The Cheap-Ass Gourmet Cookbook Shelf
As most of you know by now, one of my on-going projects here is the Cheap-Ass Gourmet series. The purpose of the Cheap-Ass posts is to provide a starting point for readers who are on a tight budget, want to eat healthy, and are a little intimidated about stepping foot into their own kitchen. I try to include recipes for an entire healthy meal, the approximate cost per dinner, how much time you should budget to make it, and instructions on how to use every last bit of whatever you bought to stretch your food dollar as far as it can go. In the comments section of the post on building a Cheap-Ass Pantry, Zic suggested doing a post on cookbooks as a Cheap-Ass companion piece. Like most of Zic’s suggestions, I found this to be a most excellent idea.
I have a lot of cookbooks. When building our house one of the minor additions we asked for was built-in bookshelves for the kitchen. We gave away half of our supply before we moved, and even then we still didn’t have enough room for all of the damn things. I have so many, in fact, that friends and family assume (correctly) that they can’t go wrong giving a cookbook as a birthday or Christmas gift. If they give me one I already own, I give myself permission to exchange it at Powell’s Books for Cooks and invariably walk away with two or three new purchases. Ironically, in the poor, lean days of my early twenties I would sometimes buy a cookbook with money that should have gone to purchase food for the week. So believe me when I say that picking out just a few to recommend to budding chefs is a task most vexing.
Before I begin, however, a quick word on how to use cookbooks on a budget.
Cookbooks are generally on the more expensive side of the book-price spectrum; paying $25 or $35 for one is pretty common. Because of this, I’m a big believer in making use of your public library. It’s free, and you can get a good sense of any cookbook as a whole by trying a few of the recipes. (I still use this method; if I find myself going back and checking out the same book twice I make a note to look for it the next time I’m at a bookstore.) If you have a notebook, you can jot down the recipes you really liked and create your own personalized Cheap-Ass Cookbook for future reference. If you have to buy, buy used – and don’t worry how “nice” it looks. A look through any of my cookbooks will reveal the discoloration of spills and splatters, as well as weak bindings in the areas I reference most. Cookbooks start out as things of pristine beauty, but your favorites will always look shabby eventually.
Also, if you’re new to cooking I really do suggest using cookbooks over Googling recipes online. Anyone can upload a recipe for, say, kung pao chicken, and because of this a great many of them are terrible. As you begin to become familiar with ingredients and processes it will get easier to quickly sift through them to find that potential diamond-in-the-rough. (Also, most cookbooks have introductions, essays, notes or sidebars that are pretty invaluable ways to learn how to perfect your craft.)
The choices below reflect my own personal tastes, of course, but they also reflect the types of cuisines that are relatively simple to prepare and can be made on a budget. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section; finding out about a great book I wasn’t aware of will be quite the reward for having posted this.
General Cookbooks
I tend to avoid the General Cooking section when I go cookbook browsing; the whole idea of “general cooking” bores me. But that’s to my own detriment – whenever I open one of these books, I always find myself wondering why I don’t open them more often. Just now I opened Cook’s Illustrated New Best Recipe randomly and came across a recipe for Oatmeal with Honeyed Fig Topping, Vanilla and Cinnamon; seriously, how awesome does that sound?
A good general cookbook is usually larger and more expensive than a regional or specialty ingredient type of cookbook. Still, if you’re just starting out they’re pretty invaluable. When I moved into my first apartment out of college my parents (who really didn’t cook, or at least didn’t cook very well) gave me an extra copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook. A lot of its contents were a tad precious for a young single lad, but there was enough basic How-To to make it invaluable. (They also gave me The Joy of Cooking, but I found then – and now – that the recipe selections were too blandly suited for the 1960s for my tastes.) Still, my recommendations for budding chefs today are far more recent works:
- The Beginner Book: How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman ($15.45 at Barnes & Noble) – I’ve owned a copy of this since it was first released back in 1998, and I’m still amazed at the vast scope of Bittman’s undertaking. You could keep yourself busy with this single book for years.
- The Next Step: The New Best Recipe, by The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated ($23.10 at Amazon) – This book is a good reminder that learning to cook is a process. The writers take any given recipe – say, roasting a turkey with stuffing – and try making it in a variety of different ways before settling on a recommendation and recipe. All chefs do this, of course, but there’s something satisfying about reading descriptions of all the failures that led up to the perfect method; it makes everything you’ve ever done wrong in your kitchen feel better.
- Advanced Tastes: Cookwise, by Shirley O. Corriher ($15.27 at Walmart) – The perfect book for the cook who’s also a science geek. Corriher not only teaches you how to cook correctly, she goes into great detail about the science and chemistry that dictate why some pie crusts are flakier than others and the cellular breakdowns that occur with various kinds of meat preparation.
Asian Cuisine Cookbooks
If you’ve never cooked Chinese or Thai, there will be some number of spices, condiments, and other ingredients you’ll need to get started. After that, though, they can be the cheapest and healthiest meals you’ll ever prepare.
- The Beginner Book: Simply Ming One Pot Meals, by Ming Tsai ($20.36 at Barnes & Noble) – Ming’s recipes here are healthy and affordable, and they’re great for weeknight cooking – each dish is an entire meal. He also takes care to write for people who like eating Asian food but are entirely unaware of how to cook it. He has a deft touch at holding your hand throughout the process without coming off as being condescending.
- The Next Step: True Thai, by Victor Sodsook ($19.95 at Amazon) – True story: My wife and I once thought we’d like to learn how to cook authentic Thai food, and so we auctioned off an eight-course Thai dinner at a church fundraiser. It was sold at a ridiculously high price, which made us decide we’d better learn fast. I bought this book on a recommendation from a friend, and have used it ever since. I’m holding my copy right now, and the damn thing smells slightly of coconut milk and lemongrass from having spent so much time next to those to items simmering together on my stove.
- Advanced Tastes: Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid ($29.70 at Amazon) – Along with Oaxaca al Gusto (below), perhaps the most beautiful cookbook I have ever seen. In addition to the stunning photography, Alford and Duguid’s essays about their culinary travels alone are worth pulling this down from the shelves. Plus, it’s filled with authentic regional recipes of dishes I’ve never seen anywhere else before, such as Pork Stew with Bitter Greens (Laos), Duck in Green Curry Paste (Thailand), Khmer Fish Stew with Lemongrass (Cambodia), Dai Beef Tartar with Pepper-Salt (Yunnan) or Plain of Jars Vegetable Soup (Phonsavan).
Mexican Cuisine Cookbooks
Much of what we in the United States think of as being Mexican food really isn’t. In fact, if you live in an urban environment that has a large Latin-American population, my rule of thumb for finding good and authentic fare is as follows: Either go to the cheapest, shoddiest hole-in-the-wall restaurants/stands/carts, or go to the priciest, most high-end joints that label their dishes “Mexican Food.” Everything in-between is best avoided.
- The Beginner Book: Mexican Everyday, Rick Bayless ($18.46 at Walmart) – One of the inherent problems with authentic Mexican cooking is that it can take a long damn time to prepare. In this book, Bayless offers shortcuts that work really, really well – and you still find yourself getting the hang of cooking this type of food. A lot of great no-fuss dishes for your slow cooker, by the way.
- The Next Step: Authentic Mexican, by Rick Bayless ($14.99 at Amazon – ebook) – So, you’ve mastered the simplified versions of moles and masa, and want to learn the more authentic and (usually) slightly better ways to prepare them? This is the book I’d reach for.
- Advanced Tastes: Oaxaca al Gusto, by Diane Kennedy ($40.15 at Overstock.com) – More expensive than everything else I am recommending here, this book is simply amazing. The book is a tribute to the traditional cuisine of a single Mexican state, Oaxaca, and is ridiculously detailed and stunningly beautiful. It’s just astounding on every level.
Other Cookbook Staples at the Kelly House
- Spices of Life, by Nina Simonds ($9.98 at Amazon) – A variety of healthy dishes, mostly with an international flair. (Most worn page: Lemongrass Chicken w/ Green Beans)
- The New American Plate, by the American Institute for Cancer Research (29.95 at Barnes & Noble) – My favorite of that clichéd genre of cookbooks – taking common recipes and slightly tweaking them to make them healthy. (Most worn page: Broiled Asparagus w/ Sesame Sauce)
- Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant, by the Moosewood Collective ($6.95 at eCrater) – Every Sunday, one of the cooks at the Moosewood collective makes an entire temporary vegetarian menu centered around a particular country or ethnic background; this book is a collection of some of their best offers. (Most worn page: West African Peanut Soup)
- The Farm to Table Cookbook, by Ivy Manning ($14.87 at Amazon) – This book is one of the best things to come out of the Eat Locally movement. (Most worn page: Dal w/ Winter Vegetables)
- The All New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook, by the Editors of Cooking Light ($22.00 from Walmart) – A collection of the best recipes from the ubiquitous magazine you see every time you wait in line at your grocery store. (Most worn page: Turkey Jambalaya)
- The Thrill of the Grill, by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby ($7.50 from Powell’s) – My favorite all-time grilling book, it relies heavily on Caribbean flavors; it also has, hands down, the best Drinks section of any food cookbook I’ve ever seen. (Most worn pages: Grilled Vegetable Gazpacho & Grilled Shrimp w/ Sopressata, Fresh Mozzarella and Basil)
- Smoke & Spice, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison ($12.50 at Powells) – My second all-time favorite barbecue book. (Most worn page: The Renowned Mr. Brown BBQ Pork Butt) (Side note: My favorite barbecue book, Serious Barbecue by Adam Perry Lang, is out of print but is so in demand these days that even used copies demand at least $150. I bought it several years ago on a whim, from a 70%-off table at Borders. Go figure.)
