Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking
It’s more of a reference work, with multiple recipes for classic dishes. It’s kind of dated, but it’s a good source of ideas. Now I just search the nets to look for variations of recipes. Caterers used to love it.
Weirdly, my sister and I were hypothetically talking about her cooking her cats if she needed food for her son and husband.
Joy of Cooking came up, what with the skinning of the squirrel and all.
I’d have gone for the human, probably, if it came to that.
(Another?) vote for Mastering The Art of French Cooking as well. Served me good.
I personally hate the Joy of Cooking and any “how to cook anything!” book. I mean, I did when I was starting out, now I don’t mind Bittman’s book much.
But when I was starting out I found many cookbooks totally unaccessible; they left me utterly cold.
So here’s my recommendations: get yourself a subscription (it’s under $20) to EatingWell magazine or take out some old copies from your local library. Check out any and all EatingWell cookbooks; my favorites are the cooking for 2and eatingwell for a healthy heart.
The best thing about those are they assume fairly low levels of knowledge. Like “here’s how to zest something” “here’s how to keep the avocado from turning brown” “here’s how to fillet a salmon”. The recipes are quick and easy but not short on flavor. If you’re a big fan of strong flavor palettes (Indian, Thai, etc) then you will really like EatingWell’s stuff.
RealSimple has nice, healthy ones too. If you wanna go step-by-step pictures, the Pioneer Woman is your gal.
Step 1 is reading the what’s for dinner threads too. You can always PM someone to get more info.
-lindsaybluth, who went from making tuna helper 2 years ago to making everything you can possibly imagine.
ETA: Oh shit, this is a zombie all right. I thought Diosa started cooking at least a year ago.
Hi Diosa.
I like Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian cookbooks, but I have to say that there are so many good, free recipes on the internet these days, that cookbooks could be becoming redundant!
This evening I made Haddock and Sopinach Florentine from a (free) recipe on this site on a bread making machine. http://theideaskitchen.co.uk/ Check it out! (Then print it out and stick it in a scrap book?)
Mind you the also said that the internet would be the death of all books… no!
For a specialty book, if you are interested in bread making and baking, I’ve found nothing better than Beard on Bread, by the late, great, James Beard.
It may still be in print, but if it isn’t it’s not too hard to find used, and more than worth the trouble.
I speak professionally about this, as I’m a baker IRL.
Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi is the best-written cookbook I’ve ever used. It makes unfamiliar or complex culinary matters clear and easy to understand, and she provides ample information and insight to help her readers get the best results. I don’t share her religious beliefs (she’s a member of ISKCON) in the slightest, but I love her recipes. The only thing in her book that doesn’t jibe for me is the complete absence of onions and garlic (they never get even hinted at in 800 pages). Since I’m already accomplished at the use of onions and garlic in Indian cuisine, having been taught by Muslims, that isn’t a problem for me. What I love about Yamuna Devi is her high quality writing, the clarity and completeness of her information.