What is your favorite cookbook?

@f00l

this photo is of the melting pot American cooking book from that series

@f00l Oh, yeah - my mother had those, they were great.

@Kyeh

I hope you have them

If you don’t love them, they make great gifts or if you have quite a few of them, you can sell them for a decent money on eBay

You can actually sell the individual ones for full value on eBay

@f00l Well, as far as I know she still has them!

@sillyheathen

When I was younger, I used to make bread all the time, especially sourdough

But I didn’t have anybody to help me eat it

And eventually, I didn’t have the time

I still love reading about it

If you are a fanatic bread maker I strongly recommend this free form bread. I love it so much.

From the Beard on Bread book.

Jane Grigson’s Walnut Bread from southern Burgundy

(She was a cookbook and cultural food writer who lived for decades in Provence)

Walnuts are best but you can sub other nuts.
You can use walnut oil or olive oil.
You can partially sub unsalted butter.

I always went nuts on the walnuts. I’m American. I can’t help it.

You can add stuff. I’ve tried adding olives or bits of cheese or raisins. They all turned out terrific clothes, but they didn’t really add that much to the bread because the bread is so insanely good.

I used to usually use unbleached flour from the best “HQ” mill that was sold locally. I used a lot of flour from that famous mill in Deaf Smith County, Tx.

There are other flours that would work. It’s about impossible to get true Foemch flour over here tho.

And then when it came out of the oven, I’d hand slice it and slather it with butter, and add anything else that seemed to go with.

Omg so good.

This link covers both sourdough and yeast versions.

I get a little upset just thinking about this bread because I don’t have any at hand

And because it’s so beautiful to make a loaf

https://breadtopia.com/jane-grigsons-walnut-and-onion-bread-with-sourdough-or-yeast/

If you’re a bread maker, then save this one or get a copy of beard on bread or get a copy of Jane Grigson’s book “Good Thimgs”

@sillyheathen

@sillyheathen He’s really your cousin, isn’t he!

@Kyeh I gar-on-tee! He was. I just grew up thinking it was “uncle Justin”. It always made me laugh when I saw him on tv because he didn’t sound like that at all. His sister Olivette was my favorite though.

@f00l and I adore making bread. I prefer yeasted and fermented doughs. I have some really fab bread books. I can HIGHLY recommend “Flour. Water. Salt. Yeast.”

@sillyheathen

I’ve heard wonderful things about that book.

But that was kind of after I stopped making bread because my life changed and I didn’t have anyone to help me eat it

@sillyheathen

As you are a bread maker, I hope that someday you do try that recipe from Jane Grigson

It’s so good that when I wanted to experiment with bread making, I would read up a bunch of recipes and choose one and get all excited about it

And then when I started to actually make the bread, I realized what I and the other people in the house wanted to eat was the bread from grigson’s recipe

So often I would wind up making that bread instead of the one I had planned to make

Something about it …

Maybe it’s that I tried to take care to source good unbleached flour

And maybe it’s the onions which should be diced very fine

I wish I could’ve tried it with flour from France or even from Burgundy but back then there was just no way I could get that

I suspect that except in really high-end specialty markets in say New York and San Francisco and maybe LA you still can’t get True French flour.

I know that professional commercial people who make French pastries or True French bread have trouble sourcing French flour

@sillyheathe

btw I am in awe of Louisiana cooking and cuisine

@f00l hey me too! There is so much I love and miss about Louisiana, even though it’s extremely unlikely that I’ll ever live there again. My childhood was riding bikes, running through the woods, catching gators, snakes and frogs. Basically spending any spare time in a boat in the waterways. I appreciate how many experiences I had that most people will never have the opportunity to and try to not take it for granted. I even more appreciate the food and the spirit of the Cajun life. I’m actually working on a memorial piece for my high school boyfriend’s father who passed away recently. Jan taught me how to make most of the true Cajun dishes I cook and it’s the least I can do.

I do recommend that if people go to New Orleans, step outside. Rent a car and drive to Cocodrie. Hit up Lafayette and get boudin in bread bridge. Take a swamp tour in the Atchafalaya basin. Don’t just be a bourbon st touron.

