good basic cookbook

[coleslaw]

Anyone know of a good basic cookbook that I could go through and learn a good basic repertoire? I feel that the reason I don't cook much is becasue I don't know how - like I've never roasted a bird of any sort - or vegetables, never made a roast of any sort. Gravy? Nope! There are all sorts of parts to a pig, cow, etc. that I have no knowledge of to even think of making, never mind how. I feel very inept and my family is paying the price. Please help!

[ollyoxenfree]

Joy of Cooking. When I was 18 and in my first apartment, I learned vast amounts about ingredients, cooking techniques, different styles etc. from Joy. I had cooked basic stuff in high school (eggs, meat and potatoes, rice) but it was pretty bland. Joy gave me the confidence to try all sorts of things.

Almost 30 years later and with a bookshelf full of cookbooks, I still pull my copy out regularly. I used it this week actually.

[dogmom327]

Not a book but if your library has the Good Eats (with Alton Brown) series on DVD or if you can record them off your TV--that's mainly how I learned to cook.

[BetsyS]

My basic cookbook is The Southern Living Ultimate Cookbook. A basic cookbook, with a southern twist. Like, there are good recipes for biscuits, for fried chicken, peach cobbler, pimento cheese, gumbo, and the like in there. But, it's also my go-to cookbook for pot roast, mashed potatoes, for vegetable side dishes, for salad dressings, for desserts (following the pictures was how I learned to make chocolate cream pie and cream puffs). All around, it's a great book.

[Cullens_Girl]

Joy of Cooking - this is my cooking bible! love it!

Also like the Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks... I have the red plaid and have borrowed my mother-in-law's tattered bread recipe book on many an occasion.

Other cookbooks I use and love:
Moosewood Cooks At Home
Feeding the Whole Family
Mabel Hoffman Crockpot Books (I have both healthy and the regular)

[JessicaS]

All the recommendations in this thread are great ones.

You could check these books out at the library and look through them.

I cook several things following Alton Brown's instructions.

[luv-my-boys]

The betty crocker cookbook (red plaid one) is hands down a great cookbook. I "inherited" one from DH when we married as it was a gift when he moved out of this parents house.

The cookbook is divided by sections such as poultry,meat,vegetables,cakes,desserts. The cookbook is actually a ringed binder which allows you to add or take away recipes plus the book lies flat on the counter (huge plus for me!)

The recipes are classics but also contain some nicer recipes like rack of lamb but does have basics as well like mashed potatoes or a pot roast. Each section gives a few pages of great information. For example the meat section describes all the cuts of beef and what the things like USDA select mean and what they would be good for. It also says how to cut certain meats when cooking and includes guides like what temp is "med. rare" which is very useful. Poulry contains a section similar and I use that a lot, actually I used it to know how long and what temp to cook our turkey.

The ingredients they use are pretty common. My pet peeve is trying a recipe to only find out it uses a lot of hard to find spices. Plus the recipes contain pictures so you can see what it should look like plus tips on presentation and re-heating.

http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Book-75th...940589&sr=8-29

[staceychev]

I really like Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food. It's really almost a textbook on how to cook. She explains a lot of things like technique and ingredients, which is great if you don't know a lot. You won't get as many recipes as some of the other (great) recommendations here, but you'll get a lot of explanation. Unlike other cookbooks, she doesn't expect that you are working from a base of knowledge.

From the Amazon.com page: "Organized largely by techniques, the book is a kind of primer, designed to free readers from recipe reliance..." and "After a useful discussion of ingredients and equipment come chapters on techniques, such as making broth and soup. Each of these includes three or four recipes that rely on the technique described, which can lead to repetition (still preferable to a lack of guidance): a chapter on roasting contains two pages of instructions on roasting a chicken (including a hint to salt it a day in advance for juicy results), followed by a recipe for Roast Chicken that is simply an abbreviated version of those two pages. The final third of the book divides many more recipes traditionally into salads, pasta and so forth."

[sewchris2642]

Cooking for Dummies and How to Cook Without a Book both are great at teachiing the basics. The recipes aren't TF but once you learn how to cook, you either will be able to adapt them or you won't need them. And knowing the vocabulary and techniques will enable you to cook TF. Once you know how to cook, any old cookbook (the older, the better, say prior to 1930s) will give you great recipes using whole foods.

Edited to add: 2 books that are good for TF cooking once you know how to cook are Diet for a Small Planet and Recipes for a Small Planet. Both are out of date but can be found on Amazon.com or from the author's website. http://www.smallplanet.org/

[Three~Little~Birds]

I also suggest the Joy of Cooking. It was my first cookbook but I still refer to it, in spite of the oodles of cookbooks that I have since acquired.
And..if the going gets tough and you find yourself needing to eat a squirrel, there's even a recipe in the Joy for it!! lol

[mamadelbosque]

Personally, I love Mark Bittman's cookbooks - How to Cook Everything, How to Cook EVerything Vegetarian, & The Best Recipes in the World. I have all three and use them All.THe.Time. Almost everything I've made out of them has turned out wonderful, and they've tuaght me SO much about cooking

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by luv-my-boys

The betty crocker cookbook (red plaid one) is hands down a great cookbook. I "inherited" one from DH when we married as it was a gift when he moved out of this parents house.

