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

everythingstaken123 - Enjoy! You must try in particular the Spanish chicken casserole and the charred butterflied leg of lamb. Both I have cooked multiple times. Also the watercress dauphinoise.

Keely- I haven't got the jo 5 ingredients but there was a long thread before Christmas where people were trying out recipes and loved it.

We got the JO 5 ingredients for Xmas. Dm bought it for DH as all the other blokes in the family asked for it so she assumed he'd like it too! Neither of us has even picked it up yet but I think I'm going to start with some of the baking from it with dd when she starts showing an interest. Sadly, neither of my dc have shown an interest in cooking yet.

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/foodandd_recipes/3028408-jamie-oliver-5-ingredients-quick-and-easy

For those with the Jamie Oliver 5 - here's a great thread to look over

Aethelthryth your post made me laugh out loud. I have started laying out all the serving dishes in the corner of the kitchen. If there's a dish I'm serving that's in the fridge, say, then I put out a plate to represent it. I then put post it notes on all of the dishes telling me what's supposed to be in there. If i was really anal, I could make the courses different colours. This then reminds me what I'm supposed to be serving because wine, age and sleeplessness do not mix well in my brain and I'm constantly finding things I've cooked and forgotten to serve. In fact, I'm pretty good at it without the wine.

keely79 i've made a note of all of those - thank you! It hasn't arrived yet sadly as now my DH will be home tomorrow and my secret will be found out.

mrsnec how old is your dd? with really little ones I find jam tarts are great because they can either roll them out and then fill or you can just get them to fill which is easy and quick so they don't lose interest. I also have one of those "child" knives in the shape of a sausage dog which is good for chopping. Feels quite sharp though so not for really small ones. If you spend a lot of time chopping though they can try and join in.

Ok - so have now ordered the Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients and the Apples for Jam. This is a very dangerous thread....

Adding more to my pile ...thanks!
My top five:

1. Annabelle Karmel - Baby & Toddler’ meal planner with the arrival of my DC I learnt to cook, and this was my very first steps. Still make her sticky salmon, leek & potato soup and honey & soy griddled chicken as firm family favourites

2. Jamie at Home my favourite of all his books (the 5 ingredients comes a very close 2nd) like how it is seasonally based, with home growing tips.

3. Nigella Christmas comes out every year without fail

4. Hugh FW River Cottage Veg everyday! useful in my attempts to be meat free for a few meals

5. Paul Hollywood How to Bake my aspirational book - would love to make so many of the recipes in here...

I love:
Delias winter and summer collections and christmas
Diana henry crazy water pickled lemons and others
Ottolenghi - but havent actually made much!
Nigellas domestic goddess is covered in sticky stuff
Nigel slater
Sabrina ghayour
Jamies 15 & 30 min meals for good quick ideas

For those who like an interesting read try middle eastern cookery by arto der haroutunion - lots of history of the area and how the food is all connected.

Dd is 3 and Ds will be 2 tomorrow. They play with their toy kitchen on a daily basis but when it comes to the 'big kitchen' all they want to do is raid the fridge and put things in the washing machine.

Dh and I sometimes cook together. He loves the pizza from JO's America book. He does the dough and I do the toppings. Kids aren't even interested in that. Jam tarts is a good idea though I will try that with them.

They are fuss pots too. They've never touched any of the AK recipes I cooked for them. I gave up.

Cooking and cookery books is mostly something for me at the moment.

I like Persiana, JOs 5 ingredients (his green spaghetti is fab u lous) and all Mary Berry stuff.

Delias Cookery Course was given to me for my 21st, and it's still well thumbed 21++++ years later!

Mary Berry . Love her. Simple recipes. No fancy ingredients like jamie oliver .
I often pop in charity shops and get myself a new book

Culled many, too many cookery books last year and got the 'library' of cookery books down to about 250......

Not a fan of either Jamie or Nigella (find JO books have many mistakes in them).

But do have every one of Gordon Ramsays, and love them. His Christmas book has been well used over the years, and the new one Ultimate fit food has some good recipes in. No matter what I may think of him his cooking is excellent and are my go to books.

I tend to have a quite a few obscure books, esp for Japanese cooking, and a few very old Mrs Beetons for real old fashioned cooking.

Sold quite a few of Keith Floyd's books and got a tidy sum for them, not a fan of Rick Stein though, but do have a couple of his books. Have got most of HFW books but they have become repetitive so stopped buying them

Prue Leiths Bible is in a sorry state, as are all of Delias. The French Laundry by Thomas Kelly is another fav.

Nose to tail cooking by Fergus Henderson has to have a mention.

Oh and recommend a Patisserie at home book by Mélanie Dupuis.

I could go on and on about cookery books, and have so many different types but its a lifetime of collecting them, sorry I have gone on havent I!

Wow, Toodamhottoday, I'm wondering how many you had to start with in order to whittle the collection down to 250! I agree with you on JO. I have had too many misses with his recipes over the years for me to trust him now. What Japanese books would you recommend? (obscure or otherwise...)

