Can You List Some Of The Cook Books You Use

Keith_W

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2012
1,024
95
970
Melbourne, Australia
www.whatsbestforum.com
Hey Steve (and others) I would love to answer this question and go on a general rant about cookbooks but unfortunately the proverbial has hit the fan and I was at work till the early hours of this morning and back at work again :( I'll get to it, I promise (unless someone starts up another Apple vs. Samsung thread) ;)
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
Great pic and beautiful dog! You didn't give her any? You cruel______ (fill in the blanks)!

Nope, not a single bite for Maggie. If I won't eat it, I won't feed it to my dogs either. I love my dogs to death, and I have to admit that Maggie is my favorite. Even though Maggie is a purebred boxer, she is missing the boxer defensive gene that boxers normally have. My first boxer Ginger had the gene in spades. Boxers normally aren't up to any nonsense with regards to any type of trouble. Want to come in my house and raise your voice at me? Not when Ginger was around. There was no doubt in my mind that Ginger would have laid her life down for me in order to protect me. Boxers are normally fearless. Hell, my wife couldn't even yell at me with Ginger around. Ginger would run up to her and gently put some teeth in her butt to let her know she better calm down. With Maggie, if a stranger broke in our house and threatened me, I think Maggie would hide behind me and want me to protect her.
 

treitz3

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
5,459
961
1,290
The tube lair in beautiful Rock Hill, SC
Hello, Steve. Two favorite books of mine are pictured below ["The Professional Chef" and "Forgotten Skills of Cooking"], along with links to purchase the actual books at a good price. Jack had already mentioned the CIA book, although the one he was thinking of may be different. The one pictured below is a cook's "reference" type book. Pretty much anything and everything a cook would need to know is in that book. The "What's a cook to do" is great for someone who is starting to learn how to cook and covers most of the basics with some rather handy tidbits of information even the experienced cook might not have ran across yet also thrown into the mix.



http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/B0031569VA



http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Cook-Illustrated-Essential-Techniques/dp/1579653189

For recipes and other cool stuff, I subscribe to The Food Network magazine and Taste of Home magazine. Taste of Home also makes cookbooks that somewhat remind me of the old school Betty Crocker cookbooks that seemed to be as common as a household kitchen staple but these are each a little different. They are segmented to different topics such as baking, winning recipes, cookies, breads and the like and come with many recipes related to the topic. As a bonus....whenever you purchase one, you get a free subscription to the magazine. IIRC, two years worth. Some great recipes in the Taste of Home rags!

There is another book that I found to be interesting. It's a book about the forgotten skills of cooking, really cool old school stuff in there. It's an interesting read even if you are not a cook.


Williams Sonoma has some good book collections but they are geared more toward the professional chef instead of the casual cooker/chef and many of their recipes I wouldn't touch. Somewhat "snooty" recipes and no comfort type recipes, if you ask me but great for those times when you really want a cooking challenge or a 5-star type recipe. I keep them on hand for just such an occasion.

Great thread! Looking forward to more suggestions.

Tom
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
That's exactly the one Tom, The Professional Chef. It is a big, big book. That's why it's the first one I go to, chances are, what I'm looking for is in it unlike my other books by famous chefs and restaurants that cover mainly specialties. I'm not a by the measure guy. I'm an eye baller. I typically try ingredients raw (except the dangerous ones) before I start cooking. This includes even the lightest oils, pepper corns and salts. I go to cook books for the process. Some of these are a lot like alchemy with all the reactions going on but with a book like this that explains the reasons, it makes it so much easier to cook.

I do love the Mugaritz book as it goes a lot into Chef Andoni and his team's philosophy. There is even an ode to us audiophiles in there. When I'm feeling frisky, I should transcribe that ode for you guys. :D
 

Ronm1

Member Sponsor
Feb 21, 2011
1,745
4
0
wtOMitMutb NH
I have CIA posted above 2 ver actually both with my sons. One I picked up about a yr ago is titled ROOTS. I like this one for its classifications which are quite extensive and unusual vegi pairings.
Another vegi oriented work that I have used in the past is by an Indian actress who used to have a PBS show on cooking of India. Title and her name escapes me now as its with one of my sons. Both of whom are chefs so they have quite a few of mine now and their own of course.
 

astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
1,547
1,017
1,715
SF Bay Area
Julia Child to Larry.jpg

It was 1999 when I met Julia, not 1997. If you want to edit my name out and paste this in your copy of MAFC, please feel free - I'm sure Julia won't mind.

