s/d: cookbooks!

yeah the kenji-lopez-alt-ctrl-delete science bits there are v interesting occasionally. his method for making store-bought mozzarella not be a big ball of used chewing gum is a lifechanger

i just bought his book! i haven't spent much time with it yet tho

there was a big collection of his summer grilling recipes recently and it was awesome, like quick aioli, 5-minute marinated chicken breast, grilled asparagus, loads of really good things you can make after a normal work day when you want to do something else with your evening as well as cooking.

damnit i forgot to spread the word that the Cooks Illustrated "The Science of Good Cooking" was part of Amazon's silly Prime Day yday (albeit at like $19 instead of the regular $25 so nothing crazy)

I am v excited for it.

Our cookbooks stayed in boxes for a few months after we moved house, but now they are free! I feel like I've been cooking the same things every week, looking forward to getting back in the what's cooking? game.

http://i.imgur.com/03Lqm3X.jpg

That Roden book of Jewish food is excellent.

yeah it's one of the best

Got my bf Ruby Tandoh's second book for Xmas and her knack for unusual but completely amazing flavour combinations is just great

haha initially missed the "my bf" part of that post and was like "whoa 2017 must've gotten really weird if lex is cooking now" :)

i miss my cookbooks, they are all boxed up in our attic since we moved. we're renting right now and looking for a house so i probably won't unpack them until we move again

still love food but can't cook! xp

this ruby tandoh lady is new to me. looks like she can cook but in her spare time she crusades against a healthy eating strawman or something?

the wellness/clean eating trend is definitely not a strawman, it's kind of ubiquitous and she's usually quite specific about who she's targeting (the hemsley sisters, deliciously ella etc etc)

spent some time w/ meera sodha's 'fresh india' over the weekend. v agreeable and undemanding, think i will enjoy

most recent acquisition is francis mallmann's seven fires which deserves a mention on here. i had never heard of the guy but i guess he's basically the most famous chef in argentina as well as a genuine-seeming example of the poet/adventurer/most-interesting-man-in-the-world type who happens to be able to cook.

it's billed as a grilling book but it's actually an intro to extremely aggressive open-fire cooking that none of us will ever be in position to do combined with a useful selection of original recipes that represent argentine food as a spanish/french/italian/german fusion cuisine. charred sliced fennel and zucchini with parmesan. tomatoes and olives with burnt ricotta salata. simple grilled shrimp with spaetzle (flavored with more parm and scallions). potato salad that uses toasted almonds for depth. tons of fresh oregano. did i mention he loves burning stuff? this book has lots of super-simple flavor combinations that i've never seen anywhere else.

it also has a recipe for cooking a whole cow over an open fire (you need a winch and 4 able-bodied adults from the look of the photos) which may be useful for the incipient apocalypse.

O_O

here's some mallmann content for ya:

https://vinepair.com/articles/francis-mallmann/

his chef's table was awesome. just cooking giant fish over fire in patagonia. I think he was one of several chefs that did pit cooking in that first season, as well.

some people really hate argentine cooking and it sounds like it'd be a struggle if you didn't want to eat a lot of meat all the time, but that looks entertaining. reading about things I could never or just won't ever cook can be a lot of fun even if it's not of any practical use.

I got Seven Fires as a gift from my Aussie bro in law (who likes to dig holes in the ground and cook things over fire). I was worried that that is exactly what it would be, but was pleasantly surprised that many (all?) of the recipes include grill and/or oven instructions.

My partner has just bought Thug Kitchen, subtitled Eat Like You Give a Fuck. The contents are titled 'track list'. Sample text: "Whisk together the flour and water in a big bowl until a batter forms with no chunks. Did you already fuck it up and it's all chunky? Start that shit over again." It has some good recipes but I don't know if I'll be able to read them with my eyes rolled all the way to the back of my head.

:/

ya i can't handle sassy cookbooks

when i was vegan a long time ago this book called "veganomicon" was all the rage and the instructions were all sassy and i couldn't deal

the only conversational instructions i can tolerate are Julia Child's and even then she sticks to the goddam point

most others can gtfo

some black marker may be called for.

thug kitchen is trash

Deborah Madison's writing is simple and elegant

Diana Kennedy is a little bossy but she knows her shit so I love it

ya i can't handle sassy cookbooks

― marcos, Tuesday, September 12, 2017 3:50 PM (eleven minutes ago)

Does anyone else remember the original directions on the Carroll Shelby Chili Mix, the stuff in a little brown bag? "If you're planning to feed any women, children or sissies, you'd better leave out the small red packet, which is cayenne pepper."

