ottawa foodies

hi there

I am new to this site and I wanted to pick your brains as to what your fav cookbooks are ( if you have any)

Joy of Cooking, excellent reference for basics and fundamentals
Betty Crocker's Cookbook - if you are from the east coast there is a lot of what your mom makes in there.

Anthing by Dr Oetker. Great instructions and extremely well layed-out.

I reference The Fannie Farmer Cookbook for everything. It has been in my household for as long as I can remember - my family even refers to it as a person- "What does Fannie say?".

I have a fairly extensive collection of cookbooks (about 25) and some are the "oldies but goodies" that have long gone out of print (from the 50s, 60s, 70s) -- Betty Crocker, Fannie Farmer, Five Roses Flour, The White House (the Kennedy years). But time and time again, I find myself going back to my well worn leather bound Joy of Cooking. I like that it serves as a general source for just about anything... cuts of meat, canning, unfamiliar veggies, freezing, soups, sauces... you name it I can generally find it in those 1000+ pages.

Oh, speaking of oldies, the old Purity cookbooks are really good. And keeping to a Newfoundland theme :-)

Definitely the Joy of Cooking and specifically the 1977 edition. It is a really good reference book for different cuts of meat, different types of veggies etc. Also the Five Roses cookbook especially for food storage advice. I also love the Anne Lindsay cookbooks for the recipes. The other 200 or so cookbooks I have are used either for reference or specific recipes. Gotta stay away from those bookstores otherwise I will get buried alive under all the cookbooks I have-:)

For English language cookbooks I really like Jamie Oliver's Italy (I know, he is a polarizing figure, but those recipes are 'bloody' good ;), and Micheal Ruhlman's Charcuterie, as discussed in previous posts.

Ottawa Foodies have been down this path before.
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Link ---> www.ottawafoodies.com <---

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Link ---> www.ottawafoodies.com <---

How come no one is mentioning the great Canadian classic... The Kraft Cookbook.

.... first you start by creaming the Karft Peanut Butter with the Kraft Miracle Whip and the Kraft Velveeta (or Cheese Whiz) then add the Kraft Miniature Marshmallows followed by the Kraft .......

Oh those Kraft recipes.

Captain Caper When you are finished perusing the Kraft cook book there is always "Retro food fiascos". I haven't read it yet but Chapters has it on sale to their online customers for only $2 - you can't beat the price!

My favourite is Nigella Lawson's "How To Be A Domestic Goddess". Her writing is gorgeous. I'd like to pick up a few of her other cookbooks, add them to the wishlist...

repertoire de la cuisine
is the only book I ever "really need"

For baking, I've quite liked Anna Olson's "Sugar" books. The presentation is clean and simple, and the recipes are great.

For general know-wots, Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything" is great, and chock-full of information. Strangely enough, I enjoy Tony Bourdain's "Les Halles Cookbook" for its general know-wot qualities, even though it isn't structured like that. I've found that I picked up a lot of technique by reading/trying the recipes.

And, yes, Jamie Oliver's books are really good. Great variety of recipes and ingredients, and he's just so enthusiastic!

Any of the Moosewood cookbooks...healthy, low fat, mostly vegetarian, and yummy!!

I love the Americas Test Kitchen cookbooks

Another great one is Dana McCauley's Pantry Raid. It has a lot of simple, every day recipes that don't use a lot of ingredients. Bonnie Stern's More Heartsmart Cooking is also good for that and super healthy, but without losing sight of old favourites - there's a great recipe in it for homemade shake-n-bake chicken! I also really like Jane Lawson's Yoshoku because I like Japanese Food, and I agree with all the previous bloggers that investing in the Joy of Cooking is a really smart idea. This said, lately I've been checking a lot of blogs (Simply Recipes is my favourite) for recipes, and I often use FoodTV.ca's searchable recipe database.

I would say everything starts with Larousse Gastronomique.
Anything else depends on your cooking level and food preference.

I very much enjoy "The Silver Spoon" very easy comprehensive tome on Italian cookery.

CB