Your favourite cookbooks

competitionscafe

filigree wrote:

Can anyone else suggest their favourite cookbooks with economy in mind?

Try:

The Most Useful Cookery Books Ever?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=79359

What's the best cookery book you have?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=64867&highlight=slater

squeaky

There are several other threads in the Cooking section of the MEGA Index listed under "books"

molesworth

My favourite cookbook has to be The Pauper's Cookbook - I bought it just after getting married nearly 30 years ago and many recipes are family favourites. Anyone who has it probably cooks Onion, Bacon and Potato Hotpot; Pasta and Chickpea Salad; and the best Fish Pie recipe ever.

However, in defence of Delia - as people have pointed out her recipes always work. I value all her books. And she has written a book called "Frugal Food". First edition was published 1976 - it was the first time I'd ever heard of her - but there are later editions (I have a 1997 one, my first copy long disintegrated). This is what she says about cooking with wine: "I have discovered that a very good alternative to wine in the kitchen is dry cider. In fact I rarely use wine but I always have some dry cider handy for special dishes. I've experimented quite a lot and have found that a classic coq au vin or even beouf bourguignonne .... has turned out beautifully with dry cider."

I'd forgotten about this book, so I'm grateful to this thread for prompting me to dig it out! Ah yes, Braised Stuffed Hearts ... they were often Sunday lunch for DH and me. We had to stop that once the children were old enough to realise what they were eating.

I agree with Delia and buy only free range eggs/chicken too but that is personal choice, of course. Same goes for the pork/bacon. It is a dilemma when you are on a budget, I know.

emr_2

Ah! Onion, Bacon and Potato Hotpot from Pauper's cookbook!
And Delia's lovely toffee fruit loaf!- "Frugal Food".

Would anyone have ideas on how to feed a mob for not a lot?
my best ideas:
A huge SC of soup (this week's included a celeriac, for the first time of trying one. it was good in the soup! added a bit of celery salt for seasoning too.) Bread. HM or fancy bread bought reduced and refreshed in the oven.

Baked potatoes; the usual various fillings

pasta bake with whatever is cheap - mushrooms; tomatoes; spring onions; cheese sauce; small amounts of ham; chicken; fish;

Apple Crumble; & ice cream;
Sponge & custard;
other old fashioned puds.

Would love to read your ideas!

squeaky

Hiya

If you look in the Cooking section of the MEGA Index sticky you'll find some threads listed under "Challenges" which will give you plenty of ideas.

Iguana

Georgina Horley, 'Good Food on a Budget', don't know if its in print, my last copy came from a charity shop; I wore out two copies before that.
Recipes are based on available seasonal food; it has a calender of when seasonal food is at its best and chapters are monthly collections of recipes using what is in season.

superscotsman

Austin_Allegro wrote:

I'm not much of a cook but my favourite book is called 'We'll Eat Again' and is a book of wartime recipes. I also have one my sister gave me as a joke, called 'Plain Cookery For the Working Classes' from about 1870, it's got recipes on how to feed a family for a week on gruel etc. :eek:

Yes, we have a copy of the 1870s book by Charles Elme Francatelli, former chef to Queen Victoria. It kept us going through the years of abject poverty in the 1980s, during the reign of Margaret Victorian Values Thatcher. Some of the stuff in it is magnificent.Thick milk for breakfast. Who would have thought of it nowadays?

jordylass

Could anyone with Nigella's Domestic Goddess please give me the recipe for her frangipane mince pies, I made them last weekend and we all loved them, I promised I'd make them again today and now I can't find the recipe. I just need the ingredients list for the almond pastry.

kiwichick

My personal fave is the Edmonds Cookbook from NZ. Its where all the fudge recipes come from.

thriftlady_2

I've got a bit of a cookbook habit and have been through all the Nigel Slaters, Nigella Lawsons and Jamie Olivers - I'm a real sucker for them.

The ones I actually use though are;
More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre - this is available on Amazon and I can't recommend it enough.Its full of cheap, easy and good recipes with a thought provoking introduction which looks at how much we in the west overconsume.Its American so get yourself a set of US cup measures.

Feed Your Family for £5 a Day by Bernadine Lawrence - Yes, there is a lot of wholemeal pastry in it but luckily its cheaper made with white flour! This is still an excellent little book.

The Wartime Kitchen by Marguerite Patten - This is actually a box set of her three books;We'll Eat Again, The Victory Cookbook and Postwar Kitchen.I love these for their frugal recipes especially the egg-free cake and puddings for my egg allergic daughter -the eggless chocolate buns are a lifesaver. I also have a bit of an obsession with wartime rations and food.

The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes - This has recently been reprinted as an amalgam of the original 1971 edition and the 1992 and is much better than the 1992 version - more offal!The best recipe has to be Potato, Bacon and Onion Hotpot,absolutely delicious, oh,and try it with smoked mackerel in place of bacon.

:santa2: