primitives discuss cookbooks

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x51349

Oh my.

Ellen Forradalom  (1000+ posts)        Sun Dec-14-08 09:08 PM
Original message
 
Which one basic reference cookbook is the must-have?

Is the Joy of Cooking still on the top of the heap, or has it been supplanted by a superior volume?

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-15-08 01:16 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. I never liked that one

I preferred The Doubleday Cookbook. I've never found a bad recipe in it and the calorie counts are great.

The foodie bible is Larousse Gastronomique. I read that one the way sensible people read novels.

The bread bible is Crust and Crumb. The general baking book is The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Baking Book.

Just those 4 books will allow you to cook just about everything, even some ethnic stuff.

I dunno.  Most cookbooks I've seen in other people's houses are just sitting there, looking pretty.  They aren't actually used, but the inhabitant apparently wishes others to think he or she's into cooking.

My favorite cookbook is the directions on the side of the box.

[Thor]

I have quite a few cookbooks that were passed down from my mom. I used to use them all of the time. My wife didn't like having them out and around, so they got stuck away in a box in the basement. I did grab them when I was asked to leave my wife's presence last Christmas. They are now over in storage. I would like to get them. but I wouldn't use them all that much as my mom, my grandma have taught me to cook pretty well.

[Wineslob]

I dunno. Most cookbooks I've seen in other people's houses are just sitting there, looking pretty.  They aren't actually used, but the inhabitant apparently wishes others to think he or she's into cooking.

Most of mine are stained from use. I'd have to say the old Betty Crocker that I have (ring bound and missing pages) is about the best. After that is what would be a "coffee table" cookbook of Italian cooking. It's trashed.

My favorite cookbook is the directions on the side of the box.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Charleston receipts

There are none better..............well maybe, but their books have everything ever needed by me...................... sometimes it also is better than the side of the box, though not always.

The primitives are full of shit anyway

[rich_t]

Most of mine are stained from use. I'd have to say the old Betty Crocker that I have (ring bound and missing pages) is about the best. After that is what would be a "coffee table" cookbook of Italian cooking. It's trashed.



 

We still have a copy of that old Betty Crocker book too... and it still gets used on occassion.

[debk]

Most of mine are stained from use. I'd have to say the old Betty Crocker that I have (ring bound and missing pages) is about the best.

 

I have this one too!!! I learned to cook from it. My sticky buns and Christmas coffee cake are in this book (the one that looks like a candy cane).

I also use the Joy of Cooking when I'm looking for information, though I don't make anything in it.

I have Charleston Receipts and they are great.

I collect cookbooks and have a couple hundred now....I've given them away several times and it was pointed out to me recently by the other half that I need to do a "clean out"....

I do really like my Southern Living Cookbooks. And Paula Deen's.

I tend to buy local cookbooks when I go some place new. That's my souvenier rather than a t-shirt or something. I like to read them. 

[bijou]

I have this one too!!! I learned to cook from it. My sticky buns and Christmas coffee cake are in this book (the one that looks like a candy cane).

I also use the Joy of Cooking when I'm looking for information, though I don't make anything in it.

I have Charleston Receipts and they are great.

I collect cookbooks and have a couple hundred now....I've given them away several times and it was pointed out to me recently by the other half that I need to do a "clean out"....

I do really like my Southern Living Cookbooks. And Paula Deen's.

I tend to buy local cookbooks when I go some place new. That's my souvenier rather than a t-shirt or something. I like to read them. 

I do that too. I also like to get old cookbooks at second hand shops just to browse, although sometimes there are good recipes to be found too. I probably do have too many but I can always find room for a quality cookbook.

[franksolich]

We still have a copy of that old Betty Crocker book too... and it still gets used on occassion.

I have my mother's Betty Crocker cookbook, from the late 1940s, before my time.

By the time it was my time, the book was already considerably splattered and the pages mixed up.

It is a three-ring sort of deal.

It's in the family archives; so as to preserve it better, in the late 1980s I took it apart, unbent any folds in the pages, and put the individual pages into plastic page-protectors, and stored the cover (minus the pages) flat.

Normally, I suppose, if one wishes an ancient Betty Crocker cookbook, one can find one at bookstores or antique stores, but my mother made significant hand-written notations on many of the pages, and that's what I try to preserve.

Oddly, I have no memories of my mother using it, but apparently she used it.

Once in a while--it's happened about half a dozen times the past five years--an ancient around here will give me an ancient cookbook, usually an old pamphlet of some sort, in decrepit condition, because my curiosity about food of yore is well-known.

The last time, I made oatmeal cookies using a recipe that had won the purple ribbon at the Keya Paha County Fair of 1906.  It was difficult finding some of the ingredients (lard, baking soda, alcohol-laced vanilla), but I didn't want to substitute.  I wanted to see what food actually tasted like back then.

It was okay, but it's cheaper and easier and quicker just to pick up a package of cookies at the grocery store.

[Wineslob]

Once in a while--it's happened about half a dozen times the past five years--an ancient around here will give me an ancient cookbook, usually an old pamphlet of some sort, in decrepit condition, because my curiosity about food of yore is well-known

.

Frank, I have a cookbook thats, ahhh, about as un-PC as you can get (deals with killing and eating odd African beasts and other oddities). I'll try to find the thing and post the title.
There's another book I read where the author wanted to re-create a feast of epic proportions, based on a cookbook from the turn of the century. I'll find that too.

[debk]

Does anyone have any of the Colonial Williamsburg cookbooks? They are good for sticking close to original recipes with easier to find ingredients. I also have a cookbook from the Virginia Tidewater area that is over 30 years old that's a great cookbook!

I, too, write in mine. 

I'm pretty good about following recipes to the letter when baking, because that's chemistry. But on most other stuff....I alter the recipes alot. I'm also a terrible measurer in anything but baking.

Hey Frank....pure vanilla extract is alcohol based....and can be bought at most any grocery store. Imitation vanilla is just that....fake. In place of lard...use solid Crisco...I prefer the butter flavored. I only use real butter when cooking/baking too.....never margarine.

If you buy the original Quaker Oats oatmeal - not the quick cooking oats or instant stuff - the original oatmeal cookie recipe is on the container. It's the best oatmeal cookie I have ever made. Particularly when chocolate chips or raisins are added.