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If you could only have 3 cookbooks...

If you could only have 3 cookbooks on your shelf what would they be?

:)

21 Comments:

Bittman's "How to Cook Everything"
Rosengarten's "The Dean & Deluca Cookbook"
Hepinstall's "Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen"

Day to day, these are the three I consult most often.
Of course I check online more and more these days.

They would be on loan from the library so I could swap them out at will (and still meet your completely unreasonable limit of three!!).

Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Not sure which one, but definitly a Mollie Katzen cookbook, probably Still Life With Menu
Bittman's How to Cook Everything Hi @wookie!

Essentials and Mollie Katzen are constants. Third place on the list is everchanging, and my whims are fickle. But for now Bittman works for me.

Joy, the most recent edition, From Julia Child's Kitchen and something Asian - right now, I'm most-using My Bombay Kitchen, which is Parsi food.

The Joy of Cooking
New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art

Ok agree with "joy of cooking" and "how to cook everything" but my third is def "silver spoon" by phaidon press

@jasonjklaus--"silver spoon" is my husband's favorite, primarily because it is huge and he bought it for 3 bucks. I've never known anyone else who had it, too.

@All - it is going to take me awhile on this one! I just went into the kitchen and looked at the ones I have and told them all I was sorry for even thinking of having to choose! *big L on forehead*

Silver Palate, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart

The first two are easy: King Arthue Flour 200th Anniversary Cook Book and Julia & Jacques - Cooking at Home.

For the third, I guess, (although it's not strictly a cookbook), Shirley Corriher's Cookwise.

Anyone else making a list of those you don't have yet? I'm pathetic!!!

i actually only own 2 cookbooks!

the silver spoon // il cucchiaio d'argento
joy of cooking

what shall i have for my 3rd...

The best of Cooking Light
Joy of Cooking (which I sadly don't yet own)
Baking with Julia

"Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cooking" by Chef John Folse
"Louisiana Kitchen" by Chef Paul Prudhomme
"Southern Cooking" by Craig Claiborne

Well, definitely Joy of Cooking stays. It's the only one that's open and out on my counter 24/7, which is saying a lot, 'cuz I totally HATE having crap all over my counters ;-p

Next would be "something" by Julia Child, but I'm not sure which one... I might have to throw a dart.

And finally.... um... er... well... hhhmmm... uh... WWWAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

I can't decide on a third. I just can't. Don't make me choose. Please? Wah!

I'm rarely speechless but this question leaves me without an answer. I could never decide! :)

That's a tough one. I bet most of us would go with the cookbooks we had early in our cooking careers. For me that was Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and Claiborne/Lee's Chinese cookbook, both from the 1960's. My third would be one of Julie Sahni's Indian cookbooks.

Alice Waters- The Art of Simple Cooking
Mollie Katzen- the Mooseword Cookbook
Tie between: Jamie Oliver- Jamie's Italy and Mario Batali- Molto Italiano and Charlie Trotter- Raw

Joy of Cooking--the OLD edition please
Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking
and
The Good Housekeeping Book of Preserving

Why? All of these books give me information on how to cook things at the most basic level. I can add flavouring and doll up the recipes myself (and usually do).

And the one I reluctantly removed from my list: Cook's Illustrated--The Best Recipe

I started to answer this question by thinking about the most useful, but I realized that I would have to keep the most sentimental in my collection.

First would definitely be the hand-written cookbook that my grandmother made for me from her recipe collection. Seventy years of East Texas cooking - it's priceless to me.

The Best of New Mexico Kitchens, given to me by my father on a family vacation to Taos.

And the only time I've had a recipe published. A State Fair of Texas cookbook that includes my prize-winning cookie recipe (kids division).

I'm a gadget freak:
Tools and Techiques by Williams-Sonoma
Gear For Your Kitchen by Alton Brown
I'm Just Here For The Food 2.0 by Alton Brown

As much as I love Cook's Illustrated, I couldn't put one of their books in my top three. Now if we move to Top 4, I have some suggestions.

http://nujoikitchendiary.blogspot.com/

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