After learning about French cooking in college from Julia Child's first cookbook, I came out to Cal Berkeley for grad school and got my real introduction to French cooking. One of my fellow grad students (in astronomy) was a woman who graduated from Bryn Mawr and spent her summers in Nancy, France at the radio telescope facility there. She read and spoke flawless French. She would invite a few of her classmates to her small apartment a few times a year where she cooked a multicourse French meal, using Escoffier - in French! It took 3-4 hours to eat the meal, because she cooked each course after we finished one course. I learned about eating a little unsweet sorbet between the fish course and the meat course to cleanse the palate and that there was more to coffee than Maxwell House. This was in the late '60's in Berkeley before the great price acceleration of French wines. We were learning about the great Bordeaux and Burgundies and brought over such treats as Bonnes Mare, Clos Vougeot, Musigny and even a Chambertin Clos du Beze from 1962 or 1964, - all around $5 at that time from local wine shops. We even had a some second growth Bordeaux from 1962 and even a 1961 - all around $3 to $5! Retrospectively I'm sure drinking these so young was a form of infanticide - but we didn't know. Fortunately I knew enough not to drink the handful of first growth Bordeaux I was able to afford. What sticks out in my mind was a pair of 1961 Ch. Margaux that I bought for $9.95 each and passing up the $14.95 bottle of 1961 Ch. Lafite sitting next to them. There were available at that time some older wines. One was a 1948 Ch. Petrus for less than $10. Little did I know that a bottle of Petrus would later cost as much as a Yugo. We had read about vintage ports and really splurged one dinner, splitting the cost 10 ways of a 1937 Dow, which was $35. We even bought a special siphon for the heavy sedimented port.

Sorry for the digression, thinking about those cookbooks brought back some wonderful memories. I've never been able to afford those wines again.

Larry
 
Last edited:

Keith_W

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2012
1,024
95
970
Melbourne, Australia
www.whatsbestforum.com
All right, sorry for the delay in answering your question Steve!

I'll go on a rant on cookbooks first. I don't like cookbooks that don't educate. Nearly all cookbooks are like that - they are mere collections of recipes. When I develop a recipe, I do research and have to make decisions what to include, what to omit, how much heat I am going to expose it to, and for how long, and using what method. Example - my bolognaise sauce uses chorizo instead of pepperoni. I use it because I like the smokiness and the depth of the paprika, but it is decidedly not traditional. If you deviate from a traditional recipe like this, you should state the traditional recipe and explain why you have deviated from it.

I also do not like books which take shortcuts. Example: Jamie Oliver 30 minute meals. I understand there is a market for books like these for people who are too busy to cook, but when there are recipes that direct you to use self raising flour in pizza I think it goes too far. That recipe does not even warn you what will happen if you follow that misguided recipe. You will get a cake-like crumb (instead of a bread-like crumb). SR flour is blasphemy against pizza.

Neither do I like books which are not precise. Examples - ingredients are specified by volume instead of weight, and you are directed to cook to time instead of temperature. Both of these are subject to huge variables - a "cup" of flour might contain more or less flour depending on how much it was compacted or whether it was sifted, a "stick" of butter means different things in different countries. "Four minutes on the pan" will give you different results if you are using a copper pan vs. stainless steel, gas vs. induction, ambient room temperature, your altitude, etc. It is far better if they were to tell you how to monitor your cook - e.g. "cook until 55C" or "fry until the onions turn translucent". Above all, the greatest insight you can gain as a cook is to understand how much heat to apply and for how long; and the best way to achieve this understanding is to start measuring the temperature of your food.

Of course, it should be no surprise that most cookbooks are like this. After all, nearly every cookbook written by a celebrity chef was probably written by a ghost writer. Read this article in the NY Times on what it is like to be a ghost writer. Note that it is surprisingly common that chefs do not read their work before the book goes out to print.

OK, rant over.

When I first started cooking, I bought the same typical cookbooks that most people would buy and followed their recipes exactly. Over time I started to see that most of these books were full of mistakes, and their mistakes become yours. Even classic cookbooks like Larousse Gastronomique and Escoffier are products of their time - modern cooking methods and modern taste have rendered many of the recipes obsolete. For example, very few people make a demi-glace using brown roux anymore. The reason is that brown roux produces a heavy, floury texture and the starch itself locks away flavour molecules. A modern demi-glace is simply a reduction, calling for more gelatinous cuts and relying on the gelatin to provide thickening. It is lighter and more flavoursome, because there is less water, less foreign ingredients, and more beef.



