To ask for your go to Cook books

[MyKingdomForACaramel]

My parents have an old Readers Digest recipe book - from early 90s I think - and was delighted to find it a few years ago on Amazon and use it regularly. I have shelf full of Nigella, Jamie and Co- but this book is just my pure favourite - so aibu to ask - what’s yours?

DN is diabetic, so we bought a diabetic cookbook recently - it's got lots of healthy stuff in! Also the Leon cookbooks - again quite healthy but quick and easy.

Ha, another Readers' Digest "Cookery Year" fan here - it's got everything you need in it, and good diagrams for techniques as well as recipes.

The big striped good housekeeping ones

Bero cookbook. It has a basic recipe for each type, then suggests a large number of variations. It's great for giving the confidence to adapt recipes and to experiment.

Dorling Kindersley baking book for children - not only does it picture all the ingredients, they're life sized pictures. So even if you're shaky on measurement, you just put out a pile of flower the size of the one in the photo. And it has foolproof chocolate brownies.

Oh, and for jams, homemade wines, and sweets like fudge - Everything Within from the 1930s.

Leith's simple cookery and Leith's cookery bible. They explain techniques and methods as well as recipes for just about everything.

For classics and basics it has to be Delia’s complete cookery course. I genuinely did learn to cook from that book.
I love cooking and have loads of books now, but still use Delia on a regular basis.

I like the Hairy Bikers Mum Knows Best books.
Some really good, proper food recipes in there for all the family and easy to make.
My Netmums Feeding Kids book is well used too
as it's got loads of family recipes, meal plan and packed lunch ideas and recipes too.

you may like this thread! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/3155943-What-are-your-top-five-cook-books

Another vote for the hairy bikers and the bero.

Hairy dieters! I love it and actually have 2 copies(one has extra recipes in it, I'm not completely mad)

Oh the hairy dieters was is probably my second favourite!

Thanks @myrtle - am off to spend an evening on that thread (and probably Amazon )

The big striped good housekeeping ones

My 1974 Good Housekeeping book gets used more than any other, including several of Delia's.

Nigel Slater is another favourite. I don't actually have any of his books, but I do have quite a collection of his recipes clipped from the Observer. Every one I've tried has been utterly reliable, and delicious.
His chocolate fudge pudding is so simple it's known as "piece of piss pudding" in our house, and it is sublime.

Maybe I should save my Waterstones points and buy Nigel Slater books with them.

yeah - its not a thread to read whilst armed with a credit or debit car MyKingdom !!

When I moved out, my Mum gave me her old copy of Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook (an ancient edition). Even though some of the recipes are now quite dated, it's still good for basics and I'd hate to part with it.

Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi I love too, especially the first Plenty book.

Delia Smiths Complete Cookery Course. I could barely cook at all when I first bought it with some wedding present money and now I am a bloody good cook. She explains principles and basics so clearly that once I mastered the basic techniques I understood how to progress and develop my own recipes.

I don't really use Cookery books anymore preferring to look for recipes online but Delia is one of the few Cookery books I have kept. In fact I am on my third copy as I refer to it so often they eventually fall apart.

Hairy bikers diet one, Bero and Dairy book of Home Cookery from the 80s.

Davina sugar free book did NOT help me lose weight. 🙁. I probably ate too much. 😂

Delia's recipes are great, they always work. I don't like the layout of her books though; big chatty paragraphs of solid text - I like bullet points or I lose my place.

In terms of the basics definitely the Delia Complete Cookery Course.

I love the Leiths cookery bible

Another vote for the bero cookbook. My grandma used to use it and was a fantastic cook.

Another vote for Delia's Complete Cookery Course, she doesn't assume you know how to do anything but explains everything really clearly. She has been by my side for nearly 30 years.
I never make a move in the kitchen without Delia me.

I love love Dan Lepars’s Short and Sweet.

Amazing breads, cakes, biscuits, pies. I’ve done almost everything in that book - it’s falling apart.

Also like lots mentioned by others - Delia complete cookery, Bero, Leiths.

Just off to investigate the hairy bikers

I’m ok on basic techniques, but get bored to tears of cooking the same stuff over and over for the World’s Most Contrary Children.

I get inspiration from the Hairy Bikers Mums Know Best, and their Veggie Dieters Book (i’m veggie, they are not). I’ve also got a Sainsbury’s Little Angels family cook book which is great, but we’ve done most of those dishes to death!
My most recent go-to is Jack Munroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap, although still largely in blog format.