# Your most used cookbook?



## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Do you have a cook book so well used that it opens to your favorite recipes and the pages are stained with years of spills? In which every recipe you have tried has proved to be great?
I have two-
One is the "The Gourmet Chinese Regional Cookbook" by Calvin B. T. Lee and Audrey Evans Lee. I picked it up at a remnant sale 40 years ago and it lead to a life long Chinese food cooking habit.

The other is actually an cookbook my mom started with her favorite recipes and I have continued to add to. It is an accumulation of magazine and shared recipes that was started in 1932. Mmmmmm- Barbecued Lamb Ribs...............


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

Hands down, Joy Of Cooking. I have worn out one copy and had to get a new one a few years ago.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Yep!! JOY!

My second most used book is "The Modern Family Cookbook" by Meta Givens. It's from the 50's.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

The one I always come back to is Kitchen Klatter. It was a wedding present from a friend of my mom's who was a fantastic cook. It is the 21st printing, from 1980, but the recipes go back a lot farther than that.


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook


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## mountainlaurel (Mar 5, 2010)

There are several for me. They are from different Mennonite and Amish churches. I believe that you can purchase them online also.

The Bald Eagle Wilderness cookbook- It's called the Joy of Something, I forget what but if you go to The Bald Eagle Boys Camp website, I'm sure it's there as the book is a fundraiser for the camp.
Mennonites of the Shenandoah Valley Cook book-Esther Shank is the author
Simply Delicious- The High Family
A Taste of Pinecraft- Sherry Gore- this is from the Amish community in Pinecraft Florida.

I have several others. Some of them are from different friends whose extended families or churches put together. But they are simple and practical recipes. 
One thing about Menno's and Amish, they love sugar. So watch the sugar in the recipes. You can usually use a much smaller amount Also it pops up in the weirdest recipes. Like meat, I can't stand how sweet their lasagnes and chili dishes are.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Paul Prudhomme's Taste of America. Every recipe in there is a winner.


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## jcatblum (Dec 15, 2009)

We have 2 shelves of cookbooks. Some rarely used. 
My kids prefer Betty Crocker's new cookbook. They are 12 & 14 -- recipes always taste good & are pretty basic for cooking from scratch. 
For crockpot I use Fix It & Forget It Big Cookbook. -- it is 1400 crockpot recipes. I write on the pages what we like, don't & change. 
Our most used book is a binder with document protectors in it. Has yrs worth of recipes I have printed offline. We split it into sections & I use a sharpie to write on the page protectors any notes. Also works great for recipes cut from magazine pages. We use it a couple times a wk to refer to recipes.


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

I love cookbooks!  I collect all sorts, and really love the ones from before WWII. My favorite is a yellow one with green polkadots from the 1940s, some Encyclopedic Cookbook somethingerother. It was my mother's, and it still has her notes and checkmarks in it. The pictures aren't very appetizing, but the food is simple and wonderful.

Next would be Julia Child's Mastering The Art I & II. I started into Julia about thirty years ago, and fell in love with what's called "cuisine de bonne femme"-- food of the good woman. Just plain homestyle cookin' that's done with an eye toward excellence, purity of flavor, and frugal living.


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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

I have an extensive cookbook and recipe collection. I love Joy, Betty Crocker is good for the basics, James Beard for fish... but the one I reach for more than any other is a homemade cookbook my oldest friend made for me when we graduated high school. It's dogeared, stained, overstuffed with new recipes -- and even has a recipe for Pure Hogwash under the Oddities section. (1 box soap, 1 tub water, 1 hog. Soak till done.) It's a treasure.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

When my books were all packed in boxes I found I just couldn't exist without Meta Givens or The Greater American Cook Book (1940) first published as The United States Regional Cook Book.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Sweetie made her own, Favorites from our Grandmothers' and Mothers' recipes plus our own favorites. We only have 2 "real" cookbooks. Joy of cooking, new edition, given to us when we were married and an old Mennenite cookbook from the Depression that was my Grandmothers....James


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## Dale Alan (Sep 26, 2012)

Stocking Up...great book ! Also,The Frugal Gourmet...cooks american .