Thug Kitchen is so obnoxious I didn't even notice it was veggie at first. It's like someone turned in a first draft and then the editor replaced half the words with profanity.

I got it as a gift from a well intentioned friend, so I have to keep it around.

just made soup again adapted from a recipe in 'modernist cuisine at home' and have to say -- it's good

my sister asked for the thug kitchen a couple years ago and i got it for her and it's wince-inducing to the max but idk i guess the recipes are ok??

I got two of fuchsia dunlop's books out of library - land of plenty and Chinese revolutionary cookbook - about szechuan and hunanese food respectively and I found them quite enjoyable and interesting reads, and i got some good recipes out of them despite them being, as I had expected admittedly, more meat focused than is helpful for a non-carnivorous type like myself

Fish fragrant eggplant, mapo tofu, and smacked cucumbers are basically my favourite things to eat now

her ma po tofu is the fuckin best

sorry smacked cucumbers sounds v lol to me

This is super entry level for the purposes of this thread but I got Mary Berry's <i>Everyday</i> and it kicks ass. Someone on here once said that, with all the other UK cookbook types you can get disasters if you lack skills but with Mary as long as you reasonably follow the instructions there's no way you won't produce something pleasant and that's OTM.

based on this great article i picked up a used copy of irene kuo's the key to Chinese cooking

https://food52.com/blog/19289-how-america-lost-the-key-to-chinese-cooking

back when the article was first published used copies disappeared and you could only find them for like $400. market seems to have readjusted itself and now you can find them for under $50 although i think back before the article you could cop a copy for $10 or less

people should also check out the mission chinese cookbook. danny bowien is a real punk and i think a lot of you would like it.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/chinese-food-and-the-joy-of-inauthentic-cooking

I have Dunlops Every Grain of Rice. Some great looking stuff and probably as easy as it can ever be. The heavy lifting is mostly in finding some of the ingredients. I just have to keep a running list for when I am by a place that sells some of the spices and stuff.

i've been enjoying martin morales ceviche lately, lots of ceviche recipes of course but beyond those i think it is one of the better peruvian cookbooks out there

there is also tony custer's art of peruvian cooking but there are weird translation issues and some ingredient descriptions and measurements are off, seemed like it wasn't edited well even though it looks beautiful

spent some time w/ meera sodha's 'fresh india' over the weekend. v agreeable and undemanding, think i will enjoy

My bday present from my partner, I don't think I have ever cooked so many recipes from the same cookbook in such a short period of time. All excellent!

I have never bought a cookbook before ( I think we somehow acquired a moosewood, joy of cooking and jaffrey book over the years and had to get rid of them two moves ago) and was thinking about splurging on a nice new book. I had the Larousse Gastr., Bocuse and Japanese Cooking, A simple art on my short list. If I want a recipe I usually just look online. So after reading this entire thread am thinking I should get the Art of Fermentation or the Noma book instead.

ime there are cookbooks you cook from and cookbooks you read and learn from. which type are you looking for?

Reference books. I don't think I would cook from a cookbook. I have a friend that has loads that I skim through and then am like bleh. They are pretty sometimes but they are too heavy for me to collect (I move a lot).

Like, I am more likely to watch a video online and cross reference 5 different recipe sources if I want to make a new dish.

Although, I was looking at the new Ottolenghi book just now.

xp I’ve got a lot of use out of Japanese Cooking, as someone who had never cooked Japanese food before it given me a load of new regular meals. It seems like it still has plenty to offer people who are better versed in Japanese cookery (it covers a wide breadth of cooking styles and recipes).

The art of fermentation is an interesting read, but if you want something with actual step by step instructions on making things then the Noma book is much better. I’m in the middle of creating my first batch of yellow pea shoyu which I’m excited about and also slightly scared of. If I survive eating it I’ll post back here.

japanese cooking: a simple art would be great for you

ok done. Getting that one. I might just watch a couple of fermentation videos first before branching into that. I have way too many hobbies as it is that I don't do.