Which Three Cook Books?

[smudge]

If the flames were licking around the eaves and you'd already saved the family and secured the brew gear, which three
cook books would you rush back in to save?

Sounds like a stupid question I know, but I need to archive some cook books to fit in the new ones I've 'op shopped and
I'm finding it hard to work out which ones get the flick to the garage.

I decided that the three I couldn't live without were -


Thai Food
David Thompson
Penguin Books Australia Ltd

Nearly 700 pages of inspiration from an Aussie who not only had Darley Thai and Sailors Thai in Sydney, but has been
retained by a culinary school in Thailand to help "preserve Thailand's culinary heritage".


The Cooks Companion
Stephanie Alexander
Viking - Penguin Books Australia Ltd

Catalogued by ingredient and brings a real passion to her craft. Another restaurateur who can write. Everything from how
to get the perfect boiled egg to formal banquets.


The Complete Asian Cookbook
Charmaine Solomon
Summit Books - Paul Hamlyn Pty Ltd

My first 'real' cook book (the present from my mother when I left home - '101 Ways With Mince' - doesn't count!).
TDA posted over a year ago about this book and gave one of the recipes for 'Tamatar Kasaundi' or 'Tomato Oil Pickle'. If you
never cook another thing in your life, read TDA's post and recipe here, and either eat it like you would a normal pickle
or put some on a meat/salad sandwich instead of butter and prepare to be amazed!

My copy is just over 30 years old, has lost both covers, is splattered with the history of dishes long past but is still my bible.


Anyway, which ones do you save?

Cheers,
smudge

 

[Mercs Own]

With the knowledge that any of the cookbooks I own, I love, and use and peruse almost every day can be bought/replaced with out too much trouble I would save the following three things in this order:

1. My laptop with my own personlly written recipes from the last 15 years of cooking which I am planning on publishing in my own cook book hopefully next year. (plus saving my laptop means I can go on line and order the cookbooks that were lost in the file not to mention search for recipes on the net.)

2. My set of Shun Knives - can be replaced but these were given to me

3. The irreplaceable ie the special issues of Gourmet Traveller, Fresh, Table, Delicious, Cusine (NZ mag very good!) and clipped articles from newspaper and mags (even some from womans weekly) which are old favourites allbeit adjusted to become my originals based on the originals of several hundred years of people cooking and adjusting them to make them their own.

BTWY it would be interesting to put the question to Neil Perry as he has a collection of over 3000 cook books which he uses as research and inspiration for his cookbooks.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Definatly Stephanie Alaxander,s Cooks Companion.....its a MUST have in any kitchen....I regularly use it as a refference..

I also have the New Idea Cooking encyclopedia......its also good as a refence...

and Ray Daniels designing great beers....not cooking but, I would be without it....

 

[smudge]

Merc, maybe I should have held the dramatics and jusk asked for favourite cookbooks.

I enjoy your show (noticed it wasn't on last week - is it over?) and look forward to your cookbook. Have you sorted a
publisher yet?

Agree with you on Cuisine, one of the best $9 you can spend. I have Neil Perry's 'Simply Asian' which is great and I
think I read somewhere that he has a new 'bible' out for close to $100. Haven't come across it yet.

C'mon, given that you've saved the laptop, the knives (lucky *******!) and the mags, what are your favourites?

Stu, Ray Daniels is a given even if it's not a cookbook.

Cheers,
smudge

 

[Quintrex]

Silver Spoon
-Awesome Italian cookbook

Charmaine Solomans complete asian cookbook

Stephanie Alexanders Cooks Companion

Maybe a french charcuterie book I have, love it

Q

 

[benno1973]

Stephanie Alexander - Cooks Companion
One of those great cookbooks that you can always refer to if you have an ingredient and you don't know what to do with it. Also has the basics for all sorts of things - white sauce, pancakes, etc.

Complete Asian - Charmain Solomon
The first cookbook I owned - a christmas present from my folks. Had to have a plastic jacket cover, due to the amount of sauce that was splashed over it.

Something by Jill Dupliex - My flavour of the moment. Simple but tasty recipes to cook i minutes...

