Favorite Cookbooks
There’s TONS of cookbooks out there! Do you buy them all? Of course not! We don’t love every recipe in every cookbook we find. But when I find a cookbook that is filled with recipes I enjoy, I’ll keep it on my shelf until it disintegrates. My recommendations below range from old to new - they’ve improved my “freestyle” coooking by enhancing my techniques and there are recipes I follow to the ‘t.’
Amazon affiliate links (I may receive commission based on your purchases via these links):
America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: https://amzn.to/3cf8H2r
Not healthy at all, but a great compilation of classic recipes. ATK always does a great job of explaining techniques, shortcuts, and why they choose specific ingredients. They'll even recommend brands or tools they've found especially helpful.
The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone: https://amzn.to/2zNExq3
This one relies on cream more than I care for, but there's plenty of options for avoiding or substituting it. It gives great recommendations for simple and flavorful treatments of vegetables you thought were just accessories (see all the leek recipes I've done!)
Ruhlman's Twenty: https://amzn.to/3dg5bGE
Another fantastic resource for learning. Ruhlman approaches cooking with 20 basic techniques, explaining the process of each of them. Then he includes 5 recipes for each technique, like homework.
Dinner: Changing the Game: https://amzn.to/2TRwShl
Melissa Clark regularly contributes to the NYT Cooking app, and everything I've made of hers has been a hit.
NYTimes Cooking App: cooking.nytimes.com
Regularly updated from a variety of recipe developers. It's a neverending source of recipes of all types and worth the $40/year.
