Your favourite cookbooks

MATH · 20 February 2005 at 8:51PM

frizz_head wrote:

Wish I had a domestic god like you around the house MATH.

AWWWWWW GOWAAAAAAAN

LOL I think madmummy (aka my better half) may post a less gilded portrait.

Sarahsaver · 20 February 2005 at 9:00PM

ANY book is a favourite! As a student I used to read recipe books quite a lot, but never made many of the recipes, so many of them are expensive. I love reading things like Leith, Escoffier (50p from the charity shop), Larousse gastronomique, a huge 600 odd page Madhur jaffrey book... Its cheaper to read about it than eat it!
my fave cheapie books are one called 'Just One pot' meals that can be done in one pot, and i actually use Leith or Larousse to refer to for obscure things, because one of those usually has the answer if I manage to get something exotic like pigeon or rabbit;)
Nigella Lawson, aside from the plummy voice and OTT sexy woman in the kitchen thing is actually quite down to earth and practical if you read her books - I have her 'How to eat' D***a Smith is expensive and over fussy, IMHO.
My Nanna had a copy of Mrs Beeton, and I used to sit in her kitchen reading it whilst Nanna cooked. Nanna knew how to cook anything that you could imagine, and very well too. If she'd have written a book it would have been the best!

moggins · 20 February 2005 at 9:03PM

What is it with Delia? I knew that woman and I were not on the same wavelength the day I saw her use two bottles of wine to cook a leg of lamb!

If I had the money to buy a leg of lamb I would rather eat it unadulterated and drink the wine

arkonite_babe · 20 February 2005 at 9:23PM

Mrs Beeton and Nigella would be my favourites. Followed by Nigel Slater's real food.

SnowyOwl_2 · 20 February 2005 at 9:55PM

I've been copying recipes from here and putting them into Word, then printing them off into a ring binder. I probably haven't got them all, however they are all mostly tried and tested by people on here, and most of them are money saving, reliable, unpretentious and easy. Some may have been borrowed from Nigela, Delia or other sources, but lots are original made up dishes that work. If there are any tricky bits or if someone has made a comment eg for a variation or where to get an ingredient etc then I put those notes in too.

If a recipe is too difficult or whatever then I simply exclude it. My aim is to end up with a collection of recipes suitable for a variety of purposes, eg slow cooker, freezing, to go with a cup of tea, to serve to visitors, things to make when I'm v.skint. So far it is working and I am very chuffed with it.

I am thinking of tarting the Word docs up a bit (but leave in any funny comments originally written by whoever first posted the recipes), print onto pretty coloured paper and put into nice ring binders and give them to friends as Christmas presents.

arkonite_babe · 20 February 2005 at 10:00PM

Very good idea snowy. I daren't print any off or oh will have a fit. I'm a bit of a cookbook and recipe freak you see

Sarahsaver · 20 February 2005 at 10:29PM

moggins wrote:

What is it with Delia? I knew that woman and I were not on the same wavelength the day I saw her use two bottles of wine to cook a leg of lamb!

If I had the money to buy a leg of lamb I would rather eat it unadulterated and drink the wine

My ideal would be down one bottle, then go and catch me something to cook in the other one:)
You try costing any of delia's recipes, expensive. She tells people they MUST have free range eggs from hens that face south or something, my puddings with cheapo eggs are yummy. Sometimes somerfield magazine is good but i dont know if they do it anymore.
I think we all need to adopt an old person and write down all their recipes before thay are lost forever.
Also check out https://www.route79.com
that guy is cool, he has recipes amongst a lot of other things about life, very entertaining, and very tasty biryani, which is on my menu tomorrow night:)

tiff · 20 February 2005 at 10:31PM

I love cookery books too, I have most of Delias but never use them as I think they contain too many ingredients which makes it expensive. I like Jamie Oliver, its interesting that his books started off as trendy young single person meals and now that he's a father of 2 his latest book is more about family meals. I love these books and use them now and again but I'm the same as Snowy Owl, I save recipes from here that are easy and nearly always cheap. I also print recipes from Allrecipes.com as those have reviews and people make comments on what they did to adapt the recipe.

I'm not a brilliant cook which is why I like using recipes from real people who dont necessarily have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen but want to make good, healthy meals for their family. I only started cooking from scratch around Christmas time, my husband still cant believe I've kept it up this long as I was a bit of a lazy cook. I sat down with my children during half term and make chocolate chip cookies for the first time ever and they loved it! The next day all the cookies had gone so we then made coconut cookies which disappeared just as fast. Most of all I really enjoyed myself and its great to see them enjoying something that I've made for a change. Sorry, gone off topic AGAIN!

vanoonoo · 20 February 2005 at 10:35PM

frizz_head wrote:

Stick them between two slices of bread, and add a big dollop of Salad Cream. Yum.

I quite like 'em with thai chilli sauce

not had fish fingers for ages though *pout* might have to resolve that. I like those fancy fishcakes you can get in tesco - they are always reduced in my local store

vanoonoo · 20 February 2005 at 10:40PM

jsut realised I dindt even answer the original question - doh!

I love recipe books and also look at the labels and packets of things in my cupboard as often they give great ideas for serving suggestions.

the american classic green bean casserole served with roast dinners throughout the land across the pond came from a campbells soup label

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