cookbooks i use
by john d. erickson
created 19 november 2003

Like nearly everything I acquire, I put much thought into which recipe books I purchase. I don't have enough money to collect them indiscriminately, so I purchase only what I know I will use often, either for inspiration, information, or just good recipes.

Below is a list of what I own. Following that is a list of what I want.

Corriher, Shirley O. CookWise. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997.

The WHY of the endless chemistry in cooking and especially baking.

Greenspan, Dorie. Baking with Julia. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1996.

Covers many baking basics.

Greenspan, Dorie. Desserts by Pierre Herme. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1998.

Fanciful creations by France's finest pastry chef. This is the first book published in English with his recipes. I haven't made many of the desserts, but they are good for inspiration, and for working up to. The info about ingredients and equipment is very good, too.

Greenspan, Dorie. Paris Sweets. New York: Broadway Books, 2002.

My absolute favorite dessert book. I love the recipes, I love the stories, I love that she gives ingredient quantities in grams. I'm slowly working my way through the whole thing.

Hazan, Marcella . Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

What I most seek in guidebooks of any type is an authoritative tone. Hazan does it for me. She doesn't say, "use storebought lasagne noodles if you must." She says "the only pasta suitable for lasagne is paper-thin dough freshly made at home. . . . Using clunky, store-bought lasagne may save a little time, but you will be sadly shortchanged by the results." Those with high standards, unite!

Lawson, Nigella. How to Be a Domestic Goddess. New York: William Morrow, 1996.

I actually considered not buying it because of the title; she really did make it difficult for men to buy this cookbook—a few of my friends got a kick out of seeing it on my shelf. But most of the recipes are good, if a bit English, and the brownies (p. 193) win me friends every time I make them. Really, they are the best you'll ever have. With premium chocolate, butter and eggs, one batch will cost nearly twenty dollars.

O'Connor, Jill. Simple French Desserts. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000.

My first cookbook, given to me by my brother at Christmas 2000. It's still one of my favorites for desserts: the recipes are well-explained and relatively simple, but it's not dumbed-down in any way. These recipes are the real techniques, explained in a way that allows you to advance at your own rate.

Onstad, Dianne. Whole Foods Companion. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1996.

All the details you could possibly want to know about nearly every plant food: fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, herbs. Nutritional content, historical uses, present-day uses, how to choose them.

Pepin, Jacques. Complete Techniques. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2001.

The Way to do nearly everything.

Rombauer, Irma S. and Marion Rombauer Becker. Joy of Cooking. New York: Scribner, 1995.

This is the 1975 version, not the "all-new" one you mostly see now. Some of the info is dated, but that's part of what I like so much. I always check it before making a classic prepration of anything, just to see what the "right" way to do it is, but I have yet to follow a recipe verbatim.

Waters, Alice. Chez Panisse Fruit. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

A beautiful book with wonderful information about fruits, how to choose them, when their best season is, etc. Stuck with fruit in my house that I cannot consume quickly enough, I immediately open this book for inventive, simple recipes.

a few cookbooks I want:

Friberg, Bo. The Professional Pastry Chef.

Greenspan, Dorie. Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.

Montagne, Prosper, ed. Larousse Gastronomique.

Shere, Lindsey Remolif. Chez Panisse Desserts.

Waters, Alice. Chez Panisse Vegetables.