So, fellow members of the Hive Mind, what am I leaving off?
Ruhlman’s Ratios and Ruhlman’s Twenty are new must-haves. Less “cuisine cookbooks” and more training manuals that will open up a world of possibilities.Report
I suffered under the abominable Betty Crocker cookbook for years. It was an interesting cookbook, illustrated by Andy Warhol and I followed it to the letter.
Then came Joy of Cooking. As you point out, what a beginning cook wants more that anything else is a block of instruction on how to think about a family of ingredients. The beginning of each section of JoC was an enlightenment.Report
Beat me to it. The Joy of Cooking is the “go-to” cookbook.Report
Reader’s Digest How-To Book of Healthy Cooking. Accept no substitutes.
Also, for reading and getting inspired ideas, nothing beats the Silver Palate cookbooks 1 and 2 from many many years ago. The lists of ingredients are huge but it’s great at giving you confidence and tells you interesting stuff about the food.Report
Oh, Tod, I see you mention the SP cookbook. Good on you. And Cooking Light books are great, although the magazines are a waste of money I think.Report
I believe you’ve mentioned that you don’t bake much, but we find “The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking” by Martha Day is a good starting point. I tend to use it as a way of nailing down the ingredient ratios, then I play willy-nilly with the spices and flavorings.
I’m so lazy when it comes to recipes. I wing cooking a lot. Often I’ll come up with some flavor combo, then I’ll Google the idea to see if some critical mass of decent-looking recipes use the same or similar ingredients (the “is this cracked-out?” screening step) and go from there. (The lamb roasting in the oven right now was seasoned thusly.) My cookbooks are criminally under-utilized.Report
Doc, I think this is common of many cooks.
I have shelves full of cookbooks; boxes more in storage in the barn. I’ve given away boxes more to a friend who owns a used book store.
I read cookbooks constantly. Today, sitting by the wood stove as the snow falls outside (we’ve over a foot of fresh powder!), I’ve read pawed through at least four. But I almost never make a recipe from a book. Rather, I read as many variations on a recipe as I can find in my library or on-line. Then, after all that reading, I decide how I want to make the dish. And I know many other folk who do the same thing.
The true halmark of a great cook is taking a few ingredients, understanding their flavor potential, and knowing the techniques that will bring that potential to life at table. Just following a recipe? That’s okay, good to do sometimes, particularly if you’re learning a new skill. But the heart of cooking rests in here’s-what-I-have, what-can-I-make improvisation.Report
The cookbook “Cooking Know-How” is my most-used cookbook. It contains a bunch of “base” recipes for common dishes in cuisine from around the world, but suggests tons of different variations you can try on a single technique. It’s not exactly for true beginners, but it’s a good “intermediate” cookbook. I like it because I can use it to take whatever is sitting around the kitchen and make it into delicious food if I don’t feel particularly inspired on my own that night.Report
For the true beginner I would give “How to Boil Water” which was produced by the Food Network. This is how-to-make-a-grilled-cheese-sandwich basic.
For the solid cook that wants to take their game to the next level, I love Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking.
I think Ruhlman is becoming a theme in these comments for good reason. He has done a lot to elevate cooking. His charcuterie book has a special place on my shelf.Report
Cookbooks. Love. I read them the way my grandmother used to read romance novels.
For beginning cooks just getting their sea legs under them in a galley kitchen, I’d recommend Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. I particularly love this cookbook. Waters broke it in to two parts; the first goes through basic cooking techniques, everything from making a salad dressing to braising, and explains the techniques clearly and simply; the fussiness of most books is left out, and she never assumes the cook has knowledge he or she might not have. The second half is filled with beautiful, simple recipes, all with a focus on bringing out flavor. The introductory chapters also have great guides on stocking a pantry and the tools a cook might need. Waters has a long, delicious career in food, and this book is definitely her crowning achievement.
