Culinary bibles

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and could only take one cookbook, what would it be?

My collection numbers somewhere in the thousands at this point -- I've long since lost track, and its state of organization leaves lots to be desired, but I've no doubt which book I would reach for, since it's the first cookbook I always reach for:

The Doubleday Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna.

This is a massive compendium of recipes and cooking information, and it's the book I always reach for first when I'm looking for a recipe, want to check on the seasonality of produce or bone up on a basic technique. Besides American and European basics, it contains a surprising number of ethnic recipes as well.

This was the first cookbook I bought as a new bride, and it's the only one I keep for reference at my office. It really is my culinary bible. Although it covers much of the same ground as the better known Joy of Cooking, I like the way the recipes are written and the way the information is conveyed better than in that idiosyncratic work (and I really dislike the posthumous update of that book, The New Joy of Cooking).

If I could take two cookbooks, the second one would likely be The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook by Anne London and Bertha Kahn Bishov.

This is partly a sentimental choice, since my copy was my mother's and served her in much the same role that the Doubleday book serves me (although she used it much less -- my mom hated cooking), and it contains a variety of favorite dishes from my childhood. It's a good all-around cookbook with a Jewish slant. I have more exhaustive and erudite books on Jewish cooking, but I always find myself returning to this one.

Is there a food market on the island?

Ask me a year from now and my answer would change but here are the books I would take:

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child

The Cuisines of Mexico, Diana Kennedy

Essentials of Modern Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan

How to Eat, Nigella Lawson

It's All American Food, David Rosengarten

Japanese Cooking, Shizuo Tsuji

Libro de Oro de la Cocina Hebrea (The Golden Book of Jewish Cooking), Rosa Landau. This is probably the only book unfamilar to all of you. It was writtten in the 1973 by a Jewish woman in Mexico City. If you really put a gun to my head and forced me to pick just one book from this list, it would be this treasure. It has a depth, breadth, and "tam" for Jewish cooking unlike any other book I've seen. It also has all kinds of great Mexican, European, and American recipes. It's like this incredible home cook put her entire recipe box into a book.

Bill/SFNM wrote:Libro de Oro de la Cocina Hebrea (The Golden Book of Jewish Cooking), Rosa Landau. This is probably the only book unfamilar to all of you. It was writtten in the 1973 by a Jewish woman in Mexico City. If you really put a gun to my head and forced me to pick just one book from this list, it would be this treasure. It has a depth, breadth, and "tam" for Jewish cooking unlike any other book I've seen. It also has all kinds of great Mexican, European, and American recipes. It's like this incredible home cook put her entire recipe box into a book.

Oy, I want a copy! Can you supply the publisher. etc.? A web search turns up nothing about this book, so it's going to have go to the used-book search.

Laz, the book was published by Editorial Tradicion in Mexico City in 1973. I don't think it has been republished. When I was living in Mexico, I witnessed discussions about who was going to inherit an elder's copy of the book and intense arguments about a borrowed copy that was never returned. I do know people who have photocopied versions. Our copy is falling apart and I'm thinking of spending a few days one of these years scanning it in.

You do understand the book is in Spanish? Also, since it is written for Mexico City, the baking recipes are formulated for 7200 feet above sea level (what is the altitude of the desert island? ), which works well here in Santa Fe at 7000 feet. The book has the worst index I have ever seen. There have been times I have looked all over for a recipe I know is in there and haven't been able to find it. If I scan and OCR it, I'll be able to make my own index.

Bill/SFNM

LAZ,

You seem to have read my mind. Last evening I was perusing my cookbooks for some guidance, and started wondering to myself what books LTHers find themselves returning to time and time again.

If I was limited to one book, it would definitely be Joy of Cooking. I have both versions of it as there are a couple of recipes in the old book that were not included in the new book. However, my preference is the new book as I love their discussion of some of the basic ethinic recipes and the people with whom they consulted on these.

Kim

I too couldn't live without my Joy -- an '80s edition before they dumbed it down.

On a desert isle, it would be practical, as it has instructions to clean fish and critters, as well as serving as a blunt instrument for cracking shells.

OK, it's not the heaviest cookbook I have by a large number, but it's a nice handy thick tome.

Now, if I was stranded on a desert isle with a couple decent markets and I needed to throw a cocktail party for 30 with just one cookbook, I'd probably go for Martha Stewart's appetizers book. Yes, some of the preparations are ridiculously long, but it at least is a book of more than just straight recipes, it guides toward ideas.