 

[sinkas]

How to Gut-Bust on a Budget, 2001 Adelaide Uni Press

Merc you sound like a Stepford Wife., any plans for a book?

 

[ausdb]

Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, a bible on all of the good things you can do with meat.

Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain I like his style and the recipes aren't bad and covers a bit of everything, even some charcuterie.

A toss up between
That big fat Charmaine Solomon asian book the others have, covers the rest of the world (almost)
or
One of my many Moroccan cookbooks

 

[Mercs Own]

Damn it Smudge you got me there - I just counted my cook books and I have 97 with two on order!! There are a couple I dont use and should really give to the library, then there are a couple I have never cooked out of but will often pick up and browse through - a few of those 97 are books I have bought for my wife and my daughters (I have three - daughters not wives) there are also a couple I have bought recently and havent got around to cooking out of yet but have used them to get some ideas for recipes I may do on my show.

I dont really have a favourite - I probably have a top ten in no particular order. In fact I rarely cook straight out of a cookbook, instead when I am thinking of making a dish and I have certain ingredients in mind I will look through 5 - 8 of my relevant books or more and get a sense of the produce I have, how other people are using it with various cooking methods and styles and then build up a game plan from there for how I want to cook it. For this reason I am not so good with pastry as it requires you to follow the recipe exactly. And yes one of the books I almost always refrence is The Cooks Companion as it has almost every ingredient in there.

My wifes top three 1; Charmaine Solomon - Thai Cookbook 2; Elizabeth Chong - Tiny Delights 3 Nancy Lam - Stirs it Up She has just started cooking out of the Spirit House Thai Cooking by Annette Fear and Helen Briery - the restuarant and cooking school are in Yandena - http://www.spirithouse.com.au/

My three in no order are: Hugh Fernlley Whittingstall - The Rver Cottage Meat Book, An Invitation To Italian Cooking - Antonio Carluccio, (his book Passion for Pasta is great too!), Sam and Sam Clark - Morro the Cookbook. On order I am waiting on: All about Braising and The Ultimate Beer Lovers Cookbook

 

[justsomeguy]

Cooks Companion - Stephanie Alexander
If you don't know how to cook an ingredient this this book will explain it. Kinda like a bible for cooking.

The Best Recipe - Editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine.
Fantastic American book that explains the process used to develop the particular recipe they provide. They start with a recipe then try to improve it to get the best version of that recipe. For example they bakes nearly 20 batches of chocolate chip cookies just to get the base recipe right. You can use their notes to adjust to your tastes as well.

The Best Quick Recipe - Editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine.
Similar to the Best Recipe above but the recipes are reworks of recipes that always too you ages to cook.

gary

 

[dig]

Big Gay Steph's Big Gay Cookbook (as mentioned by everyone else. The Mardi Gras rainbow edition is the one you want)

Movida (modern spanish, Melbourne) or Vij's (modern Indian, Vancouver). Both have very good dishes you can do at home.

Your brick oven. Building it and cooking in it by Russell Jeavons (modern bible for blokes)

 

[Mercs Own]

Big Gay Steph's Big Gay Cookbook (as mentioned by everyone else. The Mardi Gras rainbow edition is the one you want)

Movida (modern spanish, Melbourne) or Vij's (modern Indian, Vancouver). Both have very good dishes you can do at home.

Your brick oven. Building it and cooking in it by Russell Jeavons (modern bible for blokes)

Damn Dean now I have another book on order!

 

[brendanos]

For me it's Larousse Gastronomique (a French encyclopedia of sorts; the Chef's Bible), Vegan Planet (get's more use than most of my brewing texts), and Google. Nothing beats finding inspirado from 3 or 4 online recipes then writing one somewhere inbetween that will suit my tastes. If Google was to be DQ'd, Home Cheese Making or World Breads get quite a thorough work out.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

If the flames were licking around the eaves and you'd already saved the family and secured the brew gear, which three
cook books would you rush back in to save?

Sounds like a stupid question I know, but I need to archive some cook books to fit in the new ones I've 'op shopped and
I'm finding it hard to work out which ones get the flick to the garage.

