Cookbooks - Can You Ever Have Enough?

The simple answer is no - there is no such thing as enough cookbooks and most certainly there is never going to be a day when we have too many cookbooks. What's not to like about cookbooks? Oh I know - with the number of recipes available on-line - who needs a cookbook? If you need to ask that question well then you just don't get it  (as Mrs. Hendo often reminds me on topics far and wide).

At last count we had well over a hundred cookbooks - some that are almost in constant use and many others that are only occasionally, if ever,  pulled off the shelf. How often you use a particular title is not important, what is important is that you know it's there and waiting for you when you need it. Somehow that's very comforting to me. Sometimes all I have to do is look at the spine of a cookbook to make myself smile. And don't even get me started on food magazines - that's for a different post on a different day.

Now of course many of our cookbooks are of the specialty variety - devoted to a somewhat narrow family of food, but today's post is about the general cookbooks - you know, the ones that purportedly cover the entire spectrum of cooking, the ones both your mother and likely your grandmother had. Perhaps you're wondering why anyone could possibly need more than one such encyclopedic tome - me too - but happily I will admit to having a boatload of them and I've never regretted it for even a minute. Here's just a selection of the general cookbooks found in Hendo's kitchen:

Do I use all of them? Of course I do (I had to say that or Mrs. Hendo would likely be packing some of them up for delivery to the local thrift store). Do I use all of them often? Of course not, but there are a few that deserve special mention.

Joy of Cooking - the quintessential standard for every kitchen. It's the most sold cookbook in the United States, having been through eight editions since Irma Rombauer first published it in 1931. In our house we just refer to it as "Irma" - and you'll note from the photo montage that we actually have two editions - the 6th edition from 1975 and the 75th Anniversary edition from 2006 (recipes and ingredients change over time so it's perfectly logical to have both, right?).

In addition to mostly fool-proof recipes, Joy provides a plethora of basic information on a world of basic ingredients, cuts of meat, various cooking techniques, etc. I turn to Irma a lot, and she's saved my butt more than once when I've been confused about an ingredient or a technique. If you absolutely must limit yourself to a single general cookbook I would say it needs to be this one - with over 4,500 recipes you could be trying something new every day for the next 12+ years.

Better Homes and Gardens the New Cookbook - this is another one that has been around since the 1930's. It's basic fare for the beginner - but a solid reference. I remember this one well from my childhood, I believe my mother had the 1950 edition:

It may be basic fare but it's good basic fare. As one reviewer on Amazon nicely summed up:

"No frills. No essays about the enduring history of kumquats, and how they saved Milwaukee 1,000 years ago. None of that. Just a cookbook with lots of helpful tips, to be used by ordinary people.

What do you get? A good old fashioned cookbook filled recipes you'll actually use, with ingredients you've actually seen before."

And my current go-to general cookbook? None other than The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

Oh is this one ever a keeper. Over 2,000 recipes from some 20+ years of one of America's finest cooking magazines. Both Cook's Illustrated and it's companion magazine Cook's Country are products that originate in Christopher Kimball's "America's Test Kitchen" - they accept nothing at face value, no matter how tried and true a recipe may be. They basically throw out the rulebook on conventional cooking and challenge everything, even if it was a recipe from your grandmother. They essentially deconstruct recipes and test them over and over again until arriving at the "best" one - and just as important they share the how and why they work. I catch myself all the time skipping through the recipes and reading the prefatory entries on "Why this Recipe Works" - you'll learn much - and it's always good to understand things like just what is happening as an onion caramelizes or what you need to do to achieve a good crust on a grilled pork tenderloin.