The cookbook is an old dog-eared copy of Fannie Farmer. There is a story behind it, however. When I was in the Peace Corps, I was stationed on a very isolated small tropical island in the Western Pacific. The diet was breadfruit (which I might add tasted nothing like any fruit nor bread), taro (a variety tasting not unlike cardboard - none of the fancy Hawaiian taro on the island I was on) and maybe twice a week fish either boiled or thrown onto the fire. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the island and the people of the island, but the food was at the best of times dull.
The only cookbook on the island was the aforementioned Fannie Farmer which a friend had sent to me thinking I would be in a place where I could get food to cook. I wasn’t, so I would pour over the cookbook for hours on end while eating my taro, breadfruit or boiled fish imagining what I would create when I returned to the states. I literally dreamed about dishes from that book.
The Joy of Cooking is an excellent reference; I use it for basic stuff, like how long to bake potatoes, and how to make your standard peach pie. Stuff like that. Fannie Farmer is also great in this area, but I haven’t owned a copy in over 10 years.
My real kitchen Bible is The New Basics, by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. God, it’s wonderful. Just absolutely slopping over with yummy recipes. The idea is that they take classic recipes and food concepts, then update them a bit. It might have been a bit too trendy in the 1980’s, but it has (in my opinion) stood the test of time, and become an actual classic in its own right. I’ve had a copy for almost 15 years (I’m on my third; I keep wearing them out).
That said, if it involves grilling, or Caribbean-inspired food, it’s gotta be The Thrill of the Grill, by Chris Schlesinger. A revelation. His other books are great, but this one attained instant classic status from the first recipe I tried (grilled bluefish with chipotle vinaigrette, if memory serves).
