I just read an article on my beloved NY Times about how cooking at home is THE hip thing to do in 2009. Oh puhleeze. Hipsters lost their jobs in 2008 and were forced to learn how to cook at least six months ago. And those were the hipsters who were behind the DIY curve, dontcha know. I mean, I was cooking in high school, but that’s because my mom tried to poison us with a casserole when I was in seventh grade and I figured that if I didn’t figure out how to make edible food I would be forced to eat beige steak and frozen gyros until I escaped to college.
Anyway so I understand that many people are culinarily impaired. This is unfortunate. This reminds me of a really good friend of mine who was my best friend in kindergarten. She was getting married and we went out to lunch – this was well over 20 years ago. And she was telling me that she had decided to make her fiancé a meal, and the recipe called for putting something in the oven. And so she put the pot on the stove and let it sit there for hours and hours and she was perplexed why it never cooked. And I questioned her as to the location of the pot until we figured out that rather than putting the pot in the oven, she put it on the stove. This was because my friend did not know the difference between an oven and the stove.
For those of you who need such basic help, the “oven” is the thing with the door. You put stuff inside it and turn the appropriate knob and the “oven” gets really hot (up to the temperature you designate) and the stuff (we’re talking about food, people) gets hot and cooks.
The “stove” is on top, i.e. those “burner” things. You turn other knobs and fire comes out (if it’s gas) or certain areas get hot and make a pot hot, doing things like heating water, or oil, for cooking.
This is how the cave lady made food for her cave man at the end of a long hard day of killing wooly beasts and collecting berries.
Now that we’ve explained the basics, if you want to learn to cook the best way to do that is to get yourself some cookbooks. Cookbooks are books which explain how you put together various ingredients in different ways to create delicious creations for your cave man. Or, perhaps you are one of those cave ladies who digs other cave ladies. There is nothing wrong with that. We all have to eat.
I ran across an article in my beloved New York Times the other day on the favorite cookbooks of various chefs. I admit to a huge collection of cookbooks. The most used reside in a towering inferno of a bookshelf in my dining room. The also rans are relegated to boxes in the basement and garage. When I have a stressful day I like to read cookbooks and imagine that I am cooking a great feast for my friends (or one special friend). We laugh and drink and eat an endless series of delicious items. It’s nice.
Anyway I was reading this article and even though I have most of the books, I more or less vehemently disagreed with the selection of books. For example, I seriously doubt anyone’s Escoffier is dog-eared and stained. I have read Escoffier although I don’t own it. It’s one of these old “classics” which is unuseable in the modern kitchen, unless you want to cover your dog in white sauce for a laugh. And what’s with the Julia Child fixation? I love her, but do people really make classic French cuisine that much anymore? [I mean… except for me…] These were books chosen by chefs, for chefs, to impress each other with their chefiness.
The first thing about getting a cookbook is to pick one in a cuisine which appeals to you. Do you like pasta, or Italian? Italian, incidentally, is easy. If you do, I would recommend the Marcella Hazan book listed below. Take the book, read it before you start cooking. Familiarize yourself with it, and with a recipe, before you start. That way you know the difference between an “oven” and a “stove” in advance, and can use the interwebs to do needed research. The only thing you need to do after that is…. GO.
Incidentally… you don’t actually need to BUY these cookbooks. In fact, I don’t recommend it for starters. In most places there are these buildings which contain these books, called PUBLIC LIBRARIES. Public Libraries will let you borrow these books, for free, for weeks at a time. You can borrow a few to see what you think, to try them out, and then return them. If you really like a recipe, you can scan it and save it to your computer. You may want to buy one if you find you think it’s really really super useful. But why buy a book when it only has one recipe you like? Scan it and save the paper! Same thing with the interweb. You can use the interweb and GOOGLE to find recipes with ease. Thank you, Al Gore.
So, without further ado, here is my list of favorite cookbooks.
Marcella Hazan
Classic Italian Cooking
More than any of the Italian cookbooks, Classic Italian taught me how to cook Italian. Classic Italian was later combined with More Classic into Essential, but I think Classic is a better book because it has menu ideas.
Ada Boni
Regional Italian Cooking
Once you’ve mastered the basics of Italian from Hazan, you can get into this encyclopedic cookbook which details regional Italian cooking. This book got me into regional cuisine.
Rick Bayless
Authentic Mexican Cooking
Bayless’ Mexican cookbook is easy to follow and includes regional variations in side notes, which gives you lots of room to change things up. Also includes the best margarita recipe I have found.
Craig Claiborne
New York Times Cookbook
So if you have to have one “reference” book, this is the one I would suggest. This is the one which has the basic pancake recipe, the basic soup recipe, as well as a bunch of others. I love this book.
James Beard
American Cooking
Caveat: Beard assumes you know how to cook, and understand terms. He isn’t going to explain that “joint” a chicken does not refer to smoking it in a hash pipe. But, this book has great recipes for American standards like chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, etc etc.
Willoughby & Schlesinger
Thrill of the Grill
I’ll be honest. I don’t consult grilling books much anymore, because I’m a little past that point. Maybe once in a while, if I go into new territory. But let’s say I was the kind of guy who mostly only grilled steaks… I’d borrow this book from me. It has other things to grill, as well as side dishes to make with the thing you grilled.
Farm Journal
Complete Pie Cookbook
This was my step dad’s mom’s book. It’s falling apart, but I’m so glad I grabbed it. I have religiously used the Farm Journal’s lard crust recipe for the last dozen years. Thanks, Lee.
Robert & Maria Strybel
Polish Heritage Cookery
This ginormous tome is useful for several reasons. You can cook with it, and, in a heated argument, you can hurl it across the room knocking your protagonist out cold. I think there are more than 2000 recipes in this book, which means you can eat Polish food for the rest of your life! I can vouchsafe for the recipes (some of them anyway). The authors use an economy of words, but once again, we assume you are not an idiot. I particularly appreciate the preface, where they describe the nutritious and economical benefits of Polish cuisine.
Patricia Wells
Bistro Cooking
Of all my books on French cooking, this one won because the others are out of print. This one is pretty good and very useable, with simple bistro-family style recipes (as opposed to Escoffier aspics and sauces).
Bill Neal
Southern Cooking
John Edge
A Gracious Plenty
Sheila Ferguson
Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South
River Road Recipes
I love Southern food. And please don’t give me nouvelle or low fat southern food. I just want recipes for classics like friend chicken, collards, chess pie, potato salad. That kind of thing. I really really hate jazzed up Southern food, like when they take a perfectly good southern dish and do something unfathomable to it. Leave it alone! Jesus didn’t give you that chicken to mess with, woman!
All of these books are excellent. Bill Neal (RIP) is a legend. The book was out of print when I tried to get it, pre-Amazon, so I literally Xeroxed it. A Gracious Plenty is similar, but with anecdotes. The Ferguson book is like A Gracious Plenty but from the Soul Food angle. River Road Recipes is a Junior League classic from NoLa.
If you get into American Regional cuisine, I would also recommend tracking down the Marcia Adams books, and trying to find “How America Eats” from Clementine Paddingford.
Writing this actually inspired me to make a list of cookbooks and head over to the LA Public Library to check out. I mean, do I really need to buy yet another book on charcuterie? I don’t think so. But I would like to know how to make my own bacon or Tasso ham, or how to make fancy home made canned tuna for that delicious tuna and kale dish.
Gawd, is it lunch time yet?