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

What a wonderful person, The Frugal Gourmet doesn't get enough acknowledgement. His TV shows taught me so much, and his books are great - I've absorbed him to the point I hardly think to refer to his books. Thanks for bringing him back to mind, Dale.

Adelle Davis is another person who's influenced us that gets little credit today (her recipes can be bit odd, but the nutritional philosophy is sound) - the "Let's - " series, Let's Cook It Right, Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit, etc. She enlightened me to the power of real food.


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## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

Betty Crocker, Fannie Farmer, an Amish cookbook (too tired to go look for the exact title), and a British cookbook I picked up somewhere a few years ago (lists both metric and imperial measurements).

I have MANY others, but these are the ones I go to most of the time.


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## LWMSAVON (Oct 8, 2002)

My favorite cookbooks are 

Make A Mix series of cookbooks by Karine Eliason, Nevada Howard, and Madeline Westover.

They are not only mix cookbooks but have recipes to use those mixes in. I've worn one of them out so much that I had to take the binding off, punch holes in the pages and put in a 3 ring notebook. Many of the pages are stained in the books. 


 ** 


*Make A Mix*

*More Make A Mix*

and* Make A Mix Revised *(has some recipes the others don't and vice versa).

found out they now have a* Complete Make-a-mix Cookbook : How to make your Own Mixes* but I don't have that one so not sure what all is in it.


and


 *The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish **Family*


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

My favorites are
"A Piece of Cake" by Susan G Purdy
and one from the 60's by Family Circle, "Great Chicken Recipes"
They were pretty stingy with herbs in those days.
So when they call for 1/2 clove of garlic I use more like a 1/2lb. Well not quite but you get the picture.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Goat Servant -Please please please look for Sesame Fried Chicken in your Family Circle recipe book. I granted custody of that recipe for a fried chicken coating that my Mom rueluctantly gave to me. And I lost it.................


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## stef (Sep 14, 2002)

Without question "Betty Crocker's 40th Anniversary Edition Cook Book". It has stains, loose pages, hand written notes. I've gotten rid of lots of other cook books, including "Joy of, etc.", but not this one. Among many other recipes it has the best biscuit recipe around. I've been cooking for over 40 years and still come back to this one again and again. 

Betty Crocker's 40th Anniversary Edition Cook Book: Rebecca W. Atwater: Amazon.com: Books


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

I love cookbooks.. I have many and use them often. Some of my favorites are :

Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith
Farm House cookbook, Susan H. Loomis
Heritage of Southern Cooking, Camille Glenn
Stocking Up 
The New Complete Book of Breads, Bernard Clayton

I have a ton of the local church / org. cookbooks.. I can tweak them to our tastes... My MIL gathered all her families recipes and complied a cookbook, ten yrs ago and it's a great reference book for all the old dishes...


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

hippygirl said:


> British cookbook I picked up somewhere a few years ago


LOL! The British aren't known for their cooking...or, maybe they are, depending on how you look at it.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

where I want to said:


> Goat Servant -Please please please look for Sesame Fried Chicken in your Family Circle recipe book. I granted custody of that recipe for a fried chicken coating that my Mom rueluctantly gave to me. And I lost it.................


Could this be it?

Healthy Food: Lose-Weight Dinners


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## Becka03 (Mar 29, 2009)

My Fannie Farmer- 11th edition
I used it till I had to duct tape it!
then I got another one at a book sale for 2.00 I learned to cook with that book!


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Better Homes and Gardens, Heritage Cook Book. It tells the story of The USA with recipes from colonial times thru the early 20th century. All basic ingredients, no "cream of mushroom soup...ect. Every one of my favorite recipes are in this book. Sweet Potato Pie, Cornbread Stuffing, Annadama Bread, Perfect Apple Pie (hold the nutmeg), and many others.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Suitcase Sally- thanks for the thought. I did look at it but as it started out under losing weight, I didn't think it had a chance. Indeed, this was a fried chicken coating recipe- more Paula Dean than Weight Watchers.


