Cook Books

Older Betty Crocker cookbooks are fantastic. They're old-fashioned types of meals your mom probably knows how to make, not too difficult, and hardly ever require exotic ingredients. There's usually also lots of big pictures so you can see what you're going to be making, too (I have a 1982 edition that I liked better than one I had from the early 60s since the food was a bit more in line with what I like, had microwaves, and understood that its users weren't going to be stay-at-home moms cooking all day).

Another classic book is Joy of Cooking, and though I have both an original and one of the new revised ones, the recipes tend to be a bit more involved than Betty Crocker and the sheer volume of the books makes it difficult to just find what you want to make for dinner. A magnificent reference, though, and whenever I want ideas for something to make I can flip through and come up with a simpler hybrid off of what I see in the pages.

My most used book right now is the one published by America's Test Kitchen since every recipe I've tried has been delicious, every recipe has pictures, and it's in a 3-ring binder so you can remove a page when you want to use the recipe off of it. There's also reviews and tips/tricks for how and why you use certain techniques. A perfect book for anyone.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

Which test kitchen book is that? A quick search on Amazon.ca shows me a bunch of different ones.

Sorry about that, this one looks to be the one I own (though maybe a year or two newer): http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitch...9430857&sr=8-1

There's nowhere I can't reach.