About Good Cookbooks
The world is full of cookbooks. You can see a complete list of, and search within, all the cookbooks that Amazon knows about--and they do know books--at our online cookbook shop. But there are cookbooks and there are cookbooks. We have thus tried to extract and present, out of that mammoth total, a selection of particularly fine exemplars of the art. Note carefully that we don't begin to pretend that this is an exhaustive or exclusive list of "all the best" cookbooks; that would be ridiculous. We do believe, though, that each of these books is something rather special, and that none is anything less than excellent.
On what basis do we make these judgements? Certainly not sheerly on our own expertise. But if we are not world-class expert cooks, one thing that we think we are fairly good at is "data mining"--the extraction of information from the work of others. We have put what turned into a remarkable amount of time into poring over the writings of those folk who do seem to have the expertise and authority to pronounce on cookbooks, and sifting through and cross-comparing those various sources. From their expertise, not ours, we have gleaned this list.
Because our list is a fairly long one, we have subdivided it into categories, each with its own page here. Where it seemed to us hard to pigeonhole a given book, we have listed it in all categories that seemed appropriate (for example, some books on "French cooking" could be classed as "regional" or as "basic" cookbooks--so we put many in both places).
The Cookbook-Lists Presentation Format
Here is a typical listing; notes on it appear below the listing:
Cooking One on One:
Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food from a Master Teacher
John Ash with Amy MintzerUS $23.62
(See all cookbooks by this author.)
Hardcover:
Clarkson Potter
23 March, 2004
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The teaching is divided into three parts: flavorings, techniques, and treatments for familiar main ingredients. The emphasis is on keeping cooking manageable, so that it remains a pleasure, and does not become a tedious chore. An interesting feature is Ash's advocacy of moderate oven-drying of fruits and vegetables, so as to concentrate and enhance their flavors--not to the extreme of "sun-dried" (usually oven-dried) tomatoes, but enough to drive out about half the natural moisture content.Click here to read more about this book (including reader reviews). Or look for a used copy of this book on Abebooks.
Titles and Authors: We have, in all cases, taken the title and author name or names direct from the book's cover, rather than Amazon's (or anyone else's) listings. The link under the author's name (or authors' names) will search Amazon for all other books by that author associated with cooking. From the searched-out lists, you can go on to get more information (just as with the main book) and even buy the book from Amazon. In cases of multiple authorship or editing, we use--for mechanical convenience in making the search--only the first, primary author to search on; that usually gives satisfactory results.
(Be aware that the vagaries of Amazon's database and search methods are such that the "other cookbooks by" lists returned are not always fully accurate--they may omit some books, or include others that don't belong. Eventually, we will compile our own list from research, but for now that's what you get.Edition data: We give the "format" of the book (hardcover, paperback, or whatever), and the publisher and publication date as Amazon shows them; they are usually correct, but not invariably. The price and availability data refer to purchase of the book new from Amazon; if the book is no longer available for purchase new, we say that instead.
Description: Below the "ruler line" may appear some brief text. That will be by us, so if there is no text, it is because we haven't yet had time to write up that book (the write-ups are based, as we said above, on our readings of others' comments on them, with our weighing of those others' apparent capabilities as part of the measuring process).
Further information/Purchase: The "click here to read more" link will take you to a page wholly on that book. That page will repeat the basic data, but will also include all "editorial" and--usually much more interesting--reader reviews (as posted at Amazon). Be aware that we give those reader reviews sorted in the order that other Amazon readers have voted them "useful"--we do not present them "best-first" or just "most-recent-first". If you want to order the book you are reading about, there is a simple, obvious click-on button on that details page. That button will put the book in your Amazon Shopping Cart (if you are one of those increasingly rare folk who don't yet have an Amazon account, Amazon will walk you through setting one up). As always in these things, you haven't bought the book till you take your cart to "Checkout"; till then, you can add more things, or remove any already there. (Just go to an Amazon page and click on the little "cart" logo). Finally, in all cases there will always be a click-on link in our listing box (as shown above) that will do a search of the Abebooks lists for all available used (and occasionally even new) copies of the book. If you're not already familiar with Abebooks, they are a combined storefront for over 13,000 used-book sellers, and represent in the aggregate almost every used book for sale over the internet.
(Incidentally, the links in the sample above really work, so you can try them right now; each brings up a new browser window, so you won't lose your place here by clicking.)
Within the various categories (and sub-categories) we have generally arranged the books alphabetically by author's (or principal author's) last name, to avoid any false notion of preference. In a few sub-categories, though (as will be obvious on inspection), we tried to clump up related-topic books.
The Various Cookbook Lists
Basic Cookbooks: cookbooks with substantial instructional value
General Cookbooks: mainstay cookbooks for at least moderately experienced cooks
Specialized Cookbooks: cookbooks for particular techniques, foods, occasions
Regional Cookbooks: cookbooks focussing on a region, nation, area, or the whole world
Miscellaneous Cookbooks: cookbooks with some unusual focus
Residential-Use Products Available in the U.K.:
