Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cookbooks

International standard cookbooks?

cgc373 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:26:32 -0800

When a friend online noticed Joy of Cooking referred to as "one of America's standard cookbooks" and wondered about internationally analogous "standard cookbooks," I immediately thought, "What a great question for AskMe!" And here we are.

Help I need pretty food pictures

bookdragoness — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:20:12 -0800

Help for the food-imagining-impaired: cookbooks and sources of recipes with pretty pictures? My husband doesn't consider food FOOD until it's cooked, so I generally decide and make what we eat. He wants to start putting together meal plans, so to help I want to surprise him with cookbooks (or other recipe sources) with pretty pictures that make him salivate.

This realization came from the other day where he was looking at canned soups and was easily biased by their food photography. I'd like to help him with his food decision-making abilities, and he has basically no ability to imagine what food tastes like from a recipe, so I thought that getting him some resources with food photographed at its tastiest might help.

I'm rather cookbook retarded - I have the Joy of Cooking, an Italian and two crockpot cookbooks - all of which were gifts. When I think of something to eat, I generally go cruising on the internet and amalgamate several recipes into something tasty.

Bonus for food that is fairly simple to make - while I like to try fancy recipes sometimes, I tend to stick to fairly simple things on weekdays.

Extra bonus for things HE could make - he has a mastery of the microwave, can make pasta (and reheat sauce), chop/slice/peel things, etc.

We have a fairly well-stocked kitchen, including a multitude of spices, blender, mixer, full set of pots/pans, good knives, rice cooker, fondue pot, and a crock pot, if that helps.

I am planning on stopping by a used bookstore on the way home - what should I look for?

Searching for roast saint recipe

kenko — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:21:53 -0800

I once read an old cookbook that, at the end, had a recipe for saint. I want to find it again. Any clues? It was for the most part a serious cookbook, though either old or eccentric enough that its recipes included instructions like "shoot the pheasants and hang them for several days", but at the end it had several tongue-in-cheek recipes, one of which, as mentioned, was for saint; it advised the chef that, if the saint was genuine, he would advise the chef as to when he was done (like St. Lawrence). I haven't been able to google it up.

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...)

I need a serious, simple, general-purpose cookbook.

BostonTerrier — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:55:40 -0800

What is an example of a cookbook wherein the recipes have had the hell tested out of them? After seeing "Julie & Julia" I have a hankering to get back into the workshop and start cooking again. But I've been burned (ha) many times in the past by recipes that don't seem to have been tested on a five year-old, let alone a gourmand. Some cookbooks suffer from poor or nonexistent editing, and I hate the whimsical drifty line drawings which illustrate some of lamest of them.
My current stand-by is a 1980 edition of Fannie Farmer; a serious, tried-and-true gem. But I want something in addition, and nothing too terribly difficult.
I'm looking for a general cookbook; not a particular cuisine. And actual photos of the process, in addition to the end result, is a plus.
In short: if a cookbook were a personality, I'm looking for a Type A.

The Rest of the World, One Plate at a Time

chrchr — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:00:36 -0800

Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday is my go-to cookbook. Can anyone recommend any other cookbook authors that can teach me about other traditional world cuisines? Who's the Rick Bayless of Indian food? The Asian Rick Bayless? Who's the Mediterranean's answer to Rick Bayless? Let me explain what I admire about Bayless. First of all, he ain't a famous TV chef slumming in ethnic food. Bayless has made Mexican food his life's work. That means that I trust the authenticity and integrity of his recipes. He does an excellent job explaining how they fit into the culture of Mexico, and his books provide a foundation for understanding the system of Mexican cuisine.

At the same time, he makes these recipes accessible to ordinary Americans. These are simple recipes that don't use too many exotic ingredients and don't take all day to make. They're mostly "week night" recipes.

I'm looking for similar cookbooks about other parts of the world.

Looking for some healthy recipe resources

Afroblanco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:15:58 -0800

Looking for cookbooks, blogs, websites, and forums that specialize in simple, healthy recipes. I'm a single guy who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook or wash dishes. But I'm tired of eating out all the time, and would like to change my eating habits.

I'm not looking for a "diet." I want to make a permanent change in the way I eat.

I like healthy/vegetarian food, but am not myself a vegetarian. So no dietary restrictions really, except that the food must be healthy, nutritious, low-fat and low-calorie.

I don't mind putting some effort into my meals, but ideally these recipes wouldn't require a lot of time-consuming preparation or cleanup.

Assume that I don't know anything at all about cooking, because, well, I kinda don't.

Bittman & Bittman

Bezuhin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:54:04 -0800

Overlap between Mark Bittman's cookbooks? I have the new version of Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." I recently bought "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" as a supplement, but there seems to be a significant amount of overlap between the two. For example, the section on Vegetables and Fruits appears more or less identical in both books. I'm not a vegetarian, just looking for additional non-meat recipes to mix things up. Should I just return "Vegetarian?"

Which is the meatiest Indian cookbook?

vorfeed — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:19:06 -0800

Lamb and chicken, pork and beef... which is the meatiest Indian cookbook? I love to cook Indian food, but the Indian cookbooks I have feature lots of foods I can't eat (namely, starchy stuff like beans/legumes and rice). I know it's tough, because many Indians are vegetarian, but can you recommend an Indian cookbook with plenty of meat dishes? Individual recipes are fine, too, but I'm mainly looking for something I can flip through when I feel like cooking. The more meat recipes, the better, but I'd like something with lots of authenticity and flavor, too!

I have Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking" and "Quick & Easy Indian Cooking", along with Shahnaz Mehta's "Good Cooking from India". Between them, I've got enough ideas for the next five years of veggies, but the meat dishes take up only a few pages in each. I'm sick of rogan josh, vindaloo, korma, and saag murgh, please help!

Help this impatient person learn how to cook from a book.

mintchip — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:50:25 -0800

Help this impatient person learn how to cook from a book. I don't know how to cook. I am extremely lazy in the kitchen and want to learn to make good, tasty meals that require a MINIMUM of preparation* and utilize as many shortcuts as possible (e.g. frozen veggies, pre-made stir fry sauces, etc.).

I love vegetables, chicken and fish but don't eat red meat. I prefer ethnic flavors such as thai, indian, asian etc. I'm thinking learning some stirfry techniques might be a good place to start, but I'm open to other ideas.

What are the best cookbooks for me to try? In addition to a lack of cooking technique, I also know very little about basics such as stocking my kitchen. Thanks!!

*Ideally 10 minutes or less.

Patricia Wells for Latino food?

AceRock — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:04:39 -0800

Latin American cookbook recommendations? After picking up last month's special issue of Gourmet, I have become really interested in authentic Latino food.

Please recommend some good cookbooks or other resources to help me explore the flavors of Latin America!

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?

Cooking the books

janecr — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:13:22 -0800

I'm looking for blogs where people are cooking their way through all the recipes in a particular book or by a particular chef e.g. Kathryn Cooks with Jamie and The Next Nigella. Do you know of any others?

Ice Cream Cookbook?

Marky — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 09:20:08 -0800

I'm looking for some great ice cream cookbooks... I got an ice cream maker for my birthday last week (the Kitchen Aid attachment). I know I could go with just cream, sugar and vanilla, but I'd like other flavors as well.

The best books would have some information on the science of ice cream, like the Cook's Illustrated and Alton Brown books.

(I did find Cook's Illustrated printed a "How to Make Ice Cream" book, but as it's out of print and copies are going for around $300, I guess I'm passing).

Are American cookbooks stupid?

betterton — Wed, 03 May 2006 18:01:42 -0800

Why do American cookbooks give ingredient measurements by volume and number instead of weight? Measuring ingredients by weight seems better because (1) it should give better results for things like flour, for which the volume depends on the history ("contents may settle during shipping") but the weight doesn't and (2) it avoids subjectivity (e.g., what constitutes a "medium tomato"?).

When I lived in France I noticed that cookbooks there give ingredient measurements based on weight.

So what's up with American cookbooks? I'm interested in any historical reasons for this, as well as explanations for why I'm wrong and volume/number measurements are better than weight.