The cookbook is divided by sections such as poultry,meat,vegetables,cakes,desserts. The cookbook is actually a ringed binder which allows you to add or take away recipes plus the book lies flat on the counter (huge plus for me!)

The recipes are classics but also contain some nicer recipes like rack of lamb but does have basics as well like mashed potatoes or a pot roast. Each section gives a few pages of great information. For example the meat section describes all the cuts of beef and what the things like USDA select mean and what they would be good for. It also says how to cut certain meats when cooking and includes guides like what temp is "med. rare" which is very useful. Poulry contains a section similar and I use that a lot, actually I used it to know how long and what temp to cook our turkey.

The ingredients they use are pretty common. My pet peeve is trying a recipe to only find out it uses a lot of hard to find spices. Plus the recipes contain pictures so you can see what it should look like plus tips on presentation and re-heating.

http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Book-75th...940589&sr=8-29

We have that one too, and I got it the same way you did. SIL gave it to DP when he bought his house before I came into the picture. It's a great go to book when I want to make something and think I have it all figured out but want to double check my times etc. I also have Joy of Cooking which I don't use much because the type face is so small and I need glasses.

The one I really loved the most when I started cooking was The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book

http://www.amazon.com/Housekeeping-I.../dp/068808074X

It has sketches along the way so when you are doing a step an aren't sure you can look at th sketch to see if it's supposed to look like that when you add the eggs or whatever.

[tifpaul]

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham. I like the way she writes about food. It's a little more personal than Joy of Cooking. And simpler, I think.

I agree you should check them at the library first. I think all of these could be good choices - just depends on which one is good for you.

[sewchris2642]

Between Joy and me, we have 3 Betty Crocker cookbooks: 1951, 1956, and 2 1969 (one's mine and the other one's Joy). I got the 1951 book from my mil when she stopped cooking. And I bought the 1956 version used from a thrift store.

[coleslaw]

Wow! I didn't expect so many replies! I appreciate all of your responses. I'm embarrassed to admit I actually have some of these, which is good, but I had the answers right under my nose all this time. Time to crack them open and go page by page. Cooking is intimidating to me, so I guess I didn't have the confidence when I got them and then forgot about them. I'm wokring on getting braver. Thanks again!

[archiesdad]

my absolute bible has always been the "larousse de la cuisine", which I was given when I was in France. I just had a search online to see if it was translated and I think it has been, published by Dorling Kindersley, but I need to find out some more information for you. It literally covers absolutely everything. Also (being a little biased here in the UK!), almost any Jamie Oliver book should get you cooking with confidence, or for a great family cook, try Bill Granger from Australia. He is a genius.

Feel free to also look at my video blog, "My Daddy Cooks", http://www.mydaddycooks.com, which features videos of me cooking with my little two year old in the kitchen. The main key is that all the dishes are fresh, family friendly and very easy to make!

Hope that helps...

Nick

[napless]

I like the Fanny Farmer cookbook. My mom gave me my own copy when I left home, and it is now in tatters. If I call my mom for cooking advice, she generally consults Fanny Farmer. As well as some great recipes, "Fanny" is full of really basic information (how to fry an egg, how to boil potatoes). No question is too basic to ask Fanny!

The La Leche League cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole Family is great, too.

[robugmum]

Don't flame me but the one we use the most these days is Martha Stewart's Cooking School. Its set up to be an actual class where you read about a technique, learn it, then make a recipe that utilizes it. We haven't been working through the book page by page or anything but my dh, who would always try to be out of the room whenever it was time to carve the turkey, is now a masterful carver - really!

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by archiesdad

my absolute bible has always been the "larousse de la cuisine", which I was given when I was in France. I just had a search online to see if it was translated and I think it has been, published by Dorling Kindersley, but I need to find out some more information for you. It literally covers absolutely everything. Also (being a little biased here in the UK!), almost any Jamie Oliver book should get you cooking with confidence, or for a great family cook, try Bill Granger from Australia. He is a genius.

Feel free to also look at my video blog, "My Daddy Cooks", http://www.mydaddycooks.com, which features videos of me cooking with my little two year old in the kitchen. The main key is that all the dishes are fresh, family friendly and very easy to make!

Hope that helps...

Nick

All these suggestions are good.

The Larousse is a great reference, but I don't find it as friendly to the novice family cook as some of the other references mentioned in other posts. There are English language versions - I've had one for about 30 years.

Jamie Oliver and Bill Granger are both inspiring cooks. Granger's cookbooks assume a certain level of knowledge though, and aren't quite as helpful to the new cook. I think they might be especially frustrating to a beginner American too - a lot of his ingredients may be difficult to find and I don't think he provides substitutions and metric conversions. He offers good recipes with lovely fresh flavours and the books have some terrific food styling for inspiration.

Donna Hay, another Australian, is probably a little more user friendly to the American cook (I'm assuming the OP is American, I could be wrong about that though!).