What are your top five cook books?

[Cousinit]

I have been collecting cookery books for years and have around 250. I love them but I've run out of space so am in the process of getting rid of the ones I rarely use. There are some that I constantly use and never tire of, although coming up with a top 5 is difficult, I think the following would be on my list: How to Eat by Nigella, Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros, Every Grain of Rice by Fuschia Dunlop, Food from Plenty by Diana Henry and River Cottage Every Day. I also love Nigel Slater but it would be too difficult to choose just one of his books! Would love to have some recommendations for other indispensable books for when I've got some space on my shelves again

Stephanie alexanders cookbook - every Australian I know who can cook has it and it’s the only thing we got two of for our wedding ten years ago. Donna hays off the shelf for simple meals
Every day in the kitchen - Allan campion and Michelle Curtis
Women’s weekly beautiful biscuit book
Possibly bugialli on pasta for number 5. The others are all Australian, I’m not sure about the last.

• River Cottage Everyday - we actually had to rebuy this as it was so battered;
• Save with Jamie
• Hairy Bikers curry book
• How to be a Domestic Goddess
• Easy Barbeque

I discovered the Stephanie Alexander book when I lived in Australia. It's a huge tome that I refer to often but I'm ashamed to say I have cooked very little from it!

Delia complete cookery course - my copy is nearly 30 yrs old
Nigel slater real food
Hairy bikers curry book
Dan lepard short and sweet (baking)
River cottage every day

The Curry Guy by Dan Toombs. The initial prep takes a while but once done, you can have a takeaway-style curry in 20 minutes.
Amelia Freer - Cook, Nourish, Glow. Healthy recipes that aren't rabbit food.
Leith's Cookery Bible. I've had my copy for over 20 years
Comfort Food by Jamie Oliver

Everythingstaken I am finding it hard to reply without writing an essay but here you go, as briefly as possible:

River Cottage Every Day best recipes IMO are the baking and treats, especially pizza (best pizza dough recipe I've found anywhere), pancakes, chocolate cake, eggy bready pudding and ten minute choc chip cookies.

Nigella How to Eat I use as a reference and also like to read just for pleasure. All of the Christmas recipes are great and I often cook the one pan chicken, Greek Lamb stew and choc raspberry pudding.

Every Grain of Rice - Twice Cooked pork and ma po dou fu (gorgeous melt in the mouth vegetarian tofu dish) are my faves but everything I've cooked from this book has been amazing. I wish I could use it more often but fussy kids prevents that.

Apples for Jam is definitely my most used and loved book. I think I've cooked almost everything in it and it's hard to choose favourites. Nearly all of the recipes pass the taste test with my kids while keeping me and DH happy too. For me, it's the ultimate family friendly cook book. I also love Tessa Kiros' Finnish meatballs recipe (think IKEA meatballs but so much better) but that's in another of her books, Falling Cloudberries.

I highly recommend Food from Plenty by Diana Henry. She has an amazing talent for making everyday ingredients exotic and delicious and IMO this book is the best of hers for such recipes.

Laska all of your top 5 could have easily made it into my top 5 so I'm going to check out those two new books you suggest. I always enjoy Felicity Cloake's recipes in The Guardian.

The Asian vegan cookbook by hema parekh, the best veggie cookbook I’ve ever had.

Nigel slaters kitchen diaries- so many staples from here and the cake recipes are brilliant.

Nigella Lawson- feast. Don’t think of it as a favourite but it’s probably the book I use the most. She does very good puds.

The complete book of desserts by Ann seranne- bought secondhand, it’s the most comprehensive collection of desserts I’ve ever found. I make the fruit puddings (cobblers, auflauf, steamed puddings, apple cakes) all the time.

The 70s cordon bleu cookbooks- always pick these up in charity shops. The baking and dessert books are so, so reliable. Some of the savoury ones are a bit Abigail’s party though.

Honourable mentions for madhur jaffrey, the prashad cookbook, the wahaca Mexican everyday cookbook, Palestine on a plate by joudi kalla and the magnolia bakery books.

There are some great suggestions here. I also use the bbc website a lot too and it has just occurred to me mainly for Rick Stein recipes. Recently from the Road to Mexico series and Venice to Istanbul. They all turned out great but I have never bought any of his books. I will look at some of the Indian books suggested. I have the Gordon Ramsey one and it's not that good.

-Real Food by Nigel Slater. My favourite cookery book of all time, my dad gave it to me when I moved in with dp at 21 and I have cooked every recipe in that book!

• Good Housekeeping, New step by step cookery book. I use this one a lot for basics like pastry.
• Simple Indian by Atul Kochar , his home style chicken curry is amazing.
• Mum knows Best by the Hairy Bikers. Best Christmas ham ever!

-Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson, loads of useful every day stuff.

I love cookery books!

Thank you so much, Cousinit. I took Apples for Jam to bed with me last night and remembered how lovely it all looks. I'm going to start with that again first. Doing my menu plan later so will put in a couple of recipes.

I loved Every Grain of Rice when i was last cooking with it. Small children mean i have left it on the shelf. I'm going to get it down again. Especially as I still have some chinese ingredients I bought online especially for it that probably need eating up.