Collective recipe index?

chefscotticus — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:55:05 -0800

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.)

help me get pukka

synecdoche — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:57:16 -0800

I like to cook, but I'd like to know more of the theory of how and why to do things. I'm not a bad cook or anything. I can cook for myself and do well at it-- I enjoy the food I make, and I enjoy making it. I'd like to be better though. I'm not as interested in recipes so much as books that detail why you do certain things with certain foods. I don't like things that are techy like Alton Brown, but more along the lines of "We do thiis because it adds this to the texture/flavour/whatever." What I'd like to be able to do, ultimately, is make up my own recipes like my current TV favourite Michael Smith does on Chef at Home.

I have The Joy of Cooking, and am planning on picking up "How to Cook Everything" tomorrow, based on reading many of the other threads on here. But are there any other suggestions?

I guess my favourite chefs are Jaimie Oliver and Michael Smith-- I am a big proponent of simple but tasty cooking.

I've been reading the other threads on here and have found a goldmine, but I have a lot of cook books already and don't want recipes (though something akin to a cooking class, that maybe details a technique and then provides a recipe that highlights it would be good).

Let's take a vegan culinary trip through Asia

luneray — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:30:10 -0800

I'm searching for some good vegan cookbooks that focus on Asian cuisine. Japanese, Korean, Indian, Thai, etc. A vegan Indian cookbook would be especially nice. Because of some recently diagnosed food sensitivities, I am supposed to avoid eating wheat and dairy, among other things. I've tried rice pastas and soy cheeses, but I don't like them. I'd rather learn a cuisine that developed without the foods I have to avoid. I've searched through lots of cookbooks (general vegetarian and vegan, as well as food allergy cookbooks) and actually found quite a few recipes but I'm looking for suggestions for a single book.

(For some reason, I'm having trouble finding an exclusively vegan Indian cookbook. Lots of the vegetarian Indian recipes I've found contain dairy.)

Layout software for a cookbook?

Atom12 — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:08:36 -0800

Book writing software: specifically for a cookbook... We're writing a cookbook. We want to give it to some friends and family, but we'd also like to send out a finished version to some publishing agents, as the thing's got great potential. And yes, I know we won't get rich from this.

Here's the question: is there any software that'll allow us to lay out the book? Most of the stuff we've seen is photo manipulation type stuff, which isn't really what we're looking for. We'd like to spend aorund $100 at most -- I don't think we'd need full-blown Quark or some fancy pants design software.

Has anyone done this before?

Cookbooks!

rokabiri — Mon, 23 May 2005 21:48:38 -0800

I need some suggestions for cookbooks with really odd recipes. Cookbooks that have colorful themes or contain recipes that always seem to list canned peaches or SPAM in their ingredients are good for starters but anything really bizarre, unique, or old-timey will do.

Grilling Cookbook

madman — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:59:45 -0800

I'm looking for a cookbook on grilling that has a decent coverage of grilled food from all parts of the world. Do you have any recommendations?

Supportive in the Kitchen

Frasermoo — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:14:13 -0800

My beloved fiancee is trying to improve her cooking, with a course and by diving into cooking books. As the guinea pig, it is in my interest to help her on her way. [more inside] I'm looking for good books, and in particular a book which explains the science behind cooking which I'm sure I read about here once before.

Recommend inspirational and reliable cookbooks

misteraitch — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 03:15:23 -0800

Continuing the food theme: what cookbooks would you recommend that you find both inspirational and reliable? Inspirational, as in the recipes just beg to be tried, or the photographs look so mouthwatering. And reliable, as in you've learned to trust that the recipes will turn out well - if not every time - then much more often than not. We have shelf-full of cookbooks already, but I'd still like to add a few more…

Reference Cookbooks

me3dia — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 20:25:51 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for a reference cookbook to supplement my current bible, The Joy of Cooking. Your thoughts? [A list of what I've got already will greet you inside.] - Sundays at Moosewood (vegetarian food)
- Better Homes & Gardens "New Cook Book," circa 1965
- Good Housekeeping Cookbook, circa 1962
- "I'm Just Here for the Food," by Alton Brown
- "The Chef's Secret Cookbook" by Louis Szathmary

I'm looking for good overall reference books, not specialties -- in other words, what book do you turn to over and over again.