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## doozie (May 21, 2005)

I still look in my Pillsbury Kitchens Family Cookbook from time to time. Simple and easy recipes. Joy of Cooking, and America Cooks by Ann Seranne are also great. 
I had an extensive collection of cookbooks, and these are the books I always seem to come back to or go to first.
With the internet I have found I dont really need the books as much, and have lightened my load, but I still love the feel of a book in my hands.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Hands down favourite is the Joy of Cooking = mid 60s edition
Every Day Cookbook by Marguerite Patton == a British cookbook published in the '60s. Has many recipes I remember as a child growing up in England.


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

where I want to said:


> Goat Servant -Please please please look for Sesame Fried Chicken in your Family Circle recipe book. I granted custody of that recipe for a fried chicken coating that my Mom rueluctantly gave to me. And I lost it.................


Gladly! It's called "Chicken Wings Sesame"

2 1/2 to 3lbs chicken wings (20-25)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sesame seed
1/2 cup flour
1 teasp salt
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t ground ginger
4 Tablesp butter

1. Wash chicken wings & pat dry
2. beat egg slightly in bowl with milk
3. in another bowl, combine sesame seed, flour salt pepper ginger.
4. melt butter in baking pan. Dip wings in egg mixture, then in seed mixture. Place in baking pan, rolling them in butter to coat.
5. bake 350 for 1-1 1/2 hour or till brown, crisp & fork tender.

eta cant believe I left out the flour!!!!!


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Goat Servant - thank you so much. I have tried to find that recipe for 10 years at least. It was the only baked chicken coating that was every good. I can finally forgive myself for that piece of carelessness.


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## Wildfire_Jewel (Nov 5, 2006)

I don't have one, I made one. I took all of my recipes and put them into plastic page protectors and then into 3 ring binders. I had a stack of them "saved" for years to try.....I finally put them all in my binders. We try them, if we like them they stay, if not they hit the wood stove. Took care of a major bit of clutter I had been moving from place to place in the house and it is sooooo lovely to just grab and turn to a recipe rather than dig thru a pile of loose papers. I even used pretty papers and did some scrapbooking to make them look nicer on my kitchen counter.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

vicker said:


> Better Homes and Gardens, Heritage Cook Book. It tells the story of The USA with recipes from colonial times thru the early 20th century. All basic ingredients, no "cream of mushroom soup...ect. Every one of my favorite recipes are in this book. Sweet Potato Pie, Cornbread Stuffing, Annadama Bread, Perfect Apple Pie (hold the nutmeg), and many others.


The Farm Journal Bread book says the name came from a husband fed up with his wife's terrible bread, so he picked up a bowl himself muttering "Anna, ---- her" all the while inventing the loaf. (It's also in the New England section of The Great American (Regional) Cook Book, no mention of the backstory there though)


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Yes, the book I referred to has the back story  on that one and many of the others. It's not an all inclusive cookbook, for that I would go with Joy of Cooking, but what it does have is lots of good, old fashioned recipes.


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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

I confess I have a soft spot for White Trash Cooking. It includes a recipe for Bachelor Boy's Breakfast, which if I recall correctly involves crushing Saltine crackers into hot coffee. I honestly couldn't think of anything more disgusting or amusing. But then, I know how to cook omelets and lots of other breakfast things.


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

RedDirt Cowgirl said:


> vicker said:
> 
> 
> > Better Homes and Gardens, Heritage Cook Book. It tells the story of The USA with recipes from colonial times thru the early 20th century. All basic ingredients, no "cream of mushroom soup...ect. Every one of my favorite recipes are in this book. Sweet Potato Pie, Cornbread Stuffing, Annadama Bread, Perfect Apple Pie (hold the nutmeg), and many others.[/QUOTE
> ...