River Cottage Every Day - I'll start with the choc chip cookies! In the name of research, of course.

Nigella is coming down off the shelf too. She's on my top shelf which is actually a bad place for any cookbook as I don't often look up that high!

Thanks for taking the time to post. Really appreciate it.

I'm really enjoying this thread. Although I am having to read it sitting on my hands so that I don't press "buy with 1-click". I already bought Oh She Glows this week when I saw it was £4 on Amazon.......and that was before this thread started. I'm supposed to be abstaining from cookbooks as a new years resolution. It's hard!

Haha, you're welcome. I have also come away with a list of new books to buy. A dangerous thread indeed! That Asian Vegan cookbook sounds very good Bookworm.

It’s great, definitely my most used book (I am veggie though). The tofu recipes, curries, starters and noodle soups are best.

I am very tempted to get every grain of rice, having browsed it in the library. The recipes look really tasty- I love salty spicey food.

Nigella - How to eat and Feast are my go-to.

Madhur Jaffrey's ultimate curry bible is fabulous.

River cottage toddlers and babies cookbook was excellent when weaning my son.

The Dairy Diary cookbook. Bought by my beloved Nan in 2001. It's VERY dated, but if I need a basic, I know where to go!

I will be adding some to my collection from here though, particularly the Nigel Slater.

Another big fan of Food from Plenty by Diana Henry!

I also love Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros (prefer it marginally over Apples for Jam), Trattoria by Ursula Ferrigno, Family Food by Silvana Franco and lastly, my current favourite: Japaneasy by Tim Anderson

No way is this going to help you cull cookery books op!!

Bolshy completely agree about the 1970s cordon bleu books! My mother had a set and I spent hours as a child fantasising about the glamour which they represented. One birthday, my husband tracked them all down for me from Abe books and every morning for a while I had a parcel- really great present.

You're right that they're great for puddings (unbeatable lemon souffle) and baking but there's a reason why nobody pipes mashed potato into little roses any more. "Cooking from Abroad" always amuses me; and the Margot Leadbetter table setting on the front of "Memorable Meals"

My favourites change over time, but currently include:
Nigella Kitchen
Jamie's Dinners
Rick Stein from Venice to Istanbul
Hugh Veg Every Day (especially the soups)
Jamie 30-minute meals

I also love reading Felicity Cloake's Perfect series in the Guardian but have only tried two of the recipes and the flapjacks weren't very good.

1. Delia Smith's complete cookery course
2. Australia Women's Weekly Indian cooking
3. Nigel Slater Real Fast Food
4. Mary Berry's cake bible (not sure of proper name)
5. My own book full of written in recipes from various sources and recording family favourites.

I might have to have a look at those Cordon Bleu books. I know the ones you mean. They're always in secondhand shops. Just noticed that somebody else started a similar thread the other day in food/recipes if anyone wants some more recommendations for books to buy

Ooo sorry to be trouble op- I have apples for jam and haven't used it, do you have any favourites to recommend? ( I'll be trying the meatballs as I have cloudberries too)

My current, but ever changing, list

1. Nigel Slater Kitchen diaries
2. Valentine Warner the good table
3. Elvissa the Ibiza cookbook
4. Hairy bikers Christmas book
5. Veg everyday by hfw

Honourable mention to jewelled kitchen and made in India as they are favourites- only missing top spots because they aren't used quite as much as the others.

really hard. but probably:

1. Good Housekeeping Baking Bible - the recipes are simple classics, but so very reliable. Everything cooks perfectly first time.
2. Delia's Summer Collection - very 1990s with all the sun-dried tomatoes everywhere, but so many great family meals.
3. Nigella Express - really bloody easy quick stuff.
4. The Hairy Biker's Great Curries - totally weaned me off shop-bought pastes and powders. I'm sure it's not hugely authentic, but great familiar anglo-indian stuff.
5. Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour - This is new to me, so I haven't cooked much from this at all. However, I now live in a part of the world where I can't buy a decent lahmacun, and the lahmacun recipe in this book is so amazingly good that I'd have to have it my top 5 on that basis alone.

1. Good Housekeeping Cookery book from the 1980s. - Brilliant for all the basic "how to" recipes, but also some really tasty more interesting ones too - and they all work
2. Delia's Complete Cookery Course - similar to the above.
3. Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery - one of her first books but still unsurpassed
4. BBC Good Food 101 cakes & bakes - really good selection of straightforward baking ideas.
5. Hairy Bikers "How to lose weight etc". Their first diet book and you really don't know it's low cal food. The sweet and sour chicken and the korma are really good. Love their curry book and "mum's Know Best" too. The recipes are never over fussy or complex, really clear and they work.

For those of you who want to find older cook books, charity shops are great but you can also find them online at Amazon, ebay, Abe books, the Book Depository etc often for little more than the price of the postage. I have replaced worn out editions of Delia and Good Housekeeping by that route.

Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course.
Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess.
Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners.
Nigella Lawson How To Eat.
Nigel Slater's Meals in Minutes (I think it's called something else now).