Cookbooks

Hmmm, well...of course, I have cookbooks. Too many!

Many of which haven't been opened for a long time. Some get used from time to time. Quite a few have been given away or recycled because I knew they wouldn't really get used and were just taking up space.

I tend to start new recipe research on the internet simply because it's easy to access and many of the recipes I lean toward have reviews. Many recipes these days are tied to blogs which can drive me crazy with all of their advertising and links that take us who knows where. Yes, I'm sure blogs are helpful for those that are new cooking and for those that like step-by-step hand holding but I generally don't need any of that. Fortunately, most blogs these days have a "Jump to Recipe" link. However, if a jump-to-recipe link jumps to any advertising before jumping to the recipe I immediately skip the recipe, no matter how good it might be.

I will delve into cookbooks when I'm looking for a specific recipe or a more professional technique that can't be easily found on the internet (although that is getting more and more rare). My favorite cookbooks are those that tell a story about the food or describe in detail the science behind why a recipe or technique works, or doesn't. The list below is just some of the books I have with explanations of why I keep these books on my bookshelf. I have other cookbooks that probably won't make the list, not because they aren't any good, but because I don't open them very much.

The Flavor Bible

Dornenburg, Andrew & Page, Karen. The Flavor Bible. New York: Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group, 2008.

This is not a cookbook but it is a cook's book. I probably open this book more than any other food related book on the shelf. It's a reference of what food flavors work well with other food flavors. If I have fresh cherries around the house and I'm bored of using the same old spices to enhance the flavor of cherries, I can simply look up cherries to see whether or not lemon might work well with them, or to see if I should consider adding them to a chicken dish I'm thinking about. This book is fantastic to have on the book shelf and it's always at the end of the shelf so I always know where to find it. By the way, I actually have a digital copy of this book as well so I can always get at it on my computer or phone. Yes, it's that handy to have. If you're going to get a copy of this book get the hard copy, it's much easier to use than the digital copy.