stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-08-19 05:04 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-08-19 05:04 pm
My Cookbooks
I have three main cookbooks I rely on: a basic Betty Crocker cookbook, the Julia Child MASTERING FRENCH COOKING cookbook, and my loose-leaf binder. And I annotate.
It's odd, actually, how we're reluctant to write in most books. We're taught in school you MUST NOT WRITE IN BOOKS because someone else will use it, and this carries over into adulthood. Cookbooks, however, often seem immune. I scribble in mine, usually modifications. What measurements to use when halving or doubling a recipe so I don't have to figure out what twice 2-2/3 cups of flour is every time I make banana bread, for example. Substitutions are another: cream of tartar and baking soda will take the place of baking powder, for example. Additions like cloves or ginger or pineapple juice.
The Betty Crocker one I got from an old woman who lived next to my grandmother as an engagement present. She signed it "From Auntie Ruth" in graceful script. It was the first cookbook I ever owned, and I used it a lot.
My loose-leaf binder is probably the one I use most often. It's a collection of recipes I printed from other sources, usually the Internet. I kept them in a stack on a kitchen shelf and finally realized they were too unwieldy, so I finally sat down and sorted them into categories that =I= use: main dishes, side dishes, breads, desserts, cookies, and pizza.
My mother gave me the Child books as Christmas and birthday presents, and I'm working my way through them, making the ones I have time and inclination for. Many are complicated, which I like--Julia explains things but also assumes you know your way around a kitchen.
I have a chunk of original recipes in my head. They've never seen paper and probably never will. Chili. Country bread. Double-chocolate cream cheese cookies. Bean soup. Chicken stew.
All three books are also marked up with food stains, since they sit open on the cupboard while I'm cooking. They get splattered with oil, water, wine, batter, and butter. At first I tried to keep the Child book pristine since it was new, but then I realized it wasn't going to happen, and the mark of a good cook is a set of spattered recipes anyway.
What cookbooks do you have and what are they like?
It's odd, actually, how we're reluctant to write in most books. We're taught in school you MUST NOT WRITE IN BOOKS because someone else will use it, and this carries over into adulthood. Cookbooks, however, often seem immune. I scribble in mine, usually modifications. What measurements to use when halving or doubling a recipe so I don't have to figure out what twice 2-2/3 cups of flour is every time I make banana bread, for example. Substitutions are another: cream of tartar and baking soda will take the place of baking powder, for example. Additions like cloves or ginger or pineapple juice.
The Betty Crocker one I got from an old woman who lived next to my grandmother as an engagement present. She signed it "From Auntie Ruth" in graceful script. It was the first cookbook I ever owned, and I used it a lot.
My loose-leaf binder is probably the one I use most often. It's a collection of recipes I printed from other sources, usually the Internet. I kept them in a stack on a kitchen shelf and finally realized they were too unwieldy, so I finally sat down and sorted them into categories that =I= use: main dishes, side dishes, breads, desserts, cookies, and pizza.
My mother gave me the Child books as Christmas and birthday presents, and I'm working my way through them, making the ones I have time and inclination for. Many are complicated, which I like--Julia explains things but also assumes you know your way around a kitchen.
I have a chunk of original recipes in my head. They've never seen paper and probably never will. Chili. Country bread. Double-chocolate cream cheese cookies. Bean soup. Chicken stew.
All three books are also marked up with food stains, since they sit open on the cupboard while I'm cooking. They get splattered with oil, water, wine, batter, and butter. At first I tried to keep the Child book pristine since it was new, but then I realized it wasn't going to happen, and the mark of a good cook is a set of spattered recipes anyway.
What cookbooks do you have and what are they like?