I just bought a new cookbook to add to my VERY over-burdened cookbook shelves and thought it would be fun to hear what everyone's favorite cookbook is.

My all-time favorite basic cookbook is probably the Fannie Farmer cookbook. I like Joy of Cooking a lot, too, but it gets kind of "out there" for my skill level sometimes.

What's yours?

Aderyn

It's really hard to pick a favorite from my own over-burdened shelves. I have five or six that I consult regularly.

If I try to judge based on signs of abuse (binding broken, food splotches & notes in the margin) it would be the Settlement Cookbook. ... and this is my 4th!

(I always leave it behind for my ex-dh's, so they don't starve in my absence. )

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I can't really pick a favorite, either (got 200+ cookbooks, in various parts of the house). I like different books for different things; however, since my specialty for years was regional Italian cuisine, one I used extensively was "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan. There isn't anything that woman can't do, or explain, brilliantly. For basic recipes, good ol' "Joy of Cooking" is hard to beat. Another book I use a lot is "The Professional Chef", published by the Culinary Institute of America, my alma mater. It's a great reference book for lots of different techniques.

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Trina

Vice-President of the Intergalactic Order of Brussels Sprouts Haters

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1. Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider (Colchie)

I can't recommend this book any stronger. I purchased it a few years ago, and it's just an unbelievable reference for vegetables. I like to shop Chinatown (new york) and the book includes pictures for everything, and every variety you'll stumble across. After starting Atkins and looking around for new recipes, the book became even more important. You can't give a better gift to someone.


2 Julia, #1,#2, and # 3

3 Gourmet Magazine. The magazine is dreadful ever since the New York Times Ruth Reichl took over, yet the recipes are good and I tend to repeat them again and again.

4 Cooks Magazine. Not everything always works - but things show up here and then next year in Martha Stewart, etc.

5. the back of the Oreo cookie box -- not.

I looking forward to purchasing some low carb books (especially from this list)

I just realized, none of us have even named a low carb cookbook. I have several, but rarely consult them after I've read through them once.

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i have a better home's and gardens "red plaid" cookbook that is just mutilated from overuse. i have managed to convert manyof those recipes to LC (written in the sidelines, of course). i also made my own recipe book which i consult very frequently, with recipes compiled from this site and a few other LC sites . i have learned a lot of fantastic cooking tips from ChefTrina, Maggie, & Betty whom i must thank all very much because they have been so inspiring.

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Karen
147/135 LF
135/127/117 LC

Due to the plethora of cooking ideas and recipe sources on the web, some years back I actually got rid of all the cookbooks except the ones I use regularly. In a few cases, I ripped the one or two good recipes from the book before tossing it.

I have a two low carb cookbooks, but I rarely use them. These are my favorites:

The Joy of Cooking - I used this one more than all the rest combined.
Betty Crocker - the cookbook I grew up with; my Mom gave me my own copy when I was in college
Good Thyme Herb Blends Cookbook (Debra Dawson)
Applehood & Motherpie (rarely used, but too good to toss)
Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies Cook Book (not used these days, but I'm sentimental - I've had it since I was a child)

THen I have a couple recent specialty cook books that I should weed out - a Creme Brulee cookbook and Matanzas Creek Winery Fragrant Harvest, Lavender recipes from Celebrity Chefs Cookbook (all the recipes are complex and expensive to the point of stupidity)

However, I have a big fat folder of wonderful recipes from taking classes from the now retired Oakland Hills Cooking School. It's as big as a book.

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

Yes, it is funny how most of us did not mention a low carb cookbook! Through the years, most of my favorites came from Fanny Farmer, good old Betty Crocker, a Southern Living cookbook and recipes from various cooking classes. Now, I have created my own LC Cookbook from recipes found on this and other sites. The best LC cookbook? This site!

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Alida
5'1" ~ 59 years old
Highest weight: 165
Atkins 7/10/2004
160/126/125
RE-DO, January 2008:
167/162/135

I went through a foodie phase about a decade ago and suddenly my cookbooks grew from maybe 25 to more than 250. I've stopped counting them because they are all over the place. I actually bought a china cabinet at an antique shop to hold almost half of them. Luckily I reined in this obsession and now buy about 5 cookbooks a year. But a favorite is hard to pick out. Joy of Cooking is definitely in the top 5 and I was lucky enough to get this as a gift the first year in my first apartment. The Silver Palate Cookbook also belongs in that top 5 as well as Shirley Corriher's Cookwise.

As far as Low carb cookbooks I'll have to say any of Sharron Long's would be on my favorites list.

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my blog

Like many of you, I have hundreds of them. They are all over the place.

- Spilling off a built-in shelf onto the floor of the living
- Stacked 2 feet high next to my easy chair
- Stacked on a shelf in the downstairs bathroom
- Filling 3 cardboard boxes in the garage
- Filling 4 plastic containers at my shop

and a handful sitting in the back seat of my car in case I get "bored" sitting at the railroad crossing.

At the moment, I have three favorites...

1) Sauces:Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

2) Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery

3) The textbook of the CIA (fourth edition)

The first one I'm reading like a book from page one. It's quite an educuation. I feel like I'm taking a semester long course on sauce making. The guy is AMAZING in his knowlege and historical info. I've always been a pretty good sauce maker but now I'm going to be great!

The other two a fantastic references. The CIA book is great because it talks about how things are generally done in a modern, professional kitchen and the basic recipes used for standard dishes.

The Escoffier is great because he's one of the gurus of the early 20th century and, being French, had a fairly traditional approach about food although he had also revised many 19th, fussy recipes, into more simple, doable dishes for modern life.

Thank God for the flea market! Or I wouldn't have nearly the collection I do.

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It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

LOL! Boy, we should all get together and start a cookbook library!

Like so many of you, I have TONS of cookbooks. After all, when food is an obsession - you indulge in the how-to's and why-for's of your favorite subject!

One I've had for years and years is called "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?" It has everything from how to boil an egg to basic brownies to how to sprinkle a shirt for ironing!

I also have a complete set of Women's Day Enclopedia of Cooking - 23 volumes including the index volume. If I want to know about Creole cooking or how to make fried zucchini - I go to those books first. I bet I've had 'em at least 25 years now!

Of the low-carb cookbooks I've gotten so far, I really like Dana Carpender's, as much for her writing style and sense of humor as the recipes.

Char

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Veni, vidi, velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.

Save the Earth - it's the only planet with CHOCOLATE!

You know, I only have like 2-3 lc cookbooks!

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It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

ATKINS BEST RECIPES (big magazine size softback) because it has gorgeous pictures (although i havent made ONE thing in it..(daughter1 made the cheese cake once)

EMERIL'S TV DINNERS because i love to watch him..*L* little sister sent me the book..
(havent made anything in IT either)

finally... THE WALDEN HOUSE RECIPE COLLECTION a caring book
because it is dedicated to those whose lives have been touched by cancer... and we got it when mom was having radiation

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kims SECOND journal is HERE
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