do you use your older cookbooks, or your more recent ones, more?

Gingernutmeg

I have far, far, far too many cookbooks ...:o But the ones I use the most are good basic ones - Elizabeth David's 'English Bread and Yeast Cookery', Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book, a Good Housekeeping baking one, and a GH preserves book. I like Tamasin Day Lewis' Kitchen Bible too. I love Nigel Slater too, and have got lots of his books, and Nigella Lawson. Delia's Christmas book is a must , and I love Claudia Roden's books too.

greenbee

I use a combination of old and new... I've gone off Delia recently, although do still use her Complete Cookery Course and Cake book occasionally. I've got my grandma's copy of the Pauper's cookbook (although I'm selective... some of the recipes/ingredients are frankly scary!), Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake, Claudia Roden for Middle Eastern food, Marcella Hazan for Italian, lots of Nigella (although I tend to use her recipes for ideas, or make them once, then improvise around them), Nigel Slater's Appetite which I use all the time - it's a cook book not a recipe book, doesn't patronise you, and I like the way that it gives you so many variations. I've given it to loads of people who don't/can't cook as it's great for beginners.

Triker - you don't need new cookbooks, you're kitchen's still in bits... :rotfl:

Triker

greenbee wrote: »

I use a combination of old and new... I've gone off Delia recently, although do still use her Complete Cookery Course and Cake book occasionally. I've got my grandma's copy of the Pauper's cookbook (although I'm selective... some of the recipes/ingredients are frankly scary!), Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake, Claudia Roden for Middle Eastern food, Marcella Hazan for Italian, lots of Nigella (although I tend to use her recipes for ideas, or make them once, then improvise around them), Nigel Slater's Appetite which I use all the time - it's a cook book not a recipe book, doesn't patronise you, and I like the way that it gives you so many variations. I've given it to loads of people who don't/can't cook as it's great for beginners.

Triker - you don't need new cookbooks, you're kitchen's still in bits... :rotfl:

Shhhhhhhhh Father Christmas may INSIST that I have one or two hundred more books.

Love charity shops, just got hold of a copy of Modern Cookery Illustrated by Lydia Chatterton which looks like it's never been read, printed in 1946.:D

Recipe for Giblet Soup

1 set chicken, duck or Game giblets
1/4 lb gravy beef
1 slice lean ham
sprig of parsley thyme and marjoram
1 onion
2 cloves
1oz butter
1 heaped dsp flour
1 quart water
salt and pepper
1 dsp tomato catsup
1 oz dripping

Bring slowly to boiling point and simmer for hour and half.

I've only posted a bit so as not to breach copyright.


I love reading stuff like this, just shows that soup could be made from anything, though I suspect that after that much boiling the giblets would taste like bits of old leather.:rotfl:


Also got Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, excellent book.;)

Gingernutmeg

Triker wrote: »

Also got Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, excellent book.;)

That's another book I might just have a copy of lol. Have you read 'Good Things in England' by Florence White? That's another favourite of mine, and it's been reprinted in one of those lovely Persephone editions that are a joy to own (they've got really classy looking grey covers, and then the endpapers in every book are different, usually they're lovely vintage dress fabrics).

pennyocs

I have a very large well two very large shelves of cookbooks in my kitchen and the book i use most to actually cook from is a old battered, no cover on good housekeeping book that i bought myself at a jumble sale when i was about 9 im 36 now.
all the other books get looked at quite often but thats the one i always go back to.
my other favourite is one my mum bought me for xmas when i was about 12 also a good housekeeping book but its an encyclopedia of cooking i would love a new copy of that as my dog chewed it when it was a pup and its in tatters.

larmy16

There was a programme on t v recently (not sure what it was - may even have been the news) featuring a really old couple. The wife had just written a cookbook at the age of about 85 on using up leftovers. I did not catch the name nor did they mention what the book was called (not a lot of use am I :rolleyes:) but it sounded quite fascinating. If anyone knows what this book is called I would love to know! (not buying it though!)

competitionscafe

I use Nigel Slater the most - Kitchen Diaries and Appetite. I also use the Divertimenti Cookbook; Falling Cloudberries and the Books for Cooks series a lot as I know whatever I cook from those books it will be great.
I listed my favourites on a listmania list here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Top-15-favourite-cookbooks-how-to-cook-delicious-food/lm/R3APZD5BG7JZ9I/

Sometimes if I see something which looks nice (piece of fish, meat or whatever) I will buy it and then decide what to do with it when I get home and the books above are the ones I check the indexes of first for recipes.

After checking them out in Waterstones I have ordered Coast to Coast (Rick Stein) and the Leon cookbook half price at Waterstones online (with a 20% discount code) as they both had lots of recipes I would like to try.

recovering_spendaholic

I am a cookery book junkie and have an awful lot of them (over 200:o ). I too read them like novels and get ideas, rather than slavishly following the recipes. I have alot which I inherited from my Grandfather who was a head chef in the 1930's and some which date back to the turn of the century. The one cookery book I seem to use alot is one which I bought for 50p in a WH Smith sale in 1982 called the Washington Post book of favourite American recipes. It has the nicest brownie recipe I have ever tried, and also ones for boston baked beans and red flannel hash, both of which I make quite frequently. It is really dog eared now!

Triker

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

That's another book I might just have a copy of lol. Have you read 'Good Things in England' by Florence White? That's another favourite of mine, and it's been reprinted in one of those lovely Persephone editions that are a joy to own (they've got really classy looking grey covers, and then the endpapers in every book are different, usually they're lovely vintage dress fabrics).

Ooh I'll have to have a shufty, thanks for the info.:D

thriftlady_2

Good Things in England, Food in England, European Peasant Cookery, Farmhouse Coobook by Mary Norwak, all Elizabeth David, most of Jane Grigson - I have them all:D Don't have any Claudia Roden's at the moment, but might buy Middle Eastern Food with some of my birthday money.

Kittyscarlet -I absolutely adore Food In England -it is the one I would take to a desert island. I read it in bed. I've been borrowing it from the library since I was about 12. Beautiful writing, wonderful drawings and so interesting.

Persephone publish several cookbooks now. Plats du Jour is a good one if you like Elizabeth David -lovely illustrations.

I suppose you could divide my cookbook collection into 4 categories.

1) Classic, scholarly works about food such as I've just described. Used for reading rather than cooking from -but not always, I used Elizabeth David's mincemeat recipe this year (sort of).

2) Inspirational books. Shiny, new well-written books with gorgeous pictures (sometimes). Nigel, Nigella, Diana Henry, Ottolenghi, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, a couple of Jamie Olivers, the new Leon book (very unusual design).

3) Reference books -Delia's Complete Cookery Course, GH cookbook (1950s ed), GH Preserving book, Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake book, Muffins by Susan Reimer, Oxford Companion to Food.

4) Cheap and Cheerful -these are my frugal food books -More With Less, How to Feed Your Family on a Fiver, How to Feed Your Whole Family Healthy Food..., The Pauper's Cookbook (although this sort of goes in the other categories because of its writing and imaginative recipes).

I love them all:D