Loving this thread

Diva cooking - amazing party food and glam dinners, I'm always pulling this one out. Some of the roasted meat recipes are TO DIE FOR (just remembered the lamb in red wine soy sauce mint and garlic - yes def cooking that tomo)

Three sisters cookbook - I use this when I cook an Indian food feast - foolproof rice and spicy cabbage recipe I could eat all day

Cravings - Chrissy teigen , best Mac n cheese recipe and gloriously decadent grub. Not a diet recipe in sight.

The essential classics of Italian cooking - Marcella Hazan. Bought this before I moved to Italy on a recommendation, was initially put off by the lack of photos (I'm superficial!) but the recipes are so authentic and delicious. Best ever lasagne yummm

Have just ordered Ottolenghi Jerusalem, this is a dangerous thread indeed.

I was thinking I should really have put in Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course as that's the book that kicked off my cook book collecting and made me feel like I could actually cook something decent. The chicken and autumn vegetable pies are still a staple in our house. There are lots of good recipes though and it's a much nicer format than many of his other books.

This thread is really not doing me any good. I've now ordered Diva Cooking, bluesouper. It looks really nice.

On the plus side, i'm really enjoying getting out all my books and looking at ones I have that you mention and revisiting others on the way.

cousinit have you managed to cull any yet? Or just buy some more!

Yesss @everythingstaken123 enjoy. Also recommend the sunblush tomato pesto dip 😍😍😭😭

I have made a lot of the recipes from the Joe Wicks books. I don't know if they are classics like some of the books on this thread, but they are great for quick and healthy meals.

Right. Thanks to this thread I've just made my first dish from A Bird in the Hand; chicken with leeks, apples and cider. Really simple, relatively few ingredients, but utterly delicious. I'm hooked. Thank you!

High rotation in my house...

Thermomix, everyday cookbook.

Bill’s Italian Food. Bill Granger (anything Bill Granger actually)

Apples for Jam

Margaret Fulton’s encyclopedia of food and cookery, for classic old favourites

Amelia Freer. Cook, nourish, glow for my health conscious teenager

I have loads and loads of cookbooks, even though I try to cull them occasionally, but like the OP family cooking is whatever I can make reasonably quickly and know that the DC will eat.

The ones that I used the most are
A Bird in the Hand - Diana Henry. I bought this a couple of years ago with the intention of having a 'new recipe Thursday' most weeks. I got the DC to read through and put post it notes on things they were willing to try. Lots of her recipes are very popular with the whole family, my particular favourite is bourbon and marmalade drumsticks (I use thighs, but it still works. Her recipe is a bit heavy handed with the mustard, so I use about a third of what she says).

Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. This book is around 30 years old and I've made quite a lot of things in it. The ones that I make most often are black eyed beans with mushrooms and fried cabbage with peas.

The Irish Countrywomen's Association cookbook, there are a few of them, the one I have is the first one. The recipes are mixed quality because they are all by different people, but it's especially good for baking.

Delia Smith - I can't remember the exact title but it's a big one, the complete something or other. It's good for when I have an ingredient that I don't know what to do with, and it has the best pancake recipe.

I've just bought Fresh India and it's full of things that I like, so I'm planning to start trying out things from that soon (ish).

Off to amazon again...this thread is brilliant especially because most of the books are available for a quid plus postage!
I now have Bill Granger and Madhur Jeffrey in my basket!

I now have 3 Bill Granger books in my basket...I neeeeed them all right?!

Sabrina Ghayour could publish the contents of things she'd forgotten at the back of her freezer and I'd buy it and treasure it.

I've dozens of cook books and hers are the only ones that never fail me.

Yes finks100 of course you do

I love this thread!

So my top 5 at the moment are...

1. Marcus Wareing - How to Cook the Perfect. Bomb proof basics, including the best mash.

1. Felicity Cloaked - Perfect. Love the meatballs and chilli con carne recipes. Never had a failed Felicity receipe.

1. Meera Sodha - Fresh India. The Bhajis are massive favs in the house, along with the Dosa, which will be this year's tea for pancake Day.

1. Rick Stein - India. Love this book for the Butternut Squash receipe alone.

1. Angela Nguyen - Asian dumplings. Brilliant book for dim sum, samosas, momos etc.

It was really hard to pick but these are always close to hand.

I'm also a big fan of online blogs for receipt, and have three lever arch folders of print outs and magazine clippings.

For anyone a fan of FushiaDunlop, check out the blog The Mala Market, the author posts the most amazing Sichuan food: blog.themalamarket.com

Books that I also love but didn't make the list are:

• Thai Food: David Thompson
• the complete Asian Cookbook: Charmaine Sullivan
• The Dumpling Sisters: Amy and Julie Zhang
• Bread revolution

I do own Five Quarters and A Bird in the Hand but haven't cooked from them yet, think I'll have a leaf through them tonight.

I'm another non-fan of Jamie and Nigella. I don't have any books by them and doubt I ever will, although I do have the Nigella cherry Coke ham tucked away.

Now off to Amazon to do a little book perusing