The world is full of recipes – they spill out of shelves in bookshops, magazines devote pages to them, they turn up on the back of packaged foods, even on bottle labels (Delia Smith 1980: 8)
Nowadays, we can add website, blogs and Pinterest searches to the list that UK food writer and TV cook Delia Smith wrote over 40 years ago. She is right, the world is full or recipes, old, new, reinvented and, some best forgotten.
There are some cook (or is it recipe?) books on my shelf that I have had for many years and to which I still return. Madhur Jaffrey’s classic Indian Cookery, first published in 1982 and based on her BBC TV series of the same name, is one I always turn to if we feel like ‘a curry’ (I do come from the UK!). It is full of easy to make dishes with easily accessible ingredients and clear instructions. I have never had a failure with anything from her book.
Another TV tie in is Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery. To be honest, I can’t remember when I last used this, but his lemon chicken used to be a firm favourite. It is much easier to get a wider variety of ingredients than when the book was first published, but it is still a decent basic book.
I am sure there are many other UK readers that have at least one of Delia Smith’s books somewhere. Her complete cookery course, also based on a TV series, has everything in it from how to roast a piece of beef, poach an egg and all the classics from pea soup to apple crumble. Her Italian Baked Fish has turned up on many an occasion, and there was a time her avocado sauce to go with salmon was a frequent dish in the summer.
I also own two volumes of recipes from the US 1980s favourites The Silver Palate (Julee Ruskins and Sheia Lukins). I picked up the Goodtimes book to take this photo, and several pages fell out, it had been that well used. The pear and parsnip puree, the chicken with courgettes and carrots, the winter greens soup were all favourites that need to get made again sometime.
Anyway, this Sunday I made the lamb with spinach dish from Madhur Jaffrey’s book, a lovely dish full of flavour with added greens. Nowadays it is easy to find cardamom pods and fresh ginger in the supermarket, but am not sure that was the case back in the day.
I also made her cauliflower and potato dish to go on the side with rice. The leftovers the next day were even better. Perhaps the old ones are the best, ones and maybe I really don’t need another book of recipes. We will see….
Do any of you have any old cook books that you return to again and again?
Post to appear in Min from Write of the Middle #WWWhimsy Wednesday Words & Whimsy link up
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
(Not counting my Polish books) my best English Books are the Madhur Jaffrey’s and the Delia Smith one – especially Delia’s cake books.
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Madhur Jaffrey is a classic.
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I have an old Betty Crocker cookbook that I use often for more traditional recipes.
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In the south it was always the Betty Crocker Cook Book or the Better Homes and Gardens cook book. I still remember them being given as wedding shower gifts. I still have the Betty Crocker. Also many times church ladies in the area would compile a cookbook and sell it to help raise money for the church. Those were some of the best. I still think you should do your own cookbook. It would be amazing. Have a great day!!!!
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Those local books can be fun. I have one I still use from time to time that was written to raise money for a cat charity and it has lovely illustrations.
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I often return to my old cookery books for tried and tested recipes. I even have a little notebook of recipes I used over 40 years ago …family favourites such as flapjacks and caramel square … cornish pasties and pork and apple pie.. Now you have prompted me to dig out one of my old Delia books, pour a glass of wine while I hunt for some new recipes.
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You can tell which recipes are used the most from the stains on the pages. Your idea of re-reading Delia sounds great. There are some classic gems in those books.
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I love Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbooks, timeless recipes that never fail. I go back to the Good Times books now and then, and there are a few recipes I used to make with my mom from Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I also loved books by Martha Rose Shulman such as Mediterranean Light, and The Moosewood Cookbook has a few perennial favorites!
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My paperback copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking fell apart and I have never replaced it. Her orange souffle was one of the first things I learned to cook….at the age of 11.
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We all have so memories of cooking from that book. Mom loved the cow au vin, and made it often. The pages in her cookbook are stained with red wine.
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I have a copy of that Silver Palate Good Time Cookbook!
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🙂
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That Madhur Jeffrey cover is so familiar that I was convinced I had it, but can’t find it. Maybe I did once. I have her World Vegetarian. We both still have the first cookery book we were given when we left home for uni in the 1970s. John’s is The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson – paperback and held together by rubber bands. Mine is hardback and has therefore fared better – Every Day Cook Book by Marguerite Patten. I remember my aunt giving it to me for my birthday. Both still used occasionally.
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Marguerite Patten – now there is a name from the past. These old books supported a lot of our first forays into cooking.
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Oh, and I still have a Bero book, remember them?
