Your Favorite Cookbook and Why

Capt MJ

Capt MJ

Serviam.
15-Year Member
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Sep 27, 2008
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I’ll quote @flieger83 with his words from another forum where he was veering over the guard rails due to a hilarious mis-read by @Twins4us . Honor of the first content to Flieger83. I have to go get get it - wait out.

“Favorite cookbook and why...

Oh, that's a toughie...

Cooking with the Master Chef - Michel Roux Jr.
The French Revolution; 140 Classic Recipes made Fresh and Simple - Michel Roux Jr.
Monica's Kitchen: Exciting Home Cooking for All Occasions - Monica Galetti (Roux's sous chef)

These are some of mine, I'll wait to see CaptMJ's. It's tough because I have a BUNCH!!

FYI...Monica's cookbook wasn't too much when she published it; now it's stupidly expensive!”
 
Mine. Agreed, a toughie. I have “pretty” cookbooks, dog-eared cookbooks, mom’s cookbooks, clippings from newspaper Food pages, an online collective shared family cookbook, online saved recipes on Epicurious, old church cookbooks, Bon Appetit series cookbooks, single subject cookbooks (scones anyone?), specialty cookbooks, scribbled versions of stuff I’ve made up, and 3 fat binders of recipes I have downloaded, printed and put in sheet protectors.

But, top of head, top five I am particularly fond of:

- Gilroy Garlic Cookbooks, several, all bought at the annual garlic festival

- Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts

- Michel Richard’s “Happy in the Kitchen” when I’m feeling Master-Cheffy (huge book,needs its own photo)

- “Frederica Fare,” one of my mom’s ladies club cookbooks, very southern, with the best appetizers, desserts (the pound cakes! the chess pies!) and bbq sauce recipes. Along with old church cookbooks of hers. All from my coastal barrier island home town in GA.

- Joy of Cooking. Because if someone gives me armadillo cutlets, I am sure to find everything I need to know about them in this stained, torn, been through 18 PCS moves 1975 edition.

- Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbooks, several in the series.

Honorable Mention, my very first cookbook, falling to pieces, but I still use the French toast proportions. 61CD0CD6-35F8-48BA-B33B-AC231FD37EB4.jpeg
 
Thrill of the Grill

The Nashville Cookbook-Specialties of the Cumberland Region (Don’t go looking for it. It’s from the 70’s and published by the Nashville Area Home Economics Association)

White Trash Cooking-It is a bit of a novelty, but it’s real. i recognized some of the dishes from my childhood Church Basement, but the ladies who prepared them were not White Trash. I plan road trips around Cracker Barrels.
 
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I'm with the good Capt in some sense.

Joy of Cooking - i can find all the basics about anything there and many great recipes to boot. My marinades all come from that book.

Farm Journals Country Cookbook - Another book with lot's of good basics and country recipes. My NC farmer's daughter bride introduced me to this one.

Old church cookbooks that also belonged to my bride - I've never seen folks whip up dazzling appetizers, desserts, and just plain feasts in no time and out of nothing like those old church ladies. Our go to for neighborhood parties is cut up weiners cooked in a jar of grape jelly with a jar of French's mustard. Simple, ready in no time, and gets great reviews. When we really want to splurge we use little smokies.

Of course there are all those clipped and downloaded recipes. Google drive is now my recipe box.
Nobody can beat Julia Child's veal meatloaf recipe. Nobody.
 
Oh, there is a novelty cookbook I've never used, but my son does. Manifold Destiny. Its recipes you wrap up good in aluminum foil, strap to your manifold, and cook it on a trip. Cooking times are given in mileage. He swears by the hot Philly Cheesesteak.
 
I am a foodie and love to cook. And I am embarrassed to say I only have one. The Greek Orthodox Church of my late Godmother’s husband put out a recipe book. All of it Greek recipes from the old country. I haven’t tried many yet. I am spoiled with technology and use the internet and ideas from cooking shows.
I also use ideas I find here on the forum!!

