As a big cookbook consumer, someone who reads cookbooks for pleasure, lately I’ve been thinking about what makes a cookbook great.
Fellow bloggers can send me off on a mental tangent. Recently a post in Lottie + Doof, called Cookbooks and Criticisms, had me thinking about what I like in a cookbook.
It’s challenging to offer something new in the cookbook world. What recipes can an author provide that haven’t already been covered? How does an author deliver a cookbook that is special?
All of the cookbook links in this post are to Bookshop.org.
Good Recipes
I want recipes that are easy to read and let me know what I’m getting into. Give me introductions that set the stage. Do I need hours to make the dish or can I quickly pull it together? Do I need special equipment or unusual ingredients? Give me a little detail on those things so that I can find them, or if possible, use a different piece of equipment or substitute something else for an ingredient. I’m always grateful to the writer who gives me substitutions that save me time and money and still produce delicious results. For example, if I have chives growing in the garden, can I use those instead of purchasing scallions?
I want reliable recipes that make something that tastes good. When I read a recipe, I have a pretty good sense of whether it is going to be good. That comes from years of cooking. However, I sometimes don’t follow my instincts. I recently made a pasta recipe that sounded good. I thought that the recipe called for too much garlic. I didn’t reduce the amount. That was a big mistake! Let’s just say that vampires weren’t a concern for days after we ate that pasta! That wasn’t my only mistake. It seemed like there was too much sauce. The instructions called for putting all of the sauce in the serving bowl and stirring the pasta into it. Next time, I’d put the pasta in the bowl, then add the sauce to the pasta. Once I had enough sauce, I could stop adding. Lesson learned. The recipe photo didn’t have that much sauce. My guess is that the entire amount of sauce called for was not used in the dish that was photographed. Hmmm.
I may retry that recipe, because I believe that there is a good recipe inside it. But it needs some adjusting.
Photographs
I enjoy photos in a cookbook, with carefully curated food, beautifully plated and garnished, and attractive linens and dishes. Cookbook photos are fun to look at, but they also provide examples of how to serve the food.
However, a good cookbook doesn’t have to have photos. While Mastering the Art of French Cooking has illustrations, it does not have photos. I’m on board with making Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, or chocolate soufflé any day, without the aid of photos.
Stories
Cookbooks were once strictly about recipes. Now they often include stories, which can make a cookbook stand out. I like a good food story.
Food writers and chefs have been writing about food and life in the cooking industry for years. M. F. K. Fisher wrote many great books about food, including Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, and The Gastronomical Me. Ruth Reichl has entertained us with books like Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, or My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life: A Cookbook to name just a few of her publications. Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover’s Courtship, with Recipes is wonderful. Gabrielle Hamilton turned me on to Negronis and reminded me about radishes and butter in Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef.
With the popularity of these books about food and the food world, it isn’t surprising that cookbook authors have turned to story telling in their cookbooks. Stories add personality to the books and context to the recipes.
I’ve just started reading stories and bookmarking recipes in Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. It has beautiful photographs. Some of my TBC (to be cooked) recipes include Spiced Cornbread with Feta, Spicy Red Pepper and Walnut Smash, and Charred Cabbage with Hazelnuts and Chile Butter. I haven’t cooked anything yet, so I won’t give you a review.
Deciding on Cookbooks to Buy
The Lottie + Doof Cookbooks and Criticisms article suggests that cookbook reviewers often do not do a good job of reviewing cookbooks, including testing them by actually cooking the recipes. Most new cookbooks automatically get glowing reviews by other publications. Commenters on the Lottie + Doof article offered some tips on how to learn more about cookbooks before buying them and how to find better cookbook reviews.
- Check the cookbook out from the library to review it yourself. If you love it, you might want to buy it. This is a great way to decide if you like a cookbook.
- People recommended these sources for cookbook reviews. All offer free information, but some require a subscription for full content access.
- If you like food served by friends and family, ask them where the recipe came from. Maybe they’ll introduce you to a new cookbook.
Favorite Cookbooks
I have so many cookbooks. If I had to list some favorites off of the top of my head, the following come to mind:
- Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
- Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
- Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
- The Silver Palate Cookbook and The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
Recently, I’ve been enjoying these newer cookbooks:
- Eating Out Loud: Bold Middle Eastern Flavors for All Day, Every Day: A Cookbook by Eden Grinshpan
- Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley
- I also like Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks, including Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook, and Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi (but there are many more)
All of the newer cookbooks are about food from the Middle East. I love the vibrant, fresh flavors of the ingredients in their recipes.
What do you look for in a cookbook? Do you have any favorites? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.
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