Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I recently got a $100 gift card to Amazon from my credit card rewards. I have selected a bunch of books that I wanted to read, but I wanted to include one book full of recipes. I like to cook dinner when I have people over, but I'm sick of making the same stuff all the time. Can anyone give any recommendations for books with good food or dinner recipes?

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

Do you know the basics of cooking? My aunt got me an awesome book from better homes and gardens, it doesnt have any great recipes, but it has all the basics, and how to do them right. Ie, the different cuts of meat for each animal, how to make a reduction, etc. How to Grill is also a great recipe book for grilling/bbq'ing/smoking.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

If you need a basic catch-all cookbook, I like TheJoyOfCooking. It's got basic stuff like how to bake a potato, and what goes in quiche, and so forth.

If you want an awesome catch-all cookbook, get The Professional Chef. It's the monsterous tome the CIA uses.

If you're looking for more of a niche cookbook, you'll probably have to tell us the niche. For instance, my Moosewood cookbook(s) have great veggie recipes, but that might not be your thing.

Quite frankly, if you know what you want to eat, you can find tons of recipes online. It takes a stellar cookbook to beat the internet.
-Sam

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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get The Professional Chef

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Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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Do you know the basics of cooking? My aunt got me an awesome book from better homes and gardens, it doesnt have any great recipes, but it has all the basics, and how to do them right. Ie, the different cuts of meat for each animal, how to make a reduction, etc. How to Grill is also a great recipe book for grilling/bbq'ing/smoking.


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guids - I would like to think I know the basics of cooking, but I'm sure I could learn a lot from a book like that. I'll definitely check that out.

I don't have a grill at my apartment, as we're not allowed to have them there, so I probably won't be doing much grilling, unless I go over a friend's house.

I am also very interested in modern books that are full of really good recipes. I have 2 cookbooks already, but they are very basic and I get the feel they were written 20 years ago.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

The first cookbook I bought was the 60 Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey. I knew very little about cooking and I spent the next year or two just trying recipes from that book. This was before the days of the internet or Food Network, and I haven't used it much in recent years.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102...o.y=0&Go=Go

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

My favorite cookbooks :

For basics :
Fannie Farmer (the new edition)
McCall's (the very old edition)

For recipes :
Italian Country Cookbook - Rogers & Gray
Jacques Pepin - Fast Food My Way & Simple and Healthy Cooking
Ken Hom's Hot Wok: Over 150 One-Pan Wonders

I like/recommend these because they're good quality recipes & very simple, eg. typically 10 ingredients or less, designed to be done in half an hour, not like some professional chef's recipes that are 4 pages and 100 steps for one dish.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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If you need a basic catch-all cookbook, I like TheJoyOfCooking. It's got basic stuff like how to bake a potato, and what goes in quiche, and so forth.

If you want an awesome catch-all cookbook, get The Professional Chef. It's the monsterous tome the CIA uses.

If you're looking for more of a niche cookbook, you'll probably have to tell us the niche. For instance, my Moosewood cookbook(s) have great veggie recipes, but that might not be your thing.

Quite frankly, if you know what you want to eat, you can find tons of recipes online. It takes a stellar cookbook to beat the internet.
-Sam

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Awesome. I think The Professional Chef is what I'm looking for here.

If I'm into a niche, it would probably be different pastas, things made with chicken, or both.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

The New Best Recipe

Excellent cookbook by the folks at America's Test Kitchen. Not only will you pick up many good recipes, but you'll learn a lot in the process. One of the few cookbooks that I have read cover-to-cover just for the sake of learning about recipes.

If it's a good cookbook, I hope to get a solid 3 recipes from it that I use on a semi-regular basis. I've gotten dozens out of the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks (this one in particular.)

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I can't belive there are already 8 posts and I get to recommend the seminal On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. It sits on my nightstand and I read it every day before going to sleep. Seriously, it is encyclopedic in its breadth.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I'll put in a word for Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I assume you're a bit of a novice? If so, here are some good books:

Emerils new new orleans: I know he's a caricature. But this is a great book for rookies/intermediates. Delicious food, simple recipes.

Julia and jacques cooking at home. Not as many or as varied recipes, but great explanations and techniques to learn from.

Splendid table: excellent northern italian cookbook. A bit more advanced than the other two, but italian food is generally simple to make so this is still ok for beginners. No pictures though, which may be impediment to someone w/o much experience.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

Good thread idea Cap.

