Favourite recipe books

krispyg76

I must say you can't beat making a curry, if you have the spices already, we did one this week, all it cost was 2 chicken breasts, 1 tin tomatoes and 1 onion. So thats £3 tops. Curry for two!

And it is well nice

if you want to budget even more, swap chicken for turkey

dronid

lamplady wrote: »

ooh you might be able to help me. I just got a 2nd hand copy of MP's Cookery in Colour, but the pictures aren't as I remember them from my youth....

Hi there. Yes, I'm afraid there are loads of editions of this. I was confused myself. My mother still has the one she was given when she got married - though it's getting pretty knackered. I found another copy. Still a big blue hardback that was not quite the version. Most of the recipies are the same but you can 'feel it' get updated further into the 60's.

I have to say I think Margurite Patten. Is wonderful, and still going strong to this day! I enjoy Elizabeth David's books - just post war and with a wonderful feeling of discovery and pleasure in ingredients. I would always suggest charity shops for old cookbooks. An absolute gold mine.

Sadly I'm a bit of a reader and I can read a good cookbook like a novel!:D

lbnblbnb

I love cookbooks too, but have recently given lots away to try to declutter. That made me think carefully about what I wanted to keep.. (I am vegetarian)
Frugal Food by Delia Smith, 70's I think but in keeping with my attitude to food, ie if you cook it yourself from scratch then you can (hopefully) treat yourself to good ingredients. I haven't used the offal chapter though! It is interesting how many recipes in this book appear in lots of her subsequent books with slight variations....
Complete Cookery Course by Delia Smith. My sister in law's copy fell to bits so she had to make a new spine for it, she labelled it on the new spine "The Bible" - says it all really, anything you want to make you can find it in there or a recipe you can adapt to what you want.
I love Indian food, with a few vegetables (but with a spice collection I admit) you can make superb tasting food for very little money. I love
Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Jack Santa Maria. Everything I have made from this book has been lovely, and it has so many recipes for so many different dishes.
An Indian Housewife's Recipe Book by Laxmi Khurana. When I was a student this got passed round and round amongst my friends. Hot but very good indian food, easy to make as most recipes begin by putting lots of ingredients in the blender.

I will be very interested to see what other people think!
Liz

krispyg76

I love cooking and with a cupboard of dried stuff, flavours, sauces, herbs etc it's easy enough, But when we moved in here last year i spent £120 just on herbs, spices and stuff that keeps ie chilli, ginger, garlic in jars. But we have used it loads.

We could save more if we grew our own herbs and say some stuff like tomatoes and chillis for example. Our garage would be a good place to grow so much stuff as it's dry and warm.

I love cooking and I love hunting down recipes. It's nice to see a recipe that involves say 12 ingredients that all I have to buy is say some chicken and some fresh vegetables.

As I become more involved on here I will try and pass on ideas for meals and what the cost of making that meal has been. Hopefully that may come in useful for some people. I'd also say if you do try some of my meal ideas let me know what you think, if you like them tell me, if you hate them tell me, if you have a suggestion also let me know.

Ivana_B_Rich

It's getting worn out, and doesn't have any pictures at all but I :heartpuls love :heartpuls my 'No meat for me please' by Jan Arkless it has brilliant bean/pulse stews and casseroles

Hardup_Hester

I too had 100's of books, but now only have a few favourites
We'll eat again Margurite Patten
River cottage cookbook Hugh F.W. (gift)
Ultimate cakes Mary Berry
Cookie bible (gift)
Busy mums cook book Wendy Craig
Frozen Assets Debbie Taylor Hough (Once a month cooking)
More with Less Doris Lessing
Cooking with the Remouska

Hapless_2

lamplady wrote: »

ooh you might be able to help me. I just got a 2nd hand copy of MP's Cookery in Colour, but the pictures aren't as I remember them from my youth....some of the colour ones from my childhood edition were black and white in this one and vice versa, and there was no picture of the mouthwatering charlotte russe I used to dream about:rotfl:

Are there a multitude of different versions of this book? The one I want has a colour picture of oranges filled with jelly to make sailing boats.

I know I'm sad:T

I know they recently reprinted it. I saw a copy in Banana Bookshop up by us (same as the works and booksale).

jordylass

I have a very old M Patten jam book, that I turn to whenever I make jam or preserve. I have a few others of hers. I will have a look at them, as I don't think I have cooked anything out of them.
My favorites are
Feast ~ Nigella, I don't own Domestic Goddess yet, but had it from library a few times.
Jamie's Italy ~ I love this one and it's signed.
Just Like Mother Used to Make ~ Tom Norrington-Davies
An Italian Family Cookbook ~ Tony Casillo

I have a passion for buying cookbooks though, and I have some lovely old regional books, with simple/cheap recipes in them. I also bought a notebook from the Monday market in Covent Garden. It is handwritten and before the days of SR flour. I think it's around 1930, I love to look back at the recipes that made it into this woman's collection.

thriftlady_2

In no particular order these are the ones I use most -I read lots for inspiration and have a large collection, but the one below are the ones I pull out to follow a recipe from.

More With Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre (American)
Muffins:Fast anbd Fantastic by Susan Reimer
The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes
Quick and Easy Preserves by Simone Sekers
Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book
Feed Your Family for £5 a Day by Bernadine Lawrence

For inspiration I like Hugh FW, Nigel Slater, Jane Grigson, Rose Prince and Diana Henry

denise_h_2

You can't fault the Be-Ro book for very basic baking recipes
Denise