"A cookbook is only as good as its poorest recipe"...Julia Child.
We love Cookbooks! Myrna and I have hundreds of cookbooks and cookbook leaflets between us. We have surprisingly few duplicates, but we share the others, often exchanging them at our regular coffeetimes.
My criteria for a cookbook is that the recipes "work", that they offer something new to try, and they not use too many convenience foods. Myrna likes old cookbooks too, but also likes to try new techniques and ingredients.
Too many "celebrity" cookbooks, where the authors don't have access to test kitchens, have recipes that can't be made successfully by cooks with a wide range of cooking skills. That's why new cooks should look first to basic cookbooks from Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Southern Living and the like. The entire goal of these "big" cookbooks was to teach basic cooking skills and give recipes that would be successful for most cooks, no matter their background.
Many of the older cookbooks we like, especially community cookbooks, have recipes contributed by women who were very experienced cooks, who cooked many more meals in a week than most housewives today, and they expected the reader to be equally experienced. Myrna and I often simplify instructions or give extra information when we share these recipes so that you will enjoy making them too. One of us has personally made every recipe we share, making notes and taking photos as we cook.
Here are some of the cookbooks we have mentioned in posts here:
Small Recipe Cookbooks
Other Cookbooks
100 Years of Downhome Cooking in Packwood250 Breads, Biscuits and Rolls
All About Home Baking from Swansdown Flour
Bake-Off Classics II - Pillsbury 1981
Bake Sale Favorites
Ball Canning Book, from 1937 to present
Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks
Basics and More Cook Book
Best of the Best from the Midwest
Better Homes and Gardens 75 Years of All-Time Favorites
Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Bread Recipes
Better Homes and Gardens Best Comfort Food
Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Baking Book
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 1960's
Better Homes and Gardens Red Plaid Cookbook 2010
Better Homes and Gardens Fresh Summer Desserts
Better Homes and Gardens Golden Treasury of Cooking
Better Homes and Gardens Good Food on a Budget
Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cookbook 1973
Better Homes and Gardens Hometown favorites
Better Homes and Gardens Old Fashioned Home Baking
Better Homes and Gardens Our Best Recipes
Better Homes and Gardens Step-by-Step Cook Book
Better Homes and Gardens Tasty Timesaving Cooking
Betty Crocker Cook Book
Betty Crocker's Cooky Book 1963
Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two
Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cook Book 1954
Betty Crocker's Perfect Baking Every Time
1971 Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library
Betty Crocker's Soups and Breads
Bon Appetit Keep It Simple
Brer Rabbit Book of Molasses Magic
Campbell's Cooking with Soup
Cheap. Fast. Good!
Cooking a La Heart
Cooking From Quilt Country
The Connoisseur's Choice Newsletters
Crisco Cooking
Delicious Desserts Made Easy
Deseret Recipes
Duncan Hines Holiday Spectacular
Everyday Food Magazine
Fannie Farmer Baking Book
Farm Journal Bread Cookbook
Farm Journal's Country Cookbook
Farm Journal Complete Pie Book
Farm Journal Country Fair Cookbook
Farm Journal Homemade Cookies
Farm Journal Thrifty Cook Book
Fan Fare
Fine Cooking Comfort Food
Fine Cooking Cookies Magazine
Fine Cooking Pies, Crisps and Cobblers
Fleischmann's "Best Ever Breads"
Gluten Free Made Simple
Gold Medal Cookies and Bars 2005
The Golden Treasury of Cooking 1973
Good Housekeeping's Book of Delectable Desserts
Grandma's Sunday Suppers
Home Baking with Robin Hood Flour
Iowa Power Holiday Cookbooks
Joy of Cooking
Kerr Kitchen Cook Book
Land O Lakes 75th Anniversary Cookbook
Land O Lakes Comfort Food
Land O Lakes Flavors of Spring
Land O Lakes Taste of Summer
Land O Lakes Treasury of Heritage Meals and Menus
Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Cooking
Library of Family Favorites
Make a Mix Cook Book
Martha White Southern Sampler
Martha White Southern Traditions
More-with-Less Cookbook
Norwegian Pioneer Cook Book
