First cookbooks you used as an adult

My mother gave me her hardcover book “The 60 Minute Chef” by Lillian Bueno McCue and Carol Truax. It was published in 1947 (year of my birth) by MacMillan, and I know my Mom used it often. Well indexed. Easily followed. Quick recipes. It was my first culinary bible: stuffed mushrooms, oyster stew, Manhattan Clam Chowder, oysters Rockefeller, Chicken marengo (a family favorite), Hollandaise, orange grapefruit & avocado salad (yum), sweetbread en brochette, and so much more. If Amazon has it - even as a used book, by it! I have the First Edition and treasure it. Good luck!

Just saw (on 4/14/19) that Amazon has 7 copies used from .99 cents !!!

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I just bought a copy (The Thrill of the Grill), but haven’t gotten to know it yet.

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While I have certainly picked and chosen my way through those recipes, I appreciate that book because I could largely recreate dishes like those at the late, great East Coast Grill. In that regard I thought it to be a very generous book. Warmer weather is a great time to explore the recipes that catch your fancy.

By contrast, some years later I bought a copy of Babbo. Let’s just say that book had a short stay in my collection before I donated it to the library book sale.

I’ll certainly look at it carefully. But I must say that I didn’t much enjoy our one meal at East Coast Grill. One visit to a restaurant is, of course, not enough to form a balanced opinion. But when you live far away, you don’t always try to form balanced opinions.

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Sorry to hear that. I will say that a restaurant can fall off my list right away if it’s in a city I only visit now and then. No reason to repeat, right?

I hope that you find the book does not disappoint, though.

Fourth paragraph:

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My story exactly.

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I was going to do you one better and post the flim clip of her dropping the turkey, and as it turns out, it never happened. I had heard and read the story so many times, including the purported quote, “Remember, you’re alone in the kitchen.” that I was convinced it was true.

But check this out: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/childs-play/

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My grandmother’s “Salha Mama Bobo” cookbook

She’s been gone for a few years now but her recipes live on for ever. It’s a family cookbook that encompasses her recipes and those of her offspring. The tradition continues

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The Key to Chinese Cooking - Irene Kuo
Ruth Spear’s Cooking Fish and Shellfish
Both of the Silver Palate cookbooks
Craig Claiborne’s NYT cook books
And for steady reference, The Joy of Cooking

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Mine aren’t nearly impressive as some of the above… like James Beard! Mine were your basic American, suburban, kitchen staples - Joy of Cooking & Betty Crocker.

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My mother bought me my own copy of Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook when I left home, so I was already familiar with it.

My first cookbook purchase was the Esquire Cookbook. I bought it “remaindered”, with the idea that if it could teach men to cook, it must really be approachable! The first thing I made from it was Bearnaise sauce. It worked.
32%20AM

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Is it old-fashioned that I like the book’s tagline?

First cookbook I purchased for myself was Joy of Cooking, like groundhogs’ day. It was updated & re-released in the 90’s by Irma’s niece (I think). I had lost Ma’s thru moving around and bought it again for nostalgic reasons and because I do use it. I thought “How sweet”. It came with that red ribbon bookmark and some modern tweaks… but was shoddy & became unbound quickly. :smirk:

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It was actually updated by several different chefs. A friend of mine was one. I don’t know if they got any credit.

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I have a question: did your first cookbooks influence your cooking style and how you cook today?

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Most likely, but who knows? I’m sure that there are certain things I learned from Julia Child that have continued to influence me. But, I think, I am these days more influenced by restaurant meals that I like.

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I agree with you about restaurants now influencing my cooking. I’m buying more Asian cookbooks and have more Asian condiments in my cabinet than anything. But my first cookbooks definitely influenced my cooking and I continued to buy the modern day versions (Ina Garten :heart:) for a long time. This type and Italian-American (east coaster) and a little French are definitely my comfort zone. I now live in California, so Mexican, of course, is now a big influence too.

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No. I have “matured” in my cooking quite a lot from 40 years ago. While I still go back to a few basics from my first cookbook, I wing it more in my cooking now, although certain dishes I still follow a recipe.

The Internet has opened up a LOT of new information about "what’s out there " and dining has changed immensely in the last 40 years.

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Oh yes, unless it’s something new or complicated I’m definitely a winger or an internet-er.

I don’t mean I literally still cook from a Betty Crocker cookbook :grimacing: (although I still use JOC sometimes). But this thread made me ask if in general do childhood cookbooks still inform how one cooks today - in my case, when I don’t want to stretch it’s roasts, long cooking, lots of gravy & sauces… lots of potatoes (‘murican family cooking w/a little Julia child thrown in).

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