Margaret's Cookbooks A selection of my favorite cookbooks

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• Cook's Illustrated: A great magazine, and they do great cookbooks, which I use more than any others. Two caveats: they sometimes don't proofread as carefully as they might (for instance, the pizza dough recipe which tells you to cook up a potato and mash it and then never tells you when to add it to the dough), and their bread recipes are way too specific about how much flour to use - it totally depends on what kind of flour you're using, how humid it is, and a host of other things - and if you're not a very experienced baker, your dough is frequently going to end up too sticky. But overall, these are the best cookbooks I have.
  • The Best Recipe (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)

    These really are the best recipes: tested and retested, I've never made anything from this cookbook that wasn't pretty darn good. From outstanding chicken pot pie to great sandwich bread (keeping in mind the above caveat: add more flour if the dough is very sticky), this might be my favorite cookbook.

  • The Quick Recipe (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)

    The staff of Cook's turns their attention to recipes that can be made in less than 60 minutes (though it's debatable whether an hour is exactly "quick").

  • American Classics (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Italian Classics (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • The Best Recipe: Soups and Stews (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
• General:
  • Marion Cunningham, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Steven Raichlen, The Barbecue Bible (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Irma S. Rombauer, et al., The Joy of Cooking (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
• Baking and desserts:
  • Nancy Baggett, The All-American Cookie Book (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com): Without a doubt, the best snickerdoodles I've ever had!
  • James Beard, Beard on Bread (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Bread Bible (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Cake Bible (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Julia Child and Dorie Greenspan, Baking with Julia (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Marion Cunningham, The Fannie Farmer Baking Book (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com): I think this is the first cookbook I ever owned, and I still use it all the time.
  • Nigella Lawson, How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
• Regional
  • Rick Bayless, Mexico One Plate at a Time (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Rick Bayless, Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • James Beard, Beard on Pasta (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)
  • Patricia Wells, Patricia Wells' Trattoria (buy it from Powell's) (buy it from Amazon.com)

...and Some Links

• Recipes
  • Rebecca Allen's Cookbook
  • Cook's Illustrated: you have to subscribe to the site to access all of the content, but there's a lot of good stuff available without subscribing.
  • Fine Cooking: a fine magazine with a fine web site
  • Food Network, particularly Good Eats and Oliver's Twist
  • Allrecipes.com: an exhaustive collection of recipes
• Magazines
  • Cook's Illustrated: fabulous magazine, with no advertising! (subscribe at Amazon.com)
  • Fine Cooking: excellent recipes, with equipment and ingredient tests and articles (subscribe at Amazon.com)
  • Martha Stewart Living: yeah, yeah, I know, but there are frequently good recipes (subscribe at Amazon.com)
  • Bon Appetit: slightly too many restaurant reviews for me, but often good recipes as well (subscribe at Amazon.com)
• Sources
  • Amazon.com Kitchen and Housewares
  • Cooking.com
  • King Arthur Flour: wonderful selection of baking ingredients and equipment
  • Penzeys Spices: herbs and spices
  • Sur La Table
  • Williams-Sonoma

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Last updated 25 May 2004.
All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted
Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.