Favourite Cook Book/Recipe/Food-related Site?

Jamfan · 05-03-2009 3:39am

Hi OP

Marguerite Patten FTW! The great woman herself - the original TV Chef - is still going strong, well into her 90s. Now, if this isn't a good advert for her cooking, I don't know what is! I don't have that particular book that you have myself, but I have 'Perfect Cooking', full of delightful 70s-retro cuisine.

Das Kitty · 09-03-2009 3:58pm

muckety wrote: »

I don't know if its still in print but the Good Housekeeping cookery book is great for everyday recipes and basics - all you need, really, though might be a bit old fashioned for some!

I have this, I robbed it from the Mammy when I moved out, she'd only looked at it once. It's fab as an all round cook book. It comes out with new editions every so often and is available.

I also got the Rachel Allen - Bake book at Christmas and I must say, everything I've made from it has been brilliant. I made a pasta bake yesterday and it was so fricking gorgeous I nearly died.

I do want to get the Delia Cookery Course, I taught myself to cook so there are still some gaps in my knowledge (I've only just figured out how to make scrambled egg so that it doesn't stick to the pot). I'd love to figure some new stuff out.

I have the Nigella Christmas one, but I reckon that she always puts in too many ingredients, I didn't make too much use of it to be honest.

I also have Darina's Irish Traditional Cooking one. Whilst it is good, it's sometimes hard to follow the recipes, I do swear by her White Soda Bread though. It's brilliant.

Miss No Name · 09-03-2009 4:47pm

I found an old Linda Mccarthy Winter Cookbook and have been using it for the last few months. I'm not normally a fan of her but i've tried out a lot of things from this book and have worked out great.
I got Deliah Smith how to cook part 3 by mistake and its was totally useless. Big flop.

MoveOn · 10-03-2009 12:28pm

"How to cook the perfect..." by Marcus Wareing is a fantastic book. The recipes vary from complex to very simple, but he shows totally new ways of cooking basic things that you've probably been doing for years and there really is a huge difference. It's the first cookbook I ever got where I made something in it that was so good that I just had to email the recipe to people just to try it! If you like authentic Italian cooking then "The Silver Spoon" is well worth buying, as long as you're prepared to lighten your purse to the tune of about €60. I got it as a Christmas present to myself. That was just my excuse though - I would have bought it anyway.

Don't think I have ANY dud cookbooks tbh - I tend to read them VERY thoroughly in the shop before making my purchase...

kerash · 10-03-2009 12:49pm

My first hand me down reference is the womans own 1975 ed Cook book!
It's great. And it's now pack full of single recipes I've collected through the years too, hand written and cut outs

I was a fan of Delia when I first got into cooking and baking but I found she made it unfun and a chore so I moved on!
My favourite is Nigella bites, but saying that - I've adapted,simplified and improved (to suit myself) lots of the recipes so they dont bare much resemblance to the originals :P
If I was going to purchase a book today I'd go for Jamie Oliver.

Magic Monkey · 10-03-2009 5:59pm

The Cook's Book - weighty, but contains nearly all the basics you'd need to know. Great layout, clear pictures and explanations. Highly recommended.

longshanks · 15-03-2009 4:51pm

MoveOn wrote: »

"How to cook the perfect..." by Marcus Wareing is a fantastic book. The recipes vary from complex to very simple, but he shows totally new ways of cooking basic things that you've probably been doing for years and there really is a huge difference. It's the first cookbook I ever got where I made something in it that was so good that I just had to email the recipe to people just to try it! If you like authentic Italian cooking then "The Silver Spoon" is well worth buying, as long as you're prepared to lighten your purse to the tune of about €60. I got it as a Christmas present to myself. That was just my excuse though - I would have bought it anyway.

Don't think I have ANY dud cookbooks tbh - I tend to read them VERY thoroughly in the shop before making my purchase...

i bought this on your recommendation. 23 euro delivered on amazon. there are recipes for everthing in it, its massive

yellowcurl · 15-03-2009 5:06pm

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.

Really great for beginners, simple dishes and clear instructions. My moms learning to cook from it at the moment and it's going really well!

MoveOn · 15-03-2009 11:41pm

longshanks wrote: »

i bought this on your recommendation. 23 euro delivered on amazon. there are recipes for everthing in it, its massive

Oooh pressure on me for my recommended book to deliver lol! I find it excellent. It was recommended to me by an Italian girl. By all accounts it's the Italian bible of cooking and has only recently been translated into english.

Hope you get loads out of it!

Das Kitty · 18-03-2009 10:28am

MoveOn wrote: »

Oooh pressure on me for my recommended book to deliver lol! I find it excellent. It was recommended to me by an Italian girl. By all accounts it's the Italian bible of cooking and has only recently been translated into english.

Hope you get loads out of it!

I've ordered it from play.com now for €25.

Looking forward to it!

Xiney · 18-03-2009 11:59am

The Joy of Cooking

For years (ages 17 - 22) it was the only cookbook I had. I catered my own wedding with help from it.

leahyl · 18-03-2009 2:59pm

yellowcurl wrote: »

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.

