If I had endless cupboard space in my kitchen, I would fill it up with cookbooks. I love them. My family doesn’t realize this, but their meals would be pretty bland without my favorite cookbooks and the HH surely would have starved to death if I didn’t refer to them my first few years of marriage. Of course he would say, looking at collection I already have, that I don’t need to add to it.
But I totally disagree. If you’re actively using them, there’s no such thing as too many cookbooks! I love how every chef has a different take on food and how to use ingredients. It certainly keeps our meals and snacks pretty well rounded around here. Take a look at my very favorite {and very used} cookbooks: 
The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook: Everything you ever wanted to know about jam and more. There are 100+ original jam, jelly, and marmalade recipes, plus, master jam artisan Rachel Saunders shares all of her technical preserving knowledge, as well as her unique jam maker’s perspective on fruit. 
Plenty: If I’m ever at a loss on how to make boring vegetables not so boring every night, I turn to London chef Yotam Ottolenghi. His book includes 120 vegetarian recipes that my family has gobbled up every single time I’ve made them! 
The Martha Stewart Cookbook: This one’s a no-brainer. Of course it would be on my list. She’s my food hero and her recipes are awesome. This cookbook is so marked up I probably need a fresh new copy at this point! 
Simply in Season: I was first alerted to this cookbook by my dear friend Jane. Simply in Season is packed full of seasonal recipes that use fresh, local ingredients. The book is divided up into chapters by season, so you’ll always have recipes for what you have currently growing in your backyard garden. I use my Simply in Season cookbook all the time and if you take a look at the reviews on Amazon, you’ll see the reviews on it are awesome as well! 
The New Best Recipe: The authors of this cookbook didn’t mess around. They made each recipe over and over and over {sometimes up to 40+ times} to perfect each one before including it. So this book is full of 1000 tried and true recipes, and the beautiful pictures with most recipes are a total bonus! 
Thy Hand Hath Provided Cookbook: My friend Jane wrote this cookbook last fall and it’s simply AWESOME! She even has it on Amazon as an eBook. In case you don’t already know, a few months before I started my own blog in January of 2009, I discovered a few blogs and fell in love with them. Jane’s blog, Thy Hand Hath Provided, was one of them. 
The All-American Cookie Book: Since there is no such thing as too many cookies, of course a recipe book devoted just to the tasty 
Southern Living Cookbook: I love the magazine and all their recipes, and I absolutely love their cookbook. Their recipes aren’t complicated like you might expect from a magazine cookbook. And don’t let the “southern” throw you off. So many of these recipes are totally healthy too! 
Tender: This cookbook is so much more than a book of recipes {although the recipes are great}. It’s like a gardening book and a cookbook all wrapped into one. It’s written by Britain’s foremost food writer: Nigel Slater. He gives great gardening tips right along side some tasty recipes. Plus, he’s British so of course I’m going to love him! 
Food to Live By: Myra Goodman has been growing organic food for over twenty years and cooking with it, too. This book is a go-to favorite for all things organic. Plus, she includes hundreds of recipes, ideas, shopping and cooking tips, and health notes. It’s the organic lovers dream cookbook!
So there you have my favorites. Now I want to know what’s missing from my shelf. What are you favorite cookbooks? What am I missing out on?
~Mavis
Delores says
I won the cookbook from Jane @ They Hand Hath Provided in her recent giveaway! I was so excited — and never would have found that blog if you hadn’t shared something from here. 🙂 We tried a recipe the day it arrived for a dressing and it was, of course, super yummy! I have to agree: this is a keeper and one of my faves already.
Pj says
The Victory Garden Cookbook covers gardening and recipes to use what we grow. I love it!
Dianna says
I love the Mayo Clinic Cookbook. It has lots of great veggie recipes, and everything in it is super healthy (obviously). And the photos are gorgeous! I also enjoy America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, which is quicker to use than The New Best Recipe, which is thorough but a bit dense when you’re in a hurry.
I’m putting Tender on my reading list; thanks for the recommendations!
Cecily says
Any of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s cookbook bibles are a must for every kitchen. I have my mom’s 1970 Betty Crocker cookbook that I learned to cook from. I still use it regularly.
The Smallest Acre says
Mastering the Art of French Cooking from Julia Child. My poor public library was probably sick of me checking it out until I finally found a great deal on a used copy from Amazon.
