What Is Your Favorite Comprehensive Cookbook?
The expertise of culinary encyclopedias
Last week, a heavy box showed up on my doorstep. Inside was a real blockbuster book: The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record.
Edited by Amanda Hesser, this book runs more than 1,000 pages, and is a complete update of the last such Times cookbook, published a decade ago. It’s fascinating reading, although at 5.25 pounds, it weighs as much as a sack of sugar.
Many modern cookbooks are half its size, or even less. The standard now is about 100 to 150 recipes and some cookbooks only come out in paperback, not hardcover.
But there is still a role for these comprehensive cookbooks. I’d love to know which ones are most useful to you. Do you reach for The Joy of Cooking? Larousse Gastronomique? Something by Julia Child or Fannie Farmer?
Let me know your favorites among these big titles, and I’ll mention them in an upcoming newsletter.
How to cook everything by Mark Bittman - I use it for everything (like the title says) from poaching eggs to beef stew
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, 1950's edition. It's what I grew up with (was my mom's) and it has so many great recipes, to this day.