I decided that the three I couldn't live without were -


Thai Food
David Thompson
Penguin Books Australia Ltd

Nearly 700 pages of inspiration from an Aussie who not only had Darley Thai and Sailors Thai in Sydney, but has been
retained by a culinary school in Thailand to help "preserve Thailand's culinary heritage".


The Cooks Companion
Stephanie Alexander
Viking - Penguin Books Australia Ltd

Catalogued by ingredient and brings a real passion to her craft. Another restaurateur who can write. Everything from how
to get the perfect boiled egg to formal banquets.


The Complete Asian Cookbook
Charmaine Solomon
Summit Books - Paul Hamlyn Pty Ltd

My first 'real' cook book (the present from my mother when I left home - '101 Ways With Mince' - doesn't count!).
TDA posted over a year ago about this book and gave one of the recipes for 'Tamatar Kasaundi' or 'Tomato Oil Pickle'. If you
never cook another thing in your life, read TDA's post and recipe here, and either eat it like you would a normal pickle
or put some on a meat/salad sandwich instead of butter and prepare to be amazed!

My copy is just over 30 years old, has lost both covers, is splattered with the history of dishes long past but is still my bible.


Anyway, which ones do you save?

Cheers,
smudge

Hey smudge, great to see someone else is a fan of Kasundi. :icon_cheers:
We make it 3 times a year for ourselves and friends, never fails to please.

My 3 most precious cookbooks would be:

Charmaine Solomon Asian Cookbook

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazen

50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi

C&B
TDA

 

[Katherine]

This is way to hard.....can I have four choices

The Cooks Companion
Stephanie Alexander (a constant read)

My French Vue
Shannon Bennett (current cant put down)

CRUST
Richard Bertinet
(bread making) (current cant put down)

Silver Spoon

just another one please

Sauces
Michael Roux (current cant put down)

I have so many.....

 

[Katherine]

just two more

Fresh Flavours of India
Das Sreedharan

Foods of Vietnam
Nicole Routier

 

[bugwan]

Cookery the Australian Way (LOL, not really, but it brings back some great memories from school days - traffic light sandwiches anyone?)

We have Big Steph's Rainbow coloured Magna Carta at home, but it's barely been opened. It currently stops the bookcase from flying away in a gale.
Donna Hay has a healthy representation amongst our things and I have an old copy of the Amity Cookbook (think Rural Women's Association!) and photocopies of my Grandmother's handwritten recipe book too.

That said, we're on a pretty regular rotation of meals that I know off by heart - not much referring to books done here...

 

[dig]

Damn Dean now I have another book on order!

Which one?

 

[Mercs Own]

Which one?

Your Brick Oven!

Katie I have Sauces by Michael Roux and Silver Spoon - great books.

 

[Tony]

The Complete Asian Cookbook
Charmaine Solomon
Summit Books - Paul Hamlyn Pty Ltd

My first 'real' cook book (the present from my mother when I left home - '101 Ways With Mince' - doesn't count!).
TDA posted over a year ago about this book and gave one of the recipes for 'Tamatar Kasaundi' or 'Tomato Oil Pickle'. If you
never cook another thing in your life, read TDA's post and recipe here, and either eat it like you would a normal pickle
or put some on a meat/salad sandwich instead of butter and prepare to be amazed!

My copy is just over 30 years old, has lost both covers, is splattered with the history of dishes long past but is still my bible.


Anyway, which ones do you save?

Cheers,
smudge

I read this and had a look on ebay. Got a 1977 edition in perfect.......... almost new condition for $29

It just turned up today and its fantastic. I have a couple of cheap asian cookbooks but they say everything is cooked with a liter of soy sauce. This has some of the most fantastic recipes in it. Thanks for the tip smudge!

I do love my Jamie Oliver cook books......... i have them all. I know he is a bit of a tool but i love his style of cooking. Wam Bam, thankyou mam, just chuck lots of great fresh stuff in and BAM! I love it!

Third would be an old Womans Weekly cooking class (i think) book. Nothing in it has ever failed me and i love the Beef Storganof recipe!

I have been getting into Indian cooking latly and have the Charmaine Solomon indian cookbook and her "FISH" cook book on their way son as well. under $10 with postage from Evilbay.......... cant complain.

You can never have too many cook books.


cheers