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TryingMyBest
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| Posted: Aug 17 2013 at 11:17am | IP Logged
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What's your favorite basic cookbook? I have a shelf full of cookbooks with recipes that don't work for our family of simple picky eaters. I'm a pretty basic cook as well but I am learning. I've debated getting Nourishing Traditions but know that I would never make some of her more radical recipes (liver, etc) and have some major philosophical issues with the Weston A. Price Foundation. As a soon to be SAHM, finances are concern and I want to avoid buying pricey seldom used ingredients.
The Joy of Cooking is often recommended as a good basic cookbook but it seems like there are different versions and I'm confused about which one would be best.
We lean towards a "real food" diet (or at least I aspire to that) and every once in awhile I flirt with Paleo.
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JodieLyn
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I really like The Good Houskeeping Cookbook. But I haven't bought a new one in a long time. I got it for my sister 16 years ago because of the newer cookbooks at that time it seemed to have the most from scratch cooking vs buying boxes and cans of stuff and combining them. The one I have is the 1970-something version. And we have my grandmother's copy which is 1940-something version.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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stefoodie
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I learned to cook as a newlywed from Julia Child's The Way to Cook. I guess it's not the best "basic cookbook" but I really did learn so much that I still apply the principles to this day.
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stef
mom to five
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CrunchyMom
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My favorite basic cookbook that I use all the time is The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.
If a recipe is there, I almost always use it with few exceptions. It lends itself well to a real or traditional foods approach with easy substitutions. My one caveat after many years using it alongside a TF lifestyle is I now find most of their desserts too sweet and almost always reduce the sugar with good results.
It has taken the place that the red plaid The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook had in my home growingup.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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guitarnan
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Have you considered test-driving cookbooks borrowed from your library? I do this all the time - check out the cookbook, bring it home, see what happens. If I make more than one recipe from the cookbook and get rave reviews, I buy a copy of the cookbook (hard copy or ebook) to keep. This has kept me from buying so many cookbooks that look good but won't work for my schedule or my family's tastes.
Having said that...I own about 100 cookbooks. My go-to favorites these days are Cheap! Fast! Good! and Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. I learned to cook with Sunset Easy Basics for Good Cooking (plus a lot of help from a Navy friend); there's a new version of this out, but I have not looked at it - I still have my original copy.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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anitamarie
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The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook is a classic. It has a wide variety of recipes from beginner on. It also has lots of pictures and explanations of techniques. My dd(12) has been using my copy to teach herself lots of new things this summer. She made a perfect pie crust on the first try with the recipe and technique in this book. I highly recommend it. Bon Apetit!
Anita
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CrunchyMom
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Better Homes and Gardens is good (though, some editions are better than others--my mother's old copy is much better than my own), and it is what my mother had in our kitchen growing up and what I always used as my go to until I got The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It is from the editors of Cook's Illustrated, and all the recipes are excellent, and I find them easier to convert with minor substitutions to a Real Food/Traditional Food style diet a la Nourishing Traditions. I rarely use NT recipes but will reference it occasionally for converting other recipes.
The illustrations are plentiful and very helpful, the instructions detailed, and I've never had a bad recipe. I have found that most of the desserts are now too sweet for us after years of cutting back on sugar, but I am able to reduce it without ill effect. If I could only have one cookbook (perish the thought  ), this would be it, hands down.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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Oops!  My ipad died as I was posting on the 17th, and I thought it hadn't posted at all. Didn't mean to post again about it
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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SallyT
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I second The Way to Cook. it was my trainer cookbook, too, and is still my go-to -- what I love is that it teaches basic recipes/techniques which can be tweaked, added to, embellished, etc. You learn one simple thing and then the ten things you can do with that one simple thing. It's a lifesaver -- and most of the food *can* be basic enough for picky eaters.
Sally
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SallyT
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I also really like the paleo cookbook Well Fed. Our strict paleo stage was pretty short-lived, but I still use that cookbook a lot. The recipes are really delicious, though often spicy and exotic (I just starve people in my house into eating whatever I put on the table, but sometimes it still doesn't work . . .). Anyway, it's a little pricey for what it is, and mine fell completely apart within months, so that I need to get it spiral bound, but I do really, really like it.
Sally
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CrunchyMom
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SallyT wrote:
I also really like the paleo cookbook Well Fed. Our strict paleo stage was pretty short-lived, but I still use that cookbook a lot. The recipes are really delicious, though often spicy and exotic (I just starve people in my house into eating whatever I put on the table, but sometimes it still doesn't work . . .). Anyway, it's a little pricey for what it is, and mine fell completely apart within months, so that I need to get it spiral bound, but I do really, really like it.
Sally |
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I like this book a lot, too. I don't know if it is still the case, but I also like that it came with the pdf so I can browse it on my ipad and print from the computer, like when I put together a binder for dh post baby with our basic recipes (like the mayonaise and chicken thighs and plate options from well fed). I like, too, that she lists ideas for possible substitutions and variations with each recipe. Scotch eggs is one of our winter favorites! 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Kristie 4
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My favourite cookbook to turn to for regular daily meals is The More With Less Cookbook. I almost always have everything in my cupboards for those recipes and there is a whole chapter on beans and lentils!
It is put out by MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) and those women know how to be thrifty!! They even have a great intro. extolling the virtues of conscientious eating to not be wasteful of food.
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Kristie in Canada
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Kristie 4
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Oh, the More With Less also has instructions for making different breads, granola, yogurt, canning, and your own homemade master mixes for baking.
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Kristie in Canada
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Cookbook Recommendations?
