recipe book recommendations please

niklepic

My favourite is "Britain's favourite food" but what I'm waiting for is my mum's "Mrs Beeton's Everyday cookery". Extremely old and battered as it was my nan's. She said she'll leave it to me in her will but she's only 56 so i think i've got a bit of a wait. I don't want to buy a new copy as it will ruin the coveting

seraphina

angeltreats wrote: »

Does anyone have the new Nigella book, Kitchen?

Erm maybe:o MrS bought it for me yesterday at MrTs. It's a beautiful book but be warned there's not much for vegetarians. It's written in traditional Nigella style, and I think it's worth it for the baking stuff alone. It's very fresh - there's little rehashed from other books, and reminds me more of Feast or How to Eat than anything. Lots and lots of chicken recipes and lots of family sized recipes.

She's also got hints and tips for leftovers and how to store/freeze things, which seems a bit HomeEc teacher and I think jar with the overall tone of the book but maybe they're useful for other less experienced cooks.

Also I felt quite smug when I read through all her handy hints at the beginning and was like, "well duh, who *doesn't* do that already???"

Sublime_2

I love old favourites such as the Be-ro book, Hot and Spicy cookbook (sadly misplaced), Vegetarian cookbook (although I'm not), Caribbean food made easy (I should have paid attention more to mums cooking when I was younger ), etc.

The real place I get my recipes from is off the internet, and from family. My sister gave me a lovely chickpea recipe the other day, while mums always trying out new things (while making me feel envious! ).

Kitcaboodle

Got to be Be-Ro for me! Sadly I don't currently own a copy (must get around to sending off for one) but I copied all my favourite recipes out of the one my dad used to have.

Other than that, I have a soft spot for '500 Cookies' by Philippa Vanstone, it has suggestions in it for variations for the different recipes. I created a chocolate, hazelnut & banana brownie using one of the base recipes in there & it has gone down a storm with all who taste it! It also gave me the confidence to play with other recipes I had & I turned the big soft ginger cookies (a household favourite) recipe from allrecipies.com into 'big soft mocha-chocolate cookies' and I am currently waiting to see how an experimental new concoction based on the same flour/fat/sugar ratio turns out (I've used mixed spice, cinnamon & cloves, vanilla extract, bacardi, sugar crystals and half a bar of Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate).

'1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats' by Susanna Tee is a recent purchase that looks great as well. I've only made the plain scones from it so far but it has an amazing selection with loads of pics and I think it will be great to bake from with DS when he's older.

Of course, the thing I always reach for in my cupboard full of recipe books is the A4 folder in which I have written all my favourite recipes, along with ones I'd like to try!

Bella79

Ive got so many coobooks !, but the one i go back to time and time again is jamies minestry of food, the recipes are simple and easy for dinner each night.

I also quite like my good olde bero baking book

SylviaP_2

angeltreats wrote: »

Does anyone have the new Nigella book, Kitchen?

Got this one today - half price.
Sat and read it this afternoon and tabbed up some recipes to do already - a few mince ones I'd not even thought about so will come in handy.

Also use Nigel Slater, Hairy Bikers, Anjum Anand books all the time.

Happy cooking!

Introuble28

I just got a copy of "Economy Gastronomy" and its fantastic. Great recipes and loads of ways of making really lovely food at low prices. Its amazing how far you can stretch leftovers!

givememoney

niklepic wrote: »

what I'm waiting for is my mum's "Mrs Beeton's Everyday cookery". Extremely old and battered as it was my nan's. She said she'll leave it to me in her will but she's only 56 so i think i've got a bit of a wait. I don't want to buy a new copy as it will ruin the coveting

I have Mrs Beeton's book on household management, again like your mum's very used. It was a wedding gift and cost £3 in 1967 when I married my first husband.

It is very straightforward and covers just about everything. What it doesn't have though is a picture of the said dish and I do like a picture to see what it is supposed to look like.

Each day in the Daily Mail they do a recipe from `Good Housekeeping' which are good, but I don't think they actually produce cook books only magazines.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I had a battered copy of Je Sais Cuisiner by Ginette Mathiot until the ex decided that having books in a language other than English was arrogant and demeaning to Anglo Saxons and burned it along with the rest of my books (he became my ex quite soon after). I was given an English version this year.


I tend to use cookery books for escapist reading rather than cooking from, though.

lil_me

The Curry Secret, didn't think you could make curries at home until I used it....nomnomnom