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Thread Number: 81018
/ Tag: Recipes, Cooking Accessories
Your Favorite Cookbooks |
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Post# 1050160 11/7/2019 at 11:27 (1,625 days old) by dermacie  (my forever home (Glenshaw, PA)) |
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| Post# 1050162 , Reply# 1 11/7/2019 at 11:34 (1,625 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
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Post# 1050164 , Reply# 2 11/7/2019 at 12:03 (1,625 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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I learned to cook using my Mom’s 1957 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. And I now have both the first edition from 1950 that belonged to my Aunt Virginia and the 1998 edition, which doesn’t differ a great deal from the first edition.
I think that anyone who can read and has basic comprehension ability can learn to be a competent and reasonably good cook using the BC Picture CB. This cookbook shows how to accomplish just about every kind of baking and cooking skill required to be a good cook. After the basics are mastered one can branch out and experiment, and become even better. I also have at least 70 or more other cookbooks, all of which I will refer to from time to time, taking and leaving ideas to formulate my own recipes, which I write down and refer to again if I’m happy with the results. To me the most overrated cookbook is “The Joy of Cooking”. I could never figure out what was the attraction of this cookbook, but if you like it, you like it, and should use it if it works for you. One of my favorite cookbooks is the Westinghouse Electric Range 1939 cookbook. It was left behind by the previous tenant along with her 1939 Westy range when we moved into a duplex in 1983. Its a good, basis, nonsense cookbook. And that 1939 range was one of the very best stoves I’ve ever cooked or baked with. Eddie This post was last edited 11/07/2019 at 13:03 | ||
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Post# 1050168 , Reply# 3 11/7/2019 at 13:07 (1,625 days old) by luxflairguy (Wilmington NC) |
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Julia Child and Irma Rombauer! The "The Way to Cook" is my bible and the original "Joy of Cooking" follows close behind! I've been lucky enough to have cooked with Julia and boy was that fun! I do also have both my Grandmother and Mother's copies of the Better homes and Gardens cookbooks. Irna Garten follows... | ||
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Post# 1050170 , Reply# 4 11/7/2019 at 13:22 (1,625 days old) by chachp (North Little Rock, AR) |
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Boxes of them.....
I don't know how many I have as I have collected them for 40 years. I do have a shelf in the family room where some of my favorites reside. My very favorites are two Silver Palate Cookbooks I bought years ago. They are full of notes and pieces of paper about different things. I have a Joy of Cooking as well and don't think I have ever really used it.
I will admit though these days I find myself going on line when I want a recipe just because its so fast and the variety is endless. I have been building an online cookbook for a few years where I have family favorites and recipes I've collected from all over the place.
My Mom was an amazing cook. I come from a long line of Italians who live to eat and love to cook. I learned so much from her and miss her so much especially when I'm in the kitchen and realize I can't call her and ask how do you ......
I have a handwritten notebook that she started for me years ago with my favorite foods. I cherish that book. Thanks for this thread, brings forward some great memories. | ||
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Post# 1050172 , Reply# 5 11/7/2019 at 13:25 (1,625 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Yes, Julia Child, but not her cookbooks as much as her first cooking shows on PBS. I learned how to make a perfect omelet from watching her in about 1965, and to this day, every time I make an omelet I still can her here her voice in my head and visualize her making an omelet.
I have her “From Julia Child’s Kitchen”, and do refer to it from time to time, but it was her TV shows that I really benefited from. Eddie | ||
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Post# 1050175 , Reply# 6 11/7/2019 at 14:49 (1,625 days old) by Paulg (My sweet home... Chicago) |
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Our top three
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child is far and away our favorite cookbook.
Second is America’s Test Kitchen cookbook. And one of my favorites is Dinah Shore’s original cookbook. It is red and just says Dinah on the cover. Other favorites are: The Flavor Bible and Jamie Oliver’s Five Ingredients | ||
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Post# 1050197 , Reply# 8 11/7/2019 at 17:45 (1,625 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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I've mentioned this book before...Stand Facing the Stove is about 20 years old now. It's the story of the making of Joy of Cooking. Ree Drummond is an interesting paradox...California girl at USC who was swept off her feet by Drummond (idk his first name) who is BIG rich in Oklahoma. My mom's family predates statehood in Oklahoma and was politically prominent in Tulsa, but the Drummond have been around since the 1870s.
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| Post# 1050231 , Reply# 9 11/7/2019 at 20:57 (1,625 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
Hard to say... Many years ago, when I was first cooking, I probably most heavily used a 1960s edition of FANNIE FARMER my mother had (and which had been her basic cookbook for years). Back then, I went through other cookbooks as well, in search of new recipes. And sometimes even ideas that were applicable past a recipe.