Our Daily Bread
Packwood Community Cookbook
Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese Cookbook
Pillsbury Casseroles
Pillsbury Down Home Cooking
Pillsbury Harvest Time Cookbook 1980
Pillsbury Simply From Scratch Vol 1-3
Practical Produce
Southern Living best comfort food recipes
Southern Living Big Book of Christmas Baking
Southern Living Christmas Cookbook 2008
Southern Living Our Best Recipes
Southern Living Our Best Recipes Volume 2 and 3
Southern Living Ultimate Cook Book
Taste of Home Summer's Best Recipes
Taste of Home Baking Book
Taste of Home Budget Suppers
Taste of Home Busy Family Favorites
Taste of Home Complete Guide to Country Cooking
Taste Of Home Recipe Card Collections
Taste of Home Recipe Card Collections 2002
Taste of Home Casseroles and One Dish Meals
Taste of Home Farmer's Market Cookbook
Taste of Home Recipe Book 1994
Taste of Home The Simple and Delicious Cookbook
The Essential Pasta Cookbook
The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving
The Casserole Cookbook..CAI
Treasured Recipes
Your Share ... Betty Crocker WW2
Congrats on your blog-mention from the Betty Crocker website!
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow cookbook aficionado, I very much appreciate you posting a list of favorite cookbooks. Looking at your list makes me wonder: do you know the books by Betsy Oppenneer? She has wonderful bread books. Also, a while back, I discovered a book by Mary Gubser titled America's Bread Book that I think you might really enjoy. I so agree, by the way, that the good books are those whose recipes have been well tested, and not those whose main positive is a celebrity name. I am glad to have discovered your blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips on the bread books. We are glad you found our blog also.
ReplyDeleteI wish that we could be neighbors! I also have lots of cookbooks. Notice I didn't say "too many". I wonder if it would be fun to set up a neighborhood cookbook library. I invited a small group of friends who also like to cook, to come and bring a dish that they wanted to try. It was easy to be truthful under those circumstances. They also each brought some of their favorite cookbooks along and we spent the afternoon perusing each others books. We also traded some and borrowed some. Understand why I would like to have you as neighbors? In the meantime, I enjoy your blog. Thanks....
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea! I think I might well pinch this idea and try to implement it with my friends. A cookbook swap sounds like great fun!
DeletePam
ReplyDeleteYou sound like our kind of neighbor. We are glad you found our blog. At least we can share some recipes with you and you might find a cookbook or two you would like to own
My mother had an old Erma Rombauer cookbook from pre-1950, and when she would get it out, we could see that it had been very heavily used, as the pages were spattered and brown splotched. She used to tell us kids that if we ever ran out of food we should drop that book in some boiling water and the remains of the splatters would make a soup that would feed us for a looong time! Some sense of humor, huh? I still treasure that book today, as she has been gone for 21 years.
ReplyDeleteWendy, That sound like a great cookbook to have. They are the very best kind. I also treasure the few I still have of my Moms and Grandmas.
ReplyDeleteThe old "Erma Rombauer" one is called the Joy of Cooking. I've had mine since 1953! So well used, I had to tape it together with Scotch Shipping tape!!!! I have many many too and have written and published some also. But still rely on those old 1950 ones! Dianne Evans, Waleska, GA
ReplyDeleteMy Joy of Cooking is also of that era. I use it a lot thought my favorite recipe is her recipe for baked custard cups which is the one I use the most often. What are the names of the ones you have published? Shipping tape works well for taping spines, as several of mine could attest to.
DeleteDiane,
DeleteMy husband and I lived in Augusta for several years, we both love Southern food, and certainly enjoyed it there; there were many good cooks at the hospital where I worked as a dietitian at the time.
And yes, our Joy of Cooking books are OLD and well-used...but mine is from 1963, not as old as your copy.