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a Rumford cookbook from the 1940's that was my Mothers.she was a fantastic cook and seldom used a cookbook ,it was the only one i ever saw her use when i was a kid. i eventualy ended up with my own copy but it was actualy older than hers. it is great for basics ,& sometimes for a laugh. the first i ever bought for myself was The Encyclapedia of American Cooking in 1982. the cover is gone ,i taped it back on a bunch of times,but finally lost it,many pages are stained. i still go to it for lots of things.since then i have bought & been given many others ,i really love old ones.i have a 1927 first edition of Good Meals and How to Prepare Them put out by the Good Housekeeping Institute. Inside it says you can't buy it but you should tell your friends they can get thier own copy by ordering Good Housekeeping for two years for $4.50.what a bargain , i use it fairly often ,some things never change &those that have are quite often very amusing . peticook

I grew up with a copy of THE JOY OF COOKING that my mother left on a hot electric burner, so it had black coil marks on the cover. Eventually, the book split in two, then into six parts which had to be held together with a rubber band. Something prevented us from simply replacing the book. I've never been so attached to a book! I knew every stain by the time I was 15.

It would have to be the Joy of Cooking. My husband got it for me as a gift years ago before we were married and it's been a go-to reference book ever since.

First Cookbook I used was Silver Palate. I got married in 72 and yes 35 years latter with splattered pages, it still is the best. rattatoulle I love it and so does the hubby.
Sharon

Mine was The New York Times Cookbook, given to me by my parents when in college with the inscription: For best results, recipes should begin with "take a pound of butter". Different times. I also remember growing up with my father's well-splattered Gourmet Cookbook.

Joy of Cooking for me too, though sometimes the literature on etiquette reads like a stick-in-the-mud finishing school teacher

The first one I used was the Woman's Day cookbook, believe it or not. I got Better Homes as a gift but found a lot of dud recipes in there. And the WD cookbook provided full nutritional info as well as sections at the back for "cook once, eat twice" and menus for entire holiday meals, which was very helpful when on a budget and first getting started. I still pull it out for a couple of old favorites now and again.

My wife and I were married in "69"" and recieved a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens as a gift. We used it quite a bit at first but less so now.

I'm not sure of the exact version, but it was Betty Crocker and probably came out in the early 70s. For better or for worse, this was my Korean mother's textbook on "how to cook American."

Kid's Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual - my mom got it for me for Christmas one year.

I still fondly remember making Ready Spaghetti from it.

I learned to cook from my dad (who is a chef), whose only recipe was "Leftover Ingredients in Fridge". He doesn't use recipes too often, it was more about technique, technique, technique. As a result, the first cookbook I used regularly was my mom's ramshackle assortment of cookie recipes from chocolate chip bags and newspaper articles.

Paula Wolfert's Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean.