Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cookbook

Recommend some cookbooks that are also history books.

Kurichina — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:32:02 -0800

Recommend some cookbooks that are also history books. A few months ago, I bought Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World by Lilia Zaouali and have been having a ball making, adapting and interpreting the recipes. However, what makes this ten times more interesting for me is all the colour Ms. Zaouali provides about the history, culture and context of the recorded recipes and the fact that they are not re-written in modern recipe format (but they, of course, translated into English). I'd love to repeat this process for other areas of the world/historical timeframes. Do mefites know of other good, historical cookbooks that have additional cultural and culinary notes about the food?

Vegetarian cookbook recommendations sought!

Phire — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:22:19 -0800

Give me your favourite vegetarian cookbook that has illustrations of simple but delicious meals, and offers the nutritional information for each meal. I'm starting to cook by recipe, rather than throwing anything I have in the kitchen into a pot and improvising. At the same time, I'm trying to decrease on the amount of meat I have on my diet. Though there are lots of awesome websites with an abundance of information on cooking veggies, I find the wealth of information makes it hard to find one starting point. So I'm asking for your recommendations for a vegetarian cookbook with the following criteria:

Simple meals: I really like the concept of the Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourment, which restricts each meal to 5 ingredients or less. I'm not terribly fussy about an absolute limitation on number of ingredients, but simple to make would be good - I'm pretty pressed for time. Michael Smith's Best of Chef at Home is a good standard for how simple I'd like the instructions and prep to be.

Nutritional information: Rather than laboriously looking up every ingredient online myself and then calculating the portions, I would prefer if the book listed these for me. This is totally essential.

Illustrations: These are more or less optional, but pretty pictures totally motivate me to cook.

Optional: This is totally nitpicky, but if that book only focused on cooking actual meals rather than desserts/drinks, that'd be great, too. I drink water and eat fruit, and having a book that spends 1/5 of its real estate on smoothies and cakes that I won't be making seems like a bit of a waste.

Does my dream cookbook exist? Thanks in advance for any help!

Where can I find a database of cookbook indexes?

chefscotticus — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:13:28 -0800

Where can I find a database of cookbook indexes? Is there a website that contains a recipe directory for printed cookbooks?

I own lots of cookbooks. It's annoying to have to look through each individiual index, however, when I'm looking for a recipe for a common dish. Is there a website, or other service, that has a searchable collection of what recipes can be found in what cookbooks? (Note, I'm not looking for the recipes themselves, but instead a collective, searchable index.)

NOTE: I posed this question to the internet two years ago and didn't get any responses. Now, with my recent discovery of the AMAZING Delicious Library media cataloging tool, I'm inspired to find a new solution. Bonus if it can plug-in with my Delicious Library catalog of cookbooks. (Fat chance, I know...)

What's the deal with copyrights and recipes?

leigh1 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:19:18 -0800

If I want to publish Obama's recipe for chilli in my cookbook, do I need Obama's permission? How about Elvis Presley's Peanut Butter Sandwich? You can find all these recipes on internet for free, do I need permission if I want to include them in my cookbook?

Recommendations for authoritative cookbooks.

pravit — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:20:36 -0800

Recommendations for authoritative cookbooks intended for a Western audience? I'm looking for authoritative cookbooks associated with a particular style of cooking, intended for Western audiences. In general, the book should strive to be as authentic as possible, but make some concessions to cooking practicality or availability of ingredients in Western countries (Canada to be precise).

Examples of the type of book I'm looking for: Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art.

I'm interested in all sorts of cooking traditions - Indian, Chinese, Malay, Lebanese, Russian, whatever you can think of!

Simple vegetarian cookbooks?

shivohum — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:37:43 -0800

Cookbook recs needed: I'm an amateur cook so I need simple recipes, it would be nice if the books worked from a common and not-too-large set of ingredients, and I like food that's garlicky, oniony, and/or spicy. Oh, and healthy is a plus but not required. Finally, I'm a vegetarian (not vegan).

Help me find the perfect cookbook

InsanePenguin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:40:30 -0800

Can the Hive recommend some good cookbooks? Specifically ones that not only have recipes but will also help teach me to cook. I'm a young guy the loves to cook, my dad gave me The Betty Crocker Cookbook (the same cookbook he had when he was my age, though admittedly a newer print.) I love it because in the front and back it has charts that tell you things like emergency substitutes. In the beginning of each section it talks about proper preparation and storage of the foods. Really awesome. I'm a big fan of Alton Brown and his scientific approach but I'm not sure which of his various books would be best for me.

I've ordered The Flavor Bible, but I'm looking for any other recommendations that the Hivemind can give me. It doesn't really matter how difficult the recipes are, I'll attempt anything at least once.

Thanks!

Because persian food is delicious

typography — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:17:17 -0800

Help me find the authentic persian cookbook, potentially written in farsi... Recently, I've been cooking an assortment of persian foods, trying out various cookbooks. I've seen this thread, and I have The New Food of Life and Persian Cooking: A Table of Exotic Delights. However, none of the recipes from these books match up quite right to the food I remember from my childhood. They make strange substitutions or change the recipes in subtle ways. I've found some recipes online that match up well, but it's only a few.

So, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a really good persian cookbook. I can (slowly) read farsi, so a book from Iran would work as well.

Need great gluten- and lactose-free cookbook

Dragonness — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:12:40 -0800

Need great gluten- and lactose-free cookbook My step mother-in-law who is in her early sixties has developed an intolerance to gluten and dairy about three years ago, and has also learnt she has pretty high cholesterol, so her food choices have suddenly become quite limited. I’d like to give her a great cookbook, any recs?

Best with a microwave

krisjohn — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:32:04 -0800

I'm looking for a recommendation for a microwave cookbook. I want it to be about what the microwave is best at, not just how to hack normal stuff to work in the microwave. Perhaps a book on how to do things that are only possible with a microwave.

dook day farmage?

cmoj — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:37:54 -0800

What's a good cheese-making book for me? A fairly recent question actually got me into making cheese, and I'm no fromagier, but after scouring Mr. Fankhauser's excellent information (and name) along with some other web resources I've dug up, I'm sort of at a loss as to how to learn more about all of this.

Looking at different recipes for different cheeses, I see that there's very little difference in the basic steps and all of the difference lies in the details, but at the same time there can be a wide variation among recipes for the "same" cheese.

So, I don't really want a cookbook with rote recipes, I want a cheese-making book (or website for that matter) that talks about the difference it makes to inoculate at 90 degrees versus 120 or to cut the curd versus stirring and breaking it. I'm looking for a book about the mechanics of making cheese, not just the recipes. A little chemistry wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

Improve My Cooking

ecab — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:04:18 -0800

What resources will help me move from a proficient to a (one day, hopefully) great cook? I love food and cooking, and think that for a 23 year old guy I'm pretty good at it. I worked as a line cook for a while in high school and learned a lot of basic skills, and I've cooked pretty regularly since.

I can make some good things, and I can follow recipes with a pretty good success rate. What I'm looking for, now, is how to learn the more advanced skills, and gain the more advanced food and flavor knowledge, that will take my cooking to the next level.

Mostly I'm looking for cookbooks and the like, I suppose, but I'm not interested as much in getting books of recipes as learning techniques and basic skills that can be altered and reused in many ways. For example, one of my Mexican cookbooks taught me how to make sauce out of dried peppers, and while I've never followed that recipe exactly I use the skill fairly often. I want more things like this.

For a bit of further guidance on my food interests, I am most interested in more traditional European / Mediterranean / American (especially Southwest and Latin) cooking. While I love many Asian foods, cooking it holds less interest for me. I also don't particularly love Italian food, mostly because I'm not big on pasta (other parts of Italian food I do like).

Comprehensive, authentic, good Italian cookbook?

sirion — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:55:50 -0800

Italian Cookbook: I'm going to live in Italy for 2 months this summer. Tell me what cookbook I should bring along! I'd like to come out of Italy with some favorite recipes that I first experienced authentically in restaurants there and then figured out how to reproduce. I'd like a relatively comprehensive cookbook that I can go to when I eat something I like and look up what was in it and how it's made.

(Side question: What food stuff (,spices, cookware, etc) should I bring back from Italy that's hard to get outside the country?)

If I can see it, then I can do it

reenum — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:04:09 -0800

CookingFilter: I need cookbooks or websites that have step by step visuals of recipes. After my AskMe about cooking last week, I've determined that I need cookbooks or websites that have visuals. I seem to do a lot better when I can see the steps I need to be taking, or at least some photos of how the prep should go.

I've already seen VisualRecipes.com, and am looking for more cookbooks or websites in a similar vein.

Thanks, everyone!

My Birthday is coming up !

lobstah — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:05:03 -0800

After 50 years of success, my Mom's favorite chocolate cake recipe is now failing to meet expectations. Betty Crocker blames Crisco, and Crisco denies blame. Not only do the cakes not rise like before, they tend to sag in the middle. It's a devil's food recipe from the original BC Cookbook, and she has been using the same ingredients forever. I calibrated the oven, and even watched her make one to insure it wasn't due to an error by a sometimes forgetful 84 year old baking Ninja. Any ideas on how Mom can get her Mojo back?

I want to assert mastery over my culinary domain

reenum — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:59:51 -0800

I want to make easy and tasty international recipes I've been going through a lot of the recipe and cooking related AskMes and I've noticed a dearth of threads about Asian or African recipes.

I enjoy American and Italian food, but I'd rather make Asian or African recipes. For some reason, eating spaghetti and meatballs evokes a feeling of contempt brought on by familiarity. There are a few threads about Indian, and I have bookmarked those. But, I have a thirst for more.

Problem is, I am a novice in the kitchen. I can bake and fry a few dishes, but beyond that, I'm lost. If you have any suggestions for books, sites or blogs I could visit to increase my cooking chops, it would be much appreciated.

Ideally, I'd like the recipes to be healthy, but that's not a firm requirement. I just want to make exotic food that someone besides myself might want to eat.

Turtles all the way down!

dmd — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:34:36 -0800

Somewhere, a while ago, somewhere on the internet (here? BoingBoing? somewhere else?) was posted a PDF (I think) of a cookbook (?) from the 19th century (?) that had various recipes used by kitchens in wealthy households. Somewhere in that cookbook was a detailed description of how to store turtles (for soup) long-term (cool, mostly dry) in stacked boxes. Please hope me find it!

What to do with review copies of books?

climalene — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:04:47 -0800

What are the ethics and conventions surrounding review copies of books? I have a cooking blog. A friend of a friend works for a PR firm that specializes in cookbooks. She asked if she could put me on the company's mailing list for press releases and review copies. I eagerly agreed, and yesterday I got my first cookbook in the mail. Today I got an email from the publicist in charge of the book telling me how great it is and asking whether I planned to review it.

So, is this truly a free cookbook? Am I under any obligations? Should I reply to the email? If I review it, or even just mention it, should I explain somewhere on my site that I get free copies of cookbooks? If I provide an honest, balanced review of a mediocre book, will I stop getting review copies? And what else should I consider?

Help me source some high-quality bouillon cubes

rossination — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:55:43 -0800

Help me source some high-quality bouillon cubes. In her book How To Eat, Nigella Lawson often mentions using bouillon cubes for quick soups and sauces. I know that the bouillon cube is oft-despised by other cookbook writers (Mark Bittman, for isntance, says you're better off with water and a couple extra onions and celery stalks), but Nigella talks a lot about their prevalence in modern Italian kitchens, and she mentions "high-quality" cubes.