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Hands down: Invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey and her World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. I have several other of her cookbooks, they're all good, and you can rely on any of her recipes:

An Invitation to Indian Cooking: Madhur Jaffrey: 9780375712111: Amazon.com: Books

Madhur Jaffrey&#39;s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking: Madhur Jaffrey: 9780394748672: Amazon.com: Books

I have a lot of cookbooks. My grandmother collected them, my mother collects them, and so do I.


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## Yldrosie (Jan 28, 2006)

the Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery, 1949 Edition. My grandmother gave it to me about 1964 or so. It taught me to cook.


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## Catalpa (Dec 18, 2011)

Fannie Farmer from the early sixties. Still stained where I spilled stuff on it when my Mom was using it to teach me how to bake.

I have three or four Amish, Mennonite, and Church cookbooks. Love 'em!


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## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

How about the Settlement cookbook, lot of great recipes


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## fellini123 (Feb 2, 2003)

Ok I know it is not old, not is it weight watchers, but I love Pioneer Womans receipes. Her cook book is yummy. I got one for my daughter and her husband has asked what has happened to his wife and why is she replaced with this person that can COOK!!!
Alice in Virginia


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

used2bcool13 said:


> How about the Settlement cookbook, lot of great recipes


It's a must-have for anyone who likes historic cook books - the ice cream recipes are the best. Love the continuation of the title too - "The Way to a Man's Heart".


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## campfiregirl (Mar 1, 2011)

The Trimont United Methodist Cookbook (my childhood church in MN) from 1978! Those people had some great recipes! My mom & grandmas also contributed to the book, so a lot of their best recipes are in there.
I also have one of those neat cookbook binders with dividers that have "magnetic" pages in them for those recipes you cut out of magazines or get off the labels, etc. I've also added page protectors for recipes I've printed. I like being able to print recipes with pictures.


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## chris_scott (Mar 25, 2008)

I have two books i like to refer to for cooking..One is my Better Crocker and the other is a cookbook for diabetics i picked up at a yard sale a long time back...half of it is so stained i cant read what it says...but then i also use my computer to look up stuff ..I love the website Allrecipes.com! or since i have diabetics in my home i use dlife.com !


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

I have a lot of cooking books that I love, but the ones I actually use the most are 'Joy of Cooking' and Mark Bittman's 'How to cook everything' (also his book 'Ratio', which isn't a cook book in the conventional sense).


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

where I want to said:


> Do you have a cook book so well used that it opens to your favorite recipes and the pages are stained with years of spills? In which every recipe you have tried has proved to be great?


The rule at our house is:

If we check out a cook book at the library more than 3 times AND it has 5 or more recipes in it that we will cook monthly or bi-monthly?
We buy it.

Those cookbooks do have 'smudges and goodies' splashed all over them!!

My 'go to' is a folder that has loose printed recipes (either photo copied from a book / hand written from a magazine we have seen in a waiting room) or something we have printed off the internet.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm another Fannie Farmer fan. So, for anybody that thinks they might want to check out Fanny, here's the whole book(original edition). Free.
Farmer, Fannie Merritt. 1918. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book


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## notbutanapron (Jun 30, 2011)

My top books:

High End:
The Real Food Bible - Matthew Evans
Maggie's Harvest - Maggie Beer
The Bourke Street Bakery [for breads, tarts and cakes]

Middle-Ground:
River Cottage Every Day - Hugh Fearnsley-Whittingstall
The Good Life - Adrian Richardson
Cooking At Home - Jamie Oliver

Low-Brow:
The Culinary Arts Encyclopedia of Cookery circa 1954 [Totally not as hardcore as it sounds.]
Any Australia CWA cookery book [I have three]

All of these are absolutely riddled with notes, torn pages, stains, prints, splashes, oil... I'm pretty sure if I baked one of my books, I'd get an actual flavourful meal!!

I want to try this Fanny Farmer book but I can't stop giggling because the Australian slang fanny means... well, it means something.


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