Maybe I should add nice cookbooks to my Christmas list.
Edited to include a dog eared Joy of Cooking. Also, I grew up four hours from Gilroy and miss the smell of garlic and the fields of the best artichokes I have ever had. Small and tender. Not giant grocery store size and stringy. Sigh.
 
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Yes, I was on a collision course with the bottom of the cliff...forgot it was the USAFA forum...

Yep, some excellent choices there CaptMJ!!! I love anything related to Gilroy! Been there many times for the festival.

And yes, I have "The Joy of..." oh, wait...cooking...

Yep, that's what I have!

Steve
 
My favorite was a Christmas present when we were fairly newly married - Julia Child's The Way to Cook. I like to call it "The Way, the Truth and the Life."

Always felt a connection with Julia because her husband Paul and I were both Foreign Service Officers and we also lived in Paris plus Julia and I are/were both quite tall. Her autobiography My Life in France is one of my favorite books of all time.

You also have got to love the story of her making the big time in her 50's after years of housewifery after her premarital OSS stint in WWII. Julia was an American legend.
 
I do a lot of knock off recipes. So usually I just Google them and read the recipe and comments. Gives good tips about adjustments and tweaks. Usually turn out pretty solid. Or I watch a cooking show and decide I want to try and make whatever it is they are making.
 
I owned one cook book. It came with the microwave oven I bought at Sears in the 80's. The purchase came with four free cooking lessons given in the evening. The genteel home economist taught the group how to steam vegetables, cook a fish, and poach eggs and make a cake. I did some other meals from the microwave cookbook to experiment (I think it was a hot dog with cheese in a slit down the middle wrapped in bacon). DW had told me prior to arriving that she would never use it because she only saw friends heating water with it and that she could do that on a stove. Ten weeks later DW and kids arrived. I showed off my microwave prowess and was she ever amazed. She took to the microwave fast and has used it with her collection of recipes, cookbooks and Italian cooking magazines ever since. To this day if the microwave goes out for any reason, she's looking for a new one muy pronto. All because of my first cookbook.
 
flieger83 said:
Yes, I was on a collision course with the bottom of the cliff...forgot it was the USAFA forum...

Yep, some excellent choices there CaptMJ!!! I love anything related to Gilroy! Been there many times for the festival.

And yes, I have "The Joy of..." oh, wait...cooking...

Yep, that's what I have!

Steve
Click to expand...
Ooh subtle on what “Joy of” you have.
 
Fannie Farmer... I have rarely followed any recipe in that book to a T, but it always has the base formula and technique that I need.

Besides that, all my ethnic and family recipes come from my mom. I think passing the recipes down is a great tribute to our ancestors. I lost my mom just a year ago. I just made her golumpki (stuffed cabbage) recipe last night. I felt like she was with me. It was a good feeling.
 
NavyHoops said:
I do a lot of knock off recipes. So usually I just Google them and read the recipe and comments. Gives good tips about adjustments and tweaks. Usually turn out pretty solid. Or I watch a cooking show and decide I want to try and make whatever it is they are making.
Click to expand...
I do the same. Some version of a great idea I watched in a show
 
The Joy of Cooking is the only cookbook I own. The rest of it I either make up myself or use generations-old family recipes from "the old country".

Edit:
I forgot the "why"!
The Joy of Cooking has always had everything in it that I have had to look up, especially before there was an Internet.
 
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kinnem said:
Oh, there is a novelty cookbook I've never used, but my son does. Manifold Destiny. Its recipes you wrap up good in aluminum foil, strap to your manifold, and cook it on a trip. Cooking times are given in mileage. He swears by the hot Philly Cheesesteak.
Click to expand...
That would have been a fun cookbook as a kid. Any idea on the mileage conversion for electric :)? I have my 'boys' cookbook' with my mom's notes written near the ones she thought I could successfully cook after leaving home.

Google has definitely removed the need for a book, for sure. Just too easy to google a few recipes of the same dish and take just the ingredients I want from each and average the ratios and times.
 
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