Favourite recipe books

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  • amateur51
    • Nov 2024

    Favourite recipe books

    There is a plethora of cookery books these days, from those written by 'name' chefs (almost always men) to those written by good home cooks like the remarkable Marcella Hazan who has died recently and who is the subject of another thread.

    Delia Smith describes herself, very honestly I think, as a recipe tester - her approach is such that you can almost guarantee that if you try a Delia recipe, it will work.

    Even though he is a renowned restaurateur Rick Stein (he seems to own most of the eateries in Padstow) creates recipe books to follow his travel series on TV and aims to produce recipes that almost anyone can prepare at home.

    One of my favourite cookery writers is Claudia Roden whose works about Jewish & Middle Eastern cookery are as much about social history, with wonderful stories as well a do-able recipes.

    Of the modern crowd, 'names' like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have produced books which are better perhaps than the snob in me might have anticipated. Nigella Lawson likes to pass herself off as a busy housewife cooking simple meals in hurry but there is a certain amount of poetic licence taken with each of those terms. However I fuind her book "How To Eat" a very good book to snuggle up with an read (provided that you have either something cooking in the oven or some suitable snacks to hand.

    Of the old crowd, you can still find books by Elizabeth David, who started the climb out of the
    Great British post-war culinary doldrums almost single-handed, Julia Child who managed a similar feat in the USA, and Philip Harben and Fanny Cradock (the first male and female TV chef/personalities).

    So .. who are your favourite cookery book writers, the ones you turn to for inspiration or for a recipe for the glut of veggies at this time of year, or the ones you turn to for flashy show-off food for when guests are coming?
  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30301

    #2
    Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
    So .. who are your favourite cookery book writers, the ones you turn to for inspiration or for a recipe for the glut of veggies at this time of year, or the ones you turn to for flashy show-off food for when guests are coming?
    For traditional French provincial/country, Elizabeth David; for interest Escoffier's Ma Cuisine; for veggie recipes, Hugh F-W's River Cottage Veg everday.
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

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    • MrGongGong
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 18357

      #3


      Great stuff

      Comment

      • umslopogaas
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 1977

        #4
        The only one I had for many years was Georgina Horley 'Good Food on a Budget'. This was not so much because I was short of money as because it was the only decent cookbook available in Rabaul, where I was working at the time.

        More recently, two excellent Asian cook books: 'Everyday Indian' (author not given, but published by Parragon, and 'Thai and Chinese' (author not given, but general editor Gina Steer, publ. Flame Tree Publishing).

        And for general stuff, 'The Dairy Book of Home Cookery', editors Sheelagh Donovan and Helen Mott, Brockhampton Press.

        That's plenty of recipes to be getting on with!

        Comment

        • ferneyhoughgeliebte
          Gone fishin'
          • Sep 2011
          • 30163

          #5
          Originally posted by umslopogaas View Post
          And for general stuff, 'The Dairy Book of Home Cookery', editors Sheelagh Donovan and Helen Mott, Brockhampton Press.
          Given to me when I left the parental home in October 1978, and still the one I most frequently consult.

          Anjum Anand and Ching-He Huang for quick Indian and Chinese dishes.
          [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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          • Anna

            #6
            When I left home, barely able to boil an egg, I was given Delia’s Complete Cookery Course (hardback), it was my Bible and, as Ams says, every recipe turns out well – also invaluable for roasting times. I then got Elizabeth David (I think 5) French Provincial/County/Mediterranean, etc., second hand paperbacks, they finally fell to pieces many years ago and I think, (I’ll have to check) I chucked them out as too stuck together with sello.

            Another staple was Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian and her Vegetarian Far Eastern, Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern and Arto der Haroutunian Veg Dishes from the Middle East (the latter two bought second hand, since reissued and updated I think) I still have all of these. The only tv chef books I have are Rick Stein’s Spain, Nigel Slater’s Tender & Kitchen Diaries. The Yottam Ottolenghi I bought (Jerusalem) was very disappointing (imo) and he uses way too much salt.

