The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook: Anniversary
This was my first and true love in the cookbook world. It is an essential handbook for all the basic recipes and cooking techniques you will develop as you learn to cook. Some of the recipes will seem dated. These recipes were the forbears of many of the current culinary trends we use today. My belief is that if you can master the basics you can master just about any other style of cooking.
The book lays out many of the essentials for cooking including:
- the basic tools needed to set up a kitchen
- the basic ingredients you should always have on hand
- recipes for all the basic sauces
- explanations of the differences between roasting, grilling, sauteing, etc.
- illustrations of all the basic techniques
- examples of every basic category of recipe
I still refer to this volume for such basics as cooking times and temperatures. The correct ratios of ingredients for making sauces. And basic recipes for those home-cooked meals your mother used to make but in our generation we forgot how to make them. I doubt you will find a more useful cookbook anywhere.