If you could only have one cookbook, what would it be?

[lukkykatt]

I am looking to revamp our cookbook collection. Most of our cookbooks are BK (before kids) and the recipes take alot of prep time. I am looking for basic cookbooks with fast, easy, reasonably healthy recipes.

What is your old standby?

[jubilee]

Although I have 40+ regular cookbooks, what I use the most are the little Pillsbury cookbooks that they sell at the checkout stand in the grocery store. I love the variety and ease of the receipes, and I LOVE that all receipes have a picture! I pick one up almost every month, I should just subscribe to it.

[nohomama]

Well, it's not what you're looking for but if I could only have one cookbook it would be Lynne Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Table. This book epitomizes "Slow Food." Fast and easy it is not. If you want really good, authentic northern Italian food though, this book is a must have.

Along the lines of fast & easy, and old standby I'd recommend The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Nearly all the recipes are short, easy to follow, and, if you get a recent edition updated by Marion Cunningham, reasonably healthy.

The Joy of Cooking is also an old standby a fun read as well. I prefer the older editions but the recipes in the updated The New Joy of Cooking are geared more towards today's time concious cooks and their lighter tastes.

[JLiebCamm]

I just got the Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meals for Christmas and have found everything that I've tried in it so far to be fast and delicious. My favorite old standby is (The Best Of) Cooking Light. The recipes are all great and it highlights the "quick and easy" recipes so you can be realistic when trying to choose fast recipes.

[khakismom]

If could only have one, hands down it would be the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It's the big red one in the binder. It is PERFECT! Wonderful recipes, plus tons of pictures, guidance, charts, and advice for new cooks (like me). There's info and pix on different cuts of meat; pictures of undercook, overcooked and perfect scrambled eggs; a gajillion ways to cook chicken; etc. This cookbook has *everything*! Lots of fast and easy stuff. And all the recipes I have used list ways to make it healthier. What I like most is that the recipes are yummy, simple, and can be very basic and traditional.

The New Dieter's CookBook (another binder cookbook, got it at Costco) is good too. Yummy recipes that are not difficult to do. With working 40+ hours a week, I don't do much cooking and when I do, I'm not going to do something that is difficult or overblown. :)

[egoldber]

It would definitely be The New Joy of Cooking. Its the one I use day in and day out. Other cookbooks I use occasionally, but thats my workhorse. When I want to know how long to cook a roast, make a white sauce, what temp to cook a turkey to, how to steam an artichoke, etc. Its the one.

[christic]

The one I use almost every day is The Best Recipe from the editors of Cook's Illustrated, my favorite magazine :). They're also the one's who have the PBS show America's Test Kitchen and they basically pick a dish and then try different recipes and techniques until they find the absolutely best way to make something, according to them. I used to find their recipes overly complicated at times, but they seem to have now factored the ease of making something into their search--something I don't think they paid much attention to say 5 years or so ago.

Anyway, the cookbook is great for basic vegetable and meat dishes and the best hands down for any sort of baked goods.

[momtoemma]

My favorite cookbook of all time is The Southern Living Cookbook. I've found that it contains great recipes for all the basics, and everything is so tasty!

[Karenn]

If I could only have one, it would easily be the New Joy of Cooking. To me it's much more of a cooking reference book than a recipe book. It tells you how to do everything! I love it for that! But, I do find that some of the recipes are a little more complicated than they need to be. When I'm trying to be a gourmet, I love their recipes. When I'm trying to get dinner on the table with minimum fuss, I turn to my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The recipes are a little more basic. They don't always have quite the flavor that a Joy recipe will have, but they taste good enough.

Another favorite is Six Ingredients or Less, Cooking Light and Healthy. Full of quick and easy recipes that taste good too.

[em_jon98]

I pull out the New Joy of Cooking for everything. Literally, everything--before I look anywhere else. We have about 40-50 cookbooks, but the Joy of Cooking has been used more than any of the others combined. The recipes are easy to follow and turn out well even if you veer slightly off course.

I have also heard good things about Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, but we don't own it so I cannot personally vouch for it.

[C99]

Only one? The Joy of Cooking. I've had it since before I got married, the binding is cracked and falling apart, and the pages are all gummed up, but I love it. It's a great guide for how to prepare just about anything!

[sugarsnappea]

ITA with the others- The Joy of Cooking. I own over 150 cookbooks and this is my #1 standby. It is also my gift to every bride-to-be at showers! :)

[vpalmer]

I own most of the cookbooks everyone has mentioned and I have to say that my absolute workhorse is The Best Recipe by the editors of Cooks Illustrated. I have to agree with the PP that the recipes are becoming more time friendly. I love having this cookbook around and I refer to it all the time. The magazine is also great. Bound editions of a year's worth of magazines are also available. The magazine format is unique; each article includes a description of how to best cook a simple dish, enchiladas for example. They prepare enchiladas in their test kitchen 30 different ways and describe the results. At the end they list several variations of the recipe and you choose the one you like based upon your own tastes. The enchilada article stands out in my mind because I consider enchiladas to be one of my great specialties (my father is Mexican and lives in Mexico) and I learned a few tips to make enchiladas quicker and better!

Have fun cooking,


Veronica
Mom to Eva
Born on 6-12-03

[sadie427]

My old standbys are The Joy of Cooking and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I'm not a vegetarian, but we don't eat a lot of meat, and this cookbook will give you good ideas for just about any vegetable, as well as good quick recipes for beans, eggs, rice etc.

[Jen in Chicago]

I second this recommendation. I have 4 shelves of cookbooks after downsizing, and this is stil the one I grab the most.

[brubeck]

I don't know why no one has mentioned this but I love my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. It is my cooking bible. Any dish I want to make is in there and it gives the breakdown of carbs, fat, etc. for each recipe.

[tina-t]

I love my Cooking Light cookbooks. They come out with one every year which is a compilation of the recipes from the monthly magazine Cooking Light. I have the 2001, 2002 and 2003.