Which recipe book could you not live without?

[TheWorstWitch]

And why?
Looking for christmas present inspiration.
TIA

Nigella's Christmas is such fun to read and I also enjoy Domestic Goddess. I want to get one of the others too - I think I'll ask dh for 'how to eat' for my Christmas.

A kitchen is naked without Delia - so your friends/relatives will probably already have it!

I have a Good Housekeeping Book of Chocolate which is very good but I've had it for years so it probably isn't in print anymore.

Another vote for Katie Stewart's Times Cookbook.

And has no-one mentioned the Constance Spry Cookbook - oldfashioned and wonderful to read, and the recipes all truly work, though I only use the more basic ones as I don't generally need to construct a dinnerparty for royalty. It has also been my saviour on more than one occasion when presented with, for example, a dead chicken in its entirety, feathers, guts & all!

Not really any good as a present, but I love my Bero cook book. Myself and my two sisters taught ourselves to cook/bake using it and now I am using it to teach my dcs. Plus it is great for checking quantities etc against when I am baking and my brain won't work.

We love Delia Smith's ''How to cook series''
Her Green Thai Curry is always a winner here.

We also like John Burton Race's (cannot remember name) , but we adore his ''kids curry'' recipe , which is spicy potato and chicken .

River Cottage Family Cookbook
Nigel Slater's Real Food
The ABC of AWT
Annabel Karmel oh how I jest!!!!

Rachel Allen always does lovely books - nice meals which you would actually cook rather than fancy overcomplicated recipes that will always be left for another day/occasion.

I do like Nigella too, and many more but second the person who mentioned magazines. I'd love a gift subscription to one of the food mags. I miss getting delicious every month.

Sophie Grigson's vegetables book - really beautiful to look at and incredibly useful. Its probably the most used cook book in our kitchen.

Am I allowed another go?

I forgot to say that the recipe books I actually use most are the pback series that Sainsbury put out in the late 1980s/1990s - there's one called Marvellous Meals with Mince, a series on things like the Cooking of Provence, Normandy, Spain, the USA etc, and a set of 'Quick' ones (Curries is in regular use in the Gerbil household).

In the end, I'd scrap Delia, Nigella and all the others, if I actually had to rely on books to get meals on the table, and stick to these!

Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook and also her Ultimate Cake Book. Lots of everyday classic recipes which actually work, without obscure ingredients.

Another vote for Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion here. Fantastic book. It has all the basic stuff plus the more complicated things, little marginal notes about other ideas to do with recipes, and is wonderful when you look in your fridge, see something and think, OK, "what are some ideas to base a dish around that?".

I also like Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries for the chatty tone and the fact that it is ordered in a seasonal way, and the River Cottage Meat Book because it has a lot of really terrific recipes that are slam-dunk people pleasers (although I tend to need to tweak them a bit), but Stephanie's book is the one I would grab if the house was on fire. (It comes with a great matching hardback notebook too, that means that you can add other favourite recipes and have all your best recipes together in one place.

For fellow foodie friends, we used to get the Larousse Gastronomique (doorstop-like tome) as an alternative wedding gift to napkin rings or decanters. More reference than recipes, but very comprehensive.

Anything by Aussie chef Bill Grainger - easy to prepare, colourful, zingy, and healthy meals seem so easy. Also adapt well for kiddie meals.

And Gordon Ramsay's Sunday Lunch - everything comes out just like the pictures, no really!!

DH uses the Cooks Bible - complicated techniques with pictures for pastry and sauces etc which I haven't the patience for but he swears by.

I love Falling Cloudberries and actually cook a lot from it.
Nigel S Appetite is a standard for me.
Nigella How to Eat is useful but I don't rate Domestic Goddess. I don't think she recipe-tests and the recipes rarely work to the quantities she suggests.
I really don't think much of last year's biggie, Ripailles. I've used it a bit and it's a nice entertaining layout, but the recipes aren't that great.
At the moment I'm loving Vefa's Kitchen, which is a Greek cooking classic. The recipes are simple and useful, and there are lots of really good vegetable/vegetarian recipes.
Has anyone tried The Silver Spoon? Apparently an Italian classic - am thinking asking for it for Xmas. Verdict?

