Whats your favourite cookbook and why?

[Laranna]

Yup another Stephanie Alexander fan here.

My first cookbook was Family Circle Cookbook - it taught me the basics.

My other faves are Charmaine Solomon's Asian Favourites and the CSIRO ones for healthy family dinners.

[toomanyshoes]

too many to list lol I'm a bit of a cook book junky!

I really love the aus women's weekly "cook" - I think it would be a very good present for someone moving out of home or someone wanted to learn to cook. Its not as over whelming as some of the other big cook books are. Has great pages that explain all different types of noodles and how you would use them, as well as many old and new recipes. its also one of the ones to just have on hand to look up things like nan/mum use to make, IYKWIM?

The crabapple bakery cupcake cookbook is to die for! Super yummy things in there! I used the white chocolate mud cake recipe for my sister in laws engagement cake and 5kg of lindt couverture (cake + filling + icing) oh my! there was not a single crumb left!

Vogue's entertaining + travel latest seasonal kitchen was great also. Some really yummy 'out of the box' things in there!

if your a sucker for a dinner party colin cowie's dinner after dark is lovely! even if just for the BEAUTIFUL pics! but there are also some really lovely recipes and a few things I wouldn't try but over all a lovely book. (he's also got a wedding one which has amazing photos as well!)

thats all I can really think of atm

[BhoysGirl]

Toomanyshoes - how good is that Crapapple cupcake book! If you haven't tried the lumberjack ones, I can highly recommend them, esp with cream cheese icing.

Like lots of other people have said already, I love Jamie Oliver books, I've never had a failure with any of his recipes.
And I also love Nigella recipes - probably use her more for cakes and sweets than anything else, but again, never had a failure.

And I also like Karen Martini recipes - I think she's a bit off putting to watch on TV, but again, her recipes fall into my "never fail" category.

And Stephanie is a given...and Delicious is definitely my favourite foodie mag.

So nothing new from me - just more endorsement of what everyone else has said

[Evee]

I have a Margaret Fulton book and it is *seriously* my cooking bible. I just love it.

Not sure what it's called, it's a revised edition, hardcover with a pic of a souffle on it.

Awesome stuff, it's all basics that I have now mastered and gone on to develop my own recipes! (Can you tell I love cooking?)

[toomanyshoes]

another thing is the taste website

The thing i like about it over other recipes sites is, 1 its aus and 2 lots of the recipes have really helpful comments from people who have tried it! things that didn't work, things they changed etc instead of the standard "oh its yummy"

[~me~]

We have heaps of cookbooks, some never even looked through

Our favourites are Cookery the Australian Way (used in Home Echo or whatever it is called now in High School). It has all the basics from pictures of cows with what cuts of meat are what to pancakes and how to cook a roast. It's absolutely dog eared so we use it heaps for various things.

Also like some Jamie Oliver recipes, his risotto is good and we use the Marie Claire Cookbook too.

Another one we use is the Victor Chang Heart Cook Book and I also use websites such as the ABC Cook and the Chef and the now defunked Ian Parmeters' Consuming Passions and print out recipes. Taste is also a good web site to sift through ideas.

My sister swears by the Cooks Companion.

[Queen]

I have an OLD cookbook My Mum and Nana both had the same edition (1967) Cookery the Australian Way, it has great recipes about making things from scratch, very old school, but I love it!