Most-referenced Cookbook?

[Neecy]

Mine is probably Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells...the French Onion Soup recipe alone is worth the price of the book (she roasts the onions in the oven with butter and white wine rather than braising them on the stove, and uses chicken rather than beef stock).

Great basic French bistro food.

[Beaverhausen]

1. I love the Moosewood Cookbook and I have another I love

called the American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook. Has tons of great breakfast/brunch recipes as well as all other meals.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558530649/qid=1100306114/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/002-1593164-1177646

[doni_georgia]

21. I use Moosewood, The New Basics, and Laurel's Bread Book

most often.

[cally]

2. Joy of Cooking

I've used this cookbook endlessly.

[wryter2000]

3. Oh my, yes

That's my encyclopedia. Also The Fannie Farmer Cookbook for American food.

[The empressof all]

4. Yes Joy of Cooking is the Bible of Foodies

It gives you a great foundation to branch off anywhere you want to go.

[Willy Lee]

41. Joy for me too! eom

[FuzzySlippers]

42. Definitely the Joy of Cooking.

I learned to cook from the old edition, and I love the new edition.
The one indispensible cookbook, IMO.

[Eurobabe]

46. I got mine in 1979 and never looked back

I know I can always trust the recipes in there. But I do go online alot for recipes.

[marlakay]

5. I go to allreceipes.com and just put in search engine

what I feel like cooking and read the reviews for extra tips on how to cook it. I made a great stuffed chicken breast and manderin orange and almond salad a few nights ago.

I have lots of cook books but the directions are so dry they don't really say how to make it great. I like the reviews and added tips online of people who tried a receipe and found it needed a little more or less of something.

[wildeyed]

16. I like that site, too.

The reviews are a great feature.

[lpbk2713]

6. Been using the Fannie Farmer cookbook for years.

Gives a lot of basics in addition to hundreds of recipes.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. The OLD Fannie Farmer cookbook is still the one I refer to

most. The cover fell off mine about twenty years ago and the pages are starting to crumble at the edges but it's a great reference. I need to be sure I have copied out the recipes I use most, things like Banana Nut Bread, Cornbread (my grown daughter says I make the World's Best Cornbread with that recipe), Chocolate Souffle, the receipe for Pizza Crust (her directions on making the pizza are weird but the crust recipe is excellent.)

And if you ever have a yen to make Mock Turtle Soup (requires an entire calf's head), she's got the recipe for you!

[lpbk2713]

13. Likewise

My cover is long gone. The pages aren't as easy to read as they once were because they are so brown.

[Philostopher]

14. I have an intermediate one.

I think it's a revision from the sixties, as well as an early eighties version that someone gave me when I got married the first time. My mother has one of the original Boston Cooking School ones, she gave me the one from the sixties to use because she didn't like it -- and I hardly use the one from the eighties because I like the older one better, myself, so I don't blame her!

Wish they'd put out some kind of re-issue of the older one or ones. I know how to cook most everyday things, I don't mind somewhat less 'dietetically correct' recipes that call for more butter, that sort of thing, if I'm going to the book -- if I'm doing that, it means it's a special occasion and I want it to be special.

[helnwhls]

7. Joy of Cooking

I own 2 Joys, one from 1974 and one from 1997. I love them both. The older one is actually better. The recipes are easier to follow. The new one put me off at first, but I have learned to ignore the pretenious crap and get to the useful bits. The newest joy assumes you have all sorts of gadgets. The older book does not.

My mom has an even older Joy that she must have been given in the early 50s. I learned to cook from that book. It is interesting to read them and compare recipes and comments. They are so useful.

As mom taught me, if you can read you can cook. If you can read you can do anything!

[flamingyouth]

8. Joy of Cooking & Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison

Both are excellent, and I consult them all the time.

[lakemonster11]

35. Those are both great cookbooks.

[supernova]

9. Ladies Home Companion Cookbook

published in 1910. I love this book! It's more of a short recipe index. However, it has the seeds of just about any type of European recipe you can name.

