If you use the standard that a few outstanding practical recipes justify
getting a cookbook, the Gourmet Cookbook (1950) abundantly delivers.
(Supplements followed its publication -- I have a small collection -- and
lately a new book under its venerable title. But this is the original
Gourmet. Quirky, ubiquitous, and at last count the dominant mention under
its name in Internet archives.) Recipes for herb-stuffed broilers, English
herb cheese, various desserts and mushroom dishes demonstrate why this is
so.

Elsewhere I've often recommended an appetizing underground classic: Louis
Pullig de Gouy's Sandwich Manual for Professionals (1939), more readily
available in the 1980s reprint, The Ultimate Sandwich Book (Philadelphia:
Running Press, 1982, ISBN 0894711636 or 0894711644). Variations on the
hamburger that are now forgotten (or "discovered"). 63 pages on "Club, or
Three-Decker" sandwich recipes alone, several per page. De Gouy emphasized
that the person Sandwich himself (18th-century playboy earl) is important
for naming, not inventing, it. De Gouy cited Greek, Roman, and Babylonian
taste for "a wedge of meat between two slabs of bread" but traced the modern
sandwich to a popularization by the teacher Rabbi Prince Hillel after 70 BC
with residue in symbolic Passover custom (unleavened bread with bitter herbs
and haroseth, chopped nuts and apple). "This is to prove that sandwiches are
as old as bread and cheese, and Romans and Danes and Saxons and Normans must
have eaten them from one end of England to another." (That's highly
abridged in the 1982 reprint.) Despite these publications, people continue
eagerly to mix up the inventing of sandwiches with the naming. (With
renewed vigor today via Internet, Wikipedia, etc.)

Marcella Hazan's two books that introduced much of US to northern Italian
cooking also indirectly helped spur the original Internet food forum 25
years ago. Though participants didn't dwell on that connection, they did
cite Marcella's books and "The Romagnolis' Table," whose durable pragmatic
pasta ideas I still use.
http://tinyurl.com/ynq28s

Kenneth Lo, expatriate Chinese writer, teacher, and cook, is credited as a
mentor by some US Chinese-émigré chefs. He wrote popular English-language
cookbooks in the 1970s including Chinese Regional Cooking (ISBN 0394738705,
"used and new from $1.55" recently on amazon) and Chinese Cooking on Next to
Nothing. I posted about the first title to rec.food.cooking in 1988 (some
people have copies of the posting but it's not currently in public
archives). Lo, writing mostly in England, owned and partly translated the
11-volume 1963 edition of the national cookbook (Famous Dishes of China,
Peking: Ministry of Commerce Foods and Drinks Management Department).
Eloquent evocations of China itself, attention to underlying principles and
folk recipes, condemnation of shortcuts like MSG (Lo was hardly the only
Chinese chef to disparage MSG). I have several other titles. For some
reason, some later and British editions have a different tone, and I spot
also a different view of Lo among some British readers -- would like to
understand this story better sometime.

In the late 1940s, many mainstream US cookbooks seemed bent on eradicating
savor and subtlety (in favor of canned soups and green food coloring and
"Thousand Island" salad dressing [1]). The 1943 Joy of Cooking (already a
"brand," remote from the original book) even demonstrated that it was
possible to season a cookbook full of savory dishes with exactly salt,
pepper, and paprika. Into this scene, Morrison Wood brought wine and garlic
and spices and life, remaining a minor mainstream classic for 30 years (plus
supplements and spin-offs). More, posted 1992:
http://tinyurl.com/49xl6


That's a few examples. I'd like to hear of other durable cookbooks.

--
[1] "Thousand Island" is a mayonnaise sauce appearing in US cookbooks by
1948 (de Gouy's Gold Cook Book for example, revised edition; Wood lists it
also), commonly used on lettuce salads. In original recipes it's a very
mild "Russian" dressing with further mayonnaise and whipped cream. As
discussed periodically, it sometimes appears on Reuben Sandwiches, though
some prefer the more robust classic "Russian Dressing." (If the ages of
humankind are accountable Stone, Bronze, Iron, etc., then the ages of the US
can be further subdivided. The last half of the 20th Century was the Age of
Mayonnaise.)

Max wrote on Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:43:09 -0700:

I continue to use the household cookbook collection, including
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking", by Julia Child. Analyzing
my usage, I find that the ones I tend to look at frequently
a-

"The Joy of Cooking"(1963..1931 ed.),
Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking",
Gloria Bley Miller's "The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook"
(1967)
Larousse Gastronomique (1963),
in that order.

Over the years, I have extracted my most used recipes from these
and other books into a computer folder and print out a copy of
the recipe I am going to use when I need it.

In passing, tho' Gloria Miller is not Chinese and her
terminology can be a little dated, her book is still on sale.


James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not> wrote in message
. ..

> ... Analyzing my usage, I find that the ones I tend to look at frequently
> a-
> ...
> Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking",
> ...
> Larousse Gastronomique (1963), in that order.


Thanks James. Coincidence! I had a few more books in the pile, intended
for mention, but decided I'd written enough. Julie Sahni is there. (Also
Horst Scharfenberg's internationally popular "Cuisines of Germany," and the
"Pasta Pizza and Calzone" cookbook from Chez Panisse Café, 1984, ISBN
0394530942.) All used periodically.

