Even with the sheer number of cookbooks in my library, there are times when I gravitate to certain sources for recipes. The common characteristics are that the recipes are well edited and work in our hands. For weeknight cooking, it helps that I don’t need to make special trips to get obscure ingredients that I may use once. Here are a few that are my go-to sources for recipes.
General cooking. Joy of Cooking is still the standard. Most of the time I reach for the 1997 edition, edited by Maria Guarnaschelli (aka the “cast of thousands Joy”, because of the number of contributors). The last edition worked on by Marion Rombauer Becker (1975) still holds a prominent place in my bookshelf. I also use Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and the Gourmet Today Cookbook for general purpose recipes.
Asian cooking. I joke that my ancestors took the long way to Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower–through southeast Asia. I go to Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table for Vietnamese food, including bun bo Hue. The Elephant Walk Cookbook by Longteine DeMonteiro and Katherine Neustadt was one of the first Cambodian cookbooks published in the US. I’ve never been to the eponymous restaurant in the Boston area, mostly because I haven’t been to Boston in nearly 30 years. (Let’s just say that I had a traumatic experience driving around the city on my grad school-hunting tour of the East Coast.) There’s not a bum recipe in the book, and I’ve served her hot and sour fish soup many times over the years.
Weeknight dinners. Now that Julian’s retired, he has time to play in the kitchen all afternoon. On the other hand, my goal for weeknight dinners is quick and tasty chow. Mark Bittman’s Minimalist cookbooks are a good place to start. I also bought a used copy of Pierre Franey’s More 60-Minute Gourmet, and have adapted some of his recipes to 21st century tastes. Julian also collected clippings of Marian Burros’s columns for the New York Times, which give complete menus for weeknight dinners.
Breads. Although the book is more overview than deep dive, Bernard Clayton Jr’s Complete Book of Breads has served me well over the years. George Greenstein’s Secrets of a Jewish Baker is also a frequent source of inspiration. It contains the all-important recipe for Miami-style onion rolls, which were prominently featured at the Rascal House and Wolfie’s delis (both of blessed memory). I’ll make the onion rolls for Julian on special occasions.
Although these volumes are regularly used, there are times when I’ll go on a spree with a particular book or genre. Because of our friends at the Spanish Table (now the Paris-Madrid Grocery), we’ve gotten comfortable with Spanish cuisine. Greek and Middle Eastern food also get ample representation. And thanks to our travels and acquaintance with our former French professor, Provençal cuisine has been incorporated into our menus. This list is subject to change as I get new books or get drawn in different directions.
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