What is your cooking/baking “bible”?

[Fluffyflipflop]

Hiya,

I’m on the hunt for a really good cookbook. Something that has all the classic dinner dishes plus puddings and baking.

I’ve never found a cookbook that can be my kitchen ‘bible’. Looking for a really solid, reliable all rounder that I can work my way through.

What cooking/baking book do you return to time after time?

Delia Smith complete cookery course,nothing comes near to it imo.

Delia plus Nigella ' Feast'. They are what I use most often.

I meant Delia’s Complete Cookery, not How To Cook.

Thank you so much for all the replies! Delia’s complete cook book is on vinted for £4 so I’m getting that pronto! I think she’s the one mentioned most often.

I like the sound of the sainsburys one and have enjoyed the sainsburys magazine recipes in the past.

Surprised not to see more Mary Berry.

Someone mentioned the internet. To be honest, I find the array of options on the internet overwhelming and never sure who to trust. Plus pop ups give me rage! 😂

I have heard really good things about "Dinner" by Nagi from the Recipe Tin Eats website

How to Eat.
How to be A Domestic Goddess.

Both Nigella

I’m not a delia fan either, though got given various of her books in 90s which I still have.
bbc good food magazine and website are what I have found most reliable - usually have relatively sensible ingredient lists.

This is the only book I still use quite often:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ginos-Pasta-Gino-DAcampo/dp/1856269752/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.D96JkZ6DuAU2hztyR90DaTcifmdp5gK3cxQRJJezWEc1qNEwsTvrVqgoveihL5f9ZSApxdoqR-u4fLqya9C1ZUrCme5mdZRDhs5bqWflLaV7llQG2zRhqNBgrILYMaalfdoc7lgOCmxxwlSZQL503lIEzQgOUd8MEDuGuLU8ujHSwrQ_GiEiaGkE6P3qBdZSLJukSCPqvF_fE9t_MdL5ScOF9-pnQyJ6sIZK_fb4Qq4.t48hS6baiZh6QtwT3W29o8Tmtpq5o4TlSYQSWdS-ZA8&dib_tag=se&qid=1721073159&refinements=p_27%3AGino+D%27Acampo&s=books&sr=1-2

Www.easypeasy-lemonsqueezy.co.uk

Superb for old fashioned recipes.

@Lollygaggle
I use Delia's cookery course for advice on a regular basis and agree that the Sainsbury's book is also an excellent reference work.
I like reading cookery books and getting ideas but like many others use the internet a lot now.

I have the dairy book of homecooking linked above. It us held together with gaffer tape, but is definitely my most used cookbook with Nigella's Feast a close second.
Saying that I'm mostly a chuck it in type of cook and only use recipes for baking.

There are two recommendations I agree on here,The Glasgow Cookbook and the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. My Mum (Scottish HE teacher) swears by the purple book (Glasgow), and I love that GH always has the most classic version of a recipe.

Honorable mentions to Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, I use JH's fruit book all the time. Those two never tried to simplify cooking for Brits and their cookbooks have stood the test of time.

Unlike Delia who I'd give multiple negative votes to. She overcomplicates things and she bastardises traditional foreign recipes to fit the fashions in Britain at the time she is writing. Her books are already dated and she really is not the person to learn to cook from.

Delia Smith but the Trullo cook book changed my life in terms of cooking tinned tomatoes. I have an Oliver Peyton baking book that I love and use all the time.

That's mine too. I've just realised I've had it since 1979! Everything is there and it's beautifully presented

Maddhur Jeffrey curry bible

For basics - Nigella - primarily her how to eat and how to be a domestic goddess.
I also think the Jamie Oliver ministry of food cookbook is a really good entry level one.
And I do love a bit of nigel slater; his a cooks book is excellent.

I have a really old copy of Delia's book which is my go to when I want to do something out of the ordinary.

I also love Nigel Slaters 'Real fast food'

I do use bbc good food website - for cake/sweet recipes mainly

Delia - always my ‘go to’ for everything from roasting meat, pastry, Yorkshire pud, minestrone - everything you could want.

I love baking and I like Mary Berry’s recipes for that, and I love Nigella’s books but Delia is the one I always go back to. They never fail.

Leith's Cookery Bible is my go to although personally also love Delia and many others.

Bero book of baking
Delia for me too.

Di have a flirt with Jamie and Nigela etc but got rid of all my cook books apart from DS ones and don't miss them. 2nd hand bookshop gave me £20 for them - I had to keep repeating in my head 'sunk cost fallacy' in order not to burst into tears.

I have my Mum’s 1970’s version of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It has pride of place in among about 40 different cookbooks.

I love it! There must be a 1000+ recipes in there. The book is battered and stained and fly over is long gone and the binding is falling apart but it has well used and well loved.

My Mum died a few years ago. There were a few things she hadn’t directly given me recipes for or she had given them to me but I lost them. And I found them in this book!!!

A taste of my childhood.

On a side note - if you buy second hand cookbooks, the good recipes are the ones with food stains on the page.

Delia for how to nail the basics.

Nigella for something fancy.

The Ballymaloe Cookery Course is brilliant, the book I use most often and check first if I want to make something new.

The sticky toffee pudding recipe is out of this world (but you’ll never find one in a restaurant that matches it, so it will sort of ruin STP as a dessert choice!).

www.wob.com/en-gb/books/darina-allen/darina-allen-s-ballymaloe-cookery-course/9780717143511?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIAn6Q0eefJ10bYfBDyLGkHAq&gclid=CjwKCAjwtNi0BhA1EiwAWZaANO-_gWw_dFo0UNTdOST21BW6BJrMYeg67l33zHjkPdu3eAmfMOe7ixoCYBQQAvD_BwE#GOR008943469

Was just going to add the Ballymaloe Cookery Course - subtitled the cookery bible. It is. This covers all bases with exception of trends and vegan/vegetarian.
All work well and are as the author would say - simply delicious.
Recently have liked Anna Jone's cooks as well

I have a massive collection of cookery books, the two most used are Delia's Complete Cookery Course and Nigella's How To Eat.

I have lots of more 'modern' books which do get used, but most use over the years from those two.

The Dairy Book of Home Cookery is my most used by far, to the extent that it's held together with sticky tape. My mum gave me my copy when I first moved out from home 30+ years ago. She's still got the original version that I remember leafing through for the fairy cake recipe when I was a child.

These days though I'm more likely to find recipes online. BBC Good Food is generally worth a look as you don't get the usual life-story first. The Guardian's "How to cook perfect..." column is also very good.