@sillyheathen

I hope the gators you caught were little ones!

Most people in SE Texas and Louisiana know that if you are near a lake, you need to be very careful of your pets. Gators love small pets.

And you need to avoid swimming in a lake unless you know for certain it’s safe

Gators get as far north as DFW once in a great while, but it’s cold enough that they just stay small

Although not necessarily small enough for it to be safe for kids to catch

I think gators kill a few people in Florida almost every year. Someone was killed in the recent few weeks.

Big ones can lurk in even small ponds.

—

What’s your describing as a free range childhood as described also in Tom Sawyer

I think many of us had one of those childhood and boy was it great

“Home by dark” was the operative command.

How are kids who grow up playing video games in their room or the den supposed to know anything about life? At least rural and tiny town kids usually get quite a bit of outdoor experience.

@f00l yeah we only caught them when we were in a pirogue or a boat and they were always small to medium. A friend of ours managed to pull a 3-4 footer when we were teenagers. He duct taped the mouth shut and brought it home and left it in his kitchen for his mom to find. Pretty sure he got grounded for a few weeks for that stunt. And he absolutely brought it back to the bayou and released it. But not before his mom almost beat him into a puddle with a shrimp boot.

@f00l @sillyheathen

I do recommend that if people go to New Orleans, step outside. Rent a car and drive to Cocodrie. Hit up Lafayette and get boudin in bread bridge. Take a swamp tour in the Atchafalaya basin. Don’t just be a bourbon st touron.

Good advice for any city destination, really!

@sillyheathen

Your friend pretty much deserved to be almost beaten into a puddle of algae filled lake water.

But that was when kids could tease their parents with potentially dangerous stints, and almost get away with it, and get punished to serious levels, and afterwards it would be the family’s favorite story.

Because the parents had all done stuff like that when they were kids too

/image drawing Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

@f00l @Kyeh it really is. I want authentic not tourist trap. And it’s supposed to read breaux bridge not bread bridge.

@heartny That kid’s one looks so neat. No wonder you became a blue ribbon winning chef!

@heartny @Kyeh

I think I had some sort of kids cookbook when I was in elementary school, but I forget which one

I did some stuff from it. It was good.

@heartny Oh, wait, I guess I had you confused with @ironcheftoni, sorry. That’s what happens when I comment at 4:37 am. (2:37 my time, but still.)

@Kyeh I may have blue ribbons, but I assure you they are not for cooking

@heartny
I bet they’re for design … ?

@Kyeh They were for showing my cats at cat shows.

@heartny Oh, that’s very cool! What breed of cats?

@Kyeh Burmese and a blue Abyssinian

@heartny Gorgeous breeds! The Blue Abyssinian looks especially beautiful to me. I like short haired cats because I like seeing their graceful contours. All my cats have been Humane Society mutt kitties, but my brother’s cat is a Tonkinese.

@Kyeh I actually started out showing Tonkinese, but at that time they weren’t accepted for championship status. I also had a Korat (Heartny), but didn’t show him. Here is a pic of my blue Abyssinian.

@heartny So beautiful!

@ironcheftoni if it’s the same one I’m thinking of, there should be a recipe for cinnamon bread in there which is what my grandmother adapted for her famous, to friends, family and anyone in the Amite area. People would fight over it and my cousin still tries to convince me to take up her old Christmas tradition because I’m one of the only people in my family that can recreate her method. You should try it if it’s in there.

@ironcheftoni @sillyheathen

My mom had a Betty Crocker cookbook back then, and she used it quite a bit.

I don’t know that she ever did the cinnamon bread. I’m going to have to look that up.

@sillyheathen I’ll definitely check that one out.

@f00l @ironcheftoni @sillyheathen
Is it this?
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cinnamon-swirl-raisin-bread/781e99af-93e8-4853-9586-e802aefeefef

Of course, you said she adapted it so this probably isn’t as good.

