The Most Useful Cookery Books Ever?

I have three that i turn to time and again
Delia
Mary Berry (simpler and lighter than Delia)
Good Housekeeping - my first ever cookbook in the 1970s

i'm surprised no one has mentioned the complete tightwad's gazette yet!

the univeral recipes (muffins, quiche etc) are brilliant because they allow you to make things using whatever you have. i also make cakes and muffins using the universal muffin recipe, i just double the recipe and put it in a different shaped baking tin you can use ANY type of grain and know how to adjust your recipe's other ingredients accordingly, if you're a big baker that recipe alone makes it worth it but the entire book has loads of really good very frugal recipes plus it's full of motivational OS activities!

if you don't know much about cooking then i would recommend the complete hamlyn as it has a very large section on darn near every cooking technique plus info on cuts of meat etc etc but the recipes are expensive, fiddly and don't adapt to substitutions very well, i keep it merely for reference

if you're like me and like making your own chutney, jam and other very traditional type foods then i'd recommend the following books

Sonia Allisons book of preserving

Sloe Gin and Beeswax

the country store

also, if you can find them in charity shops i would highly recommend any of marguerite patten's perfect cooking series of magazine like cookbooks. they were done on themes and include some very very useful info like cooking temps and how too's of aga's, what parts of an animal make up what cuts etc

i also have her 3 book set of war time recipes which is pretty good for eking things out and you could of course use the recipes as a basis without having to go to such extremes

for specialty type cooking i recommend:

Mary Bell's complete dehydrator cookbook
she's got brilliant ideas in here for all kinds of things i'd never dream of! everything i've tried is fantastic so if you have a dehydrator you may want to buy one, i can't recommend it highly enough!

The Lowfat Cookbook Sue Kreitzman i'm not a big one on low fat but i try to cut back in some areas so i can enjoy the fatty things i'm not willing to give up. her bean dip is fantastic!

bread machine jennie shapter (also known as the ultimate bread machine cookbook) some of the recipes in here are amazing! you can make darn near anything made with dough, can't recommend it highly enough even if you don't like the way breadmaker bread comes out (i can't stand it cooked in the machine) if your breadmachine has a dough setting you can use these recipes then put the bread in your oven instead... mmmmmmmm

and finally!
New recipes for your Slo-Cooker Annette Yates

i worried that the recipes would be boring soups but i've been pleasantly surprised with what i've tried so far (i've only had it a week) the morrocan chicken is not be missed and will become a common feature in my meal plan from here on out!