Like others, I have a lot of respect for Julia Child--both MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, and also her FRENCH CHEF TV show. Indeed, I only got the DVD set of that TV show at the library because of some commentary here. I thought I'd probably watch a chunk to get a sense of the show and then return it. I ended up watching the whole thing, more or less. I liked the way she taught more than just a recipe, and she was endlessly interesting. I was inspired to make onion soup for my Thanksgiving dinner that year. (I was alone, like usual, and so that was as much of a special dinner as I was willing to do.) I still look at cookbooks sometimes. But I no longer do much that's ambitious. I live alone, have limited kitchen, and even more limited budget. So, day to day, it's mostly my cooking is kept simple. Mostly stuff I know, and stuff that allows for safe improvising. When I do need additional information, I generally just look on-line for a recipe or other information. | ||
| Post# 1050232 , Reply# 10 11/7/2019 at 20:58 (1,625 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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| Post# 1050233 , Reply# 11 11/7/2019 at 21:05 (1,625 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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One other cookbook that I value is one that my mother assembled over the years--a mix of recipes from my paternal grandmother (stuff that my father had liked), maternal grandmother (a cookie recipe that I remember my mother making often), newspaper clippings of interesting recipes (which she'd saved for entertaining--and at least one had been a well-loved recipe, which, years later, became a special occasion dish for us).
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Post# 1050236 , Reply# 12 11/7/2019 at 21:15 (1,625 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Post# 1050243 , Reply# 13 11/7/2019 at 21:46 (1,625 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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My cookbooks went to the local library in 2017 when I sold the house and moved to an apartment. To be honest, my “cookbooks” are websites these days. Allrecipes.com is a go-to for general cooking.
I’ve adopted a low-carb diet lately in order to bring down A1C/blood sugar numbers, so am spending time at sites like KetoConnect, Gnom-Gnom, Low Carb Yum, I Breathe I’m Hungry, Big Man’s World, Serious Keto, Sugar Free Mom, Fluffy Chix Cook, Ditch The Carbs, Butter Together Kitchen, Green & Keto, and Headbanger’s Kitchen. Recipes are entered into an app called Pepperplate on my iPad.
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This post was last edited 11/07/2019 at 22:06 | ||
| Post# 1050292 , Reply# 16 11/8/2019 at 12:24 (1,624 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
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One interesting tidbit... | ||
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Post# 1050294 , Reply# 17 11/8/2019 at 12:54 (1,624 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Julia Child also liked Mickey D’s fries too, because the were still fried in fat that contained beef suet. Since she has passed away I believe that they discontinued that practice.
Julia wasn’t a food snob, thats what lead to her appeal. She believed in using the best ingredients and cooking with time honored practices, without making things any more difficult than necessary. I learned so much from watching her. And the main thing I learned was that everyone makes mistakes, thats how we all learn how to be better cooks. And I learned that using good common sense in the kitchen is an indispensable skill. A good cook can come up with a delicious meal using what ever ingredients and tools are available at the time. The secret is to adapt to the situation at hand, and you just may discover something wonderful in the process, or not, but either way its not the end of the world. Eddie | ||
| Post# 1050297 , Reply# 18 11/8/2019 at 13:09 (1,624 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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>Mickey D’s fries too, because the were still fried in fat that contained beef suet. Since she has passed away I believe that they discontinued that practice.
Yes, I think, too, that they use some other fat. I also wonder what other changes have been made to the various items she liked on the menu. I have to wonder if she'd like the McDonalds of 2019. | ||
| Post# 1050304 , Reply# 19 11/8/2019 at 13:28 (1,624 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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>A good cook can come up with a delicious meal using what ever ingredients and tools are available at the time.
This has been a theory I've had, but I'm wondering about that... After some of the reading I've done recently, I'm thinking ingredients make a huge difference, and have become a huge problem. And it's not a case of getting some exotic gourmet item--a lot of basic stuff just isn't as good as it used to be. Modern agriculture has apparently dramatically increased crop yields, but taste has gotten worse. And nutrition has apparently gotten worse. I suppose a good cook can compensate for ingredients that aren't very good--but it may take more skill, and may take special ingredients (e.g., special spices), while simple cooking with salt and pepper might have sufficed in the 50s. | ||
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Post# 1050321 , Reply# 20 11/8/2019 at 14:56 (1,624 days old) by RP2813 (Sannazay) |
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 I do use Child's The Way to Cook to get ideas, and always for pan seared steaks. I like Sunset's Easy Basics for Good Cooking too. The L.A. Times cookbook is another resource I consult often. I have books I rarely use, and every once in a while I'll do a purge. One book I was happy to find was an anthology from Gourmet magazine in the '50s. It doesn't have just one, but a few different recipes for preparing sweetbreads, which is one of my all-time favorite dishes.
