What is your favorite cookbook?

[sekhmet]

Fanny Farmer.

Japanese Cooking - Winston. A very old battered edition that is simple straightforward and delicious.

I don't usually use a cookbook these days. I just kinda make stuff. Sometimes it tastes great. Sometimes it sucks. *shrug*

[iamjohnne]

As a main reference, The Joy of Cooking.

Better Homes and Gardens==the plaid one.

And all the Southern Living cookbooks.

And any body's church group cookbook. Those are real recipes that real people use.

I used to have one though that showed how to take store bought stuff and make it taste homemade.

Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cookbook was a favorite for a long time.

[Cornflake]

Daughter Sandra brought me a cookbook from Spain as a gift. It has some interesting recipes:

Jawbones
Calve's foot stew with vegetables
Oxtail
Boar in sauce
Black rice with squid ink

[sekhmet]

Black rice in squid ink. Yum! Yay Julia.

[Deleted]

I'm a big fan of The Ethical Gourmet, by Jay Weinstein, Broadway Books, 2006. It's loaded with all sorts of delicious recipes to prepare, with foods that are sustainable and replenishable. It lets you know what's on the endangered list, what's being over-fished in the oceans, what you can cook with instead, and stresses the importance and lower environmental impact of using locally-produced foods that aren't flown in from thousands of miles away. And it ain't just vegetables . . .

[epaul]

My favorite, by far, vegetarian cookbook is the "Moosewood" cafe cookbook.

Left to my own devices, Paul Prudhome is the ticket, but my wife is a vegitarian, and the Moosewood has a bunch of recipes that really are tasty (lots of baked casseroles). There are two or three cookbooks in the Moosewood series.

Paul

[Deleted]

When the cookbooks come out to shake off the boredom...

Any of the Moosewood cafe books...

The cookbook from The Grit in Athens, GA
www.thegrit.com/
(A really great place too, Southern cuisine, full of flavor, without the meat)

Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "Vegan with a Vengeance"

Joanne Stepaniak's "Vegan Deli"

We also subscribe to Cook's Illustrated and Cooking Light.

While neither of us are strict vegetarians (my wife is, mostly) we eat meat at home very rarely. The occasional fish or chicken, a seasonal roast...that's about it.

That said, this member of the family is a sucker for a good steak, a pastrami sandwich served up deli style, and a hearty plate of St. Louis style ribs...

But I've learned to crave Chana Masala, a tempeh Reuben, tofu scrambles, and other less-than-meaty treats too.

[timfarney]

"How To Cook Without a Book." Yeah, it does have recipes, but they are really just exercises used to learn techniques that set you free from recipes.

Tim

[Doug]

[Deleted]

i use the net quite a bit. that and experimentation. i've only made one meal that didn't go down well. and that was duck in whiskey and orange sauce. and i was the only person who didn't like it.

i've never thought of buying a book of recipes. maybe i will.

[godotwaits]

Jean Anderson's "Doubleday Cookbook" for best all around. I do have Julia hanging around as well.

[Greg B]

I should say that the books that got me into cooking many years ago were Jeff Smith's "Frugal Gourmet". Say what you will about his personal failings, but he did inspire a lot of people to cook.

[Cornflake]

Agreed on the Frugal Gourmet. I still use those regularly.

[Deleted]

is it true that there's a restaurant (i use that term loosely) that cooks roadkill that you've brought in? i believe it's in wisconsin.