At a thrift store, before i had my own kitchen, I got a book called "Chinese Cooking." It was full of things that didn't look very chinese to me (mostly super greasy westernized stuff), but I didn't realize that til I got home. I've never cooked anything out of it...sad, huh?

Joy of Cooking

I started cooking late in life. During my recovery following a traffic accident I was finally able to stand and prepare myself something resembling a meal. It was the beginning of the recovery from feeling foolish and a victim. My recollection is that the first book I bought was 'Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking' c. 1973. I still have the book and it is still in print. I recommend it highly as a go-to basic book for a wide range of Eastern and Middle Eastern standard recipes.

"Baking with Julia" the excellent printed accompaniment to the public television show. I was in 9th grade and just starting to get really into baking. Now, a good 15 years later, I still regularly make many of the breads, and cakes, though my very favorite is the sunny-side-up apricot pastries - they are easy, beautiful and so much fun!

Recipe: http://www.alacartetv.com/baking/recipes/sunnysideup_apricot_pastries.htm

Picture: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PDI8oNcmvWE/Sy-X1LWq_OI/AAAAAAAAEkU/S634fCaiX38/s320/pastry crema, michel richard puff pastry, egg pastry 089.JPG

I bought the Fanny Farmer Cookbook (12th Ed.) my first year at college. All my roommates used it too and together we developed an intense love of cooking.

I still use my Fanny Farmer and completely stand behind those 12th Edition recipes. Even the spaghetti with clams which uses a full stick of butter and 1/3 cup olive oil for 4 servings...it's sooo good! The revised 13th Ed. cuts it down to a measly 1 TBS butter per serving. Bah!

Mastering The Art Of French Cooking. Certainment.

I bought the "Joy of Cooking".
Interestingly, the grandson (Ethan Becker) of the original author (Irma Rombauer) of that cookbook is now a knife designer, and some of his designs are being sold by a sister company of the company I work for. He doesn't design kitchen knives, he designs sporting knives.

Sunset Easy Basics for Good Cooking. It's covered in splatters and very well worn now but I still reference it from time to time.

I cannot remember the name of MY first cookbook but my mother had one for years which I inherited but since the cover was thrown away I never knew the name of it.

I posted about it: http://eyezinacookbook.com/?p=3204
and a reader commented by giving me the title. This was an indescribibable moment since my mother is long gone.

Sure enough with googling the new-found name I found a site that had pics of its interior and each pic corresponded to my book.
So how do you thank a reader who answers a knawing question for twenty-odd years?

When I first moved out and got my own apartment, my mom bought me the Betty Crocker Cookbook (10th Edition). There are really great tips for a new cook and everything is explained really well, nothing pretentious or incredibly difficult to make in the book. Probably one of the best gifts I've ever received, thanks Mom!

I bought Classical Turkish Cooking by Ayla Algar practically the minute I returned from study abroad in Turkey.

It was difficult to find an online recipe for yogurt soup back then...

The first cookbook I ever received was the Frugal Gourmet when I was about 12... then the first one I bought myself was the Joy of Cooking. I still use both.

I don't remember the first cookbook I bought, but I do remember spending hours leafing through my mother's three volume set of Harrowsmith cookbooks. Each recipe was accompanied by a little snippet from the reader who submitted the recipe. It was like Epicurious or Allrecipes in a pre-internet era.

Mine was Classic Techniques for Fine Cooking by Faye Levy, which had really useful food prep guides and is still the book I turn to for basic sauces. The recipes are average, but the book gave me so much confidence as a beginner that I'm more comfortable these days without a recipe than with one.

When I was in college, I went to Urban Outfitters (stop laughing) and picked up a book with some birthday money my aunt sent me.

It was Basic Cooking (http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Cooking-Need-Cook-Quickly/dp/1930603002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280175306&sr=8-1). The book seemed cool, it had lots of pictures, general instruction and the recipes were very detailed.

I cooked the very first recipe in the book, a pan fried noodle dish with chicken, for some college friends. It's what sparked my interest in cooking for people (who knows what would have happened had the recipe turned out badly). It also led to my very first purchase of red pepper flakes.