Michele says
I really like Moosewood Cookbooks.
Lisa says
I don’t have any cookbooks. When I moved to a smaller house I cut out the recipes I use and put them in a recipe card box. I found that most of the recipes in my books go unmade. My favorite was the Betty Crocker book that my sister-in-law gave me when I first got married. I cut a lot of recipes out of that one! I get recipe books at the library sales all the time, and yes, I then cut them up and glue the recipes I want to cards!
Most of the time, when I want a new recipe I look online! Also, I take a lot of magazines and they have them of course.
Gary W. Miller says
Dear Mavis, my favorite cookbook is: Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette I use at least once a week. I also use your freezer bag system to freeze my soups. My wife calls your system “the Soup Library.”
Mark says
The New Basics Cookbook and the Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
Tamara says
I will be checking these out for sure! My favorite is Ina Garden’s Family Style. She’s the Barefoot Contests if you ever watched her show. I also love Jamie Oliver, and probably use his Jamie’s Dinner’s book the most.
Tamara says
Um, that was supposed to be Barefoot Contessa, darn auto correct!
Michele in Salem says
Nice post Mavis ;
Madam Chow says
I think I must have about 800 cookbooks. Baking, by Dorie Greenspan, is wonderful. any baking book by Rose Levy Berenbaum. The annual Food and Wine books are very good, too. Egads, how many hours do you have??? My books are my friends, inspiration, teachers.
Marie says
My favorite recipe books are 3 ring spiral binders that I have assembled over the years that are filled with “gathered recipes” from other books, newspapers, magazines, online and family/friends. There are a few from you too! I still have my ol’ Betty Crocker
beginner book just because I couldn’t part with it. This was my de-cluttering project last year. I eventually gave away 50+ cookbooks and now I can find my favorites!
Teckla says
Marie, you sound a lot like me! My very favorite is my old Betty Crocker which I inherited from my husband’s deceased first wife. Then I have several binders, recipe boxes and far too many recipe boxes on line, plus all the recipes I’ve gathered from Mavis! I sold my home and moved earlier this year and over a period of time got rid of probably 50 cookbooks, as well. I never looked at them to speak of, so no reason to clutter the bookshelves! I still have too many cookbooks, but I do enjoy looking through them whether I use the recipes or not! LOL
judy says
We used to have 1000+ cookbooks. Especially liked the “church/school”, fundraiser kind. Then we moved – again! Had to get rid of a great many. That was difficult to do, but I still have a lot. Pillsbury’s Complete Book of Baking is a good one. I have really enjoyed the American Century Cookbook. Lots of good reading in there, as well as the recipes.
Caroline says
I just purchased Clara’s Kitchen cookbook. The recipes are simple, but the stories that she tells with the recipes are treasures beyond compare.
Tiffiny says
My new favourite is The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila
lilton says
I LOVE Marissa McClellan’s “Food in Jars” canning cookbook. It’s quickly becoming my new go-to for all things jam-my and MANY of the recipes allow the fruit to be prepared then held in the refrigerator (or, in my case, the freezer) for several days until you’re ready to cook and can it. She also has a food blog by the same name.
Kristina Z says
Thanks for the great selections. I’ll have to check out some of the ones I was unfamiliar with. I’ve used the Moosewood cookbooks a lot, also anything by Anna Thomas of “Vegetarian Epicure” fame. My most-used cookbook by far is the good ol’ “Joy of Cooking”. I have several editions, but I use the 3rd. I’m as likely to consult it as a reference book as for a specific recipe. On a side note, I was in London in January and made a point of having lunch at one Yotam Ottelenghi’s delis (called “Ottelenghi”, ha) in Notting Hill, and everything I ordered there was so freakin’ awesome! Next time you’re in London, I would recommend a visit. I ordered “Plenty” when I got home, but I have been cooking out of his “Jerusalem” for several months now, and every recipe has been a slam dunk.
Beth c says
Does anyone remember The Frugal Gourmet? I bought one of his cookbooks of American recipes and the stories behind the historical recipes were really interesting. All true? Maybe not, but interesting nevertheless….and good recipes, too!
Rochelle says
I remember watching the Frugal Gormet with my mom. She used to call him ‘The Frug’. Thanks for bringing back a memory!