This may or may not belong here but I will go ahead anyways.

Any books on knife skills anyone would recommend? Something I would like to work on as it would really help the amount of time spent on recipe prep time.

I normally get all of my recipes from the intraweb but might look into some books people have suggested.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I'd actually not recommend the prof. Chef. It's massive and enclyclopedic, so you can definitely learn from it. But the recipes are generally for large quantities of food, which isn't user friendly for a home cook. Also, it's more of a textbook, so its not terribly "fun" or interesting. It's a good resource, but I'd start out with something else.

I hadn't read your response when I first posted. Since you seem more confident of your skills, I'd also add Bouchon and norman van aken's new world cuisine to the list. These are great books too.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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I'd actually not recommend the prof. Chef. It's massive and enclyclopedic, so you can definitely learn from it. But the recipes are generally for large quantities of food, which isn't user friendly for a home cook. Also, it's more of a textbook, so its not terribly "fun" or interesting. It's a good resource, but I'd start out with something else.

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Hm - but couldn't you just halve or quarter the recipes? Also, general question about Professional Chef - how "high end" is it? I'm comfortable in a kitchen, and like to make more complicated stuff now and then, but am not looking to turn out high-end cuisine on a regular basis.

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I'll put in a word for Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

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Eh - it's OK imo. I was a little dissapointed (got it as a gift). Seems to be a lot of basic stuff with shortcuts, and while it has good recipe ideas, I've usually turned to another cookbook to make a better version of the Bittman suggestion.

-Al

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I tend to love italian recipes. I ran a search on Amazon and 1000 Italian Recipes appears to be a good book for Italian food at first glance. Anyone with any experience with it?

1000 Italian Recipes

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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I tend to love italian recipes. I ran a search on Amazon and 1000 Italian Recipes appears to be a good book for Italian food at first glance. Anyone with any experience with it?

1000 Italian Recipes

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Nope. My recs for Italian food are the Splendid Table, mentioned before, and Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking

Both cookbooks are really well done. Lots of great recipes, and lots of useful essays/explanations too.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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I'll put in a word for Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

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I love Bittman, but it doesn't sound quite right here. I think it's excellent for people who don't cook at all and who need to learn how to make delicious food without putting a ton of time into it. That was my situation when I received HTCE as a gift, and as a result, I love it. But every more experienced cook who reads it that I've talked to thinks, "What's the big deal, all these recipes are simple and I already understand how to saute a chicken breast or buy a piece of pork."

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

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Hm - but couldn't you just halve or quarter the recipes?

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Sure, but it's just not user friendly. Also, the recipes are all done by weight (e.g., "3 lbs of eggplant, 6 oz. of gelatin....), so it's even less intuitive and easy to convert for home cooks.


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Also, general question about Professional Chef - how "high end" is it? I'm comfortable in a kitchen, and like to make more complicated stuff now and then, but am not looking to turn out high-end cuisine on a regular basis.


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The recipes are more classic French than anything else. They're not very modern at all, which is what I would mean by high-end. By comparison, the French Laundry's cookbook is far more high end (and modern).

The prof. chef. is what you turn to when you want to learn how to make 4 gallons of hollandaise, which pretty much means never. I only pull it down about once a year when I have a very specific question about an ingredient or technique. I have never, ever used a recipe from it for home cooking.

pm me if you're ever downtown and want to borrow it.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

This is my favorite.

Full Disclosure: I worked at Highlands's a couple of summers while I was in college and still try eat there once a month.

Frank Stitt is a James Beard award winner, and is usually consider one of the founders of New Southern cooking. He takes traditional southern ingredients and cooks them in a classic french style. Very interesting guy, and the book is enjoyable to read outside of the great recipes

Frank Stitt's Southern Table

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

America's test kitchen.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

I just recently got a copy of The Professional Chef, and while I'm glad I got it and it seems like a valuable reference, I really do not recommend it for a home/amateur chef. The recipes and techniques are really geared towards professional cooking, which means the emphasis is not on taste & ease, but rather on being able to prepare mass quantities, make parts ahead and then finish quickly, store it safely, stuff like that.

Re: Good Cookbooks/Recipe Books/Books about Food
 

No you can not uniformly half or quarter ingredients. Not for spices, salt, some liquids. Suppose it calls for 2 tablespoons of butter for frying, this is not reducible.