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Farm Kitchen:  All time favorite cookbook?  |
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sillyfoulks
True Blue Farmgirl
164 Posts
Elizabeth
Illinois
USA
164 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 12:17:51 PM
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I am curious to know what everyones favorite cookbook is, and why it is your favorite? I know that some people collect cookbooks. However, I only have 5 myself.
My all time favorite is one that belong to my mother. I have only ever seen one other like it and it belongs to my grandmother. They got them, probably in the 60's or 70's, at there grocery store. I believe it was one of the those specials, were each week you would get a new section. The whole book is at least 4 inches thick and has 1500 pages. When I married my husband 13 yrs ago, I didn't really know how to cook. My husband claims I couldn't even boil water, but that isn't true. But this cookbook is were I learned. It has everything. Tips, tricks, and instructions for baking, canning, freezing, and entertaining. It doen't matter what you want to cook, it has it. Anytime that I want to try to cook something new I can find a recipe here. Only one time has it failed to help and that was when I wanted to try my had a pumkin bloosoms, strangly it didn't have anything. I would say if you run across one of these somewhere snatch it up, it is in high demand. It is called "Mary Margaret McBride, Encyclopledia of Cooking, Homemakers Research Institute."
I would love to here if anyone else has a copy of this. My one copy is well worn and missing not only the cover but also several pages of the index. If someone has a copy of this book, I would love to get some photo copies of the index.
Elizabeth
Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.
http://livingcountrystyle.blogspot.com/ |
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ocoochgirl
Farmgirl in Training
17 Posts
Kim
Soldiers Grove
Wisconsin
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 4:27:48 PM
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| Where do I begin? I really love cookbooks that are also good reads- that share info about the author's life and how they live. One that I love is by Jean Anderson-The Grass Roots Cookbook. She travelled the country and talked to home cooks about their lives and the recipes are so good. The Wisconsin Country Cookbook is another I love for it's great recipes- Morel Mushroom Soup is one! Of course Joy of Cooking is a classic. I've been collecting cookbooks since I was married back in 1973, so I have a few! |
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asnedecor
True Blue Farmgirl
1054 Posts
Anne
Portland
Or
USA
1054 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 5:36:54 PM
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My first cookbook I think I got when I was about 10 or 12 from my Mom. "The Complete Step by Step Cookbook" from Better Homes & Gardens. I still have it today - it has measurements in the back, substitutions for things you might not have enough of ect. Then after that I started collecting, I think I have about 25 cookbooks. One of my favorites that I picked up a few years ago is called "Stay For Supper" from Country Home. This is a cookbook full of "comfort" foods. Downhome cooking and the recipes are easy with very few ingredients. Another favorite is "Rose's" cookbook on baking. If you are from the Portland, Oregon metro area you are familiar with the restaurant called Roses. Known for their giant cakes, scrumptous cheesecakes and other pastries. It is a wonderful dessert cookbook. I have many others, including Joy of Cooking and The Gourmet Cookbook.
Anne
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
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ali2583
True Blue Farmgirl
404 Posts
Alison
Winnipeg
Manitoba
Canada
404 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 6:57:47 PM
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My favorite cookbook would have to the "The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook" (I know, it may be hard for a lot of you to come by lol!) I have approximately 20 cookbooks in my collection, but whenever I'm not sure what to cook for dinner, this is always the book I turn to. Plus, it has the tastiest, and I do mean the tastiest, macaroni and cheese recipe.
"God's gift to you is life. What you choose to do with that life is your gift to God" |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 9:39:26 PM
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I have about 84 thousand cookbooks..they are hard for me to resist. I think Cooking from Quilt country by Marcia Adams is probably the one I actually use the most. I also love the recipes in the original Heart of the HOme cookbook by Susan branch. Every one I have made (and over the years I have made at least 3/4 of them..have been wonderful.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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Julia
True Blue Farmgirl
1949 Posts
Julia
Shelton
WA
USA
1949 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2006 : 10:09:54 PM
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I love mY "Cooking in Quilt Country" too. I also use "Mennonite Community Cookbook". Also " Baking with Julia"
"...the setting sun is like going into the very presence of God." Elizabeth Von Arnim |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 07:29:35 AM
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See what happens when I read these posts. I had , just had, to go Amazon and order the "Cooking in Quilt Country".
NANCY JO |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 08:23:50 AM
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Nancy, you will LOVE Cooking in Quilt Country! I have that one, and the sequel, too. The beautiful pictures make me homesick; my grandmother was Amish, and I grew up close to where those pictures were taken. You MUST try the rhubarb dumplings; they're incomparable!
I'm a cookbook junkie, and like Aunt Jenny, have about 84 thousand. (Actually it's just a few hundred, but I love them all.) One of my favorite ones belonged to my mother. It's the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, and this one was published in 1950. Since she was married in December of 1949, she must've gotten this one as a young bride. And in turn, when I married, she gave it to me. Once, when perusing an antique mall with my daughter, there was my precious book! I bought that copy for her, and now she has one, too. It's a great one, but the recipes are brief, and the assumption is that the reader can cook.