When I started dating my husband, I still didn't know how to cook much, but I knew the pan fried noodle recipe well. It was the first thing I ever cooked for him. That recipe is still one of our all time favorites. I've since cooked about everything I want to out of that book, and it has yielded a few other "keepers" as well. I'm never getting rid of it!

"Smoothies" or something like that. I don't think I ever made anything from it. I just liked the photos.

The first cookbook I actually USED was the Better Homes & Gardens one, the big binder style.

The Vegetarian Epicure

Who is That Short Chef? I just recently purchased it again, memories. Who knew you needed a recipe for Frito Pie?

Cooking for Two by James Barber (aka the Urban Peasant). I'd just moved in with my boyfriend and needed new recipes. His tv show was on weekday afternoons and everything looked so easy and so possible... I still have the book of course, all grease-splattered, dog-eared and greatly loved.

another vote for Fannie Farmer
Still my go-to for anything I'm not sure about.
It's very dog-eared and full of scribbles converting the ingredients to make other sizes.

I don't remember which was first, but I bought two in college, The Silver Palette Cookbook, and The Moosewood Cookbook. I really learned to appreciate and make things I had never thought of using The Silver Palette Cookbook. I credit it for really teaching me to be a cook and go beyond the basics. Many a Sunday dinner party came from it's pages. It's falling apart, but I still have it and love many of the recipes to this day.

Almost Vegetarian, by Diana Shaw: http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Vegetarian-Primer-Chicken-Altogether/dp/051788206X

about 8 years ago. I think the first thing I tried was the lentil soup with parmesan. It was delicious and quickly became one of my favorites. My other favorites were the chicken and mushrooms (awesome low-fat version) and the potato-mushroom-cheese torta. It's not the best cookbook ever, but it really helped me get over my fear of long ingredient lists and unfamiliar foods. I tried fennel for the first time because of this book!

I was 5 and I remember it like it was yesterday - our neighbor was having a garage sale and the <a/href=http://www.vintagecookbook.com/kcb18.html>Fun to Cook Book caught my eye immediately!

I still have it, too.

I worked at Random House when I was very young, so I got my collection started for free. We were allowed to select 5 books twice a year to receive for free, plus a friend in production gave me some "setting copies" of the first two Marcella Hazan books. So, within 2 years I managed to get 5 of Julia Child's books, Diet for a Small Planet plus the sequel, Penelope Casa's Foods & Wines of Spain, The Victory Garden Cookbook, and a bunch more I can't remember right now -- all forming the core of my collection, and all well-used and a bit stained.

Funny, I remember at the time we were doing Martha Stewart's entertaining guide, and I had no idea who she was and why we were doing her book. Hindsight my be 20/20, but it's often blindingly funny!!!!

The Whole Foods Market cookbook, many years ago, back when Whole Foods really was about cooking and eating good food. I don't know if they even sell that cookbook any more. The first cookbook I ever owned, though, was the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

http://thesweetest3.com/

Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook.

Hehe!

I used to cook with my mom out of her Better Homes and Garden cookbook. It was our go to cook book for just about everything. When I went away to college she gave me a copy of my own, and now that she is gone- every time I use the book (religiously) I think of her.

Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?

A cookbook and do-it-yourself book: recipes, tips on how to do laundry, mend clothes and other "mom" things.

How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman. At that point, I only cooked the food I had growing up (Mexican). I viewed it as an anthropological curiosity as much as a reference -- I had no idea (but was very curious about!) how "Americans" ate, and wanted to try this "new" cuisine. I think chicken with 40 cloves of garlic was my first recipe.

Mine is Cooking with Friends by Jack Bishop. It snagged my eye at the Goodwill, and every recipe I have ever cooked from it has been extra special delicious. I get teased alot about it being themed to the 'Friends' television show, but I could care less. I grew up watching the show, and the cookbook is awesome.

My boyfriend got me the Italian Vegetarian Cookbook for Valentine's Day, which is also by Jack Bishop, and it bothers me a teeny bit, that some of the recipes are almost word for word the same in each of them. I cherish both of them despite that, they are both well used treasures in our kitchen.

Sicilian Vegetarian Cooking. That was over 10 years ago and I still use it regularly.

Amazing cookbook. Wonderful, scrumptious recipes. Every Christmas, I make eggplant parmesan from that book.

