The New York Times Picks New Cookbooks for Summer The New York Times

Did you see the special section on summer reading this past weekend in The New York Times? As much as we love summer beach thrillers and the newest literary stars in the firmament, we were drawn first (of course) to the cookbooks.

The Times rounded up ten of their favorite new cookbooks — many of them with an emphasis on canning, preserving, and other old-fashioned arts of the kitchen.

There is a big emphasis in Christine Muhlke's list on what she calls "homesteader chic," the arts of preserving and making do at home in these lean times. She praises Alice Waters' (& friends') collection of back-to-basics tutorials, In the Green Kitchen, calling it an "interesting entry point" for new cooks and cooks who want to move forward in their cooking skills. (We weren't quite so generous towards this book, which we found oddly unbalanced; read our review here.)

Other picks include Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Ireland's Darina Allen; Molto Gusto, Mario Batali's new book (look for a review here soon!); Fiesta at Rick's, by Rick Bayless; and Good to the Grain, which we also loved.

Check out the whole list; you may find something fun and new to cook out of this summer. Did any of your own new favorites make the list?

• Read The Times' picks: Cookbooks
• See the 20 web extra pick: 20 More Cookbooks

Related: On Community Cookbooks

Image: Tamara Shopsin for The New York Times

Comments (5)

Darina Allen's books are all lovely (I've got a friend in Ireland who periodically has sent me her cookbooks as gifts). I haven't really got the space to keep chickens -- as it sounds like the bulk of this book has -- but if she released a book that was about nothing but canning and preserving, I'd be in nirvana.

My summer reading plan includes River Cottage Everyday, so I guess I am slightly behind the trend, since the article mentions two newer River Cottage books. And I'll be practicing making bread for sure. Some chutney is on my list, too. And I'm reading Food Matters by Mark Bittman at the moment. Although it's not a cookbook, it's fascinating food reading, and part of the Kitchen Reader book club.

I would add Fast, Fresh & Green by Susie Middleton to the list. As a bit of a cookbook collector (understatement of the century) and mostly vegetarian, it is rare for me to be surprised anymore, but this book is fantastic!

I can vouch for the genius of the Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark book. I have a copy and everything I'm made from it so far is delicious!

@sarah9876 -- The two River Cottage books are part of a small "handbook" series published as sideline to the big River Cottage cookbooks. There are seven of them at this point: http://www.rivercottage.net/Category188/Handbooks.aspx . I've been waiting and waiting for them to be available here but am disappointed that the US version converts all the metric weight into imperial volume. Boo!