For breads I really like Bernard Clayton's Book of Breads, but I also like the King Arthur Mills Book of Baking. And Fannie Farmer's Book of Baking is a great one, too.
I have just about everything that Julia Child did, and I am so grateful to her because she brought quality cuisine back into the American kitchen at a time when everyone was doing TV dinners. I began to wonder if America was forgetting how to cook, or that we might just raise a generation that had no clue. I have a lot of Jaques Pepin, too; I love his plain, everyday approach to sensible good food.
Marcia Adams also has a great cookbook about foods of the Midwest. And I like all the Moosewood ones, and the Silver Palate ones. Silver Palate has perhaps the absolute BEST hot fudge recipe in the whole world!!! Rich, deep flavor, and a texture that sort of strings. Aunt Jenny, you will absolutely HAVE to have this with your delicious homemade ice cream!
Has anyone else seen a book called Fancy Pantry, a book full of how to put by stuff you'd never think you could? That one's fun, too. And of course Putting Food By, and The Victory Garden Cookbook, so we can figure out yet ONE MORE WAY to eat those endless zucchini or tomatoes or whatever you have in abundance.
I'd better shut up now; I could go on, and on, and on and on..... |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 10:57:29 AM
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I really like "The New Basics" cookbook - it's a great resource to go to when I want to try something, or I have ingredients and don't know what to do with them. I give it to every new married couple I know as a wedding present!
My mother has the "Victory Garden Cookbook" and that is one I really want a copy of! How fun to read everyone's favorites...
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 11:03:34 AM
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mary ann
Yes you sure do have a ba zillion cookbooks by the sound of it. Yes I am anxious to get the cooking in quilt country, the pictures alone will be worth the book. That book you mentioned Fancy Pantry sounds interesting, might have to look into that.
Thanks Mary Ann
NANCY JO |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 11:14:49 AM
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I am going to look for Fancy pantry too..sounds perfect. LIKE I NEED ANOTHER COOKBOOK>..haha
I didn't mention The Wooden Spoon Bread Book is my favorite bread baking book...have had it forever!!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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katie-ell
True Blue Farmgirl
1818 Posts
Katie
Illinois
1818 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 11:22:24 AM
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| Just purchased the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook yesterday -- brand-new condition -- for 50 cents at Salvation Army store! Glad to see the Moosewood books on MaryAnn's list. My rhubarb is nosing out of the ground now, and I'll have to find that rhubarb dumpling recipe you mentioned. Isn't it great just to read good cookbooks?? |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 3:15:30 PM
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Oooh! Well, if you like Fancy Pantry, you'll like Better Than Store Bought. It has recipes for all sorts of things like your own caramels, crystallized violets(exquisite for decorating cakes!), an assortment of liqueurs, your own pickling spice and five spice powders, different mustards and vinegars, ketchup, butterscotch sauce, fruit syrups for pancakes and waffles, pickles, bread mixes, corn chips, crumpets, creme fraiche, sour cream, cream cheese, ricotta, bouillon cubes, corned beef, Polish sausage, and even graham crackers, among others. It's full of all sorts of recipes for stuff people never thought they could make at home. It's fun, too!
Mary Ann, The Cookbook Junkie |
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Julia
True Blue Farmgirl
1949 Posts
Julia
Shelton
WA
USA
1949 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2006 : 4:12:50 PM
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Better than store bought is a GREAT cookbook! I love it.
I love the Banana cake in Cooking in quilt country, yum! And the fresh lemon-ade is oh so good!
"...the setting sun is like going into the very presence of God." Elizabeth Von Arnim |
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lonestargal
True Blue Farmgirl
607 Posts
Kristi
Texas
607 Posts |
Posted - Mar 25 2006 : 07:51:30 AM
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| Ok, I'm going to have to order the Cooking in Quilt Country book. I LOVE anything showing pictures of the Amish communities. They are just breathtaking. I have one Amish cookbook right now that I love, off to Amazon to order!! |
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl
2045 Posts
Brenda
Lucas
Ohio
USA
2045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 25 2006 : 2:44:28 PM
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I have four shelves of cookbooks, but the one I have probably used the most was one I picked up in the late seventies at a sidewalk sale in New York City - it was Marion Cunningham's Fannie Farmer Cookbook - It explains all the techniques, the tools, the staples, and has many basic versions of classic dishes with variations listed. Probably using that cookbook over the years taught me to cook, and gave me the confidence to cook without a cookbook.
My 2nd favorite cookbook is one that my mother had on her shelf and I used as a teenager - the Farm Journal Country Cookbook. It has a lot of good recipes for using produce straight from the garden.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 25 2006 : 5:51:55 PM
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I have the second book but not the first. I've been tempted to get that one quite a few times though, because I really appreciate the thorough testing Marion Cunningham does when writing, and I enjoy a couple of her other books. I have the Baking book and the Breakfast book that she wrote.
