What is your desert-island cookbook?
It's the one you'd grab in a fire along with family photos; the one you like to read in bed like a good novel; the one that makes you feel like a celebrity chef in your own humble kitchen.
You can only pick one - no cheating.
The Silver Spoon
Ooh this is so mean! One book! Gosh. I will have to say Spoonbread & Strawberry Wine : Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family
Great Black Southern dishes. Though it's mostly meat based, I change a few ingredients to be vegetarian. Can't go without it. That's how I show my family I can cook soul food.
mark bittman's "how to cook everything." i mean, you never know what will wash up, right?
Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. It's incredible what she's managed to fit into one (very readable) book.
Goodness, this is hard!
But I am a rule-follower, so here is my one pick: Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley - vegetarian, quick, delicious, and beautiful all at once. My fiance is beguiled to cook by the pictures, and each meal has some special way of illuminating an ingredient or taste combination that makes cooking and eating more exciting!
Betty Crockers 1961 New Picture Cookbook. I love the art.
I meant Crocker's, of course.
Amy Bess Miller's "The Best Of Shaker Cooking"
hearty, warm, solful food, that's simple and incredibly tasty
and it includes EVERY conceivable kind of nourishment needed, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, beverages, picnics, medicinal tinctures
now, i just have to be sure that my desert island is in the middle of the Hudson ;-)
Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," because on a deserted island--assuming a nicely equipped kitchen and grocery delivery service--I'd finally have the time.
Such a tough question. At first I too was going to go with Bittman becasue it's so versatile -- from artichokes to ice cream. But, if was really stranded, I'd want something written with passion, something written so well I could taste the food even if I didn't have the right ingredients to make it. For that reason, I have to pick Zuni Cafe Cookbook!
Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." No hesitation.
(By the way, "The Silver Spoon" has struck me as overly hard and lacking in detailed instructions. I saw directions for a dessert that SS said required a special pan where Mario Batali said to just form it with your hands and place it on a cookie sheet. Much easier, and much more satisfying. I cooked 2 of their braises and they turned out rock hard and dry, so I've turned to "Cooking by Hand" and "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook" to teach me that. If there's something "the Silver Spoon" is good for, I'll continue looking, but I haven't found it yet. Maybe as pure reference.)
i second the nomination for "vegetarian cooking for everyone." it's amazingly comprehensive!
My favorite cookbook is Giuliano Hazan's "Classic Pasta Cookbook", but on a desert island, "The Best Recipe Cookbook" (america's test kitchen) is the way to go.
Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking"
has wonderful expinations of how the cooking process works and the science behind it. With the knowledge learned in it you can create any culinary masterpiece.
I'm a science nerd!
I'm so busy at work today and yet I can't stop thinking about this! I need to go home and stare at my cookbooks, but off the top of my head, the one I keep thinking about is the good ol' Joy of Cooking. It's not that the recipes are necessarily the most interesting, but it has the answers to nearly all of my cooking questions. (But I reserve the right to change my mind later...)
For sheer reading pleasure, especially on an island where eating options would be rather, um, limited anyway, I would have to concur with the Harold McGee pick. I got it for Christmas and have only worked my way through a bit of it. It's wonderful! I buried myself in the spices section and haven't come out yet.
On a more practical note, having what amounts to a scientific field guide to almost every sort food imaginable would be rather helpful in surviving a desert island.
I'm with Liz. mark bittman is mybittman. Even though he is not especially glamorous, he's never really done me wrong. Even the gingerbread recipe rocks the mike.
I'm a Cook's Illustrated guy... but the Zuni Cafe book and the Shaker one sounds good...
I will initially answer as my mother might do....
"That's like asking me to pick only one of my children!!!!!"
I'll have to go home and research this thoroughly. I have over 100 of my "babies".
Cooking Cajun
Barefoot in Paris - just because for me, the book is like a vacation. I love it.
Ooohhh...I'm glad someone else likes the Betty. I grew up transfixed by the copy my mom got when she married in 1964.
For me, it would be the old Joy of Cooking. Some of recipes are a little dull, but I just love the long, illustrated descriptions of how to scale fish, assemble a wedding cake, recognize different types of turnips.
Jessica - That's exactly how I became acquainted with the Betty.
how to eat, by the domestic archgoddess herself, of course
I'd have to go for the 1964 edition of The Joy of Cooking (annotated by my grandfather and my mother), or barring that, Cook's Illustrated's The Best Recipe.
I would have to concur with The Joy of Cooking. It's not my favourite cookbook, (that honour would go to something glossy and beautiful like French Laundry), but it is my most essential. It's where I turn whenever I think "I wonder how to make x", and is - at the very least - a good jumping off point.
I have to say Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Not that it's the best read (not bad tho) but I find it the most useful as a starting point for improvisation and I figure I'd need to do some improvising on a desert island.
Chez Panisse Dessert Cookbook. There is nothing bad in that whole book. Every recipe comes out like a pastry chef's creation, but each is relatively easy (if you already know how to bake).