I love Bittman, also. For cheap-ass cooks who also want to eat nutritiously, there’s “The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living.” Faced with the health-crisis his own cooking and eating habits had caused; Bittman revamped, and gives his results here. I love his approach to beans. Learning the habits he presents here as a basis for diet.
I’m married to an Italian. And we love Italian food. Any book by Marcella Hazen is worth a place in your cooking library, but I especially love The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. This book has some seriously good eating between it’s covers.
French food, too, get’s over-wrought, often focusing on heavy sauces instead of intensifying flavors. Which is so sad, because la petite femme I grew up with worked so hard to find flavor in humble ingredients. Richard Olney’s slim volume, Simple French Food is a wonder, not only to cook from, but to read. I stumbled on this book only a few years ago, and jaded a cook as I am, read it cover to cover three times, amazed and in awe of Olney’s awareness of the taste and qualities of taste that bring pleasure to the table. I also adore his book, Lulu’s Provencial Table, but I would consider it a bonus book, not an essential.
Now many people love The Joy of Cooking. I’m not one of those people. And I’ve read it, cover to cover, cooked from it many, many times. It just doesn’t get the joy part happening for me. I’d recommend The Fannie Farmer Cookbook instead. She doesn’t keep you crazy flipping from page to page, the writing seems a bit clearer, techniques seem explained a bit better. I fully expect many to disagree with me, too.
Every home should have a good vegetarian cookbook. Meat, wonderful as it is, seems like it should be more a grace note to our tables, not the center of our meals. And if you’re cooking cheap-ass, this is even more essential. There are hundreds of good vegetarian cookbooks. But my favorite is Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Every few weeks, I find myself just reading this book, usually recipes involving an ingredient I’m planning to cook, as spring board for inspiration. Thankfully, the price has come down on this; my first hardcover was $50, and you can get it on Amazon in paperback for under $20 now.
(That said, I’m a believer in investing in hardcover cookbooks if I like the book and know I’ll use it for many years. If I’m not certain I want to make the investment, I’ll borrow the book from the library first.)
I like to understand what’s going on when I cook; the science of it. So one book I consider absolutely essential, though there’s nary a recipe in it, is Harold McGee’s “On Fook and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Younger son and I are both experimental cook, always looking to refine, to change, the challenge. We’re not afraid to fail spectacularly in the kitchen. Thanks to this book, failures are less likely.
For wealth of recipe spanning time, it’s hard to beat The New York Times Cookbook, edited by Amanda Hesser. I’ve previously owned news paper cookbooks – the NYT, Boston Globe, etc. They’ve never lasted the shelf purges. Not good enough to keep as reference, not used enough to justify the space they take. This fat volume is a gem, and I recommend it. Hesser’s a gifted food writer/cook, and I also love her book, The Cook and the Gardener, though I wouldn’t consider it an essential (unless you grow a vegetable garden, then I definitely would).
I have a lot of bread-baking books. It’s rather amazing; flour, water, salt, and yeast. And the possibilities are seemingly endless. I’ve another coming in the mail this week, one that I ordered because of a review complaining that it’s shy on recipes. Yeah, all technique, all talk. That’s the book for me. If I like it, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, my #1 favorite is Local Breads by Daniel Leader. Great techniques well explained for making European artisan breads at home. These recipes/methods produce incredible results. Note: some specialized equipment — a pizza stone and peel, a heavy cast-iron pan that you don’t mind rusting a bit, are required. These recipes are all for sourdough breads; and if you’re not sure you want to keep a culture alive, I can understand. It’s like have another kid in the house. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is a great alternative. You’ll still need the pizza stone, but there’s plenty of yeasted recipes, and terrific instruction.
Some others that I love:
Spice by Ana Sortun
The Foods of Spain and Arabesque by Claudia Roden.
A Mediterranean Feast by Clifford A. Wright (as much history as cookbook).
Anything by MFF Fischer, not cookbooks so much as food writing.
Honey from a Weed by Patience Gray. Read this book if you can find a copy. Gray ran away with a sculptor, followed him all around the Mediterranean basin, wherever the marble was. Food was often scarce, often foraged. The first chapter is on the source of flame. One talks of the day a still blew up. It will change your view of cooking forever; a modern (well, 1960’s) look at the days of yore; here’s what folk think they miss.Report
And one more: Really, really cheap-ass cooks forage. I’m not a cheap ass cook, I believe in spending money on food (rather then clothing or dozens of other things most people buy); the notion that cheaper food is better bothers me a lot.
