Recipe Cookbooks: Favorites and Duds

Have a look at CHEF JOHN, BING him, great recipes and videos. Every dish I've made has been fantastic.
And, as far as cookbooks these days....ummm....I find the internet much more convenient, I have given away most of my cookbooks
just some that I can't part with....

 

I'm completely in love with My Paleo Patisserie . The photos and instructions are amazing. I actually bought the hard copy, which I never do. Jenny takes the time to describe the science behind cooking with these "alternative" ingredients, and in the back, there's a whole section (including photos) on how to assemble some of the more complex recipes... Like baked Alaska and some of the pastries. As a non-chef, I appreciate that part a lot.

I'm also using a lot of recipes out of some Paleo cookbooks that I got on the $1.99 kindle sale awhile back. I'm on my phone, so I can't find the names at the moment or format them properly, so I'll update later. But the paleo slow cooker one and all of Danielle Walker's books are invaluable. I also dig Veganomicon for really incredible side dishes with thoughtful ideas on combining flavors, rather than just being vegan or vegetarian dishes.

 

cook books are one thing I always find it hard to understand still sell, because you think you could just get any recipe of the net.

I tend to find a youtube video of someone cooking a thing if I want a meal I dont know how to do, just cos you can see the actual method rather than just read it.

 

We have Here In America's Test Kitchen. The detailed info and tips are nice, as are the product reviews. The downside is how the recipes are written. My reading comprehension is good, I cook, & I'm used to following recipes. Yet I still have to read the HIATK recipes several times and make notes. They remind me of receiving instructions from someone who has done something so many times they fail to realize that their instructions aren't very clear.

A small CB that we've used many times and still use is The Art of Wok Cooking from West Bend. The recipes are very straightforward, and nearly all of the ingredients are basic things you need for stir frying, i.e. no weird ingredients that you'll only use once a year. NOTE--Our inexpensive, about $25.00 IIRC, West Bend elec wok lasted for 26+ years before the heating element starting showing signs of burning through the bottom of the wok. We tossed it before that actually happened, & replaced it with another WB elec wok (thift store, $5.00).
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I'm sure that the internet has slowed CB sales considerably. But I've also heard reports that CBs are overall still top sellers even now. We use a lot of recipes from the internet, but also use our CBs. One important consideration is I started cooking when using modems involved placing the phone handset in a modem cradle .

 

I don't usually do a lot of cookbooks, though I have a few that I like-- Joan Nathan, Claudia Roden, Yotam Ottolenghi, Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen, Aromas of Aleppo, The Sephardic Table, Indian-Jewish Cooking, etc.

But I really like historical cookbooks. Apicius' The Art of Cooking, Curye on Inglische, Libellus De Arte Coquinaria, The Forme of Curye, The Book of Sent Sovi, Taillevent's Le Viandier, etc. It's both interesting culinary adventure and history and cultural exploration. You end up with both fascinating insight into the tastes and habits of other people from long ago, and some really unusual and interesting culinary aesthetics and ideas that don't resemble modern cookery much at all.

 

We have a CB that I really need to study & use, Not Everything We Eat Is Curry: A Bengali Guide To Indian Cuisine.

This CB has some history. Our first copy was a gift from my mother who bought it somewhere dirt cheap (hmmm....that sounds familiar ), which my wife took to one of the schools where she worked because one of the Indian teachers wanted to see it (her grandmother was from the Bengal region). The CB made the rounds among the teachers, but didn't make its way back to my wife. I was seriously POd.

Fast forward several years. My wife & I were in a thrift store, and amazingly found another copy of it (maybe not so amazingly, it was published in Houston, & I think that the authors lived here). Our second copy is actually better than the first--It includes the Use (spices) For (dishes) fold out chart, & is signed by the main author.

In researching this CB I was amazed to see that the prices on Am a zon range from $149.99 to $597.24. Seriously?

 

FYI, one of the more amazing gluten free, paleo, AIP, etc books is currently on sale on Amazon... Against All Grain: Delectable Paleo Recipes to Eat Well & Feel Great: Danielle Walker: 8601200919271: Amazon.com: Books she's amazing and really intuitive with her cooking. Things actually taste good from this book, and her steps are pretty easy to follow. One of the first I got when I started this direction and I still go back to it over and over. Which definitely says something.!

 

Cookbooks, I used to have a shelf full, nw pared down to about 20.... nowadays I get recipes all from the internet.
There is also a NY Times weekly email with things that sound interesting.
I made a Chili from a COOKS recipe, dried chilies, etc....lots of spices...turned out eech...Oh well...........sometimes...........

 

It might be worth adding, not so much in the realm of cookbooks per se as books about food and cooking and eating:

MFK Fisher, The Art of Eating
Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone
Jacques Pepin, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
Bill Buford, Heat
Gabrielle Hamilton, Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence and Encore Provence
Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything
Katherine Wilson, Only In Naples: Lessons in Food and Familglia from my Italian Mother-In-Law
Robert Capon, Supper of the Lamb

I tend to very much enjoy beautiful, slow, meandering meditations on food, cooking, and eating. They actually go very well with reading herbals (like the classic English herbals of Turner, Gerard, and their ilk).

They also go very well with a comfortable chair and a glass of wine.

 

The Frugal Gourmet on our immigrant ancestors by Jeff Smith worth the money

 

Alton Brown has a new cookbook out this week.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X--R7W-OC08&feature=youtu.be


He talks more about it (mostly about the photos taken with an iPhone) on his relaunched podcast.

 

Art of Indian Cooking by Rocky Mohan.

The good:
--The book begins, pages 10 thru 25, by going through and explaining the spices that will be required (very informative), gives recipes for the masalas used in the recipes, and includes other useful info & tips. This section of the book could be considered a must-read.
--Measurements (most) are in metric and standard.
--The ingredients are in English along with the Indian names, which makes finding the special ingredients easier.
--The recipes are on one page, no page flipping.
--The food styling (arrangements) by Pramod Kapoor and photos by Dheeraj Paul make my mouth water.

The bad:
--Many of the meat weights are metric only (no big deal).
--Many of the stove-top burner cook temps (the oven temps are specific) and cook times are general (some experience & common cooking sense required ). This could be problematic since many of the recipes use thick sauces.
--It's not for novice cooks. Even experienced cooks would benefit from studying pages 10-25.

 

Yes, I'm necroposting. The following made me laugh because I see similar books at thrift stores & resale shops.