Other favorites: "Under Wraps" (can't recall the author just now), several Sheila Lukins books (Around the USA, Around the World), "Turn it Up"...

If you asked Mrs. F, it would be a bread book. She's got dozens.

i'm a big fan of the moosewood cookbooks. seems (once i slightly doctor) the recipes always execute great, and they're healthy, to boot. of course, that might mean that i'm just a rotten cook, but with the amount of cooking i've done over that last 20 years or so, i'm going to hope to G-d that that's not true.

as for getting a copy of Libro de Oro de la Cocina Hebrea, the thought occurred to me that you might want to put a positing on http://www.chowhound.com/boards/kosher/kosher.html. not sure if i've breached any taboos by referencing/suggesting CH. my most humble apologies if i have.

I don't really follow recipes a whole lot, beyond initial guidance; my one go-to book has been David Joachim's "Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions," a miniature encyclopedia of everything I've ever had to deal with (proportions for brines, storage tips, prep descriptions, etc). It's exactly what a good food reference needs to be.

link to the book

Edited AGAIN hoping it actually shortens the URL

Leah,

As alluded to by Bill, the deserted island premise is a bit faulty for what I assume is your desired conclusion. I believe what you would like to know is "if the house were on fire and you could save only one of your cookbooks, what would that be?" However, that would also beg the question, whether you consider all of your cookbooks replacable after a catastrophe. How about the house on fire; replacable or not, notwithstanding? O.K., now I have some thoughts:

For the island, forget what you have in your collections, I need anything in the way of a Tom Brown survival guide that not only teaches preparation, but handmade snares, traps, signs of various forms of intoxicants.

For the irreplaceable, a small German cookbook owned by my grandmother, or the First Presbyterian Women's Circle Cookbook, 1972. At a pig roast a few weeks ago, several old neighbors brought bars and cakes from the community receipes of my youth. Mrs. Jensema's torte, Hattie's bars, and an all time favorite, Cemetary cake.

As for the last category, I'm with Bob. I don't use many receipes so a technical book would be better. I have a few, the last read is "What Einstein Told His Cook.

pd

PD,is the Tom Brown guide similiar to what you might find on survival.com,Euell Gibbons books or the long gone Anerican Survival Guide/Self Reliance Journal?

Hattyn,

You can read all about Tom Brown with a simple search for Tom Brown Survival. However, yes, Tom is a prolific writer that also teaches wilderness survival classes. Here is a link to his school http://www.trackerschool.com/

I would tell you more about my survival experiences, but then I don't like to get too personal with someone I may have to gut and use their carcass as a shield against the bitter cold. Keep up the Jack Daniels though, it makes your skin leathery and is a great preservative.


pd

Right now I cannot afford Boone's Farm much less Jack Daniels.But when I can look for me on a park bench with a brown paper bag.

Sorry to hear that, but since you are more attached to your valuables...in the spirit of the thread, which cookbook would you take from the buring island that can't be replaced>

pd

I cannot possibly be attached to my valuables since I don't have any.I will have to get back to you on the cookbook because I rarely used them.Not because I am a great cook but those I cook for have a severely limited taste so I make alot of the same things.But on the issue of survival maybe the Roadkill cookbook?Don't waste resources.

Possom manifold stew being my favorite.

Where the heck is the delicious emoticon?

Bob S. wrote:I don't really follow recipes a whole lot, beyond initial guidance; my one go-to book has been David Joachim's "Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions," a miniature encyclopedia of everything I've ever had to deal with (proportions for brines, storage tips, prep descriptions, etc). It's exactly what a good food reference needs to be.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

How does this compare to Sharon Tyler Herbst's New Food Lover's Tiptionary, jokes about 1000 fewer tips aside?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060935707/qid=1095455972/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/104-7753549-7099153?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Thanks,

rien

My old reliables are two curiously parallel Workman cookbooks, in that distinctive house graphic style. One is Heritage of Southern Cooking, by Camille Glenn; despite the Southern name I don't go cooking grits and such but it's solid for all those homey side dishes you make at Thanksgiving, and so on.

The other is French Farmhouse Cook Book, by Susan Loomis. This is French country cooking, unpretentious and homey in its own way, far removed from Robuchon or Ducasse, yet different and, well, French enough that you can make stuff from it for a dinner party.

By the way, speaking of desert island choices, do you know about this, now in its 62nd year?

Doesn't Ted Nugent have a cookbook?I actually would be interested in a seafood cookbook because that is something I rarely eat so would need guidance.

