To ask for you go to cook books

[yellowsandals]

Posting here for traffic
Lockdown has got Absolutely fed up of cooking and churning out the same old thing.

I have one cookbook (shame ) and must admit im not good a varying our menus ...
What cookbook would do this for me?

Who do you cook for and how well do you cook.

Personally I hate Delia because she is so precise, she'll say 14 teaspoon and I think 'just say a pinch', however if you are not a creative cook then she is pretty foolproof.

My favorite cook book is a marks and spencer one from the 1980s, the pages are splatterd with cake mix or cheese sauce and the edges have ceased to exist.

www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/cookery-book/author/jeni-wright/

I like it because it isn't afraid to use tinned food as ingredients.

For Italian I use 'The Silver Spoon', it's into about its 8th edition.

Your children are old enough to help or even cook a meal, maybe have a look for a children's or student book.

I have most of the books on here.

Simple by Ottolenghi is really pretty brilliant.
All Nigel Slater
Anything by Simon Hopkinson (my favourite food writer and a true genius)
Diana Henry

If you like curry then there is a book called ‘50 Great Curries’ and it is amazing and I am always giving it to people as a present here because the curries are so good and some are pretty unusual.

For baking and total basics:
The Edmonds cookbook. It’s one of those cookbooks put out as a company promo (in 1908) that somehow ends up as a must have for generations.

We've got loads. I have probably used Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and Ainsley Harriott's Meals in MInutes the most. But like another poster the Internet is out go to recipe source. We use BBC Good Food a lot but another really excellent website is Kitchen Sanctuary. Everything we have made from Kitchen Sanctuary has been beautiful.

Comptoir (the first one) by Tony Kitous. If you like lebanese type food that is. It's easy and my fave.

Jamie and Delia are always reliable.

Nigella I love, but more for sweet more than savoury.

HFW’s meat book changed my cooking. It’s a revelation. I also love Diana Henry.

I’ve recently gotten into the Irish celeb chef Donal Skehan. His books are full of new ideas and twists, but practical enough for day to day.

And the roasting tin series is great.

Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess is falling apart in our house, and also like Nigel Slater's Appetite. But if I'm honest its Good Food magazine or online that I use most

Persiana - Sabrina Ghayour. Really simple and usually pretty healthy recipes that aren't just salads or grilled meat. It's a Middle Eastern cookbook but she lives in the UK so gives substitutions for tricky ingredients.

Nigella Express also brilliant for midweek quick fixes.

Lots of Jamie Oliver recipes are pretty straightforward to follow. Love the Leon cookbooks, worth checking out if anyone in the family has any food allergies. The Top Bananas book from Mumsnet is pretty good for family recipes. I would recommend checking out the Mrs Rachel Brady blog as she has some really good recipes, plus she has a YouTube channel which is also worth checking out. But my staple go to book has to be the Good Housekeeping step by step cookbook.

I would really encourage you to develop your own recipe book, using a recipe app. I use Recipe Gallery, but there are many other options. It is a great tool for collating recipes you like from different chefs, cuisines, sources etc. For instance I have recipes from BBC good food, Guardian recipes (Ottolenghi and others), Times guest chefs (I’m a subscriber), and various regional cuisines from Myrecipe and local equivalent worldwide (I need Indian, Canadian, Middle Eastern, vegan recipes in my life).

You can use the app to make your own notes, eg. Cooking time in your own oven, or specific spice mix you like, and also to capture recipes sent by friends and family.

I’ve used it for two years and it has really expanded my confidence, horizons and I can now look back at hundreds of dishes I’ve tried. It’s fab!

If you’re only looking for cook books, then I’d say:
-Nigel Slater, Real Fast Food
-Nigella Lawson, How to eat
-Simon Hopkinson, The Good Cook
-Jamie Oliver, any of his books if you need a confidence boost to get started, and
-Sami Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat to really understand the science of cooking in a fun, unpretentious way.

My next cook book will be the one of the Tray Bake ones, such a simple, genius idea.

Marguerite Patten's Every Day Cookbook.

I know it's old (1968) but has a huge variety of dishes and everything in it works.

We have far too many cook books - but this one is brilliant.

Oooh @Grumpyoldpersonwithcats I've got that as well, it has some crackers!

I use the bbc good food app and save my favourites. It's absolutely brilliant and my cooking has improve ten fold in the three years I've been on it.

Pinch of nom and Mary Berry quick cooking are also pretty good ones.

Nigella Bites and Madhur Jaffrey Simple Indian Cookery.

I don't have any cook books but have been using BBC good food for recipes and every meal has been a success. I don't normally have time for cooking so it's been refreshing to mix it up. Have been making everything from steak pie to fake aways to sizzling cod with veg. Also using Simply Cook which is great as well. Definitely going to try and cook more variety once we're back to normal. It's been a great relief from the monotony of lockdown!

Meera Sodha, and Anna Jones. Big flavours, easy to follow, and adaptable to what ingredients you have.

Showing my age here - Hamlin's all colour cookbook ...

www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/mary-berry/hamlyn-all-colour-cook-book/GOR000574367?keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr_eOrruX6QIVirHtCh1nuQ2YEAQYASABEgKvO_D_BwE

Between us, I think my Mum and I have made every single dish at some point!

Nigella’s How to Eat. I have a tattered, food spattered old copy that I bought when it was first published. It’s still my default when looking for inspiration and I have never had a recipe fail from it. I have a few others of hers that I dip into regularly with equal success but How To Eat is still ,my favourite.

I also quite like Tom Kerridge and the Hairy Bikers. Interested that people recommend Ottolenghi as I get stressed just reading the ingredients list!

Nigella Feast and Nigella Express are the two I keep coming back to.

Mumsnet hates Jamie Oliver but i find his recipes easy to follow - Save with Jamie and the Five ingredients one are great.

@LaurieMarlow what changed with the Meat - HFW ? You say it changed how you cook , I'm interested in a copy now ?

I'm surprised how few mention Mary Berry. For weekday supper dishes I think she is unbeatable. Try her Classic and Everyday books. Also like Lorraine Pascal.

@ sashh, that Jeni Wright M&S book is my favourite as well. We had a clearout about 15 years ago and it was taken to the charity shop by mistake. I then had to buy it back from Abe Books.
It's the only recipe I use for flapjacks

Not an ordinary cook book, but I bought my Mum Mary Berry's "Fast Cakes" for her birthday in 1981 unfortunately she died about a week before her birthday.
I have over the years tried 90% of the recipes in it they are all fabulously easy and delicious bakes. It was out of print for a while, but I believe it is available again, which is good as my copy is held together with copious amounts of sellotape.
I have all of Mary Berry's books, for cake recipes she is very hard to beat!

My all time favourite cook book is the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. It is so lush, and totally unfussy. She also has an amazing website which has reams of gorgeous recipes.

I love Fresh India by Meera Sodha - lovely Indian recipes, very straightforward and totally delicious.

I also love The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer. It’s all one tin recipes that are so easy and quick.

The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo has amazing recipes and is also just a beautiful book.