Cookbooks

[La Lioness Priyanka]

I am gonna buy a few. Are there any you guys really love?

[bif]

1. I take it you already own "The Joy of cooking"?

the bible.

[arcane1]

2. anything that involves cookies

desserts rule :9

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. you are funny!

i make an excellent warm chocolate cake too...i am multitalented :)

[arcane1]

6. I bet

you've given me cookies on the brain today... too bad you don't already have a batch whipped up, I missed lunch! :)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. i got myself a cookie after our conversation

the store bought kind..would have preferred homemade cookies but no such luck :sigh:

[arcane1]

13. just not the same when they aren't made at home...

I may have to make a trip to the store myself this afternoon and satiate

whipped cream included :9


lol, everyone else gave you actual cookbook advice. Sorry for the thread-jacking :)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. no problem

i think you should make a trip to the store..after all i cant be teh only one gettting fat!

[arcane1]

20. we grow fat together then

how bad can it be? :)

[ChickMagic]

3. I like Bisquick

So I bought a Bisquick cookbook! Mmmm mmmm. Cheeseburger pie!!!

:bounce:

[wryter2000]

5. Julia Child

She's the best. The absolute best.

As a reference, you need The Joy of Cooking. Also, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook is a good one for standard American food. For baking, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking by Flo Braker (cakes, pies, and pastries only).

[GumboYaYa]

7. I like the Naked Chef Cookbooks.

Jamie cooks like I do, learn the methods for preparing foods and then get creative with the things you put together. His recipes are generally instructions on how to cook the main item with suggested recipes and encouragement to try your own thing.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. Please recommend Good Thai and other East Asian cuisines too

thanks a bunch my lovely Du'ers

[bif]

12. Real Thai:the best of Thailand's regional cooking

by Nancie McDermott

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. thanks a bunch everyone!

[mike_c]

19. seconded-- this is the best daily Thai kitchen cookbook I've...

...found.

[mopinko]

9. james beard

"theory and practice of good cooking" is the best basic cookbook ever written.
"the new james beard" is full of fantastic recipes- mustard chicken, chocolate cheescake, and one of the best cookies in the world- chinese chews. mmmmmmmmmmmmm

[sangh0]

15. He has a really good cookbook about cooking fish

I think it's called "Cooking Fish"

[Lizz612]

11. Two

The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Both by the same people, good stuff. Tofu Broccoli in Hot Peanut Sauce stir-fry. MMMM!:9

[greendog]

29. The Tao of Cooking....

Another great vegetarian cookbook.

[bif]

14. Plus Paul Prudhomme's Regional American cookbook is good

As well as "The Heritage ouf Southern Cooking"

[Whitacre D_WI]

18. I like the Culinaria series.

Recipes from all over the world. They're $30-$40 brand new, but you can usually find them in used bookstores or in the remaindered section.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. Here are the ones I go to the most

And I go to these the most because they are about THEORY and not just a silly ass collection of recipes. They actually explain why things work, offer base recipes, and offer information on how to change, modify, and/or the names of small variants. For instance, in Child's book, she offers the base chowder recipe, and then says "And for corn chowder, you add corn by blah blah blah. For clam chowder, you add clams in this way by blah blah blah". Instead of wasting space, like so many other recipe books do, by offering the same recipe over and over anv over again with just slight variations.

But then, I'm more into learning how to cook, as opposed to needing recipes to follow line by line. I prefer to understand how the basics work, and be able to build from that.

I can't help you on the need for Thai and other Asian cookbooks, as I haven't found anything decent. All I've found so far (and I haven't looked in years, so there might very well be many available now) are collections of recipes, which have "beef with brocooli" and "beed with snowpeas" and "beef with green beens" on separate pages even they're all the same damn thing, except for switching the vegetable...argh.

Anyway, here ya go:

Julia Child, "The Way To Cook"
Julia Child, "Baking with Julia" (pastries, etc.)
James Peterson, "Sauce" (which includes now a shitload of Asian sauces, plus some others, besides just the basic French sauces)
James Peterson, "Splendid Soups" (which just came out with a new edition)
Marcel Desaulniers, "Death By Chocolate"

And I don't have it, but I've read through it and it's brilliant, the James Beard book another poster mentioned.

And the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) has a fantastic cookbook that's also lots of theory, with, like the first Julia Child book, lots of descriptions of what the various cuts of meat are, where they come from, how they should be cooked, etc., along with lots of info on veggies, how to use a knife, kitchen equipment, etc. etc. etc. It's a marvelous book, and about $65, but worth it if you aren't very knowledgable on such things.

[Westegg]

22. I love all cookbooks by the editors of "Cook's Illustrated."

Some other faves are: "Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone" by Deborah Madison; "How To Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman; "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen" by Lidia Bastianich; and "Staff Meals From Chanterelle" by David Waltuck.

[fudge stripe cookays]

23. "The New Basics"

by Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso.

Everything I've ever made from it has had folks begging for the recipe. Especially (for non-vegetarians) the Market Street Meat Loaf is AWESOME.

Also, being Texan, I love Stephan Pyles' "New Tastes from Texas."

[BlueEyedSon]

24. New York Times Cookbook - Craig Claiborne

I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking - Alton Brown
Chef Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen - Paul Prudhomme

[DCDemo]

25. Some suggestions

The Food of Asia (many different countries' recipes)
The Japanese kitchen by Shimbo
The top one hundred pasta sauces
Le Cordon Bleu at Home
and, everyone needs The Barbeque Bible (for international bbq/meat dishes...fantastic & many can be made indoors/oven)

Bon apetit!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

26. thanks a lot!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

27. My favorite cookbook is a 3-ring binder+google search

I look in the cupboard, see what I've got and type it into google with the word "recipe". When I find one that sounds good I copy it to a Word doc and format it big so I can read it easily, print it out full page and put it in a top-loading three-hole plastic sleeve. Voila, instant cookbook that stays open flat and can be wiped clean.

Favorite sites:
www.allrecipes.com (free site - user submitted/rated/reviewed)

www.reynoldskitchens.com (easy, tasty, low-fat dishes baked in foil)

I put in another vote for anything by Cook's Illustrated. Used to subscribe to their magazine - it's beautiful, informative and makes you want to cook. Access to the best parts of their website (www.cooksillustrated.com) requires $25.00 annual membership.

Also another vote for The New Basics Cookbook and Silver Palate series by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins.

Google search for eastern Asian recipes:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=eastern+asian+recipes

Google search for Thai recipes:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Thai+recipes&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1

[Lindacooks]

28. Home Cooking and More Home Cooking

by Laurie Colwin

here's more:

http://busycooks.about.com/cs/cookbooks/

a review of a bunch of my favorites.

[bleedingheart]

30. Well our county Democratic committee will soon have a cookbook

so keep it in mind (nudge nudge)

personally I swear by the Fannie Farmer cookbooks and the series of Three River's Cookbooks that are local to Pittsburgh but great overall!

[starroute]

31. I like to just find a good remainder table and browse

Some cool Asian cookbooks I've gotten that way are:
The Vietnamese Collection by Jackum Brown
The Practical Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking by Sallie Morris and Deh-ta Hsiung
Encyclopedia of Chinese & Oriental Cookery by Jennifer Brennan

Vietnamese is my particular fave at the moment. It's got a delicate quality that really appeals to me. But Thai and Indonesian are great, too.

[Bertha Venation]

32. Anything by Julia Child.

Can't miss.

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. The Lounge also makes for a fine cookbook

I've gotten some damn fine suggestions from this place