It wasn't precisely my first, but my most valued cookbook was a random gift from my boyfriend - he bought me the new edition of Gourmet Today right before the magazine went under. It's my introduction to "special occasion" cooking - on ordinary occasions I just use the internet imagination. I'm looking forward to being nostalgic about that book!

It was the Campbell's recipe book. I kept it until the pages were stuck, burned and almost alive with whatever I spilled on them. I cooked for my boyfriend with that book. It was so easy to use. I knew how to bake muffins but that was it. So it was a huge help.

When I threw it away, I bought another copy for a coworker who was going to live on his own for the first time. I told him that if he wanted a girlfriend, he needed to cook.

I was given a copy of The Joy of Cooking. But the first book I bought myself was By My Side, a book about side dishes that I still use and love. It's a bit quirky and very flavourful.

The first cookbooks I ever got was a set of McCall's paperback cookbooks that my mom got me when I was eight; I was taught to cook early by the awesome cooks in my family (mom & grandma). The only one I still have is my favorite, World Wide Cooking. From that I learned an awesome chocolate mousse, zabaglione, gazpacho, and my irish oatmeal bread recipe. I still make these sometimes, especially the bread.

The first one I remember buying for myself is Sheila Lukins Around the World cookbook. It's still probably my favorite of all time-- my copy is splattered, battered, and near to falling apart. The pasta arrabiata recipe is peerless.

Someone gave me a copy of "Joy of Cooking" when I started college, but I never used it. The first cookbook I bought myself was called "Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen" - I got it after my boyfriend and I tired of eating nothing but Ramen and spaghetti after moving into an apartment together.

I still make some things from it, and it was really helpful - lots of explanations about things that might trip you up with the recipes themselves or with buying the ingredients for them.

I have a nasty habit of collecting random cookbooks, so it is hard to remember which was my first, but there are a few standouts:

Southern Living Annual Cookbooks 1983-1985: a garage sale find for 25¢ each. I had grown up with these, but my mom was unwilling to part with them when I moved away. They hold treasured family favorite recipes. I was in college and finding these was like finding home.

The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook: my go-to cookbook - I check here first for anything. I didn't actually purchase it, my dad bought it for me which makes it extra special. It has a lot of great features I love - an extended substitutions list, and step-by-step instructions (with lots of pictures) that are great for a new cook.

How to Cook Without a Book (Pamela Anderson): not my first cookbook (actually my most recent cookbook purchase), but the first one I've dedicated myself to learning cover-to-cover. Read up about this book online, then checked it out from the local library and soon realized I needed to own it. Found it at a used bookstore for under $4 - score! Essential for my survival in cooking 2 meals a day, 7 days a week. It emphasizes process, and leaves the recipes open to interpretation/experimentation/substitutions so you can eventually create your own favorite recipes. Simple, fast, extremely practical. Love this cookbook.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was the first one I bought, but the first one I owned was the Whole Foods cookbook. My mom gave me her copy because I was always scoping it out when I was visiting from college. I never use the Whole Foods cookbook anymore, but Madison's text is still one of my primary cookbooks (along with Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian).

It must have been Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking, which I bought in 1981 in Hatchard's book shop in London before leaving the UK after a year there. I finally replaced it a couple of years ago because it was falling apart.

The first cookbook I bought was back in my hippie days. Adele Davis, Let's Cook It Right. It's completely falling apart but I still have it and use it. At about the same time my equally hippie sister-in-law gave my a Fannie Farmer, my most used cookbook. I'm not sure which edition, but it was about 1973 when I received it.

I bought three cookbooks when I moved into my first apartment last year: The Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything, and The Healthy College Cookbook .
The Joy of Cooking quickly became a doorstop, but Mark Bittman's book helped me set up my first kitchen and learn basic cooking techniques. It definitely helped me get through my spatula-melting stage of cooking.
The Healthy College Cookbook is budget friendly and easy to follow, but occasionally reminds of my dorm room days. Ramen noodle stir-fry, anyone?

