The cookbooks we can't cook without

< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Next >

Mom, is that you?
Where’s Mom when you need her? With "Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook" (MacMillan, $30, 1998 reprint of 1950 original) it’s like she’s looking over your shoulder. Baking a pie? Study the step-by-step black-and-white photos and your crust will shatter delectably at the touch of a fork. Stuffing a chicken? Be sure to heed that helpful, exclamatory list of “Don’ts in Roasting Poultry,” e.g., “Don’t prick skin!” From Appetizers (goose-liver bonbons) to Vegetables (segregated as “mild flavored” or “strong flavored”), the loose-leaf tome was made for the 1950s kitchen, with easy instructions for economical, appetizing and, yes, man-pleasing dishes. As much fun as the old-fashioned recipes are the tinted drawings depicting happy children, smiling husbands and briskly efficient wives.

What you knead
There’s no guesswork in Bernard Clayton’s "New Complete Book of Breads" (Simon & Schuster, $35). Whether you want to make a crisp baguette, a flaky croissant or a chewy rye, the recipes tell you exactly what you’re in for — the ingredients you need, the time and equipment each step takes and the special care a perfect outcome may require. First published in 1970 and revised and expanded in 1995, Clayton’s tribute to bread is nearly as much travelogue as instruction manual. You’ll learn not only how to make panettone but where in Italy it originated. Most important, Clayton lovingly conveys the sensory experience of baking and sharing bread.

Minnesota represents
In "Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland" (Knopf, $30), Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson give Midwestern cooking its rightful place among the great American cuisines. Although the authors pay tribute to geography with recipe names such as Rainy Lake Fish Cakes and sidebars on Grange potlucks and butter churning, their fare is hardly what you’d be served in Grandma’s farmhouse kitchen. Rather, they give a contemporary twist to wholesome, hearty and flavorful dishes such as maple-glazed hen, cider-soaked and brown-sugar-glazed ham and thresher’s beef stew with onions, beer and blue cheese. Although the recipes are easy to make at home, the results are worthy of Watson’s reputation as owner of a popular Minneapolis restaurant, Lucia’s. —Sylvia Lindman

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Sylvia Lindman is a writer in Portland, Ore.

CONTINUED : Hunt for the perfect pizza

< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Next >