What cookbook would you have to have if you only could have one?
 

The 75th anniversary printing of the Joy of Cookiing is coming out and as it's Holiday season where we are more apt to pick up a classic cookbook for those special annual recipes, it got me wondering; which one would you just have to have if you only could have one? As an aside, I collect cookbooks and have well over 100 including ones belonging to my mother, grandmothers and a few from the GG grandparent generation. My parents were friends with Julia Child so we always had hers handy but my mom always swore by The Fannie Farmer one.

My wife and I are away at a remote ranch in west Texas for a week and I chose to bring Craig Clayborne's NYTimes Cookbook which I find has plenty of variety as well as some real classic recipes and everything from cocktails and starter dishes to desserts.

Any thoughts?

It has to be Joy of Cooking. I think of it as a framework. If you do it this way it will come out okay, then you play with it.

The Betty Crocker cookbook has produced far more "wins" than any other.

Agree. I'm not a good enough cook to use any other book by itself. :-)

If I can add a second book, it would have to be Shirley Corriher's wonderful "Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed". She's the food scientist who shows up on Alton Brown's Good Eats with the dykey haircut.

I would say "Joy" with the proviso that it is an older edition. I got a copy for Xmas a while back and it was revised and updated. "Great." I thought. some fresh ideas, maybe a section on tofu or something.

It was diabolical. In a pinch, I needed to make mayonaise one night after stores were closed, we were having a cooking party, etc. I open the book and it says something to the effect of
"In today's modern world no one has the time to prepare everything from scratch so things like mayonaise are best bought ahead of time." End of story.

I checked for a few other basic things which I consider simple building blocks in the kitchen and they too had be expurgated. It's not like a I expected detailed instructions on how to make my own rice wine vinegar from raw rice, these were standard recipe basics.

I threw the book in the woodstove, what a piece of crap. Marion Rombauer Becker must have been turning over inher grave when that epicurean slur was foisted on the world.

Pierre Franey, Craig Clayborne, I have Julia's The way to cook and it is great, though I find her turkey times to be too long by an hour.

I just got "on food and cooking" the science and lore of the kitchen, by Harold McGee. I've jsut started it but his approach is purely scientific and goes into great depths about the whys of cooking. Not so much in terms of recipes, but fantastic if you are of an analytical mind and want to know how things work. For example, he has a section on meat with a chart showing the effect of heat on meat over a range of temperatures.

But all that said, an early copy of JOY would be my 1st choice/

I hardly ever use cookbooks except for cakes. Of those, I'd have to choose one of the womans day cakes and slices books. They give you the basics and if you've got a bit of knowledge, you can turn out just about any cake you want from there.

Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion

I second that particular suggestion. Should be plenty available used now that the New and Improved one is available.

I also give high marks to the first Silver Palate Cookbook.

I always had good luck with Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The older version with the red and white checkerboard design.

However, right now I would settle for a good tex-mex diabetic Adkins cookbook.

The best parts of the Joy of Cooking, for me, are the About sections. I love those in the same way that I love watching Alton Brown on Good Eats. The hows and whys of food science intrigue me.

Then you have to get "On Food and Cooking" the science and lore of the kitchen, by Harold McGee.

It rocketh

Doesn't the answer to this question depend a great deal on what you want to cook?

No sushi recipes in Betty Crocker. No haggis recipes in JoC. I'm a cookbook fan, and we have several. I don't get the question beyond sparking a conversation. What is the *best* cookbook? Most comprehensive? Easiest to use? Would you similarly limit yourself to a single kitchen utensil?

Either the Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook or The Foster's Market Cookbook. Both are wonderful. I like the Ultimate SL Cookbook better than JoC. It has the same facts and such that make food science fun, but it also has wonderful color pictures.

. . . For broad reference
 

I would be torn between "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook" I bought in 1971 when I first got serious about cooking and "James Beard's Theory & Practice of Good Cooking".
Of course, for backup, I try to keep at least a couple hundred "specialized" cookbooks on hand. Usually after I read a recipe or two for inspiration, I take off on some weird tangent of my own. Actually, I have been known to skip reading the recipe and just take off on the tangent - that can be fun.