray fan and has several of her books.
I of course have the books by the other perfect master Alton Brown
I have several cookbooks from America’s Test Kitchen
My two favourites are Better Homes and Gardens (Mom picked up a copy a couple month ago from a second hand store, completely unused, and we got it for just two bucks. Best two bucks we ever spent.) and Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens. The latter I really love, we use it for all our biscuit, pie and cookie recipes. I’m certain that every woman in my family has a copy of it.
Not only does it have some really good recipes, it also has a bit of history of the different people who live in Nova Scotia as well as little introductions and notes for the chapters and recipes. They’ve also got a few ‘for interest’ recipes such as the Gypsy Woman’s Cure and cures for bedwetting or tuberculosis.
The Gold Cook Book, by Louis de Gouy. Twelve hundred pages of great recipes, incredibly fussy directions and outrageous but entertaining lies about food and la histoire gastronomique.
Most of the stuff that I cook from older cookbooks I have long ceased following actual recipes and have my own way of doing things. Two books that I still have to follow by the letter are:
Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook the old edition before the low fat “healthy” rewrite.
Thai Food by David Thompson. Only a few years old but just about the best cookbaook I have seen that concentrates on a single cuisine.
Another vote for the Better Homes and Gardens. It’s great for people learning to cook, as well as a solid basic everyday guide. Too many cook books contain recipes that call for ingredients not normally available at the local supermarket, not BHGCB.
I also rely on good old Google for a change of pace.
I failed to name The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten in my previous list. Although I find the recipes too fussy and complicated for everyday cooking, it is my go-to book for casual entertaining.
My favorites to cook from include Steven Raichlen’s How to Grill, the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, and everything from America’s Test Kitchen, starting with a tall stack of well-thumbed issues of Cook’s Illustrated.
I would agree that the Silver Spoon may soon become a classic in the US after originally being published in Italy in 1950 and now translated for the first time into English.
Along the same note I would add that the first time English translation of the 1927 French classic “home cooking” book La Bonne Cuisine by Madame E. Saint-Ange is now available.
Well, it hasn’t been a problem, as I don’t generally think to buy the fat from around a calf’s kidneys to fry my french fries in when I’m at Piggly Wiggly buying milk. So I’ve never actually cooked from the book.