Really great for beginners, simple dishes and clear instructions. My moms learning to cook from it at the moment and it's going really well!

I got this from Amazon the other day cos a few people had recommended it on this thread! The recipes look really simple! Can't wait to try them properly - made the recipe for cookies - YUUUUM!:D

Sparks · 18-03-2009 3:49pm

Avoca 1 was good. Avoca 2 was rubbish. Bowl Food was good, Grill It was interesting and those two are in a line of similar books, but they share recipes so there's some overlap between Bowl Food and Fast Food, for example. But these (and a few others) are just recipe books.

For Cooking books, there's a different list

Chef School is excellent (not Farrow's book, but the coursebook from - I think - the Leith's course)
Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen is excellent.
Indulge is magnificant.
Crust is wonderful.
China Modern isn't half bad.

But my number one, all-time, I'd-throw-everything-else-out-bar-this, This-is-the-first-thing-I-would-ever-recommend cookbook, is not a cookbook, it's the Good Eats TV series from the states. The host, Alton Brown, has a fair few books out which try to do in book form what the show did/does in TV form, but the simple truth is that that's not possible. You can buy DVDs of the show, and they're also up on youtube. They don't just do a delia (ie. give a magic recipe to produce food from stuff), they explain why, in very easy to follow ways, you do what you do to produce food from stuff. Why can you cook lentils without soaking overnight? How do you do a pilaf? What's gluten? And so on. Which means that if you don't have exactly what's on the list for a delia recipe you can't make food, but if you don't have exactly what's on the list for a Good Eats recipe, you'll know whether or not you can use a substitute, what that substitute could be, and whether or not (and how) to change the cooking process to get the same end result.

About two-thirds of everything I learnt about cooking, I learnt from this nutjob. Can't recommend him highly enough. Especially to the geeky amongst us. I mean come on, the show has it's own nutritional anthropologist!

longshanks · 20-03-2009 1:06am

MoveOn wrote: »

Oooh pressure on me for my recommended book to deliver lol! I find it excellent. It was recommended to me by an Italian girl. By all accounts it's the Italian bible of cooking and has only recently been translated into english.

Hope you get loads out of it!

nah no pressure chief. its good though, the other day my neighbour caught a few trout and dropped me in one of those badboys. so i looked in the book and there's a few trout recipes. came home from the shops today with a bag of liver, looked in the book and there is a few liver recipes. decided to look up artichokes, there's a few artichoke recipes. its even got tongue recipes

alfalad · 03-06-2009 2:38pm

Ok first time poster in this forum and some interesting tips in different threads, but looking at the list of recommended books i don't see anything for BBQ season or is that cause there are no good BBQ books. Did see some good suggestions on the BBQ/Grilling thread but looking for a few more ideas! Time is short though cause cooking on sat!! Thanks in advance though people!

ValerieR · 07-06-2009 7:05am

lucylu wrote: »

I Love
Ballymaloe Cookery Course By Darina Allen

IMO, she tends to go overkill in some of the ingredients. However, I sometimes use it as a reference to do my own thing !

I find the series of "Australian Women's Weekly" brilliant. I have a few of their books and all the recipes I've tried have worked for me.

ValerieR

Paige Turner · 07-06-2009 11:26pm

Just moved into my own place (No more Mammy's Dinners!

) and bought "The Student Cookbook" - Hamlyn. It is brilliant. I am actually enjoying making real dinners. Everything is broken down and very easy to follow!

Munster Gal · 08-06-2009 9:06pm

I love The Tannery Restaurant so Paul Flynn's The Tannery Cookbook: An Irish Adventure With Food and Second Helpings: Further Irish Adventures With Food. I have 2 Good Housekeeping books which I use alot. I also have a couple of Bill Granger books which i dip into every now and then.

Twee. · 09-06-2009 3:13am

I recently borrowed my aunts' copy of Rachel Allen's "Food for Living" and it's really quite good. Made the flap jacks and Amaretti cake this weekend, both were lovely. Next stop- chocolate and vodka cocktails!
We also have all seven volumes of Robert Carrier's "Carrier's Kitchen". It has the recipes for EVERYTHING! My mam's had them for years and they get used all the time.

hotshots85 · 01-07-2009 2:54pm

Hey ,

Wondering if anyone can help, I am looking for a cook book but not for the recipes (if that's possible?) A good book that focuses on techniques , ingredients and understanding the mechanics of cooking as opposed to another book with tonnes of recipes

Any suggestions or experience out there?

the beer revolu · 01-07-2009 4:13pm

hotshots85 wrote: »

Hey ,

Wondering if anyone can help, I am looking for a cook book but not for the recipes (if that's possible?) A good book that focuses on techniques , ingredients and understanding the mechanics of cooking as opposed to another book with tonnes of recipes

Any suggestions or experience out there?

River Cottage Meat Book

(if it's meat youre into!)

Minder · 01-07-2009 5:29pm

Advanced Practical Cookery: A Textbook for Education and Industry by John Campbell. I must say I don't own a copy but have just ordered it. Apparently it's a bible textbook for the industry and Campbell has a couple of michelin stars to his name.