I don't know off-hand. But, perhaps if you did a google search and then posted the results, we would all know.

Did you hear something about this cookbook? Or, are you interested because he is a vocal outdoorsman/survivalist?

pd

Because just hearing Free For All put the thought in my pretty ,little head.

Ted's book is called Kill It And Grill It. It does have some exclent wild game recipes. He does eat what he kills. wango tango.

Here is where you can get a copy to read with those killer eyes in your pretty little head.

http://www.anybook4less.com/detail/0895261642.html

Thanks and it is nap time for me.

Well, I must confess that I didn't mean a desert island quite as literally as some of you seem to have taken it. Let us say, instead, that you are headed to a luxurious pied-a-terre somewhere where you'll have kitchen facilities and equipment and any ingredients you like, but the weight allowance on your luggage only permits one favorite cookbook. Will that do?

Or must we continue with references to Bush Tucker Man and his ilk?

Bill/SFNM wrote:You do understand the book is in Spanish?

No, I guess I didn't. Perhaps someone will eventually do a translation.

pdaane wrote:As for the last category, I'm with Bob. I don't use many receipes so a technical book would be better. I have a few, the last read is "What Einstein Told His Cook."

Except for baking, I use recipes more as inspiration than for following line-by-line when cooking. Reading recipes is highly inspirational.

Did you like What Einstein Told His Cook? It seems to me that Wolke talks down to his readers, and, while he may understand chemistry, he doesn't know much about cooking. I find Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking much more useful and enlightening. A new edition is due out in November.

I would for sentimental reasons like to replace my mother's cookbooks.Mirro,Campbell's soup-dig those 50s abd 60s illustrations.Cannot remember all the names but she had sourdough and yogurt coobooks I think from Cooksmart.Something for baking which had recipes kids could make included and pictures of marshmallow animals-sentiment only.The ones we still have are quite tattered.

Leah,

I would not recommend "What Einstein Told His Cook", just happened to be the last one I read.

The number of cookbooks on the market, still astounds me. I think you can get by with three or four and perhaps be inspired by another 10 or 12, but then again, different strokes for different folks...my cooking is usally involves having a cupboard full of choice ingrediants and then say to myself, "if I were a freshly roasted parsnip, what would I like for a sauce."

I do admit to having great difficulty making the same dish twice.

pd

rien wrote:

Bob S. wrote:I don't really follow recipes a whole lot, beyond initial guidance; my one go-to book has been David Joachim's "Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions," a miniature encyclopedia of everything I've ever had to deal with (proportions for brines, storage tips, prep descriptions, etc). It's exactly what a good food reference needs to be.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

How does this compare to Sharon Tyler Herbst's New Food Lover's Tiptionary, jokes about 1000 fewer tips aside?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060935707/qid=1095455972/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/104-7753549-7099153?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Thanks,

rien

Honestly can't say. Joachim's book, as I say, has been a reliable resource for me and so I haven't found a need to glance at the more recent compendiums. Next time I'm in Borders, though, I'll take a look at Tiptionary and see if I can get a feel for how they compare.

You know, I am much more partially to cookbooks with pretty (and/or cool) pictures than one that would be technically appropriate. In that vein, perhaps my favorite book for a desert island would be Life's Picture Cook Book (Revised Edition) from 1968. How can you not like a book with a chapter, "Man's Job: Steak" with two pages of pictures of raw meat followed soon thereafter with a section called, "French Lesson in Innards", followed even later with a chapter on flaming food, then all sorts of other fun fare for various meals and functions.

The book I really like is tne New Joy of Cooking. To me, it is not so much of compendium on cooking as a compendium on eating, covering nearly every catagory and form of items that goes in ones mouth, ranging far from American to assorted "ethnic" cuisine. I do not care whether the recipes are good or not, but to me, the book is a roadmap of stuff to eat the rest of my life.

Rob

Hattyn-- check Ebay. Basically, you can repurchase your whole childhood on Ebay, although depending on what it is it may cost you-- the Junior League of Wichita's cookbook Sunflower Sampler is so popular in my hometown among people whose moms grew up cooking out of it in the 60s that it lists for a couple of hundred bucks on Amazon. I have two...

Hi,

This may sound ridiculous, once you have found replacements, then turn around and offer your tattered books for auction. Or at least experiment with one, just to see what happens.

I have spent years checking out used book stores looking for specific books. I decided to search e-Bay and found all my orphans within a few weeks. You do have to decide how much you are willing to pay. Sometimes bidding wars begin, so you have to know when to back off and wait for another day.