Cookbooks and cooking resources

[AlohaDawg]

There have been some awesome threads through this topic over the past few weeks. I hope I'm not about to wreck it...

One thing I've noticed is that this board's membership cuts across a lot of demographic lines, and a massive cross section of cooking abilities and access to resources like time, reason to cook something memorable, money for quality groceries, etc. etc. Not to mention skill and knowledge in the kitchen.

This is a book which helped me a lot in terms of kitchen 'theory' (Even more than Alton Brown!)

The Culinary Institute of America

The only drawback of this veritable tome of cookery is that it's geared to the restaurant world so the quantities are pretty big. But every stock, classic sauce (and variations) and preparations for every kind of meat and vegetable can be found here. You can build a great vocabulary which will serve you well the next time a waiter tells you about a gastrique or compote. Desserts, soups, salads and even some beverages are here.

It'll school you, it'll rule you, but you will look like a Deity of Kitchenness when you use it.

[wombat]

In this context, one must mention the official cooking-nerd magazine of Achewood Manor, which is Cook's Illustrated:

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=02082002

I don't actually cook from it all that often, but I love to read about all the obsessive little variations on the recipes that they test.

[AugustWest]

I use that old standard, Joy of Cooking.  Problem is, I'm pretty much congenitally unable to follow recipes.  Cookbooks which cover techniques are helpful to me.  Lists of recipes aren't.

[Choop]

Two cookbooks that answer basically everything you can ask in a kitchen* are Julia Child's The Way To Cook and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food. Both of them teach not only loads of recipes, but the foundations behind the recipes ('basic recipe') and variations on the recipe. For example, Bittman's got a section on sauces, wherein you'll find a Basic Alfredo** immediately followed by like four simple variations on Alfredo sauce.

MrsChoop has like eighty cookbooks but usually only ever needs the Bittman. I like a few of Julia's writing techniques better than Bittman (though all of her recipes are also covered in the Bittman).

Again, regarding Bittman: with the exception of many fantastical confections, I have yet to stump this book with a recipe. Sure, he may not have a recipe for fried Spam, but I've never looked it up. We come home from restaurants and, the next day, we look up the recipes, and sure enough they're there -- probably simpler versions that don't taste quite the same, but that's why you go out to eat, after all: cook the easy dishes, pay for the really tough-to-make but really fuck*ng-awesome meals.

END RAMBLE

oh yeah, better explain those apostrophes:

*regarding food and its cooking and preparation, at least. you can ask about sex while you're in the kitchen and these books won't help you. but then, if you need to ask about sex, probably no book will help you.

**I know it was you, Basic Alfredo. You broke my heart.

[Bozack]

**I know it was you, Basic Alfredo. You broke my heart.

For some reason, I've got this huge lust to name one of my children "Basic Alfredo" now. Is that so wrong?
My brother and I are just starting to try to cook, so believe you me, all of these suggestions are being duly noted.

[wombat]

I also use the old Joy of Cooking as a reference frequently.  I am also unable to follow recipes (except in baking where you have to).  If I only change two or three things about a recipe I feel I am being very disciplined.  I tend to cook by looking up three or four different recipes and then combining what sounds good about them.  Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't, needless to say.

Choop's suggestions sound  interesting.  I would also have eighty cookbooks and only use two, except I have a strict rule against ever buying cookbooks.  This keeps the number down since I manage to break the rule only once or twice a year.

[AlohaDawg]

I, in fact, do have about 80 cookbooks. I love them. I usually actually read them once or twice. I don't often cook specific recipes from them anymore but I get a good sense of imitating specific cuisines and also using unusual ingredients. I love Bon Appetit.

J

[Carlos del Vaca]

I have an arseload of cookbooks too--not 80, probably more like 40.  I also have about seven years of Bon Appetit magazine, and that's what I cook from most often these days.  I use the search at www.epicurious.com to find recipes for whatever ingredients I want to use up, and then go pull the relevant issue off the shelf.

My favorite cookbook ever is "Real Beer and Good Eats" by Bruce Aidells (the sausage king) and Denis Kelly.  Lately I'm a big fan of Jane & Michael Stern's "Chili Nation."

[pmcd9]

I walked through the culinary section in the bookstore once.

~Paul

[wombat]

All those recipe web sites have probably helped me buy fewer cookbooks.  That thing where I have to look at four different recipes for anything is much easier with a web search.

But I think I need that Jane and Michael Stern book too.  You guys are not helping one bit with my the no-cookbook-buying rule.

[Carlos del Vaca]

"Chili Nation," for those who don't know, features a chili recipe from each of the 50 states and the District.  They include traditional regional specialities (Cincinnati chili, New Mexico green, Texas red), specific recipes from small-town restaurants (e.g. a chili from a local grocery store in some town in Kansas), and some that the Sterns make up to represent a given state (e.g. fried bologna chili for WV).  In general, the latter aren't as good, but so far I've only had one that I really, really didn't like.

I believe I have made 47 of the 51 chili recipes.  South Dakota is the best so far.

[wombat]

South Dakota!?

[V-Adore]

I have to wonder about the Nebraska chili. Bland enough for ya?

[Carlos del Vaca]

Actually, Nebraska's chili is a mild, barbecue-sauce infused chili, served over mac 'n' cheese.  Not blazing hot by any means, but comfort food, quite nice.

South Dakota's is a big ol' meat and bean concoction with lots of hot chili powder, as well as beer and Jack Daniels.  They say they picked up the recipe at the big SD biker rally.

[jay-ell]

I heartily agree with those who recommend Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and also applaud those who mentioned Epicurious as an invaluable resource.  I also subscribe to Bon Appetit (from which I often cook) and Cook's Illustrated (because it's impossible to make up decent recipes from scratch without understanding the chemistry of food).  But, I think Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks -- particularly the big red-and-white-check-covered volume -- are often underrated.  Sure, a lot of the recipes are things you probably learned how to make from your mother, but they go over a lot of the basics and contain a surprising variety of different types of cuisines.  They are also the most user-friendly of all my cookbooks: they include copious photographs, they include estimated prep and cooking times, all nutritional information is provided, and they serve as a reference for a lot of techniques that other cookbooks assume a competent chef would know (pitting mangoes, de-boning chicken, etc.)  This makes them excellent for beginners.  And the smaller, specialized cookbooks are quick and easy to thumb through when you're in the mood for something specific -- and cheaper than the comparable Williams-Sonoma cookbooks.  I often buy the BH&G New Cookbook (I think it's in the 12th edition now) for younger friends and relatives who are just getting their first apartments, but recommend Bittman's book to experienced chefs who are experimenting with new ingredients.