But I forage. A lot. And that old foraging classic, Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons, if you can find a copy, for it’s out of print, is worth some room on you shelf.Report
Hey, zic. As I was mashing herbs together last night for my made-up lamb marinade (which turned out quite well, if I do say so myself), I found myself thinking “I wish zic were here to ask if these will work well together and, and to tell me if I should be doing something differently.”Report
I’m really glad it came out well. Please tell, what was in it?
When in doubt, I use my nose. Thankfully, genetics gifted me with an abundant one. I start with my base herb, mash it a bit, and then smell; while doing so, I’ll pinch the next on next to my nose the the already mashed. Does it smell good? OK. Go ahead. Not so good? Hold back.
Trust the nose.Report
Garlic, rosemary, juniper berries and oregano. (I wasn’t entirely sure if the oregano and rosemary would work together for lamb, so I did my usual “Google it to see if there are recipes out there that use the combo” for reassurance. There were.) For some reason, I am determined to find a good use for the juniper berries that I bought on a whim a little while ago, but have often been disappointed. However, last night seemed to work well. I think the key to getting the flavor out was to let everything sit in the olive oil for a good long while before applying to the meat.Report
Nice.
Juniper berries are strong, a pungent evergreen (like rosemary), and an essential seasoning for what the French called ‘hunter’s stew.’ (Also the flavor of gin.) I’ve many French-Arcadian friends who use them to season meat pies, and I’m always delighted to get one at Christmas.
They’re excellent in brines for strong-flavored meats; venison, turkey, etc. And lamb, I’m sure.
I’ve considered crushing them for use in meatballs; someday I will try this.Report
http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/roast-leg-of-lamb-with-anchovy-garlic-and-rosemary – Anchovies added to roast lamb take an ordinary roast to some place else altogether. I was never much of a lamb fan – the addition of anchovy has me converted.Report
My pizza dough tends to sour in the fridge. If you are looking for a Frenchy style light sourdough, and not a San Francisco beerbelly style sourdough (seriously, they carried their bread on their bellies), it seems to suit.Report
Funny thing about sourdough cultures; you may start with a specific culture, San Francisco for instance, but over time, they always revert to the active yeasts native to your home. They develop the flavor of where you live.
Typically, the difference between a French-style lighter culture and San Francisco beer-belly culture is actually the amount of time the dough’s allowed to ferment. The French tend to use cultures when they’re just active, and still sweet tasting. The heavier cultures are allowed to fully ripen, a cycle where the yeast produce alcohol for one layer of flavor, and then the bacteria that eat the alcohol and turn it into vinegar (hence the ‘sour’ flavor) are allowed to go through a full fermentation cycle. A briefer ferment will always produce a sweeter bread, a longer, a more sour. With your pizza dough, the sweeter taste is likely due to a mono culture of yeast, without the acetic bacilli present that digest the alcohol.Report
Zic,
Think you will like this:
http://steamykitchen.com/8368-marcella-hazan.htmlReport
Thank you, I loved that.
And Paul Bertolli (who made the sausage); I forgot Paul. His book Cooking by Hand. Perfect in every way; from the chapter on making pasta to tomatoes to what to do with a whole pig. When his son was born, he had wooden barrels made to age balsamico; when the child reaches 25, he’ll have his own, hand-crafted by his father for a quarter century. This book is a serious, beautiful look at how someone who spends his life thinking about food thinks about food; it should be considered one of the classics.Report
As an addendum to this post, I would recommend that if you’re finding yourself really getting into the swing of things after cooking your first three dishes and you want to step back for one second from batting practice and go sit in a dugout with a ten thousand year old baseball scout who has a face like a foot and still chainsmokes… buy these:
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/bookstore/category.asp?categoryID=1
Any one of ’em.
The America’s Test Kitchen folk take to cooking like Thomas Edison took to making lightbulbs. Come up with 1000 ideas that sound like they might work, and then try them all. And then tell you which ones worked, and which ones didn’t.
But most importantly, they tell you why they think the ones that didn’t work didn’t work. So you can say to yourself, “Gee, I’ve always thought that everybody made chili without enough zing to it, and they say that this one failed recipe traded too much flavor for heat. Heck with that, I want the heat!”
It’s like having someone who reads a bunch of cookbooks walk through how they tackled the problem you’re having.Report