Fives

NB: On Saturdays I share five things around a theme. Maybe it will be five books I like, or five funny cat videos, or five Saturday morning cartoons I miss.

I have more than 70 cookbooks in my house. I really don’t need that many – nobody needs that many, but I love them. To share a meal with others is the purest form of love I know, and all cookbooks are, then, is potential love – the plans for meals to share with people you love, like a battery of love just waiting to be tapped.

But I regularly only use about 10 of them, and five of them I use at least once a week. These are not the best cookbooks I own (however you would judge that) or even the most useful, but instead are the ones that best reflect the style of food I like, the way I like to cook, and the ones I use most often. I have links to them on Amazon for your convenience.*

More-With-Less: This is the book that made me Mennonite. Imagine a cookbook written in the 1970’s that emphasized reducing our meat and sugar consumption, that was concerned about the environmental impact of our diets, that promoted communal meals, that featured foods from around the world from myriad cultures, and that did all of that as a result of the author’s faith. The book you just imagined is this book.

How to Cook Everything: This was Mark Bittman’s first big hit, and is probably the single most used cookbook I use over the course of a year. While the title is hyperbolic, it does cover many, many recipes, but much more than that is the emphasis on the theory of why you do something, so that you not just learn how to make a cheese sauce, but you learn ways to change it (try adding a bit of chili powder, for example) and countless variations (leave out the cheese and you have white sauce, which is an excellent substitute for Cream of Something soup in any casserole, for example).

Everyone should have at least one “reference” cookbook, and while I have more than one, this is the one I use the most. I also like that he tries to create recipes for the home cook, and is more concerned with taste than being fancy. (If you can get the old 1998 edition, I much prefer it over the later revision, but either of them is excellent.)

New Complete Techniques: I love Jacques Pepin. I love his theories on eating together, I love his emphasis on fresh ingredients, and I love that his recipes just work. I probably use this one more than any other cookbook of his (I own 7, I think) because this is literally the encyclopedia on how to do anything in the kitchen. Wanna truss a chicken? Carve a ham? Make sausage? Cook Brains? It’s all here.

Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables: Honestly, I have trouble with side dishes. I grew up in a Meat and Two sort of household, and this is really helpful to me as I try to get more creativity in my side dishes. As I try to introduce more vegetables and plant based foods in my diet, I have found myself turning to this book more and more. These are the tastes of my people, and I love the variety and fresh slants on old favorites.

The Southern Pantry Cookbook: I don’t really like “gimmick” cookbooks, but I love the premise of this one – building meals from staples in your pantry. With a focus on the busy home cook and the regional tastes I grew up with, it makes life easy and tasty. The food is good and has ample shortcuts – 30 minute red beans and rice for when you don’t have 4 hours to do it “right”, for example. We eat something out of this weekly.

No doubt you have your own favorite cookbooks – I would love to know about them, so please share them in the comments.

(If you liked this, you may also like these 5 things that make me a better cook.)

*I am a member of the Amazon affiliate program, so if you buy any of them, I get a small commission.

NB: A new feature here is that on Saturday I will share five things around a theme. Maybe it will be five books I like, or five funny cat videos, or five Saturday morning cartoons I miss.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. It’s part of who I am, how I care for myself and my family, and fundamental to how I see the world. But cooking is one of those things that is easy to do, but also easy to do better. Sauteing with olive oil and butter is better in almost every way than sauteing in canola oil, and it requires but only a smidgen more of care. Likewise, inserting shallots instead of onion makes almost anything better with only minimal expense and care.

The other day I was helping a friend come up with a list of things they needed for their new kitchen, and it made me think about the things I use that are not essential, but are simple things that elevate my game. Here are five of them, with links to examples in case you need gift ideas for your friend who cook.

A salt cellar (filled with kosher salt): Almost everyone undersalts their food. And miss me with health concerns – the huge problem is all the processed food we eat, which is rife with sodium. Your blood pressure isn’t too high because you salt your pasta water.And Kosher salt is great because it doesn’t contain iodide, which is helpful in preventing goiters but hurtful on flavor

Having an open container of kosher salt next to the stove so you can grab a pinch or three and add it to your pot will make you more likely to do it, and your food will taste better. Mine came from Target and I can’t find it on their website, but I like this one and this one.

A pepper mill: Of course you can just use ground pepper from a shaker, but if you do, it won’t taste as good. Pepper begins to degrade when you grind it, and being able to grind it on the spot as you need it will mean you are more likely to do it. I have this one.

The New Techniques cookbook, from Jacques Pepin: Trussing your chicken is a simple elevator. So is crushing your garlic and seasoning under the chicken skin. You can get step by step guides to do virtually anything in the kitchen in this book.

“You know what? If Jacques Pépin tells you this is how you make a fucking egg? The matter is settled, fuck nuts.” – Anthony Bourdain

A french chef knife: You really only need 3 knives to do almost anything you need to do in a kitchen, and this is the king of them all – a chef knife, probably with an 8 inch blade. Most folks aren’t intentional with their knives, and if you don;t have a good knife with good balance, you will take shortcuts and be lazy, which means your food won;t be as good or as pretty.

All my knives are antiques and high carbon steel, but if I were to buy a new one today, it would probably be this one that all my friends have and rave about.

An immersion blender: I was late to the game on this one, but it makes making soups so much simpler, and the whisk attachment mean you will actually make fresh whipped cream or meringue. It’s easy to clean. (full disclosure: I got this one for Christmas a few years ago, but have only have ever used the whisk and blender attachments) This was a huge game changer for me.

What say you? Are there tools you use in the kitchen you wouldn’t be caught without?

Five cookbooks I use all the time

Five things that made me a better cook