Favourite Recipe Books.

Can anyone one remember a small magazine that had recipes for freezers in - late 70s early 80s? I have a fair few recipes torn out of there. It was really good.

Kittylester - they were Home & Freezer magazines. Mary Berry was the main contributor and I used her recipes (mainly baking) back then. Over the years I made many of her tray bakes as fundraisers for school or church sales, fetes, etc. My collection is pretty well torn and tattered as I was always doing things in a hurry back then!!!

I have a few cook books but I always go back to The Dairy book of home cooking. , left by the milkman, I think you had to buy extra milk in the week and it cost 7/6d , just before we went decimal. I had just got married and it was my bible , still use it ,

Yotam ottolenghi every day. I have every book he has written and regularly spend at least 4 hours In an afternoon creating a feast of flavour, colour and sublime tastes. He is a total genius in creating layers of flavour and every mouthful is a fabulous experience.
But my mum gave me the good housekeeping bible as a leaving home present when I was 17. I still use it as a basic reference book.......how do you make gravy?

jacq, I just came back to say that - it came to me in a flash of inspiration. I'll go for lie down now!!

I’ve got the usual favourites mentioned here but my latest love is The Roasting Tin Around the World cookbook by Rukmini Iyer.

There’s very little in it that I won’t be trying.

Nigella has a new one out soon. I cant decide whether to buy it myself or to see whether Santa brings it.

It’s my birthday today and I’ve received my first Yotam Ottolenghi book as a gift. Dh is going to have to learn to love aubergine.

A very Happy Birthday, SueDonim. Hope someone cooks you a birthday meal out of your new cook book!

I have that Hamlyn all colour one, too, with a picture of a very young Mary Berry!

And a GH one (published 1971) that was a present even before I was married. It eventually got so tatty, falling to bits, I found a 2nd hand copy in vgc on abebooks. That one has a Christmas section which for many years was my ‘bible’ for cooking Christmas dinner.

There’s also an ancient Katie Stewart one which I still use for certain things.

Lilypops When I got married in 1969, my mother bought me The Dairy Book of Home Cooking from the milkman. It was great.

Thank you, Greyduster! Dh is outsourcing the cooking to the restaurant of a local hotel. ?

chewbacca Yes. Had many M & S books in that series, still have Cake Icing and Decorating and Preserves. 3 others, I clipped the recipes most often used and recycled the rest of the books.

I've got books I just read and look at the pictures ..The French Laundry is one,most recipes are very involved but look fantastic.Then there are some that I've cooked from and like the recipes in,Nick Nairn has a really good Cullen Skink recipe ,I love Roselyn Masselins vegetarian cookery book and a little book written by monks that has the Beef Stroganoff recipe I've been using for all 45 years of my married life .I've got over 100 cookery books and I like to browse them of an evening while OH is immersed in Strike Back or something else thats violent and gives me bad dreams .Now food never gives me bad dreams .

A belated Happy Birthday Suedonim hope its a year filled with all you'd wish for yourself

Leith's Vegetarian Bible is my all time favourite.
Anything by Jane Grigson, especially her Vegetables book and English Food.
I've got a vintage Dairy Book that was my mom's. I love it!
I've also got Nigella reading How to Eat on Audible. It is sooo relaxing!

My DH once said that if I spent as much time actually cooking as I spent browsing through recipe books, we would eat like kings!

Chewbacca, I had some of those, inc. the Christmas one IIRC. I made mincemeat from it, and I’m afraid to say it was very disappointing. But I ditched all the books some time ago - lack of space as much as anything.
I now mostly google for recipes, print off and keep favourites in a fat file.

I now use Delia’s recipe for mincemeat, brilliant and easy, esp.. since I’ve had my little zester gadget.

I have everything ready to make it today, inc. the jars, unearthed from the garage and washed all ready to sterilise in the oven. ??

Dairy Book of Home Cookery from 1970!

I adore that Christmas book too!!! Good call

I have Margaret Pattern recipe cards which are very good that I collected on monthly subscription many many years ago.

The one book I would keep above all others is Good Housekeeping bought 50 years ago and now rather scruffy. I bought a newer version to replace it but it is nowhere near as good so I gave it away and still use the old one on a regular basis. It has never let me down.

I love browsing cookery books, and have some of the ones mentioned already. I have the M&S Cooking on Holiday, Casseroles, , Cakes and Baking, and the Cheesecake one.
Does anyone remember the Delia Food Aid book from the 80s? There are some cracking recipes in there that have become family favourites.
I am trying to reduce my weight so am using Hairy Dieters books. I love their other books too. They get so much flavour into their food.
There are some intriguing suggestions for books on here that I will look out for. Thank you.

Another vote here for Ottolenghi with Michel Roux in second.

Mine's a 1970s Good Housekeeping recipe book. Many of the recipes are dated but it's a good guide. I like Nigel Slater's and Nigella's recipes and I have lots of Italian recipe books. Rick Stein's are good reads and his travel progs are very interesting.

Chewbacca, I still have the original M and S from the seventies, minus the cover! I also have one of Delia’s and Nigella’s. I ditched loads of recipe books when I moved, but this is the one I always come back to. There is a bbq sauce which is unparalleled. Everyone I have made it for asks for the recipe. I never buy recipe books now, so much is available on line.