Wow! Thanks everyone.
It's actually a present for myself (when people ask what I want for Christmas).

I got the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book for Christmas last year and have found that to be indispensible, so wondered if there were any others out there. Seems like Delia wins hands down, but lots of other suggestions here which I'll note down for next year when people ask what I want for Christmas.

i love jamie, though when he says "feed 6" he actually means feeds 10.

hugh F-W is good but a leetle unreliable.

nigella is just irritating.

my grandad hearts delia.

but if ia had to choose 1 then i have an old good housekeeping one from the 70's that has EVERYTHING including dinner party plans!

ha! x-post for good housekeeping!

I have the silver spoon, but I don't think I've cooked anything from it. The recipes don't seem all that appealing.

I also use the Cook's Companion a lot, and I like Rose Levy Berenbaum's books for baking (although they are probably a bit unfashionable) and MFK Fisher for just reading about food.

Another vote for Katie Stewart (if any of her books are in print). Lots of simple recipes that don't require large numbers of expensive unusual ingredients plus useful advice on food and cooking technique.
DS1 (aged 22) is currently a keen fan of the Jamie Oliver app for his iPhone.

TheworstWitch, seriously, the only reason there are not more votes for Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion is that its Australian and so not very common in the UK. It is truly, truly wonderful. Read the amazon reviews! (although at lisianthus - I didn't get a notebook with mine...its 6 years old though)

The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson

It literally has 1001 recipes in it and if I ever need to find out how long to cook something for or get an idea for a way to cook a certain ingredient etc., you can pretty much guarantee it's in there. Also has diagrams on different cuts of meat, how to tell if a lobster is good (essential in my daily life, I find)and lists of French cooking terms.
Every kitchen shelf should have one!

Good Housekeeping / Delia / Dairy Cookbook / Mary Berry / Katie Stewart if you want reliable recipes which have ironed out the pitfalls.

If you're being more aspirational Nigel Slater is good for ideas but a bit vague for the inexperienced.

I'm always being asked this sort of question because I teach Food Tech / Home Economics.

Some recipe books are strong on glossy pics (which is helpful) but weak on accuracy ( which is not).

I also love the Usborne Beginner's Cookbook and most of their other cookery books for children (supposedly). Really well set out, good for quick ideas and definitely not just for children!

i LOVE the silver spoon! but the photos are a bit dodgy, so i can understand it's a bit off-putting.

Tamasin day lewis good tempered food
Leith's fish book or jane grigson's fish book
Another vote for nigel slater- his new book on seasonal veg is ace

Now, i could seriously start a thread on the really useless ones!

Delia is the one I've taken wherever I've lived...

Also the avoca books are great, especially if you're a heartwarming soup and yummy dessert type person!

This book I come back to over and over again too... Dairy Book of British Food

I would also second Rose Elliot's vegetarian meals in under 30 minutes and Madhur Jaffery's curry bible.

I use the Dairy Book of Home Cookery for everyday meals, and Cook With Jamie for the fancier stuff. If I could only save one from a housefire, it would be the Dairy book partly because I use it the most but also for sentimental reasons as my mum bought it for me when I first left home

I'm not much of a cookery book oollector, though, so I dunno how they stand up against the competition.

Please not Nigel Slater - we've just given our copy of the Kitchen Diaries to the charity shop, after yet another boring bland dish.

However, the best cookbook we have is called Living and Eating by John Pawson and Annie Bell. It looks a bit pretentious, but if you can get past that the recipes are all easy and taste amazing. It gets 4.5/5 on Amazon, and is truly a brilliant cookbook for every occasion.

I have lots, but it would have to be Delia if I was only allowed one.