I'll post a brief review once it arrives.

mossy2 · 02-08-2009 8:31pm

hotshots85 wrote: »

Hey ,

Wondering if anyone can help, I am looking for a cook book but not for the recipes (if that's possible?) A good book that focuses on techniques , ingredients and understanding the mechanics of cooking as opposed to another book with tonnes of recipes

Any suggestions or experience out there?

Hello There

For techniques, background info on ingredients, basic sauces etc. I recommend the Readers Digest "New Cookery Year". It has some recipes as well but don't let that put you off.

On the main topic of the thread - favourite cook book- I would have to go with Nigel Slater.

Cleansheets · 21-08-2009 10:31am

The recipes include a variety of each baking staple: cakes, buns, crumbles, biscuits and breads and to my surprise and delight some baked meals too. I am not a prolific baker, but there is plenty of realistic inspiration and practical instruction in this book. There is plenty of choice for birthday parties, desserts for entertaining, picnic and lunch box treats, and even a wedding cake suggestion, in fact a familys' baking recipe needs are comprehensively provided for in this book.
Everything I have tried has worked, even the Vanilla Butter cream Icing which has challenged some I believe. Following the instructions to the letter, I have managed it twice, (it is delicious and worth the effort by the way.)
While I love kitchen shops my cupboard space is not limitless so I particularly like that owning 20cm tins (either sandwich or spring-form), and a loaf tin will enable you to cook all but 4 of the cake recipes. As you may never need to buy another book for cake recipes, it's even better not to have to buy another tin either!
Here are the recipes I have tried, I will be happy to use all again, for the ones I am looking forward to trying, see the index in its entirety! This brings me to my only criticism of the book the contents page lists only the "chapters" and not the recipes but the index is comprehensive but a little slower to search than a more complete contents page would have been.
Basic Cookie Recipe (and some of the variations)
Oat and Vanilla Shortbread Cookies (quick and really quite special little biscuits despite plain ingredients)
Lemon Cupcakes
Fairy Cakes
Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake
Lentil Dhal (a favourite for our weekly vegetarian night)
Baked Chicken with Lemon and Garlic ( a comforting dish with tasty brothy juices- in my oven the cooking time was a bit short so I have written in a note to leave it a liitle longer.)
Oh, and my mum tried the poppy seed cake - thankfully, while I was visiting (for the benefit of this review, I mean ;-)) it was yum too.
A definite thumbs up for this book which does exactly what it say on the cover simply, tastily and practically.

Sparks · 21-08-2009 2:49pm

I'm Just Here for the Food v2.0

This is the second edition of I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown. The first edition won the James Beard award in the US for best reference book. I'm somewhat at a loss to describe how good this is without hyperbole, but put it this way - if you wanted to get someone a book that would teach them how to cook, this is the book you'd get. Regardless of whether they're a college student about to move out of home without enough culinary skills to boil water, or whether they're a mom who's been cooking awful food for thirty years. It isn't just a collection of recipes - it's a book about the how and the why of cooking. Why do you beat egg yolks until they lighten in colour before using them for custards, and how does the colour change? How does food roast? Why do we sear meat instead of just boiling or roasting or stewing it?

I don't know if it's the one book I'd keep if I had to lose all the others (in fact, I'd probably go with my notebook if that was the criteria); but if I had to give someone just the one book on how to cook, this would be it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 23-08-2009 7:55pm

I've got a ton of cookery books and I have to say Bill Granger's are far and away the best, in my opinion. He's an Australian chef, who is completely self taught. He just travelled around the world learning about food and then opened his own restaurant. So there's nothing over complicated in any of his recipies and there's some really tasty stuff in there. The book Every Day is my favourite one, it's great for family cooking as it's all stuff that he cooks at home for his wife and 3 little kids.

Also someone mentioned the Australians Womans Weekly series. I have to agree they're great. They've got loads of different ones for practically every type of cooking you could ever want.

Flamed Diving · 24-08-2009 12:28pm

'Jamie at Home' by Jamie Oliver

The recipes are delicious and there is tonnes of info on the ingredients, such as how to grow your own, etc.

chillyvanilly · 24-08-2009 2:09pm

I have a lot of cookbooks, and I like them all because they are giving me a lot of ideas. But my favourite recipes, are the recipes I received from my grand mother.

duploelabs · 25-08-2009 11:10am

hotshots85 wrote: »

Hey ,

Wondering if anyone can help, I am looking for a cook book but not for the recipes (if that's possible?) A good book that focuses on techniques , ingredients and understanding the mechanics of cooking as opposed to another book with tonnes of recipes

Any suggestions or experience out there?

For techniques for fish Rick Stein's seafood is unsurpassed. Also I find Darina Allen's techniques in the Ballymaloe cookery school book pretty good too although as a poster mentioned earlier she goes a bit nuts on the ingredients

run_Forrest_run · 26-08-2009 9:13pm

I've never been one to use cook books and I was pretty unimaginative in terms of cooking I guess.
I bought Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and I must admit I love it. The dishes are so accessible and easy to cook. The range of dishes are excellent, from nice soups to easy desserts.

Favourite Cook Book/Recipe/Food-related Site?

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