What is your favourite cookbook?

[Creepyrosemary]

I really need some inspiration for new recipes, could you please tell me what your favourite cookbook is?

My past favourites are The quick roasting tin and Comptoir Libanais.

Any Diana Henry or Darina Allen. Also Rachel Roddy.

Mexico One Plate at a Time, by Rick Bayless;
New York Times Cookbook, by Craig Claiborne;
The Settlement Cookbook, by Lizzie Black Kander;
5 Spices, 50 Dishes, by Ruta Kahate;
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child;
The Breath of a Wok, by Richardson and Young;
Feast, and How to be a Domestic Goddess, both by Nigella Lawson.

Also, Lidia's Italian Table, by Lidia Bastianich.

Wow, can I come over for dinner!!?

I'm so jealous. I've just had to cull mine after running out of space. Thankfully, the Kindle has plenty of room remaining 😂

Bosh Boys book - it engages the kids the most. I have cooked most of the recipes which makes it brilliant value considering that I have barely touched others like Mildred's and Wahaca. It isn't even a book which I would have chose myself so it just goes to show how tastes change through the generations.

I have so many cookbooks and tend to have favourite recipes that I go back to in each depending on the season.. especially those from Moro , Ottolenghi and Honey and Co but the one I bought recently which I have made more recipes than most - and currently keep going back to - is Indian Express by Rukmini Iyer ..

I love all the Ottolenghi books and Sabrina Ghayour.

If you like Indian food, Maunika Gowardhan's app is brilliant. She also has recipe books, but I always go back to the app.

I have never cooked anything from my Ottolenghi book. I love the sound of many recipes but I find it strictly coffee table rather than kitchen.

If I had to cull all my books and could only keep one then it would be Diana Henry “Simple”, but anything by her or Ixta Belfrage would be up there.

I love all of the Jessica Elliot Dennison books but never see them mentioned. Every single recipe I've made of hers has entered our regular rotation! I think she's done three - Tin Can Magic, Lazy Baking and Salad Feasts(?)

Tin Can Magic is where I'd start if I had to pick one!

We have far too many cookbooks, but my go-to for anything basic (meat cooking times, pastry, batter, biscuits etc) is Marguerite Patten's Everyday Cookbook from 1968 Everything in it actually works spot on first time.

Oh if we're allowed as many as we like...

Both Alison Roman books
Any Diana Henry book (except A bird in the hand, where I love the book and the recipes but the index is hilariously useless with everything categorised under "chicken" - yeah no shit, it's a cookbook only for chicken!)
Fuschia Dunlop Every Grain of Rice (the home cooking one) - have used this so much the spine has fallen off)
Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food - controversial to choose a JO one but this was my gateway into british home cooking and the spine has fallen off this one too
Ottolenghi Jerusalem and OTK Shelf Love
Marcella Hazan the essentials of Italian Cooking
Nigella How to Eat (but none of her others, for some reason)

I used to cook out of Nigel Slater all the time - Appetite, Greenfeast etc but I haven't in a while. Need to pull those out again.

Funny how some books just work for you and some don't eg. the Roasting Tin books never have worked for me, timings off, too bland/stodgy. Also other books just work at particular times/places in your life, eg. I use the Barefoot Contessa books and Chez Panisse books loads when I'm in the USA, but they just don't work here - any recipe that requires live lobsters, 1.5lbs of shrimp (£££), or tomatillos or dungeness crab or fresh sweetcorn all year round isn't going to work in the UK as well as in the USA!

@Xiaoxiong ”Fuschia Dunlop Every Grain of Rice (the home cooking one) - have used this so much the spine has fallen off)” Me too! Brilliant recipes and very informative.

@Xiaoxiong

Oh if we're allowed as many as we like...

It's the internet, anything goes!

And thank you.

I'm another with 500 plus cookbooks. They are my hobby. In narrowing down my 5 desert island cookbooks, I've come to these

1. Nigel slaters kitchen diaries- yes he is pretentious and near insufferably posh, but that's part of the charm and paired with beautiful writing , an almost unmatched camp quality , gorgeous photography and incredibly reliable recipes , it all cumulates to be my absolute favourite cookbook. The bolognaise including chicken livers taught me that sometimes the inclusion of an unliked ingredient can make magic. That alone is / was a lesson in taste.
2. Fire island by Eleanor ford - absolutely alien and exotic but also completely achievable recipes that always deliver (her nutmeg trails also make a close runner up)

The turmeric pork belly is an absolute showstopper and that's not to mention the rendang!

1. Simply by Sabrina ghayor- unpopular opinion but I find her recipes equal to, and more reliably tested than ottolenghi. All of her books deliver, and in this one she manages to deliver outstanding flavour with minimal effort and few dishes afterwards. My daughters favourite lemon chicken is from this book and she asks for it whenever she's asked what she wants for dinner.
2. One pot pan planet Anna jones- this gained its place as a rare vegetarian book that so captures my family that we fail to notice its vegetarian. The herb scones particularly are a recipe that I have made over and again.
3. Home food by olia herciles- another writer who's writing is as beautiful as her food but this book particularly is so much personal and with such wonderful recipes as to render it indispensable in my kitchen. She has a chicken papa ricks and fried potatoes that is easily the most simple but most favoured meal I ever make for my family

OK here goes!

I like Nigella and think that her Nigella Bites book is one of her better ones, and underrated. Feast is also good, and I think she went downhill or should have stopped after this.

The Silver Palate Cookbook and the New Basics Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. American, all the recipes work, great bread, granola, salads, stews.

Indian food - for midweek cooking, Anjum Anand, good old Madhur Jaffrey. Oh and Pat Chapman’s 250 Curries and his Indian Restaurant Curry Cookbook. For a treat, and food taken to the next level, the Cinnamon Club book and one written by one of the former chefs there.

Baking - I’ve got lots of amazing American books. Snacking Cakes is great for small cakes and muffins to take into the office. Ditto Fat Witch books.

I love, love Nigel Slater, his recipes, his writing and his cat. I’ve got an old Hungarian cook book which my aunt gave me, which she conceded was reasonably authentic but whatever I made wouldn’t taste as good as her or Ildiko’s cooking! Also some old books like Trex and the Jimmy Young cook book, that I used with my mother when I was a child. The Williams Sonoma cookbooks are lovely and as cheap as chips secondhand from Amazon. There are more! I’ll ponder further!

Salt Fat Acid Heat - explains the reason why cooking methods work. It's incredible for upping your ability and understanding how to cook.

Jack Fruit and Blue Ginger - brilliant vegetarian Asian food from Vietnam to China.

I have a mere 90 cookbooks.

My favourite tends to be the last one I bought (Persiana Everyday at the mo), but the old ones I keep going back to are the various Hairy Bikers. Many different cuisines, always reliable.

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Delia Smith - Summer Collection
Lots of lovely recipes and reminds me of sunny hot summer days.