Best cookbook?

Question

I'm looking for a good, neigh, the BEST cookbook for Christmas and i need some reccomendations seeing as i have no idea where to start looking. Thanks!

Answer 1

You don't say what kind of cooking you're looking to find a book about, so I'll list a few of my favorites:

For general American cooking, I love the Editors at Cooks Illustrated cookbooks, like "The Best Recipe." Cook's Illustrated Magazine is like the Consumer Reports of cooking. They don't accept advertisements and make dozens of versions of each recipe as they determine the best way to make all the basics. They carefully illustrate steps and techniques and explain not just the how but the why behind each recipe's development. The recipes are truly foolproof, because they're so completely tested.

Mark Bittman is also a really terrific cookbook author. He's great at taking gourmet food and making it accessible to a home kitchen. "The Minimalist Cooks At Home," "How To Cook Everything," "Fish" and "Simple to Spectacular" are staples in both my and several of my friends' kitchens. "Simple to Spectacular" uses a pretty interesting premise, with great success (IMO): a basic recipe with very few ingredients is offered, followed by formulas for four increasingly sophisticated (though not necessarily more difficult) variations.

For gourmet cuisine, the cookbook I turn to the most, hands down, is Jean-Georges Vongerichten's "Simple Cuisine." A close second (as long as you have plenty of time to spend in the kitchen -- these recipes are delicious, but not quick) is Norman Van Aken's "New World Cuisine" (Van Aken was one of Charlie Trotter's mentors).

Answer 2

The best you'll ever find is in a used book store, the older the better, cookbook that is, any of the old cookbooks are right on the money and don't have all the fo-fo in them, if the pages have some stains, the better, that books been used. I've even found secret recipes stashed in a few, just like Christmas to me

Answer 3

What choice would be BEST depends a lot on who you are giving the book to. A younger, inexperienced cook would appreciate the simplicity of the "Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook" - it has a lot of pictures and easy to follow recipes. If your gift is for someone who already knows a lot about cooking, then an all-purpose and in-depth choice is the "Joy of Cooking". Or, the person might want some more specialized focus if they have a strong interest in one type of food (like a certain ethnic food or a style of cooking like baking or grilling, or a particular ingredient like fish or vegetables)

Good luck picking out the book. A place like Borders or Barnes and Nobel would have a large selection of cookbooks to choose from. E-mail me if you want more suggestions (I have over 175 cookbooks in my collection)

Answer 4

The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Great recipes!

Answer 5

A second for the Joy of Cooking, and also a vote for the Fannie Farmer cookbook. A lot of good information and recipes are in these books.

Answer 6

Mastering the Art Of French Cooking volumes one and two. they pretty much have everything with fantastic explainations and beautiful hand drawn illustrations. Joy of cooking is fairly informative as well but the recipies can be a little tedious to follow(just my opinion).

Answer 7

My mom has always used her 1972 Better homes and gardens book. She recently bought me a copy and I hugged her. It is really good and there is a new "Classic" edition available now.

I also have the Betty Crocker cook book

Either one is a really good basic book with a bit of everything

Answer 8

The best cookbook is in your mind.

Answer 9

The Joy of Cooking. It has good basic instruction, interesting menus and some pretty good recipes.

Answer 10

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.