The first cookbook I ever had I inherited from my mother, called "Can the Greeks Cook?" and I still have it though I've only make the dessert recipes out of it. Another book I love is "Beard on Bread" by James Beard. A friend let me borrow her copy and when I returned it, I raved about how much I liked it so she surprised me with a paperback copy as a gift. Unfortunately, she passed away some months later and now when I use this book, I think of her and her thoughtfulness.

I remember thinking it was awesome to see someone else with my last name (kleiman) on a book shelf, so I picked up Evan Kleiman's "pizza, pasta, panini" when i was in grade school and totally obsessed with noodles, but rarely cooked from it. I just started making the pizza crust from that book recently (im a grown up now) and its fantastic!

I second the Fannie Farmer comment. I found a vintage copy at an estate sale that was almost identical to my grandmother's. You can bet I snapped that puppy up, even though I was still living at home. I still refer to it religiously for biscuits, breads, jams and pies.

I am embarrassed by my earnestness: Diet for a Small Planet and Recipes for a Small Planet. I quickly moved to Laurel's Kitchen, Tassajara, and Moosewood.

The first cookbook that I wanted to buy for myself was Fistful of Lentils

However I do remember the first cookbook I poured over- I was 7 or 8 and it was an Anne of Green Gables collection of lady like foods from the book

Bread by Eric Treuille, Ursula Ferrigno. I still use it each week!

The first one I got was The Mirabelle Cookbook by Marco Pierre White.

It cost me a fortune (hey, I was 16) and was stolen by a chef just 8 months later. I'm still in counselling.

The first cookbook I got was Joy of Cooking. It was the only thing I asked for for my 14th birthday. I still use it all the time even though the pages have become pretty sticky!

Joy of Cooking. I still use my ratty copy from 1963. It's the best - I can find the answer for most everything in Joy.
http://iowasue.blogspot.com/2010/04/custard-week.html

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1989 edition). In 1992, when I was 12 years old, I checked it out from my junior high school library. It's the only book that I've ever "forgotten" to return.

Raymond Sokolov's How to Cook was the first cookbook I owned, a gift. I purchased The New York Times Cookbook shortly therafter and so had a very NYT introduction to cooking. The first cookbook I fell in love with was Marion Cunningham's The Fanny Farmer Baking Book.

When I was 10 or so, I bought the Church cookbook with my allowance. My grandma's, aunts, mothers, and family friends' recipes are in it, and it is still my go-to for easy, familiar recipes. I originally bought it cause my mom's name was in it...and I thought that was cool!

Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics Learning to Cook With Confidence

ISBN-13: 9780028624518
ISBN-10: 0028624513

I would still recommend that book for anyone just starting to cook! It is SO helpful, basic and delicious! It even breaks down a basic Thanksgiving dinner!

"Cook the perfect..." by Marcus Wareing
I usually don't like cook books but this particular one had my attention because of the basic recipes and basic cooking methods.

Technically this wasn't my first purchase, but years ago in college I checked out and then xeroxed recipe after recipe out of a book called "As American as Apple Pie," essentially re-creating the book in copier format (this was pre-internet so no easy recipe searches for someone trying to learn to cook!).

The book contains 12 variations, many of them regional, of classic American dishes like hash, beef stew, waffles, brownies, pot pie, biscuits, etc. I still cook from this book today, although many years ago I actually purchased my own copy, so the author (Schultz, I think) & publisher got their fair share in the end!

In college, first time living away from home in the 1960's I bought Grace Chu's The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking. I remember it fondly for my first forays into stir frying---
The book was not on the caliber of Grace Young or Fuchsia Dunlop but, then again it was the sixtys.........

I was given my first cookbook as a child - Someone's in the Kitchen with Dennis. That would be Dennis the Menace, of course. I remember the recipe for pickled carrots that called for submerging carrot sticks in dill pickle brine.

In high school I asked for (and received) a BHG cookbook for Christmas. I still use it, mostly for quick & basic versions of baked goods and "Americana" (cole slaw, meatloaf, potato salad, etc.).

The first cookbook I purchased for myself was in college, Lukins/Rosso's The New Basics. Even though a lot of the recipes just reek of the 80s when I look at them now, I still refer back to that book frequently.

Jacques Pepin's Simply and Healthy Cooking. I don't cook from it often anymore but everything I've ever made from it was delicious!