@ironcheftoni @Kyeh @sillyheathen

does anyone remember from way back a spiral bound Betty Crocker cookbook with a plaid cover?

that’s the one I think I remember my mom using I can visualize it

@f00l @ironcheftoni @Kyeh negative. No raisins. Just cinnamon bread.

@f00l @ironcheftoni @Kyeh that’s the one I’m on about!

@f00l @Kyeh @sillyheathen I think you are thinking of better homes and gardens. It’s a classic with a plaid design and a notebook format

@ironcheftoni @Kyeh @sillyheathen

Ok (its been a few decades)

she also had a Betty Crocker cookbook and used both

She was a damn good cook

But I hated her liver

I hated her okra too I had to be an adult to find out that I actually like okra when it’s prepared properly.

@f00l @ironcheftoni @Kyeh I’m pretty sure it was Betty Crocker. I’m going to my mum’s today so I’ll have a look through and see if I can find it.

@jkawaguchi now I’m going to have to go and see if I can find that.

@jkawaguchi What a gorgeous cover!

@jkawaguchi

That looks gorgeous

Can you tell us the title and the writer?

@f00l @jkawaguchi
google lens says it is this:
Woman’s World Service Library, The Cookery Book, Vintage Illustrated Cooking & Recipe Magazine (1929)

@f00l @jkawaguchi
… And if was $75 on ETSY!

@chienfou @f00l @jkawaguchi yeah…. I got really excited when I saw a copy for sale but $75 is too rich for my blood.

@sillyheathen
yep… I thought so too!

@chienfou @f00l
Ok I must confess this is my oldest cookbook but it is not the one I described! I’ve included pics of the book I was actually referring to. My daughters were getting ready to say goodbye to the youngest,( who is going to France for an immersion class in language and culture). They were trying to help by getting the image for me and I didn’t check. Yes that beautiful book is my oldest and from my grandmother. The one I am showing now is very old and from my mother in law.

@chienfou @f00l

@chienfou @f00l

@chienfou @f00l ![sample
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@chienfou @f00l
Found a copy of the beautiful book on eBay
The Cookery Book 1929
Price:
$17.99

Seller:
hoarders_cache4cash
Ryan Stewart
PA
United States
Now that’s affordable!

@chienfou @f00l @jkawaguchi Did you buy it? It’s been sold.

@chienfou @f00l @Kyeh
No I didn’t but it looks like somebody has. They got a deal!

@sillyheathen
Were you the buyer of the ebay one?

@werehatrack

KuoH

@duodec

The best brownie I ever ate or dreamt of are Brownie Cockaigne feim this book.
Made in a 9x13 pan and carefully not overcooked.

Expect the pan to be completely empty before the brownies cool. No need to store or serve them.

—-

My fav ever chocolate icing is from this book. I can’t remember the exact name but could find the recipe if I had the book.

It’s a true fudge icing involving melting bakers chocolate and butter and doing the soft ball stage of candy creation, and all that.

Not hard for anyone who has ever tried that and has some memory of it. For those who have not, watch a few YT vids then try.

It’s so good. Just almost exactly my grandmothers fudge icing. Except that she never bothered w a recipe or measuring and was easily the best cook in her neighborhood, and the icing was always perfect.

It was nice to find a version written down the right way, so that I could actually share her icing with others.

Re this icing
Put it in a moist cake. Not a dry one. The cake moisture compliments the icing.

Nuts added are good. Grandma had a yard filled with pecan trees but other nuts will work.

—-

I think the book also got me to try learning to flip an omelet by throwing it using the pan. That finally worked after some cleanup sessions first.
Or I did learn that somewhere else?

This book, if I remember (er versions released in the 1970s-1980’s), covers everything from “my first kitchen” levels to Julia Child levels.

I wish I had tried out more than the tiniest bit if it.

@duodec @f00l
Yours looks absolutely pristine!

I may have used it to bake banana bread a couple of days ago when we had friends over for coffee.

For year it was our go-to for Christmas morning’s bakery item while the kids did a treasure hunt in the house.
When my wife’s parents divorced 50+ yrs ago this was one of the items that was hotly contested in the settlement…