Which recipe book could you not live without?

[TheWorstWitch]

And why?
Looking for christmas present inspiration.
TIA

i second nigella's how to eat. came out while she was still better known for her food than her finger sucking and is a brill kitchen standard. here, that mix of priviledged and down to earth works.

i also use delia (just ordered her new christmas book from the book people - they have such good deals. dh not impressed by another cookbook. didn't mention the cupcake one i've also bought but £4.99 for the book and a dozen silicon cupcake cases - mad not to. but i digress) and jamie but one of our best is
'just like mother used to make' tom norrington-davies for great crowd pleasers. I swear his chicken soup, if you make it once, you'll be making it for the rest of your life.

This book is also wonderful, especially for anyone who grows their own:

here

Delia

Nigel Slater's 30 minute cook. Simple, easy, quick, yummy.

ooh that does look nice bellabonjovi but will i get garden envy reading it? i don't want anything bile inducing under the tree.
dh does grow in our small patch but nigel slater doesn't half get on my nerves with his fancy over designed garden.

there are a few of slater's 30 min recipes i know by heart and are regulars we fall back on. it is good. i have to admit. again, have just bought both his real fast food and real fast puds in a bundle from the book people (i don't work for them, just did order that's all) for a fiver or so. good chirstmas pressie!

My 2 favourites are:
1 'Please don't feed the bears' which is a brillant vegan cook book with recommended death metal tracks to listen to as well as hilarious short stories

and 2

Anything by Rose Elliot' especially 'Vegetarian Express' which does really quick tasty stuff including great puddings and cakes.

Not very helpful for the OP, but the MN recipes sections has really grown on me.

The recipes tend to work. Compared to the 'proper' versions, they tend to have fewer steps and fewer ingredients. I guess people get lazy typing - but less work suits me!

i had to check that existed upahill now i know it does! i'm going to get it for someone for christmas if it kills me. there aren't enough book books featuring pictures of drowned, dead bodies (and, no i'm not counting all the roast chicken recipes, i confess). ooh, i'm thinking my smil

I have almost every book mentioned here but for some reason don't have Nigellas how to eat!! Off I hop to amazon!

The book I use most is Nigella Domestic Goddess, don't rate Feast but for every day meals Ministry of Food is fab- definitely Jamie Olivers best book.

I also use the Dairy Book of home cookery and a big Good Housekeeping book for basic things like when i forget how to make Yorkshire pudding and pot roasts etc.

Oooh I love cookery books!

Would I lie to you gatheringstones? The book is ace! Here is an example Hot Damn Tamale Pie- a fantastic pie made with kidney beans . Recommended music is Infernal Death - Incarnation of the gates (1989) or how about 'Don't tread on my tofu loaf' listen to Milita Regeiments of death (demo)

Fantastic drawings as well!!

Sarah Raven is very down to earth, gatheringstones - she advocates growing salads in lengths of guttering

Really is a lovely book, honest

I like the New Jamie Oliver in America one,
and Sophie Dahl's is gorgeous - makes a great gift

Oh god, toughie:

For basic home stuff has to be Delia's Complete Cookery Collection (as bucharest says, the one with the red jumper!)

How to Eat by Nigella is a really wonderful read, and she writes for cooks rather than chefs so much much more useful than Ramsay/Rhodes/Wozza etc.

As a Christmas present, Nigella's Christmas is topical and actually has a surprising number of dishes that can be made any time of the year. It's also got lovely photography so a really good present.

None of the recipes in Rick Stein's Meditteranean Escapes have yet failed - every single one we've tried has been delicious. It's definitely not just fish either despite being Stein - lots of meat and veg dishes.

I also love Jane Grigson's English Food - both Nigella and Delia copy her roast dinner timings and her Yorkshire puds are guaranteed to rise loads every time. It's particularly interesting I find because it has less well known old-fashioned or regional things in as well as the traditional basics.

Lindsey Bareham's A Celebration of Soup is the absolute bible on soup as far as I can tell. Even has a chapter on accompaniments such as bread etc.

I only have the latter two in non-illustrated paperback, so while great books they might not be so 'special' as presents IYSWIM.

Delia Smith's complete cookery course old school emoticon - the one with the brown cover and Delia in a red top. My mum bought it me when I moved in with my boyfriend (now DH) and it has been invaluable. It is tatty and the spine is really cracked, but it is fab.

I love all Nigella books (esp Feast) however rarely cook from them, they are more for bedtime reading.

Nigel Slater used a lot in this house, the recipes are very simple and no nonsense.

My one I couldn't live without is Camellia Panjabi's Curries of India, brilliantly written and essential as I cook curry about 4 times a week and refer to this always. Best recipes for curry I have seen, specifically vindaloo and lamb shank korma. Also very interesting re information about spices and history of ayervedic food principles.

Cannot bear Jamie Oliver's books, I have a couple but they are a waste of shelf space.

I love baking so Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess is wonderful. I also like like Rachel Allen's books but strangely find her enormously irritating on TV. Jamie's Ministry of Food book is also great for novice cooks.

Another one with hundreds of cookery books here...

Best for staples (cake recipes that will never fail, etc): Katy Stewart's Times Cookery Book - my entire extended family of aunts all cook by it and I always go to it first. Also has - oddly - a superb recipe for Gazpacho that people always think must have come from spain.

Best for family cooking/best newish book: The New Kitchen Revolution by Rosie Sykes (and some other people). Lots of lovely suppers which only take 30 min

Book which I could not live without: The Eagle Cookbook - I paid an insane amount for mine on eBay (they never come up because no one wants to get rid of them as the recipes are soooo delicious). But it's being reissued for Christmas.

Best for Cakes and Biscuits - Good Housekeeping Cookery Course c1954. Should cost pennies on Abebooks, but brilliant for baking. Less good for advice on making mock cream out of milk, marge and arrowroot.

The Hairy Bikers books are really good.

Also, this is a fabulous one from the Campaign for Real Ale site.

Some of the recipes use beer as an ingredient and some just suggest which might go well with the dish.

The beer batter for fish is gorgeous!

Nigel Slater - the 30 minute series are a brilliant selection of ideas that can be made fast. Moro and Nigella.

Marguerite Patten's Every Day Cook Book. I have learned to cook many marvellous disches from scratch from this book - it's long out of print though, and like gold dust on eBay!

Cranks Fast Food - vegetarian food in 30 mins. The kind of vegetarian food you can give to meat-eaters who insist a meal isn't a meal without meat, and they don't realise that it's vegetarian. The only book where I cook loads and loads of the recipes all the time.

Here it is.

Oh, and this is a beautiful beautiful book although I don't actually cook much from it!

Cloudberries.

Another one of those part ethonography / family history / cookery things.

i agree with wigeon
falling cloudberries
is beautiful but not v well written or v useful at that.

best for presents, i'd say:

arabesque - claudia roden (abs classic)
crazy water and pickled lemons - diana henry (amazing, beautiful)
my favourite ingrediants - skye gyngell (not bulky, quite conoisseur but good so far