Yep, I love cookbooks. |
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ocoochgirl
Farmgirl in Training
17 Posts
Kim
Soldiers Grove
Wisconsin
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2006 : 6:33:24 PM
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| Love Quilt Country- try the Tomato Gravy on fried green tomatoes Yum! Fancy Pantry is wonderful,too! Does anyone hava Stillroom Cookery by Grace Firth? Amazing.To the Canadian lady, Remember Harrowsmith Magazine? They put out three cookbooks too. For pure reading TheFoxfire book of Appalachian Cookery. Is anyone out there a Paula Deen fan? She is a one-of-a-kind! |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2006 : 6:52:55 PM
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i have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cookbooks! HANDS-DOWN .. ALL TIME FAVORITE .. the two books from MARLBORO .. check e-bay . .they are almost always on there .. most fantastic 'photography' i've ever seen to go with a cookbook .. and i have TONS of great photo cookbooks!
xoxo
True Friends, Frannie |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2006 : 08:54:05 AM
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| Marlboro??? You mean the cigarette people? |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2006 : 09:18:11 AM
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Mary Ann,
I checked it out on AMAZON, you can see it there, it seems like there are as many as four different ones.I just typed in MARLBORO UNDER BOOKS.
NANCY JO
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sqrl
True Blue Farmgirl
605 Posts
Melissa
Northern California
USA
605 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2006 : 08:58:24 AM
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Ok I'm the wierd one here...I don't have that many cookbooks. Though I used to go to the library all the time when I lived in LA and completely exhaust their cookbook section. Than I came the conclusion that a lot of people write cookbooks just to make money and so many have such crappy recipes..But, than again I really learned a lot than (may be a lot what not to do). My favorites are the the Moosewood cookbook, I really like Laurel's Kitchen but I don't own it, I have used the Joy of Cooking so many times since I started cooking I would have to say it's a favorite, I just got this one from my Mother-in-law that's really good - American Wholefoods Cuisine - a healthy kind a book using all whole grains and stuff. Mostly I like to go through magazines and get recipes like Martha Stewart. I love getting all these recommendations though.
Blessed Be
www.sqrlbee.com
www.smallsqrl.blogspot.com
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2006 : 09:48:44 AM
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Melissa, you're right; there are a lot of inferior cookbooks out there. I really dislike it when the recipes haven't been tested, and even though you follow it to the letter, the results are that the suggested time was woefully inadequate, or the oven temperature was just wrong, or something like that.
But some are indeed treasures.
I was in the antique stores with my daughter earlier this week, and I thought of you girls because I picked up seven new books. Five were books on flowers or gardening (with some illustrations that were fabulous eye candy!) and two were cookbooks. One was about cooking for two, and one was all sorts of veggie recipes. I thought it'd be nice to have with incoming produce this summer. And Melissa, they actually had the Laurel's Kitchen cookbook, which I picked up and considered, but put back due to it's similarity to some others I have! I really wanted that book years ago, but never ended up getting it.
These books were all deals, in the four to six dollar range, and in excellent condition. I even found the original Rodale's Organic Gardening book for my daughter! I was so excited! |
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl
2045 Posts
Brenda
Lucas
Ohio
USA
2045 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 04:50:43 AM
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Based on Alison's post I ordered the Canadian Living cookbook from a used book store, and my oh my! Wonderful! I got it last night and sat down and read it cover to cover. It is gorgeous! Everything in the book is photographed, I think, and it all has beautiful garnishes..
I love the section at the front with the regional menus.
I saw a recipe for pierogies (only they spell it differently) that my husband LOVES and I've never been able to duplicate my mother-in-law's recipe - she dumps some flour on wax paper and adds an egg, then keeps pouring water in until "it feels right" - but since I've never made the dough myself, I don't know what "right" is! LOL Maybe I'll use the recipe in the book as a starting point.
My mother-in-law uses sauerkraut filling (and no recipe)- unfortunately the book only listed potatoes and cheese filling.
Anyway thanks for the tip! (I may have to add another bookshelf, it is getting harder and harder to squeeze in all the cookbooks! )
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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Destiny~
True Blue Farmgirl
195 Posts
Dar
west
TX
USA
195 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 06:23:26 AM
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Mary Ann, you mean all those screw ups I made called dinner could actually have been the recipe's fault???? Maybe I'm not such a bad cook after all.
Brightmeadow, I love the potato pierogies and now that you've mentioned them I'm getting a craving. I've never tried to make them from scratch though. Good luck with that adventure. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 06:25:09 AM
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I have a zillion cookbooks and Melissa you are right...lots of them don't have many great recipes. I should go through mine and keep only the best and copy out the recipes I REALLY like from the others. I did go through my recipe card file awhile back and found that I could throw away 3/4 of the recipe cards in there!
I like my cookbooks most for when I feel "in a rut", and need to think of new supper ideas. I also love the ones with lots of little tips and ideas...like the gooseberry cookbooks or the Susan Branch ones.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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Farm Kitchen: All time favorite cookbook? |
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All time favorite cookbook?
