Others of which I don't use at all.
I have a couple of the Cooks Illustrated books, which I have mixed opinions. Their "there is one best way to cook something" is crap. There are frequently multiple ways to make something, some better than others. I once made their version of macaroni and cheese, and the rest of the family told me never to make it that way again -- the way I do it is make a beschamel to which I add grated cheddar, grated parmesan (and when I say "parmesan", I mean Parmigano-Reggiano) and a couple squirts of tabasco. I put cooked pasta -- elbows, penne, cavatappi or something similar -- and the sauce, topped by panko into a casserole dish, and cook it for half an hour in a 350°F oven. Cooks Illustrated says this can be grainy, and it can, but my family says "So what?"
Cookbooks I like:
Julia Child's The Way to Cook. My only real complaint is that she seems to be cooking for an army; her recipe for Prime Rib is 12-16 servings. I also have both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is really good on technique.
The first cookbook I ever owned, a gift from my parents, was Elizabeth Campbell's Encyclopedia of World Cookery. She is very good on British cooking, decent on American and Australian cooking, but is clueless on a lot of other cuisines. For example, her recipe for risotto calls for basmati rice.
The first cookbook I bought for myself (circa 1970) was Robert Farrar Capon's The Supper of the Lamb, which is a lot of fun to read. I particularly like his chapter on cooking with wine, in which he takes on Christian teetotalers. "I look forward to an apocalypse in which the great whore of Babylon will be given the cup of ginger ale of the fierceness of the wrath of God." This is more a collection of essays on cooking rather than a collection of recipes.
I have Fanny Farmer, of course. My mother-in-law, who learned to cook just after WWII, gave me a copy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. When I saw a recipe for trifle which started with an 8-ounce package of instant vanilla pudding, I knew it was written by philistines. I would describe myself as an Anglican, or moderately High Church, cook.
I have a book by Andre Simon on my shelf, but he typifies the worst of old-style French cooking. Simon has a duck recipe which contains the instruction that, after roasting the duck, one should drain off the fat and replace it with "100 grams best unsalted butter." Really now!
I have 2 dozen books from Williams-Sonoma, and I have mixed feelings about them. Some of the recipes are very good, some call for rather exotic ingredients -- truffle butter, anyone? -- and some are just plain wrong. The recipe for Yorkshire Pudding in the Roasting book has a cup of flour, a cup of milk and three eggs. Ever hear the English expression "over-egging the pudding?" Well, if you follow this recipe, you will understand it. That amount of flour and milk calls for two eggs, not three.
I have spent quite a bit of time in Italy, and love Italian cooking -- which is quite different from Italian-American cooking. The four books I go to most often are Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, Loukie Werle's Italian Country Cooking -- Werle is Australian, but has a real feeling for what Italians call "la cucina povera", which is simple cooking at its best -- and Malu Simoes and Alberto Musacchio's The Vegeterranean (which I had to buy from Amazon in the UK). Malu and Alberto run a vegetarian hotel and restaurant near Perugia where my wife and I try to spend at least a few days every time we go to Italy. The riccota cannelloni with tomato sauce recipe is great. I also like their directions for making fresh pasta and the tomato sauce recipe. There is a recipe for ciabatta that is not ciabatta, but is a nice Italian bread. Ignore the sacertorte recipe. I have a number of other Italian cookbooks, including Cooks Illustrated Best Italian Classics, which is sometimes helpful, but all too often is just too much "my way or the highway" for me.
I have a number of books on making bread, and I really like Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible, which gives a lot of recipes for a single loaf of really good bread. She has her quirks, such as calling for King Arthur or Pillsbury flour only, which is just too precious. Beranbaum put out a previous book, The Cake Bible, that I really disliked. She has this thing about never greasing or flouring her cake pans which is simply stupid. She is thinking of the sort of cake baker who ordinarily uses fondant; I don't. She also had a recipe for a chocolate cake that she said was better than a sachertorte. It wasn't.
James Peterson's Vegetables is really good -- I made his braised brocolli with garlic and olive oil last night, to great applause from my family. It accompanied a meatloaf that I took from Ian Knauer's The Farm -- he suggests putting a couple strips of bacon and some chopped prunes into a food processor and pureeing them, which does wonders for the meatloaf (I can give the complete recipe if anyone asks).
There are others -- I have a four-shelf bookcase in the entrance to my kitchen, but those are ones I use regularly.
I am currently writing a book on pasta, and am looking for an agent.
= new reply since forum marked as read