Whenever I'm researching a dish to try, I look in this book first.

It was handed down to me from my grandfather through my mother. It as all their notes and scribblings in the margins. And it's got my favorite brownie and fudge recipes. I learned to cook with it as a child. :D

[kayell]

10. This season so far - Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking

but I have a lot of cookbooks and shuffle around all the time.

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. New Basics, baby.

I adore this cookbook. I usually don't like those with no photos, but I make an exception here.

It was the first cookbook I ever bought as a single girl. And everything I ever make from it has people clamoring for the recipe. They're labor-intensive, but I really enjoy the process of cooking. Although I'm self-taught, I've learned a lot from it!

I also enjoy Stephan Pyles' New Tastes from Texas. His Heaven and Hell cake is to die for. As is everything else he does.

FSC

[wildeyed]

15. Joy of Cooking is the old stand-by.

I like the new edition much better than the old. Flame away, lol!

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a new one I have been using allot. I would likely give this to a new cook over Joy. It is somehow easier to follow.

Adore Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin. Simple everyday recipes, fast and easy to make. When I first got the book out of the library, I didn't think it would be anything special. I made a few recipes, quickly bought my own edition and have been using it weekly ever since.

[peacefreak]

34. Jeanne Lemlin rocks.

My copy is stained & splattered. High complment for cookbooks. Her Fettuccine Margherita & Fettuccine with Asparagus in Lemon Sauce are two of my all time favorite recipes.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. "The Way To Cook" by Julia, and the Escoffier, and "Sauces" by Peterson

The Way To Cook is way, way, way ahead of all the cookbooks I have, though the Escoffier and Peterson books are closing gaps (esp. since I bought Julia's book when it came out, in 1990 or so, and just bought the other two this year)

[Kipepeo]

18. The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook

by Murdoch Books?

[ironflange]

19. The JOC, of course

But also the "Women of Unifarm Cookbook," an Alberta publication, nothing but page after page after page of good ol' farm kitchen recipes.

[ulysses]

20. Fannie Farmer

I don't use cookbooks too often except for ideas, but I rely on the FF for baking.

[SoCalDem]

22. I actually collect cookbooks, but rarely use them

:)

[Blue Gardener]

29. I have quite a few myself

Keep running out of shelf space, but I buy more anyway. I started collecting those monthly Pillsbury cookbooks years ago and now I have hundreds. I should just pick out the few I actually use occasionally and box the rest up. They are taking up way too much room.

[bearfan454]

47. Do you have any of these ?

[Blue Gardener]

50. Wow, those are some old ones

I haven't been collecting them for THAT many years. I should dig through them all and find the oldest one. I really have no idea when I started, but I know I sure have a lot. Just picked up a new one today with ways to used the cookie dough in a tube.

[hyphenate]

23. My main cookbook for many years

is my Fanny Farmer cookbook. I bought it in hardcover once upon a time when it was $25, which is, I think, the most I ever spent on any book (at least until more recently!). My second favorite is the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, with the red and white plaid cover. I have WAY too many cookbooks, I think. Another one I use when I'm baking is a cookie/brownies/dessert specialty book (I can't find it right now) called 365 Recipes for Cookies. It has an internal spiral spine so you can lay it flat when you're cooking. I use it around this time of year mostly for making cookies and other baked goods for Christmas presents.

[franmarz]

24. Most favorite cook book

I use the Southern Living recipes, but mostly, I got a computer for the first time in order to put down all the family recipes.

I have them from my mothers side, old farm recipes from early days, and many from my husbands family, from Spain. Together, I have amassed a great many quality recipes, and pick up new ones sometimes when we visit the family in Barcelona.

I rely on the old basic BETTER HOMES COOKBOOK for basics.

[The empressof all]

25. Settlement Cookbook

This is an old classic that I learned to cook by.

[Fridays Child]

45. Yep. That's the one.

:)

[ocean girl]

26. The Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

I love all their cookbooks - I have always had success with ALL of their recipes. I like the fact that they cook 50 different Pound Cake recipes to find the best one. I also subscribe to their website and can search for any recipe, print it out, tape it up on the kitchen cabinet and cook away!

