Best all-round recipe book for a teen. Ministry of Food?

[reddaisy]

DSD is getting into cooking which is great and I want to get her a new cookbook. But one that doesn't involve buying lots of expensive, random ingredients that will be used in just one recipe. Would Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food fit the bill?

We have a couple of Sam Stern's ones aimed at teenagers - the Student Cookbook might fit the bill - not expensive ingredients, doesn't assume a cupboard full of exotic spices, and gives instructions from scratch. We also have his vegetarian one, and there's also Cooking up a Storm.

Thanks exexpat and for the link I have ordered two from Amazon. They were cheaper than Jamie Oliver's books as well which helps!

I've looked through the Ministry of Food book and it was beautifully laid out and had some good recipes but it didn't strike me as worth the money. It felt like if you removed all the pictures and cut down Jamie's wittering on, you could fit all the useful information into a reasonably-sized pamphlet.

Delia's "How To Cook" might be a better choice. Alternatively, I note they've got a new version of the Dairy Book of Home Cookery. I largely learnt to cook from the 90s version of that book and it's still the cook book I use the most. Loads of simple, reliable recipes that are easy to follow and give good results.

When I left home I swiped my dad's 1960s copy of "The Penguin Cookery Book" and tbh I still probably use that about ten times as often as any other recipe book.

If you can get an old version like mine it's also very frugal on the eggs and butter etc so ideal for student budgets in the future!

It's organised quite well into "components" IYSWIM so "Pastry" section covers all different sorts of pastry, then recipes using them. Loads of variations too e.g. Basic sponge mix and then how to transform that into loads of different kinds of cake. I found that very helpful when learning to cook as it covers the techniques which you can then apply / experiment with rather than following individual fussy recipes with loads of ingredients that only seem to be used for that one particular kind of fancy cupcake.

Grumpla, the reviews of that are great but it seems to be out of print. Fancy sending me your copy

Snorbs, that was my concern about Jamie Oliver's books as I want one that is practical and not just flash.

The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes may be worth a look:

www.amazon.co.uk/Paupers-Cookbook-Jocasta-Innes/dp/0711222401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321443685&sr=1-1

I find the hairy bikers mums know best books very simple to follow, what about those?

Jamie Oliver is flash and patronising: no one needs a recipe to make a bacon sandwich. I'd second Delia, or Sophie Grigson's "First Time Cook" or Leiths "Cookery Bible". Or the "Silver Spoon" Italian compendium

Tom Norrington-Davies' Cupboard Love is a very good, simple cookbook that take store cupboard ingredients as a starting point for making all sorts of different cuisines. Might plant some useful seeds for student cooking!

There are a few knocking about on eBay not sure if this link will work as am on phone

This was my first ever cookbook when I left home and it is brilliant.

Now sadly out of print so only second hand, but for three quid, it is sooooooo worth the buy.

I still use it now all the time.

I bought Dd1 this book to take to uni, and she has gone from someone who never cooked at home to a competent cook, quoting back mine and my mum's mantra "if you can read, you can cook".

It's left on a shelf in her student flat, and apparently all the flatmates dip into it and use the recipes, which would be very suitable for a family, not just hard-up students.

Depends how seriously she's getting into cooking. The Constance Spry Cookbook is awesome, and will get you through any eventuality (even down to being presented with a just dead chicken feathers, guts and all - been there, done that, got the slightly bloodspattered pages . . . ).

Although it has some seriously fancy recipes, there is also loads of everyday stuff; it was written in the 50s so no calls for larks tongues or galangal sprouts; but even so a lot of the recipes feel very modern.