The cookbooks we can't cook without

Old-school methods
The price tag could buy a healthy supply of truffles, and recipes in the 1938 original are hardly more than descriptions of technique, but the workhorse “Larousse Gastronomique” (Clarkson Potter, $85) can't be beat for its comprehensive how-tos of European cuisine. Want a diagram of beef cuts?  How about three – one each for French, British and American butchers. Feel like sole? There’s meunière, dieppoise or any of two dozen other methods.  Some complain the Larousse has grown stale, though the revised 1988 edition rectifies prior oversights like, say, American cooking. But you can’t argue with its boundless culinary wisdom.

Old reliable
Standing in defiance against every food fetish since pesto is the old, reliable “Joy of Cooking” (Scribner, $30). Sexy, it ain’t. But Irma Rombauer and daughter Marion have condensed a world of indispensable kitchen knowledge into one streamlined (if weighty) tome. The 1997 edition feels appropriately modern, though the original retains an unreconstructed charm, not skimping on details about jellied beet consommé or how to cook raccoon. “Joy’s” biggest strength has always been simplicity and an unapologetic focus on technique. Essential food science is explained simply and clearly. The comprehensive recipe collection covers more intriguing ground than you’d expect — from Ghanian peanut soup to grapefruit sherbet, and yes, even a pre-1980s take on pesto. “Joy” is everything the modern cookbook isn’t, and for that it deserves enormous credit.

Tastes of Italy
Equally straightforward is Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” (Knopf, $30), the one must-buy book from the woman whose role in translating Italian cuisine for Americans is downright iconic. This 1992 release combined her first two cookbooks into a single volume. While it’s short on flair, the explanations are encyclopedic (22 pages on making homemade pasta) and the flavors spot-on. Both northern and southern styles get their due, and her accumulated wisdom is plainly evident in topics like a nearly foolproof method for frittate. The only other Italian contender with as many recent appearances in my kitchen is “Italian Slow and Savory” (Chronicle, $40), Joyce Goldstein’s consideration of slow-cooked goodness. Its focus is narrower, but the flavors are layered and rich, the braised and roasted results a model of perfection.    —Jon Bonné

Jon Bonné is MSNBC.com's lifestyle editor.

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