Your favourite cookbook

PasturesNew

I've never found one that was relevant. I flick through recipe books to look at pictures of food, but when it comes to actual recipes they all will be cooking for bigger amounts than I ever would, using gadgets etc I don't have and using ingredients I have never had/don't want to source and buy or that would never get used again.

So, I look at pictures, for entertainment.... then, for actual food, I just "make it up" 99% of the time, all by eye, what I've got handy, "looks about right" style of cooking. If I've a spud .... I'll think of something to do with that, it's not rocket science and I've no desire to spend ages poncing about with faffery just to get the same end result: Hot/edible and on a plate soonest.

LameWolf

I think it'd be the USB flash-drive with stuff I've snagged from various MSE-ers.

monnagran

Mine also has to be Delia's Complete Cookery Course. I had a copy when it was first published and today it has lost its cover, its pages are yellowing, loose and crumpled and its still my 'go to' book. It has never let me down. A couple of years ago they re-published it and I bought a new copy. It sits on the bookshelf pristine and glossy. I have never even opened it. I'm much more comfortable with my old, battered friend.

I have a cull of cookery books now again but Delia will never go. Nor will I ever part with my mother's Stork Wartime Cookery Book. So many memories.

dingdongsaving

I always use the internet nowadays, plus always ask friends when I come across something delicious I'd like to try myself. The only recipe book I own is Delia's original and one that you write in and complete yourself.

The latter is a recipe ring binder file that I was given when I moved out of home when I was 18. It's a real personal treasure to me, and I hope it will preserve some of my family life when I'm long gone.

This file has dividers for different categories of recipe, and over the last 20 years I've added every recipe I've tried and deemed a 'keeper'. :T

When I was given the file by my mum and dad I spent time with my Gran, who taught me to cook alongside her after I got home from school each day. Together, we wrote down all of the family recipes I had made with her so many times. Some of these are there as the first recipes in my file, in my very bubbly 'teen' writing. Some are written by Gran, in her unmistakable pen which makes my heart skip a beat each time I clap eyes on it. :A

Gran's scone, fruit cake, tea cake, shortbread, soft gingerbread, ragu, bloomer, floury bap, quiche, sausage balls and dumpling recipes are all in there. Along with hundreds of other recipes...pineapple pie, magic broth, hand formed ground meat cutlets...I could go on and on but you get the picture.

Newer additions have been:
Ciabatta from an Italian friend, easy imitation Play Doh (yes, since I've had my own children) and many different curries that have been perfected over the years.

Since meeting my husband many of his American/family recipes have also been added...pumpkin and buttermilk pies for Thanksgiving, 'dressing' to be used as a stuffing, the most amazing gravy which includes hard boiled eggs, jambalaya, gumbo, enchilada sauce,

Recipes and cooking/sharing meals definitely form a huge part of life for me, and I love the sense of history and 'family tree' a collection of recipes can provide.

tori.k

The orginal cranks recipes by David Canter has always been my go-to, what was innovative at the time in whole food cooking has over the years has become a fantastic book of rustic frugal recipes.

trailingspouse

As a beginner, my favourite was the Dairy one. But now, with 30+ years under my belt, I very rarely use a cookbook at all. If I need to cook something out of the ordinary, I just google it these days.

Mr_Singleton

iammumtoone wrote: »

If you could just keep one of your cookbooks, which would it be?

No cheating you are only allowed to pick one

Not possible.

Have just bought 3....
Recipes From an Italian Butcher, Roasting, Stewing, Braising.
Broth to Bowl - Mastering the art of great soup from 6 simple broths.
Catalonia: Recipes from Barcelona and beyond.

bargainhunterss

I think mine would have to be Mary Berry's Complete cookbook Marvelous!

herbily

Now that I know how to cook the basics (and to be honest tend to cook the same half a dozen meals in rotation), I'd save something that gives me inspiration to be more adventurous, and it would probably be Jane Grigson's Fruit Book. The vegetable one is good too, but the fruit one is lovely to read and has excellent cake recipes. (Plus if I were on a desert island with tropical fruit trees, in a Desert Island Books situation, I'd know how to deal with the fruit!)

Prinzessilein

Only One?????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Can I have the cookbook that Mum and Omi had before me?...Sort of like a scrapbook of cuttings and hand-written recipes....each generation adds to it, it is a real treasure!

If it has to be a published book then I am torn....Dr Oetkers Schulkochbuch?......or Readers Digest Cookery Year?....both are wonderful for the basics.

But then so many old friends will have to go....from Mrs Beeton through to Riverford Farm....It's too hard....only keeping one!!!!

Okay...I will keep the Dr Oetker....and please don't look in that box at the back of the wardrobe....there are NO cookbooks smuggled away inside there....honest!