I consider myself a pretty accomplished home cook, and I definitely know how to make a good stock. I also know when it's totally appropriate to use canned broth, and I'm not above throwing in a cube of Knorr into a soup if the taste is a little bland. But I can't help but think that there's something better out there. Are there really "high quality" bouillon cubes that are really as good (and useful) as canned broths, that I could use when I don't have homemade stock on hand?

I'm in Seattle, but I'm totally fine with mail ordering from wherever if I can get my hands on some good bouillon cubes. I'm probably mainly looking for chicken, and maybe a good beef or vegetable as well. But in my cooking, they're all pretty interchangeable.

vegan cookbook?

azure_swing — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:05:55 -0800

Help a carnivore give an office mate a fabulous vegan cookbook.

I need some help naming my cookbook.

el-gregorio — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:54:30 -0800

I need some help naming the cookbook that my wife and I are putting together to help defray the costs of adopting our second son. The book consists of recipes contributed from family and friends, and will be a small vanity-press run, probably sold mostly to other friends and family.

There is no real unifying theme to the recipes, but several are from Guatemala, since that's where our sons were born. Categories of recipes include Appetizers, Breads, Entrees, Desserts, Cookies, and Snacks.

The cover art isn't finalized, but will probably feature an illustration of a chef standing with an ethnically-diverse group of children.

Thanks for your help!

Getting a cookbook published.

magikker — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:58:17 -0800

I want to publish a cookbook and need some advice. I'm a college student studying Computer Science, my brother is a college student studying Culinary arts. We'd like to write and publish a Cook book. I think, and may be wrong, that we would have an interesting angle to write from, being students and all.
However I'm having some trouble finding good sources of information on how to write/publish a cookbook. I've found a lot of information about getting a fund raiser cookbook published, but that isn't something I'm interested in. I'd like the book to be sold in stores after we're finished.

Is it even possible for two college kids to get a cookbook published? I'm looking for an any personal experience or advice in compiling and or publishing a cook book.

Help! I lost my spice!

unSane — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:48:36 -0800

Identify this cookbook, or give me the potato/chili soup recipe I yearn for. Years ago (mid 80s), I bought a cookbook, probably in England, but possibly North America. It was a small, Penguin*-sized paperback and was full of recipes for spicy food. I think they had chili ratings for how hot they were (but maybe not). It might have been called "The Chili Cookbook" (yes, I've googled, but nothing rings a bell) but it might not.

Thing is, it had the recipe for a potato and poblano chili soup which I made once and, in retrospect, was the most divine thing I ever tasted. I remember it contained enormous quantities of garlic, plus chilis, potatoes and cream. I don't know what else.

In one of my transatlantic movies, it disappeared.

Can anyone identify this cookbook, or point me at the recipe??

*the book not the flightless bird

Recommend the perfect cookbook

janecr — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:35:43 -0800

If you could only cook recipes from one cookbook ever again, which cookbook would you choose? I'm looking to slim down my large, useless cookbook collection and instead invest in one or two that have lots of cookable, consistently good and useful recipes.

What are the best cookbooks in regards to technique and theory?

mhuckaba — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:38:57 -0800

Cookbooks: What are the definitive resources for technique, cuisines? I know that generally "Larousse Gastronomique" and "Escoffier" are standards for (French) culinary resources. What else should I look into?

"The Professional Chef" looks pretty comprehensive, and "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan seems to be in line with what I'm looking for, based on Amazon reviews.

Any recommendations? I'm particularly interested in French, Italian, Japanese and Thai. I'm also interested in a really good book on baking, if there is something that fits in line with this type of books.

I'd really like *THE BEST/MOST COMPREHENSIVE*, what they'd give you in cooking school, and I'm not necessarily concerned with quantity of recipes or pictures as much as I am in technique and theory.