I've posted a link to an article on La Super Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara, which was a favorite of Child. I try to time my drives to and from L.A. so I'll be in SB on either side of the lunch rush. Lately, even getting there at 2 PM I've been faced with a slow moving line out the door and down the sidewalk to the back of the building, so it becomes nothing more than a drive-by.
There's a Forbes article on La Super Rica as well, but I wasn't willing to turn off my ad blocker to read it. CLICK HERE TO GO TO RP2813's LINK | ||
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Post# 1050325 , Reply# 21 11/8/2019 at 15:47 (1,624 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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| Post# 1050341 , Reply# 22 11/8/2019 at 17:37 (1,624 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan) | ||
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Juila Child made a delicious Cassoulet, and Coque' au vin. | ||
| Post# 1050386 , Reply# 25 11/9/2019 at 08:00 (1,623 days old) by Maytagbear (N.E. Ohio) | ||
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Australian view--- Thank you for chiming in, Chris! She's not Australian, she's from NZ....do you like Annabel Langbein? Some of her TV programmes have been shown here in the US, and I rather like her and her food. Lawrence/Maytagbear | ||
| Post# 1050452 , Reply# 26 11/9/2019 at 19:42 (1,623 days old) by Xraytech (Rural southwest Pennsylvania ) | ||
These are my most used cookbooks.
The St. Michael Parish 100th Anniversary book “Favorite Recipes” from Avella, PA. I was the head of that fundraiser “Mama’s Recipes” was Grandma Rose’s book that came from St. Elias Byzantine Catholic Parish in Munhall, PA “The Best In Cooking” was from St. Michael Parish, Avella, PA it was published in very early 1960s (business ads all had the old NNX phone numbers) this book was Grandma Rose’s as well “Christmas in the Village” cookbook from Eldersville, PA was my Aunts book “Sharing our Best” cookbook from OLOL Parish of Burgettstown, PA also belonged to my aunt. She liked to write the name and page number of her favorite recipes on the front cover of her books Some of my other books I use a lot are “Cookies” which is a book mom got in the mid 80s, I went and bought my own copy. I also really like the “Mazola Sakad Bowl” book and the Dormeyer Electric Mix Treasures book. The Wards Sugnature Guide is Grandma Diamond’s book, we use it a lot for freezing, as well as fruit pie filling recipes. Finally I like several items from Mable Hoffman’s “Apoetizers” cookbook. | ||
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Post# 1050467 , Reply# 28 11/9/2019 at 21:21 (1,623 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Favorite CBs Better Homes and Gardens, New CB,
Julia Childs The way to Cook, one of her best works [ The GE double P-7 wall oven and GE electric CT with Sensi-temp burner which she used extensively did not hurt ]
And many others including Cooking From Quilt Country, by Marcia Adams, a great collection of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.
John L.
PS McDonalds took beef fat out of their FFs around 1990, well over 10 years before Julia Child died. | ||
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Post# 1050475 , Reply# 29 11/10/2019 at 00:26 (1,622 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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I’d forgotten about Marcia Adams and her show, “Cooking From Quilt Country” that was on PBS. I enjoyed watching her and thought everything she prepared looked delicious, the kind of home cooking I was raised on.
Eddie This post was last edited 11/10/2019 at 00:43 | ||
| Post# 1050914 , Reply# 30 11/13/2019 at 18:29 (1,619 days old) by toploader55 (Massachusetts Sand Bar, Cape Cod) | ||
I am with Eugene... AllRecipes is my go to these days.
But I always like to use anything by Julia Child and Jaques Pepin. He is so awesome, a great teacher, and inspiration. I just love the way he explains his technique and food. My Favorite when you really want to hit some of the Classic French is LaVarenne. Just some exquisite recipes. The Pate Brisee and Pate Sucree are just phenomenal.
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Post# 1050954 , Reply# 31 11/14/2019 at 02:32 (1,618 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN) |
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Post# 1051121 , Reply# 32 11/15/2019 at 09:47 (1,617 days old) by dermacie (my forever home (Glenshaw, PA)) |
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| Post# 1051123 , Reply# 33 11/15/2019 at 10:39 (1,617 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan) | ||
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I'll check them out! But, I wasn't aware that church lady Dana Carvey could cook---chuckle. | ||
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