Do you remember the first cook book you ever bought?

Can't remember the first one I personally bought. But the first one I ever owned was given to me by my then girlfriend in 1961. It was Tomi Gami's Typical Japanese Cooking.

Still have the book.....and the girl.

Mine is River Road Recipes, The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine.

While I didn't buy it nor even own it (yet).  It is still my mother's but it was the purity cookbook and I still borrow it once in a while.  Awesome baking recipes.  Quite old.  It's in a coil bound form

The first cookbook I ever owned was a prize I won when I was 7 years old.  I entered a baking contest at our local library and won (by a large margin)  "In most need of improvement" or some such.  That was when I first learned that there is a big difference between a 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 cup salt when making a cake from scratch.

The first cookbook I ever bought was in late 1970, Better Homes & Garden, I was about to get married.  I quickly added Mastering The Art of French Cooking 1, Mama Leone's Italian Cookbook, and Gourmet.

My first was The Frugal Gourmet by Jeff Smith.  I got it when I realized I could cook something decent in the same amount of time that a pre-microwave TV dinner took.

My first cookbook was, I believe, put out by Playskool. It was all recipes geared for kids... Individual pizzas, fun drinks, open-faced sandwiches...

The first cookbook I ever bought for myself was probably the WeightWatchers New Complete cookbook.

I was very young when I saw an ad for "Five Roses , A guide to Good Cooking". My mother allowed me to send away for it , as soon as I received it she showed me how to make a cake. From that point on ......well you know the rest....

Imagine if it had been an ad for a guide to welding I beams. You'd have had a career working high steel.

Naaaaaaaaa.....My mother guiding me in the right direction.............I still have the book.

Either that or she just liked cake!  

Good one !!!   She loves to bake.

  Now that's funny.  Just a little bit of difference there.

Think the first one I actually owned (still have and have used as a basis for lots of things over the past 28 years)  was given to me by my god-mother for minding her house and canary while she was touring China for some time.

Gotta go fossick in the shelves, hang on....

"Quick and Thrifty Cooking", published by Readers Digest in 1982.  It was simple to follow, easy to tweak once you had done the recipe successfully.  It is splattered, stained, dog eared, lots of book marks in it (plus any favourites get the top corner folded over so I can flip to them).  One book I would never ever toss or even give to a friend.

P.S.  Somehow I think Petal's talents would have been wasted as a welder.....

I dunno... I think there might have been some pretty phenomenal structures out there, just not nearly as tastey

As one who spends a fair bit of time with old sports cars, I wish my welding skills were better.  I just don't practice that much.

I really can't recall, but I think the first cookbook I had was one that had a name like "Starving Students Survival Guide" or something.  I no longer have it, got it several decades ago, don't remember much about it except I really liked the orange juice chicken recipe and the story about the Indian dinner party and the "cooling" yogurt.

One interesting tome I have on hand:




Pretty funny, but of little culinary value.  Oddly enough the author and I were both born in the same small Michigan town, Dowagiac!

I shouold post one of her recipes just for grins.

mjb.

The Dione Lucas Book of French Cooking

By Charron: I dunno... I think there might have been some pretty phenomenal structures out there, just not nearly as tastey

This is true.  Creativity will find its own way out, somehow, somewhere, someway.  It is unstoppable.  If the Eiffel Tower weren't there already....we could have any manner of things created by Petals - a thing of beauty I mean.  Not like that....thing...in front of The Lourve.

Teamfat - now that is my kind of book - I may have to source a copy.  Looks like an eat it or wear it kind of cook.

The All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, Tenth edition, Completely Revised by Wilma Lord Perkins. In a Bantam paperback edition, printed in 1968. Still have it, although it's crumbling.

First thing I cooked from it: Quiche Lorraine, page 121. Although I used a frozen pie crust.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emory.

www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-Carla-Emery/dp/1570615535/ref=sr_1_1

These are homesteading/poverty recipes.

I also had a Nigel Slater as my first book. It is "Appetite" and I still haven't found a better book.

The Complete Asian Cookbook, by Charmaine Solomon, a present from my mom when I was 22, & the reason I could make rogan josh & Szechuan fried chicken long before I had any clue what to do with oregano or thyme.

 I think the first cookbook I ever used as a teen was betty crocker. It was mine and it was well worn and the pie crust was always a hit with the pot luck at church. The book I remember buying myself was Larousse Gastonomic.

I enjoy Charmaine Solomon too - she has a great love of cookery in its classic sense, especially to the original location of a dish, and presents it in a way that can be made fairly easily, and recipes you are tempted to try.

I've got a copy of her Best Loved Recipes, and I've learnt things in there I wouldn't have imagined.

I still have it.. it is the Active Woman's Cookbook and I bought it from our Avon rep when I was 11 I think.  My mom bought me Cheap Chow by Kenneth Lo and also a cakes cookbook around the same time.. Cheap Chow was printed on newsprint stock or maybe manilla paper but with age it yellowed so bad I could barely read the recipes but I do still have and sometimes use the cake book.

This thread actually got me thinking and I came to realize the vast majority of the cookbooks I own have been presents. The first one I actually purchased was Indian Essence by Atul Kocchar, the first one I ever owned was Chef at Home by Michael Smith. 

If I may be allowed an anecdote:  In '84 I was touring a show in Europe, & when we lit in Geneva I stayed with I stayed with with a Suisse friend from the conservatory program we'd both recently done in CA.  He & his partner invited me to dinner with some friends of theirs, some high panjandrum in the WHO, I think, & his Indian wife, who taught Indian cooking in the area & was apparently very highly regarded for it.

Well, no, I didn't want to hang out & have an apertif, I wanted to be in the kitchen, where she was making Swiss food, alas (not that it wasn't excellent, but I'd been eating European food for a while at that point & had been hoping for some Indian food).

I mentioned that I cooked Indian food myself.  Oh?  & where did you learn how to cook Indian food?  From a cookbook.  Ah.  Which one?  The Complete Asian Cookbook, by Charmaine Solomon.  Ah.  That must be very nice.

And I can tell that she thinks I'm some American boy who thinks curry powder is ground-up seeds from the curry bush, or something - she's very polite & nice, but is more or less reeking skepticism...

A few minutes later - Oh, wait, this Charmaine Solomon? And she pulls out a well-worn copy of CS's The Complete Curry Cookbook. 

Turns out when she had first started teaching Indian cooking in CH, she realized she really only knew her particular region (Delhi, iirc), & didn't know all that much about other parts, which she was getting asked about. So she checked out some of the books available, thought that CS was spot-on with the stuff from her region, & trusted her ever after about stuff she was less familiar with.

I think some of these books are out of print; get 'em if you can.  I will always carry a culinary torch for Charmaine Solomon.

ty for your indulgence.

Artusi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellegrino_Artusi

Practical Cookery Eighth Edition - Donald Kinton, Victor Ceserani, David Foskett

New York Times Natural Food Cookbook - Used.

it was falling apart, still is!