I also love Moosewood and Joy, of course.

[morningglory]

27. Cross Creek Cookery, by Margorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Have my grandmother's first edition.

[Blue Gardener]

28. Old Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks

I've had them for many years and still need to refer back to them once in awhile.

[DrZeeLit]

36. Used my Better Homes (red plaid cover) yesterday -- Sunday waffles!

I've had this thing for 35 years.
My mom had one when we were kids and she probably still has it.

I have many other cookbooks.

Second best fav: Silver Palette Good Times Cookbook.

[comsymp]

37. BH&G is our Family Bible

Third Generation user-

I have a shelf full but that is definitely the one which sees the most use.

[Blue Gardener]

51. My Mom gave me mine when I was still in high school

Which has been more than a few years ago. It now has sentimental value as well since she passed away a few years ago. Those old cookbooks are the best.

[Love Bug]

39. Yep on the Betty Crocker

I have two-- one published about 25 years ago and the most recent version. I refer to them both. Good basic recipes for American food.

[yellowdogintexas]

30. I am a collector too, but my best stuff is from organizational books

You know, the "____ County HomeMakers", Junior League of _____
kind that are sold for fundraisers.

They are my most worn, dirtiest, most referred to cook books of all.

when given the chance to contribute to such a cookbook, I usually submit all the neat new stuff I have received from friends or cut out of magazines that I am afraid I am going to lose.

I have JOy, Julia, Silver Palate, Moosewood, some Southern Living
Time Life series and countless more. I could cook a different dish every day for the rest of my life and not repeat myself.

[Blue Gardener]

31. I have some of those to

They are great. Helped put one together at my workplace a couple of years ago. It was a lot of work, but I got a lot of great recipes out of the deal.

[The empressof all]

32. At this time of the year---I'm a little ashamed to admit

But I will use recipes from - The Child Molester-Frugal Gourmets Christmas Cookbook.

[Love Bug]

40. I could be mistaken but I believe his accusers recanted

Unfortunately, the Frugal Gourmet's reputation was ruined for all time anyway. I have a few of his cookbooks, too.

[opiate69]

33. "The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia"

Published by Barnes & Noble books.. I found this at the local B&N last year, in the bargain bin. Cost me $10, and has over 300 recipes with photos, plus about 125 pages of encyclopedia detailing every possible ingredient you'd find in just about any italian kitchen. Without a doubt, the best $10 I've ever spent.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=692TYpNApo&isbn=0754802418&itm=5

[La Lioness Priyanka]

38. mark bittman

how to cook everything

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

43. same here!

although I have a pretty good library of cookbooks, this one lets me find all the basic 'how to's' of any given recipe and then I can take it from there!

[tishaLA]

52. That's my favorite too

It's like Joy of Cooking but modern and smarter. I also like his Minimalist cookbooks.

The Dean and DeLuca Cookbook is right up there too.

[SouthPasadenaDem]

44. The Way to Cook (Julia Child)

and if you can get your hands on one, grab it - I swear by this one -

"Loaves and Fishes" by Anna Pump.

If there's a bad recipie in this one, I can't find it.

[Frogtutor]

48. I'm really into convenience, speed and ease...my faves are

101 Things To Do With A Slow Cooker by Stepanie Ashcraft and Janet Eyring

and

The Four Ingredient Cookbooks (The compilation of their 3 books) by Linda Coffee and Emily Cale

Frogtutor

[MoonWomyn]

49. Vegetariana

also the other Nava Atlas cookbooks. great recipes with stuff I usually have at home (and that my daughter would eat) and lots of fun tidbits in the margins.

Cyndi

[Rabrrrrrr]

53. Is there really no one who uses the Escoffier book?

I saw a couple of Julia Child's The Way To Cook here.

I'm surprised, though, about no one using Escoffier. Not that I would expect a lot, but considering the cooking talents of DUers, I really figured there'd be some others.