The Joy Of Cooking

[Mjark]

I happened to think about this today because my wife made waffles this morning using a recipe she found on line. They weren’t as good as the JOC recipe I use.

 

[stxrus]

Some of our favorites, especially the Thug Kitchen series.

We love cookbooks and have several of those previously listed. Sadly, we don’t have a copy of the Joy of Cooking.
My original copy got purloined by an ex-girl friend many years ago. Along with all of my signed copies of Stephen King novels. But that’s another story

 

[MisterZ]

Bittman's How To Cook Everything . I have a signed first edition that has seen me through 35 years of kitchen mayhem. Never fails to inspire.

Alternatively, Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourmet.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Well we have the updated 1997 version so it’s not straight up American food but even so.

View attachment 1101627 View attachment 1101628 Some of our favorites, especially the Thug Kitchen series.

I googled that. After accusations of "digital blackface", the series is now called the "bad manners kitchen".

 

[stxrus]

I googled that. After accusations of "digital blackface", the series is now called the "bad manners kitchen".

All I know, and I am stupid, is that the first book was designed to get inner-city folks, that wanted to, eat better.
I thought it was written to a NY audience unyil I learned it was written about L.A.

 

[Dik Ellis]

Better Homes and Gardens cookbook is an excellent cookbook for the beginner. Explains a lot of things in simple details.

 

[trandy9850]

We have a copy of the cook book that America’s Test Kitchen (a PBS cooking show) publishes….we like every recipe we’ve tried so far.

 

[Willie Johnson]

Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Bountiful Harvests, Creative Cooks, and Comforting Foods of the American Heartland|eBook

The food of the Heartland is comfort food - and is certainly back in style. Judith Fertig interprets and perfects 400 homespun classics of the prairie table, from Homesteaders' Bean Soup to Breslauer Steaks and Chicken and Wild Rice Hot Dish. She serves up new dishes like Walleye Pike with Fennel...

www.barnesandnoble.com

This is just a good book, let alone a good cookbook.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Franklin Barbecue - a meat smoking manifesto

View attachment 1101515

For non-BBQ, a few listed in this thread already.

Love that book. I especially like the information about building the smokers. One of these days I'd love to go to Austin, wait in line and try some of Aaron's brisket.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I dunno. I have a couple hundred cookbooks. That I almost never look at. The most used one is a slightly dumbed down Thai one. Now? Mostly google.

Cheers,
Geoff

No worries about any of that. I have a ton of cookbooks too. I read through them front to back when I get them, then they go on a shelf and pretty much just sit there. You internalize the general information from the books, but recipes can be called up at will from google.

Recipes are merely the way one person made that dish one time. For most things, that recipe isn't the only way to make a certain dish. I find its best to consult a variety of sources, then tailor the recipe to one own's needs, wants and ingredients on hand. Recipes are just a suggestion.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

This is the cookbook bookcase. There are a few non cookbooks in there, but not many.

 

[Vibroluxer]

Here's a little bit of culinary trivia about world famous Chef Jacque Pippen.

At one point Jacque was the personal chef of president of France. He left there to run the Le Pavilion restaurant in NYC. It was one of the very finest in all of NYC. While he executive chef at the Pavilion, he got an offer to be executive chef as well as the personal chef to President John F. Kennedy.
And Jacque turned him down!! Instead he went to run the executive kitchens of...ready...Howard Johnson. While he was at that position,he challenged the staff to develop superior meals at an everyday price. HoJos had their most profitable years when he was there.

That's all.

 

[Ron R]

I rarely follow recipes for anything other than baking. When it comes to entrees and such, I much prefer the challenge of working with whatever I've got handy.

 

[eddiewagner]

I cook strictly freestyle

 

[Cpb2020]

Love that book. I especially like the information about building the smokers. One of these days I'd love to go to Austin, wait in line and try some of Aaron's brisket.

Likewise. The last time I was in Austin was a month after his bbq joint had burned down and before the new place was open!

 

[Vibroluxer]

I dunno. I have a couple hundred cookbooks. That I almost never look at. The most used one is a slightly dumbed down Thai one. Now? Mostly google.

Cheers,
Geoff

Good Morning!!

For the most part, you have to have, at least, some rudimentary search skills to use Google. If I have even the slightest idea of what I want for dinner, I use Google to find me something. But I will always enter something like:

"Ok Google find me a dinner recipe that has chicken, thyme, roasted garlic, and small roasted potatoes."

I copied and pasted the above statement into Google and got this:

Ok Google find me a dinner recipe that has chicken, thyme, roasted garlic, and small roasted potatoes." - Google Search

And putting it into ChatGPT I got this:

"Certainly, here's a recipe for you that includes chicken, thyme, and potatoes:

Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Thyme Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs (skin-on)
• 1 lb. baby potatoes
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 lemon, sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken thighs.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken, potatoes, olive oil, thyme, salt, and black pepper. Toss until everything is well coated.
4. Place the chicken and potatoes on a baking sheet, making sure they are spread out in an even layer.
5. Roast in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender and golden brown.
6. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice over the top of the chicken and potatoes.

Enjoy your meal! ". That sounds tasty and that's coming from AI!!!

I still use cookbooks and probably will for a long time. Bi just enjoy them, you never know what you'll find in a cookbook and all you need to do is open it to a random, or not so random page. .

Pretty cool thread.

 

[Hey_you]

I have these on my shelf-

I have taken a lot of classes too. Went through all the processes to enroll in an International Cooking School. Was $$$$. I had a full time job +overtime. I couldn't afford the time. Friends say I should open a restaurant. I take cooking very seriously.

 

[oldunc]

Aw, I thought this was going to be a shout out to Terry Garthwaite, who I followed a bit after JOC. She did a brief stint as a budding rock star- can't remember the name of that album, but it was a good one. When last seen, she was doing a sort of cabaret/jazz act (I saw her with wonderful pianist Barbara Higbie), and seemed a lot more comfortable in that role.
As far as Cookbooks, I own several hundred and have a lot of favorites, but in the Joy of Cooking mold, Cook's Illustrated is a very good entry. It's fairly encyclopedic, explains things well, and the recipes are dependable. Don't always agree with them, of course, but they're not passing out any really bad advice.

ps-- the album was called "Terry"

 

[Lawdawg]

The Professional Chef -- the primary CIA textbook -- is a great resource for basic food knowledge and recipes.

The Food Lab -- another great all-around cookbook, as is The Wok which Kenji Lopez-Alt released last year.

Not a cookbook per se, but there are a ton of great recipes and techniques at ChefSteps which is a subscription based website. It was started by some of the folks who worked on Modernist Cuisine but it's geared for home cooks.

The French Laundry -- the recipes are obviously quite fussy and labor intensive, and I've never made anything exactly as described in the book. That said, it has a lot of great techniques and I've had great success breaking out components from the more complicated recipes for home use. I quickly figured out that 50%-60% of a Thomas Keller recipe is 100% amazing for a home dish.

Then there's Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and that's what it is. Lots of excellent recipes and pretty easy to follow.

By far my favorite Italian cookbook -- super accessible and straightforward.

 

[wacolo]

I used to have a pile of old community/church cookbooks that I would pick up at thrifts for almost nothing. The directions and measurements are sometimes a bit vague, but the results are usually great.