<p>During their freshman year in college, I gave both kids a copy of the Joy of Cooking 1964 edition (the one I’ve used since my freshman year in college and my personal favorite of the multiple editions available); since then, several of their friends have asked for copies of their own. It seems to work well as a good starter cookbook.</p>
<p>BUT now both kids have asked where to go next, now that they’re pretty comfortable with the basics. And I’m at a loss. Julia Child? Someone different? I’d prefer older cookbooks, since I’m just cheap enough to like buying used books.</p>
<p>My daughter, who loves to bake and manages to do well even with a badly regulated stove, already has Rose Levy Birnbaum’s Cake Bible and several cookie books. My son likes savories and sauces and is a serious foodie; he’s part of a dinner group that “dines out” at a gourmet restaurant once a month (“that’s why I have a job, mom, so I can eat good food occasionally”).</p>
<p>I also used the Joy of Cooking for many years and still refer to it for basic recipes when I want to double check quantities. One cookbook that I like is the Silver Palate cookbook. But, I’ve got to confess the internet has been my biggest source for the last few years. I just google the type of recipe I want and I’ve got so many recipe websites to choose from, many with reviews and ratings.</p>
<p>Another source besides the internet and cookbooks are cooking magazines. I love all of the Taste of Home magazines, Cooking Light and Cooks Illustrated. Cooks Illustrated is really nice if you like to know why a recipe works and enjoy reading about cooking too. They also do a nice job of reviewing products.</p>
<p>Life’s little ironies… today’s NYT (which I just went out and got) has an article on classic cookbooks. I then found a copy of the Pillsbury Bakeoff top 1000 for my daughter and a copy of Vincent Price’s recipes from 60’s gourmet restaurants for my son on <a href=“http://www.abebooks.com%5B/url%5D”>www.abebooks.com</a>… But they were cheap enough I may buy other cookbooks, too.</p>
<p>While I have a subscription to Gourmet, it’s more for the travel writing than for the recipes. I find their recipes a little too twee—although the pumpkin pie made by caramelizing the sugar first in this month’s issue is really good. (Sorry about that sentence, folks, I notice it doesn’t parse well.)</p>
<p>For the baker - The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, King Arthur also has a series of smaller books covering specialty baking - cookies, bread, cake, etc
For the serious foodie - How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. The great thing about this one is that it concentrates on making relatively simple recipes taste fabulous - through technique, fresh ingredients, etc. It also gives multiple variations of seasonings and combos, giving lots of possiblibites for experimenting. It is great for someone who is really interested in food, who wants to experiment in the kitchen and make restaurant-tasting dishes, but doesn’t have the space, time or equipment for the really elaborate multiple step dishes.
Another book I really like is Shirley Corriher’s book - Cookwise - she is a food scientist at Vandy, and this book is about the science of cooking, not for everyone, and very few recipes, but those that are included are great - the absolute best biscuit recipe known to man, with tips on how to make the biscuits good, and the best broccoli salad recipe.
Yet another idea for the foodie would be coffee table cookbooks - three I like are The French Laundry, Frank Stitt’s Southern Tables (I think that’s the title), or just call up one of his friends and find out what his favorite restaurant or dream restaurant is, and get that cookbook.</p>
<p>Pillsbury Bake-off, reminded me - everyone should have a Betty Crocker Cookbook - the 2 cookbooks in our house with scorch marks on the back are the old Betty Crocker we got when first married and Mark Bittman’s book ;).
I bought a college student friend an abbreviated version of How to Cook Everything, I forgot about it. I think it is called How to Cook Everything - the Basics.</p>
<p>The new Joy of Cooking is grand. I also love the magazine and TV show Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen, and the cookbooks look equally excellent. That’s America’s Test Kitchen Companion Cook Book. They really go into detail about the process of refining recipes: “We tried it with 4 T. of butter, but it was too fatty, so 3 T. was just right”. Or, you can just cut to the chase and follow the final recipe.</p>
<p>For online resources, Epicurious is great (recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet, with user feedback and suggestions). And ATK also has a website with current season recipes available at no cost.</p>
<p>I have a great old pamphlet that someone gave me around 1970, “The Impoverished Student’s Book of Cookery, Drinkery, and Housewifery”. Charmingly quirky in a 60’s sort of way, and the recipes are pretty good, too! Still available used through the ABE Books site.</p>
<p>I think Mark Bittman is great
I also highly recommend the Cooks Illustrated- Best Recipe cookbooks ( also a magazine) IT is great for cooks who want to know why something works- not just that it does- so it went over well with d and her roommate who were bio/bio chem majors
( Of course she also has a friend who used Laurels kitchen quite a bit- that one I admit I haven’t dusted off for a while )</p>
<p>BTW
Costco currently has many Cooks Illustrated cook books
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<p>have a great old pamphlet that someone gave me around 1970, “The Impoverished Student’s Book of Cookery, Drinkery, and Housewifery”. Charmingly quirky in a 60’s sort of way, and the recipes are pretty good, too! Still available used through the ABE Books site.</p>
<p>Cool! I had no idea it was still in print. I think I’ll order a bunch to give out to my kids and their friends as they begin to set up their own places.</p>
<p>I have a hard time recommending cookbooks I like so many! Here are a few of my favorites - old and new.</p>
<p>The Sunset’s Country French Cooking - Wolfgang Puck worked on this before he was really famous. Easy recipes and it all tastes wonderful.</p>
<p>*60 Minute Gourmet *- Pierre Franey - I like this and its sequel a lot.</p>
<p>Bon Appetit - 30-Minute Main Courses
The fish dishes in this book are particularly good.</p>
<p>The Moghul Microwave - Julie Sahni - if you like Indian food this one is a little different.</p>
<p>The Complete Asian Cookbook - Charmaine Solomon</p>
<p>The Best Recipes in the World - Mark Bitman
Simplified versions of international recipes. He really pares everything down to the essential for the recipe to still taste authentic.</p>
<p>And finally my favorite recent pull-out-the-stops book - *The Elements of Taste *by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky. This is organized completely differently than any other cookbook I own - into taste groups. Tastes that push (salty, sweet, picante), Tastes that Pull (Tangy, Vinted, Bulby, Spiced Aromatic, Floral Herbal, Funky), Tastes that Punctuate (Sharp/Bitter) and then Taste Platforms (Garden, Meaty, Oceanic, Starchy). I’ll never think about cooking quite the same way again.</p>
<p>Food network website. While I still use my Betty Crocker cookbook (a great wedding gift by the way…25 years later and it still gets used) this website can in an instant offer thousands of reciepes.</p>
<p>I love the Cooking Light magazines/cookbooks. The recipes are healthy (and a breakdown of EVERYTHING you could ever want is included with each recipe), but they are not geared toward any diet “fad,” just common sense healthy eating.</p>
<p>We like “regional” Hawaii cookbooks, since there are recipes for ethnic foods that mainstream cookbooks might not carry. Is this an issue with your college students? If so, it might be something to look for.</p>
<p>I also found the Betty Crocker cookbook great & used it & gave it to others. “Joy of Cooking” has not been used as much in our household. Mostly, I use cookbooks for baking & making ethnic dishes I don’t cook often (so haven’t committed the recipe & proportions to memory).</p>
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