            Over the years I’ve bought, and discarded various others, but to honest I rarely use a cookery book anymore (except for cakes/pastries when exact weights are required) but I do like ones that are a good read and that you learn from rather than a list of recipes. These days though, I usually get any new recipe ideas from The Guardian food & drink pages or other online sources rather than buy a book.

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            • Richard Tarleton

              #7
              Originally posted by Anna View Post
              Another staple was Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian and her Vegetarian Far Eastern, Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern and Arto der Haroutunian Veg Dishes from the Middle East (the latter two bought second hand, since reissued and updated I think)
              Didn't we have a thread on this subject not too long ago? Our original PB of Arto der Haroutunian fell to bits and I got a hardback replacement on amazon, expensive but worth every penny. Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian has several favourites, as does the Moro cookbook.

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              • mangerton
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 3346

                #8
                Definitely getting ideas above my station, many years ago I lashed out 50p and bought "Penguin Cordon Bleu Cookery". This would have been in the early 70s, and 50p was the price of the book new; I still have it.

                The blurb on the back cover reads: "With this handbook in the kitchen, and herself - at least, in one cunning series of recipes - in the sitting-room, no woman need be frightened of entertaining the most exacting gourmets." I ignored that and bought the book anyway.

                Although obviously it contains recipes, the book also has much useful information about food and cooking techniques. My mother had ensured that my sister and I were introduced to cooking at an early age and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I still do.

                For reading, a friend years ago gave me M F K Fisher's The Art of Eating, a compendium containing five of her books. I heartily recommend it.

                Comment

                • amateur51

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Anna View Post
                  The Yottam Ottolenghi I bought (Jerusalem) was very disappointing (imo) and he uses way too much salt.
                  .
                  I gave Jerusalem to a friend whose dinner repertoire has been revitalised to say the least. The same thing happened when I gave the first two Moro books to two other friends. Enlightened self-interest I call it

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                  • Barbirollians
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 11687

                    #10
                    Jane Grigson's Fish , Vegetable and Fruit Books - as well as many of the above .

                    Sadly Marcella Hazan too doyenne of Italian cookery who died aged 89 on Sunday .

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                    • amateur51

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
                      Jane Grigson's Fish , Vegetable and Fruit Books - as well as many of the above .

                      Sadly Marcella Hazan too doyenne of Italian cookery who died aged 89 on Sunday .
                      Jane Grigson, oh yes Barbs. Her Good Things and Fish Cookery are on my bookshelf and both well-thumbed and splattered with love

                      There's an obituary for Marcella Hazan here ...

                      http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...Marcella+Hazan

                      Comment

                      • Richard Tarleton

                        #12
                        Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
                        I gave Jerusalem to a friend whose dinner repertoire has been revitalised to say the least. The same thing happened when I gave the first two Moro books to two other friends. Enlightened self-interest I call it
                        Some lovely recipes in Moro 1, haven't really explored Moro 2 yet. Visitors to T Towers these days tend to get a hybrid of tapas and mezes with elements from Moro, Arto der T and Madhur J. Vegetarian.

                        Comment

                        • amateur51

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
                          Some lovely recipes in Moro 1, haven't really explored Moro 2 yet. Visitors to T Towers these days tend to get a hybrid of tapas and mezes with elements from Moro, Arto der T and Madhur J. Vegetarian.
                          I seem to recall that there is a recipe in Moro 1 for a splendiferous mushroom soup calling for sherry - yum!

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                          • amateur51

                            #14
                            I've just found this and it looks interesting - does anyone know it?

                            Comment

                            • teamsaint
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 25210

                              #15
                              Sorry to say that these days I just google it.....

                              That makes me a bad person, probably.

                              But Jamie Oliver is killing publishing single handedly.
                              I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                              I am not a number, I am a free man.

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