Your Favorite Cookbooks

[lordkenmore]

>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.

 

[rp2813]

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.

Julia Child Was Right About La Super-Rica in Santa Barbara

La Super-Rica was one of Julia Child's favorite places to eat. To this day, La Super-Rica often has a line out the door. It offers a bit of nostalgia and some seriously good Mexican food.

www.seriouseats.com

 

[ea56]

I love my copy of Sunset’s Easy Basics of Good Cooking! Simple, easy to follow recipes that all come out good. An excellent choice if you only had one cookbook, and were just starting out housekeeping.

Eddie

 

[vacerator]

Juila Child

made a delicious Cassoulet, and Coque' au vin.

 

[tolivac]

Blendtec and Vita-Mix cookbooks-esp the one that goes with the 4000 series Vita-Mix.Very infornmative books.I also get the "Larouse Gastrominiuqe"You find this very informative book in large city bookstores.Have some vintage ones from the early 60's found in used bookstores.This book really doesn't have recipes per say-just interesting information about food and cooking.And gives good info on food ingredients.

 

[gizmo]

an Australian view

"Simple Flavours - Australian Home Cooking" by Geoff Slattery is one of my favourites. It is more than a "recipe book", more of a "book with recipes" as each section gives stories and general tips before giving specific recipes.

The Australian Womens Weekly magazine is famous for its recipe books, my sisters and I all have a copy of "Cooking Class" from the 1970s which gives very clear recipes for lots of classic dishes.

Although not a Vego myself, I have two vegetarian cook books I really like: "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen from the US, and "The higher Taste" from the Hare Krishnas.

 

[maytagbear]

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

 

[xraytech]

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.

 

[gizmo]

Hi Lawrence

yes I do linke Annabel Langbein (Or Annabel Long Bean as she is called in our house.)

Funny story about her - One Christmas, my older sister was giving an Annabel cook book to my younger sister, but we hadn't exchanged gifts yet. My younger sister made some comment over lunch about seeing this NZ woman cooking on TV and made negative comments about her, so older sister took me discreetly aside asked me if I minded if she gave the cook book to me and gave my gift to younger sister. Fine by me. So I now have the Simple Pleasures book. Younger sis still knows nothing about the swap.

Chris.

 

[combo52]

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.

 

[ea56]

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: 11/10/2019-00:43]

 

[toploader55]

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.

 

[askolover]

My favorite cookbooks are the church ladies cookbooks and the one from my first hospital job...it's huge and packed with EVERY food recipe imaginable...even cicada pie!

 

[dermacie]

I love church-lady cookbooks too. I always am checking those out at goodwill when I go there.

 

[vacerator]

I'll check them out!

But, I wasn't aware that church lady Dana Carvey could cook---chuckle.

 

[mixguy]

Lots of Cookbooks here too!

Learned to cook using Better Homes & Gardens and Good Housekeeping's Cookbooks. She got them from collecting S & H green stamps! The National supermarket and the local ESSO gas station provided green stamps. Mom liked using many recipes from the Maytag Dutch Oven Cookbook--loved most of the recipes! She also had a Watkins Cookbook she received as a high school graduation present. The year I was born, dad gave mom a white Hamilton Beach model H Food Mixer! That mixer still works today! My sister and I made just about every recipe in the booklet! Sears once featured a special edition of a Betty Crocker Cookbook for $2.97 that was my first cook in moving out on my own! The microwave oven was a new kitchen tool at that time and were big & expensive! Most of my cookbooks are from garage sales, re-sale shops, library discards and flea markets. Cake Bible recipes have never disappointed anyone that samples! I get asked to bring dessert often at family gatherings. Local recipe books I use are "Talk About Good!" Volumes I & II, and "River Road" Recipes I,II and III and the C'est Bon cookbook from the Vermilion Home Demonstration Clubs.

 

[mixrman]

My first cookbook, and still my favorite out of a huge collection, is my mother's old
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, copyright 1950. According to the inscription, mom got it as some sort of prize in Home Economics at Neville Island School, Neville Island, PA (class of 1955). There is pretty much nothing that you cannot find in this wonderful book!