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I still love the Complete Middle Eastern cookbook by Tess Mallos. Love Delia of course. And which aussie can go past margaret fulton? Her encyclopedia of food is still useful.
cheers
sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/
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Was my comment eaten up? 🙂 Anyway just saying I love Delia, and am a fan of Margaret Fulton and Tess Mallos. Her Complete middle eastern cookbook is still a fave.
cheers
sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/
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Think it came twice….anyway don’t know Tess Mallos – will need to check it out.
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Hi Barbara, I was an avid collector of cookbooks back in my younger years. Alas, when we downsized most of them were given away and I now rely on technology. It isn’t the same though looking at a laptop instead of pouring over the book and deciding what to make. #WWWhimsy
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The paper books show splatters and notes (like converting US to UK measurements) and other notes. There are a lot of memories in those books! I can’t bring myself to get rid of them.
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I like the Edinburgh Plain Cookery Book, used as a textbook at the cookery school in times gone by. No trouble in getting the ingredients for that! It doesn’t tax my rudimentary skills too much.
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Was that from the one in Atholl Cresent in Edinburgh? Mum had friends who went there.
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It was.
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Hi Barbara, oh my gosh I’d never heard of any of those authors but I can say that I have a ridiculous amount of cookbooks (or recipe books) that I’ve collected over the years – most of which I haven’t cooked from in years. You’ve reminded me I should have a look at them and rediscover some recipes I used to make all the time to cook again! I think a lot of them I should donate to be honest as I have far too many! I should go through them and decide what to keep and what to donate! Always something to do isn’t there! Thank you for linking up with #WWWhimsy – hope you’re having a fabulous week! xo
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The first three are well known in the UK. It is worth looking back at some of the old books are there are still things that work today. It is also interesting to see what was not available so easily to the domestic cook 40 years ago. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a good week.
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Hi, Barbara – As much as I’ve tried, I’ve never had a single cookbook or cookbook author that I frequently return to. I must confess, that I am much more likely to look recipes up online and then loosely follow them based on the ingredients that I have on hand.
The cookbooks that you’ve shared here do look great. I have heard good things from others about that Indian Food cookbook. ❤
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I must admit I do have favourites I turn to again and again – Friday night planning meals with a glass of wine is fun 🙂 I do browse Pinterest from time to time and have a couple of websites I go to – which are really like online cookbooks since I browse them!
Madhur Jaffrey is really good.
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Great post, oh how many memories came back to me while I was reading!
A very good Scottish friend of mine put me onto Delia Smith (although I have only seen her once on TV, but love her cook books.) it made me think about going through her books again. I’m not a great cook, and she was good at making food simple and tasty!
This would be a good article for a magazine.
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Oh that is fun! I think Delia’s recipes are ideal for beginner cooks or when you just want something simple that you know will work.
I am thinking of expanding it a bit and putting on my Substack. Just need to find the time!
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Yes to great collections of cookbooks and recipes over the years but with a few house moves and changes to family size and portions, I tend to cook what works best for us now.
I made a folder of recipes my late Mum used, and some handwritten ones by others and the cookbook I have referred to for decades to make ‘chocolate simplicity cake’ is from 1978 Nursing Mothers of Australia cookbook. Its a well worn treasure.
Denyse.
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My mum was a dreadful cook but I do have a handwritten book of recipes copied out from when I was a late teen/student. There was one called ‘Easter Road cheesecake’ which was my take on a baked cheesecake and called after the street I grew up on. I haven’t made it for years.
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The three cook books I consult the most often are: Delia Smith’s Complete Illustrated Cookery Course, 1989 which I received as an engagement present in 1990. I wore the first copy out and purchased a replacement copy at our local hospice op-shop for the princely sum of $1. Back in 1972 Alison Holst published a cook book called “Food without Fuss’, after living in San Francisco for 2 years. It is getting a little tatty but it was my mothers and I use the pot roast recipe all the time. The next cook book is Alison Holst’s “The Best of Alison Holst” published in 1990, I think, as there is not publication date in the book I can find. The self raising quiche and muffin recipes are a standard in our household.
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Delia was a first book for so many of us. It is great to go back and use all the old books. Real treasures.
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I have handwritten cookbooks from when I was a young mother, favourites would find their way into these books and I still use them to this day! Sometimes my daughter will ask me for one of their favourites and I’ll have to go looking.
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It’s fun looking back at the old books and the memories they bring back.
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I love the Silver Palate cookbooks! An old favourite of mine is The Redbook Breadbook. Plus Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook Cakes and Slices. Best fruitcake recipe I’ve ever made.
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Oh yes – I have an Australian Women’s Weekly books of biscuits, muffins and scones which I use a lot.
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