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The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Have to agree with a previous reviewer my "Settlement Cookbook" is all gummed up from prior years of use. Betty Crocker with the large rings has raw cookie dough still imprinted upon the sugar cookie recipe. Also, "Betty Crockers Cookbook for Boys & Girls" from 1957 has fudge on the "fudge" page.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
All the Hazan cookbooks (I have Marcella's Cucina, both Classic and the first one, her Italian Kitchen; Bugiali's comprehensive tome, Giuliano Hazan's wonderful pasta cookbook, James Beard's American Cooking, Olney's Simple French Cooking.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
For me it's How To Cook Everything, The Essential Seafood Cookbook, and The Student's Vegetarian Cookbook.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
I would have to go with either the first Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (her bbq sauce and her scones are always hits around here), Bold American Food by Bobby Flay (his sauces) and The Silver Palate Cookbook (their recipe for Spaghetti with Oil & Garlic has been used more than anything else in there). I just adore the flavor of the chicken broth in that recipe! So creative.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Definitely the Joy of Cooking...too bad about that binding that's falling apart!
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Two cookbooks from Margaret Fox, the Cafe Beaujolais Cb and Morning Food are certainly among the worst-looking. I have bought multiple copies of each as gifts, and when I am sure they won't be returned for store credit, I copy my own notes on each recipe into them. The first two Silver Palates are also valuable, but I found nothing but disaster in the recipes I tried from New Basics so sent that one a-packing. I have three and a half tall bookcases full, plus more stacked nearby, and there are probably too many that I only use one recipe from. But some books are too much fun to re-read to send off to the Book Fair.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Oh - I've got three that really look like they've been through the mill - The Settlement Cookbook was the first cookbook my folks gave me when I got my first apartment 25, 30 years ago? Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking - the pasta pages are all stuck together, the veal picata is close to unreadable. Lastly, Marlene Sorosky's Holiday Cookbook - that sweet potato praline thing for Thanksgiving - mmmm
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Lately, I've been bespattering "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone", Deborah Madison, too but I also like to read the late Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking" and "More Home Cooking". Her enthusiasm and quirkiness are infectious and there are many easy, practical and delicious recipes in both volumes. Katherine Hepburn's "Brownies" are exceptional! I use Joy of Cooking's "Know Your Ingredients" chapter for weights, substitutions, etc. These pages are fused together. The first cookbook I used is "Three Meals A Day", Jessie Read, Musson Publishing, Toronto:1946. I love its post-war economies, its basic recipes, my grandmother's entries on the blank pages and entries I made as an eleven year old learning to cook. I have TOO many favourite cookbooks - I collect cookbooks but I also use them.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
I must say, It's an old book that both of my parents used; and when my Dad passed away (nine years after my mom) I took the book. It's "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cookbook".) The book was published in 1961, but still has some of the best recipes that would rival today's books. The Quiche Lorraine is still the best in the city. If it's still in the stores, I would urge cooks to go and purchase it. My parent's book is in really bad shape, it's in pieces and held together with tape, but it's still a terrific and fulfilling cookbook emotionally because of my parents using it for so many years, as well as physically!
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
I have to say Betty Crocker. It has been the "ole" stand by for many years
(I hate to say how many years). It's basic, but that's what I like about it, nothing fancy just old fashioned comfort food. I have altered many recipes to suit todays lifestyle, lower in fats etc. and use it more as a reference. I have collected cook books for 40+ years. Joy of Cooking being one but I have always loved local cookbooks, garden clubs, Junior League and several restaurant cookbooks. I love cajun cooking and "Don's seafood and steak house" is one of the best and I must say it finally bit the dust and I had to break down and buy a new one. Betty's binding is loose and a bit floopy ( but then, so am I ) but I don't need to replace her yet !
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
"With a Jug of Wine" is certainly one of the most well-used books in my collection. There was so much spillage that my dog pulled it down from a low shelf and tried to eat it. Most of the spine and title pages are gone (and it was pretty bedraggled when puppy got to it) but I hold it together with rubber bands and masking tape. I believe my edition is from the early '50s.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
For me, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 1 has nearly come apart at the seems, and Rick Stein's English Fish Cookery and Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories, Gammon and Spinach and The Prawn Cocktail Years are positively soggy by now. Marcella Hazan also suffers at my hands...... And the Moro books, partricularly Volume 2, with their practical North African dishes. I am, of course, writing from the UK so some of these will not be relevant in the US so much. I have also recently started cooking from the super "Simple Indian" by Atul Kohchar - a chef who has a 2 Michelin starred restaurant in London where the dishes are extraordinary, with a lightness of touch and use of spices that is divine. That's getting stickier by the day.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
The two books I go to most often: Madeleine Kamman's 1978 paperback The Making of a Cook, and Anne Seranne's 1950 The Complete Book of Home Baking. Both books give me great results, every time. Madeleine Kamman spells out the processes for cooking all types of dishes, and when I follow her instructions the food turns out just as I hoped it would. In Anne Seranne's book, I have found recipe gems for some basic dessert foods such as layer cake and pie crust that are about the best I've found anywhere. Both books are stained and worn because they are so reliable.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
My 3x5 recipe cards (that I started in junior high...and I'm in my 50's now) look like hell - dogeared, stained and fading. But they're family favorites, some passed down from my greatgrandmother.