Over time I became frustrated with these books and yearned for more understanding. The lightbulb moment came a few years ago when I watched Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection series on TV. In each episode, Heston would pick a dish (say, a hamburger) then visit a whole bunch of restaurants that made excellent hamburgers. He would test the beef and conduct experiments on how the burger should be designed and what flavours should be in it. At the end of the episode, he presents a recipe that he and his chefs have developed as the "best possible" hamburger. The main insight I gained from this series is that cooking technique counts. To me, this was a new way to look at food and set me down a new path.

All the books show in the images above should be in your purchase list. These are excellent recipes developed by top chefs which can be made in home kitchens. Even if some of the recipes from "In Search of Perfection" are too complicated, you can still make individual components of it.



The next most influential book I bought was Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking. Heston frequently refers to this book as his kitchen bible. It definitely is that. This book contains no recipes. Rather, it has a series of chapters devoted to subjects such as poultry, meats, eggs, dairy, pastry, vegetables, etc. In each chapter he describes the science behind the subject. Reading this book gave me plenty of new insights. One example - An angel food cake batter is essentially a batter leavened with an egg white foam. The idea is to set the foam before it has a chance to collapse. Oils cause foams to collapse because it interferes with the surface tension of the foam - so do not introduce oils to the egg white foam until the very last minute. This also explains why the presence of fatty egg yolk - even the most miniscule droplet - interferes with the formation of an egg white foam.

Other good "science-y" books include What Einstein told his Cook and its sequel, Cooking For Geeks, and Culinary Reactions.



By now I was thoroughly into the Modernist movement with its emphasis on science and new techniques. Probably the crown in the jewel for the Modernist movement is Modernist Cuisine and its sequel, Modernist Cuisine at Home. The problem with MC is that it specifies too many specialized equipment (CVAP ovens, centrifuge, etc) and specialist ingredients (N-Zorbit M, Carageenans, Xanthan gum, transglutaminase, liquid nitrogen) but many of the recipes can be adapted for the home. The other problem is its hefty price. In fact this book gives you a tremendous insight into cooking. MC@H is much more approachable.
 

Keith_W

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2012
1,024
95
970
Melbourne, Australia
www.whatsbestforum.com


Besides these books, I also own some "coffee table" books which I DO NOT COOK FROM for various reasons. Instead, I use them for ideas in plating and suggestions for flavour combinations. Alinea is a gorgeous book by one of the most innovative chefs in the world. Unfortunately the multi-step processes and exotic ingredients rule it out for the home cook. Other books like this: The Fat Duck cookbook, NOMA, and Quay.



The last type of books in my collection are books on regional cooking. Fuchsia Dunlop's books on Chinese cooking (an ongoing series) is probably the best introduction to Chinese cooking. She is meticulous, researches well, is articulate, and she actually wrote these books herself. The three Japanese books pictured above are also good reading, but again in the didactic fashion which I do not like. I bought them because there is nothing better.



A notable series of books on regional cooking is the Culinaria series. I do not own all of them, but all these hardcover books (some out of print) are well written, well researched, and include authentic recipes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
- In Search of Perfection, by Heston Blumenthal
- Further Adventures in Search of Perfection, by Heston Blumenthal
- Heston Blumenthal at Home, by Heston Blumenthal
- Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller
- On Food and Cooking - The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee
- What Einstein Told His Cook, by Robert Wolke
- What Einstein Told His Cook 2, by Robert Wolke
- Cooking For Geeks, by Jeff Potter
- Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking, by Simon Quellen Field
- Modernist Cuisine, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Bilet, et al
- Modernist Cuisine at Home, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Bilet, et al
- Alinea, by Grant Achatz
- The Fat Duck Cookbook, by Heston Blumenthal
- NOMA, by Rene Redzepi
- Quay, by Peter Gilmore
- Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, by Fuchsia Dunlop
- Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking, by Fuchsia Dunlop
- Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from the Hunan Province, by Fuchsia Dunlop
- Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking, by Masaharu Morimoto
- Momofuku, by David Chang
- Nobu: The Cookbook, by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa
- Culinaria series, various authors
 

Ronm1

Member Sponsor
Feb 21, 2011
1,745
4
0
wtOMitMutb NH
Thanks Keith. Nicely done as usual.
 

treitz3

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
5,459
961
1,290
The tube lair in beautiful Rock Hill, SC
This thread is going to cost me a lot of money! :)

Tom
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing