This week #confessyourunpopularopinion was trending on Twitter and here’s mine: On the whole, I hate cookbooks.
For starters they’re clumsier and more limited than looking up recipes online, but that isn’t the real problem. What’s worse is that most don’t actually teach you how to cook. If a cookbook just gives you a long ingredient list followed by an equally long process of steps that keep your nose buried in the book, it’s no good. That’s because you aren’t actually learning how to cook; you’re learning how to follow directions.
A good cookbook shouldn’t just tell you what to make, but also how to make it and why to make it that way. If you start understanding how different ingredients work together in recipes and why to treat them how you do, you can learn to cook just about anything without ever picking up a book over time.
So while I said, “I hate cookbooks,” there are a few I’ve read and swear by that do things the right way. Here are a few of my favorites.
How To Boil Water is the first cookbook I can remember buying. If you were starting your freshman year of college, this would be Cooking 101. The recipes this book gives are more like tests to make sure you’re reading the words in between and understand your way around a fully stocked kitchen. It’s a great introduction.
If How To Boil Water is Cooking 101, Cooking For Geeks is the senior honors seminar. It teaches you what to do in the kitchen and explains everything scientifically. There are plenty of recipes but the book’s more about what makes a mousse rather than how to make a mousse so you can go on and feel comfortable creating any recipe you can dream up. It’s a lengthy read, though’; this one’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
Flour Too is a recent favorite. It’s more like your standard cookbook with long ingredient lists and instructions but it does it the right way. In the front you’ll find a lengthy section breaking down cooking vocabulary and ingredients with descriptions and reasons for their use. Having something like that in any cookbook is a great step to learning the hows and whys of the recipes.
So those are my favorites. If you’re interested in cooking facts, techniques, and tips, be sure to follow @Kitchen 101 on Twitter for some 140-character lessons from Russell and myself.
I kind of disagree with your assessment that a cookbook needs to teach one how to cook to be a good cookbook. What about the person who already knows how to cook but wants to try new, unique recipes? That person would be bored to tears by a cookbook that spends too much time explaining the process. I think you just have to know where you’re at and find the right cookbook for you. Just because a cookbook is above or below your level, though, doesn’t make it a bad cookbook, just not right for you.
Sometimes I wonder if there is a NEED for cookbooks anymore because of the internet. I get 99% of my recipes online and if I like them, I save them to my blog to use again later. In fact….why am I holding onto cookbooks I never use anymore??
That’s a concern of mine in a digital age, too. I’d rather have a Kindle version of a cookbook, or of any book really.
My fiance and I are remodeling our kitchen (and honestly, have been for a few years now). One of the things we wanted to do was to install a computer in the kitchen (or an iPad) for recipes.
As a cookbook collector and previous owner of a cookbook store, I agree with Maryea, cookbooks can be for teaching and or inspiration. Some of my favorite cookbooks are the ones that have stories and history behind the recipes. I know how to cook, but I still find that there is nothing like holding that book in your hands and thumbing through the pages and dog-earing recipes that you hope to try. Don’t get me wrong, I surf the web for recipes and inspiration everyday. Maybe it’s a generational thing?