Also, my Betty Crocker cookbook that I received as a wedding present back in 1979 is pitiful.
I've done some damage to my Giada DeLaurentis cookbooks as well as all of my Cooking Light compilation cookbooks.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
My 1st cookbook was "Joy" which I still use as a reference. Then I learned about Julia and The French Chef Cookbook is my most spattered. I have many, many cookbooks but another standout is my Pennsylvanis Dutch Cookbook, having grown up in Reading, PA.
Last Hanukkah I made a gift for my 3 adult children of all their fave recipes and they were copied stains et al.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
My most cherished cookbooks are "The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook" by Jack Bishop and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" by Mark Bittman. Both books, filled with healthy, simple, fail-safe recipes, helped transform my household into a bunch of passionate eaters and cooks. (The days of eating dinner "whenever" or in front of the tele are thankfully behind us.)
The pages of each book are well stained with the likes of balsamic vinegar residue and blueberry splatter, and even carry the smell of minced garlic. And then there are the work notes we've added to the text: This dish pairs well with this Beaujolais, served this one on this date to rave reviews...
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
I was given a copy of "the New McCall;s Cookbook" by Mary Eckley, food editor of McCall's.....way back in 1974. It was an engagement gift from my soon to be sister in law. The international food section got my attention since I was from central Pennsylvania and my mom's idea of spices were salt and pepper! Both covers are separated from the binding and held in place with a rubber band. This book got me through many dinners early in my marriage (34 years now) and I still go to it for the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving....best I ever had.
I have since collected nearly 500 cookbooks and they are all out on the bookselves. I read them like novels. Love my cookbooks!
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
The Silver Palate cookbook in my house is falling apart. I use it for exact recipies as well as inspiration in creating my own.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Moosewood Cookbook
Enchanted Broccoli Forest
both by the venerable Mollie Katzen
and my first cookbook - Kids Cook!: Fabulous Food for the Whole Family
by Sarah & Zachary Williamson, a seemingly genuine brother and sister pair who introduced me to the idea of putting apples into a grilled cheese sandwich, making my first breakfast burrito, and other great dishes when i decided to start cooking for the family once a week at the age of 10!
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
The Joy of Cooking is my old standby. My parents have a Chef Cardini cookbook- I don't know the title- that is seriously falling apart. About 10 years ago my mom found another copy, but then they bought a vacation house in the mountains, and the original copy has moved up there.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
My cookbook collection started with The New Basics. It's well worn. By now I've memorized several recipes from it such as the carrot cake, basic pizza dough, penne with broccoli and parmesan.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
When I first started cooking (and way before I knew what a mise-en-place was) the SILVER PALATE books were my culinary bibles--consequently, these are my messiest cookbooks. However, with years of cooking behind me, I must admit that my My Mario Batali MOLTO ITALIANO cookbook is looking rather splattered.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
When I first started cooking (and way before I knew what a mise-en-place was) the SILVER PALATE books were my culinary bibles--consequently, these are my messiest cookbooks. However, with years of cooking behind me, I must admit that my My Mario Batali MOLTO ITALIANO cookbook is looking rather splattered.
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
All of my Silver Palate books are sticky, gooey and once in a while I'll find a sweet & low stuck in as a bookmark! Also, The Victory Garden and Moosewood books are ancient, abused and still wonderful!
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
Neelam Batra's "The Indian Vegetarian." Other cookbooks, I read for a general idea, but this one, I read for detail. Hence, a lot of time open on the countertop, more vulernable to sloshing. When I first started cooking for myself out of cookbooks regularly, way back in grad school, it was 50% of my cookbook collection, so it fell victim to my haphazard neophyte technique.
Also- printouts from the Cook's Illustrated website get pretty well-worn (and saved!).
The Most-Stained Cookbooks
My most stained has to be a handwritten collection I put together when my son was an infant...Buckeyes, Texas Sheet Cake, No Bake Cookies... He's almost 24 now.
Many family contributions, and others that I found along the way, with notes on the pages "Not too good", "Perfect", "Too Much Cocoa"...
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Have to agree with a previous reviewer my "Settlement Cookbook" is all gummed up from prior years of use. Betty Crocker with the large rings has raw cookie dough still imprinted upon the sugar cookie recipe. Also, "Betty Crockers Cookbook for Boys & Girls" from 1957 has fudge on the "fudge" page.