Please give me your recommendations for a really good beginners cookbook

[Happyasahedgehog]

I struggle with cooking. I've just followed a recipe for a quiche, I have 1/3rd of the "custard" left over because it would not all fit in the pastry case, I have no idea how much pastry I need for a 23cm flan dish, so guessed and made too much so ended up making jam tarts as well.
I forgot that pastry shrinks, so cut the pastry rounds out too small, so the jam tarts are now miniature, and the jam bubbled over.
I need an idiots guide, that tells me things other recipes books presume that I know. Like how much flour do I need to make enough pastry to line a xxcm flan dish!

I love cooking and have a massive cook book collection, but if I was starting out I’d look at YouTube. There are so many home cooks producing amazing and easy meals. It might be easier to watch someone than use a book.

I’ve stopped buying books now and just subscribe to interesting cooks on line. Also I love delia but she uses lots of ingredients. There are better starting books out there.

I disagree - Delia is great. Too many ingredients?! All her recipes are thoroughly tried and tested and she includes all steps clearly. Many don't and bloggers are the worst for this. She even explains where you might have gone wrong if something hasn't worked and gives variations for things.

Yes too many ingredients and a bit dated. As I say I have most of her books but there are better cooks out there now.

for very simple to start with cookery books - well I got junior cookery book (family circle) they have pictures at each stage of what things are suppose to look like!
Seriously kids cook books (ahem Amazon) are a good way to start for the very beginner (& if you managed a quiche you are doing OK) things like scone bases for pizzas
Also online - second hand - marks & spencers old cookery books - the budget one or the freezer one are my favourites

@Lucked

My two favourites were

Nigella’s How to Eat and Home Cook by Alistair Henry which appears to be out of print but there are used copies available via Amazon

Home Cook by Alastair Hendy was what I was going to say. There are some really good, more basic recipes in there and then some slightly more exotic ones but none of them is difficult and he explains really well. I'm a reasonably competent cook and baker but I come back to this book again and again.

Anything Delia is brilliant

Delia How to Cook!
It’s the best; it presumes nothing and gives so many useful tips. The recipes really work and some are just fantastic (chicken in a pot)

but there are better cooks out there now.

I disagree. There might be cooks who make different things from her, but better, no.

www.amazon.co.uk/Nosh-Busy-Mums-Dads-Cookbook/dp/0956746446?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This is perfect. It gives so much guidance including what you need, what measurements are etc. Plus there is alot of variety. It also gives a rough price guide for each recipe (although that might be out of date now).

Thank you very much for the recommendations, I'm off to the book shop tomorrow to have a look. The quiche was a little ambitious and I suffered from the dreaded "soggy bottom".
It was a dish that my Mum used to cook, sadly she died recently and I wanted to recreate some of her home cooking, she made it with carnation milk, bacon and eggs, I found a recipe online, but it wasn't entirely successful and that was using bought shortcrust pastry - Mum made her own, but never taught me how to cook, a mistake that I don't want to make with my own children.

Also look in charity shops. Cook books can be quite expensive but can often be found in charity shops.

The charity shop option is a good shout. It sounds funny but I look for the ones with stains on the pages. If I see splashes of food on a particular recipe, I know to try that one first.

I use the library a lot for cookbooks.

There is a very good Oxfam bookshop in town, I will head there and look for signs of "taste tested" in the form of stains on the cover.

Another vote for Delia here, and also Hugh F-W's River Cottage Family Cookbook. It's supposed to be for children but it's got some good recipes and beautifully simple instructions.

I've just sent a child off to university armed with a recipe book I made for him to include all the stuff he likes from home. I can tell you that writing recipes is bloody hard work, especially when everything is weighed and you're used to measuring by eye and intuition. Some recipe books use mugs and spoons for measures which is soooooo much easier than fannying about with scales. I found the Abel and Cole cookbook was quite good for that.

Did you use a glass or ceramic dish for your quiche? They've been responsible for many a soggy bottom. Try using a tin instead and you may have more success.
I'm sure Delia's website also gives advice on various subjects not just recipes.

@happyasahedgehog To avoid a soggy bottom with any flan containing liquid you might try baking the pastry base 'blind' before you add the filling. This means lining the tin (much better than ceramic/glass as metal conducts the heat quicker and more evenly so pastry will cook quicker and be more crispy. If you are going to try this you should chill the pastry in the tin in the fridge to allow the pastry to relax or when you cook it the sides will shrink and you'll have nowhere to put your lovely filling

Nosh student cookbook is a good starting point for if you haven't cooked before and is budget friendly on ingredients

I think you should give yourself points for using left over pastry to make jam tarts ! Theres nearly always some pastry left over when making pies and quiches. Watch cooking programs on TV and youtube as well.

I cooked in the quiche in a ceramic flan dish, I don't have a flan tin, maybe I need to get one! My Mum used to cook her pastry with greaseproof paper inside and dried peas, so I think she blind baked the flan case. I think that I should have tried something less ambitious.

@bilbodog

I think you should give yourself points for using left over pastry to make jam tarts ! Theres nearly always some pastry left over when making pies and quiches. Watch cooking programs on TV and youtube as well.

Thank you, I hate waste, hence the jam tarts.

If anyone has a recipe for trifle, the old fashioned type that my Mum used to make every Christmas, I remember that it had sliced swiss roll at the bottom, a glug of sherry, then jelly with tinned fruit, then custard on the top, but I don't know how much jelly or how much custard and how do you stop the custard from melting the jelly?
I know that I am comfort cooking, as opposed to comfort eating, as I have recently lost my Mum and so I have also lost all her wonderful home cooking that I loved.

You let the jelly set before you do the custard, and let the custard cool before you put it on. You have to keep stirring the custard so it doesn't get a skin.

As for how much, well it sort of depends on the size of the bowl you're making it in. However, there's not much that can go wrong with a trifle! Just experiment. If there's too much/not enough jelly or whatever the first time, then change it the next time but I'm pretty sure nobody is going to complain that the trifle is wrong. It'll still be a delicious trifle.

Maybe start with one jelly and about a pint of custard?

Don't put pineapple in it though. It stops the jelly setting.

Stir the custard while it cools, that is.

Also, sorry that you lost your mum OP.