I think the Larousse G. (1961 Crown English-language edition) is remarkable
and unique, and not just for food reasons. Posted about it here and there
(mostly re "Reference" cookbooks -- the title is one of three or four really
classic French ones I know of, all originating over 50 years ago) but it's a
useful source of ideas and inspirations too. (And opinions. About French
restaurants becoming "Americanized," for instance. Or that early Paris
coffee houses, late 1600s, were "really no more than dirty little
smoking-saloons, frequented only by confirmed smokers, travelers from the
Lebanon, and several Knights of Malta." These details add zest and savor.)

Max Hauser > wrote:

> Kenneth Lo, expatriate Chinese writer, teacher, and cook, is credited as a
> mentor by some US Chinese-émigré chefs. He wrote popular English-language
> cookbooks in the 1970s including Chinese Regional Cooking (ISBN 0394738705,
> "used and new from $1.55" recently on amazon) and Chinese Cooking on Next to
> Nothing.

Kenneth Lo was enormously influential in bringing real Chinese food to
England, more, I think, by operating a restaurant serving such food than
by any of his books. I remember eating at his Ken Lo's Memories of
China in Belgravia, in the late '70s - the food was great, some of the
best I have ever had, before or since. I went there again many years
later, when Lo was no longer there, and the food was no longer anything
special.

> That's a few examples. I'd like to hear of other durable cookbooks.

I assume you are talking about books published in English and known in
the USA. If so, any Elizabeth David's books, Edouard de Pomiane's
books, Richard Olney's books, _The Cuisine of Hungary_ by George Lang,
_La Cuisine du Marché_ by Paul Bocuse, _Il Talismano della Felicità_
(_The Talisman Italian Cookbook_) and _ Italian Regional Cooking_ by Ada
Boni. Also, reluctantly, I would mention The Great Italian Cookbook,
compiled by the Italian Academy of Cookery. It is extremely sloppily
translated and edited, leaving out ingredients and even whole recipes,
and sometimes mangling instructions. I prefer the original Italian
edition (Cucina Italiana, published by Arnoldo Mondadori), whenever I
can get hold of it, or the very good German translation (Delphin
Verlag).

Victor

Max Hauser wrote:
> If you use the standard that a few outstanding practical recipes justify
> getting a cookbook, the Gourmet Cookbook (1950) abundantly delivers.
> (Supplements followed its publication -- I have a small collection -- and
> lately a new book under its venerable title. But this is the original
> Gourmet. Quirky, ubiquitous, and at last count the dominant mention under
> its name in Internet archives.) Recipes for herb-stuffed broilers, English
> herb cheese, various desserts and mushroom dishes demonstrate why this is
> so.

There are lots of worthwhile cookbooks by that standard. One by DeGouy
is "The Soup Book" (Dover ISBN 0-486-22998-X). "Miss Leslie's Directions
for Cookery" you already know about and have in its Dover reprint.
Another of my oddities is "Mrs Rasmussen's Book of One-Arm Cookery" by
Mary Laswell with decorations by George Price (Houghton Mifflin, 1946).
There are some good ideas in it that were almost revolutionary at the
time and are still fresh -- O'Brien au Gratin Potatoes, Huacomole,
Huevos Rancheros, "Mrs Rasmussen's Uncooked Tomato Relish" (called salsa
nowadays), to name a few. I learned from her to make macaroni and cheese
with Edam and dry mustard. I would never have thought if that on my own.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Jerry Avins wrote:
> Max Hauser wrote:

...

> That's a few examples. I'd like to hear of other durable cookbooks.

There are lots of Chinese cookbooks, even one by Craig Claiborne. Two
that I have are are by Fu Pei Mei* ("Chinese Cookbook" in three volumes
with Taiwanese publication data that I can't read) and "Secrets of
Chinese Cooking by Tsuifeng and Hsiangsu Lin, Lin Yutang' wife and
daughter; Prentice-Hall, 1960.

Jerry
_________________________________
* She had a Taiwanese TV cooking show ala Julia Child here.
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

"Victor Sack" > in
:
> Max Hauser wrote:
>
>> That's a few examples. I'd like to hear of other durable cookbooks.
>
> I assume you are talking about books published in English and known in the
> USA.

Not necessarily, though I did limit my own list that way. (I have some
shelves of cookbooks from other countries and in other languages than
English, and have mentioned a few of them in postings, especially on the
wine newsgroup alt.food.wine where the topics came up. Some such books are
hard even to order from the US even though classics and best-sellers from
other countries are not.*)

Thanks for the suggestions, Victor. I have a few that you cited, but not
the Italian sources, which are interesting.

I remain curious about diversity of Kenneth Lo's image in his different
books (I have five, incl. The Encyclopedia of Chinese Cooking) and in
British remarks I've seen, vs. reported esteem as mentor among successful US
Chinese-émigré chefs (at least one of whom, Martin Yan, is nationally
known).

=Max


*E.g. amazon.com never even ISBN-indexed Christoph Wagner's 1995 fast-food
history (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, ISBN 3593353466), a timely and
fashionable topic in food circles. (Even when I Googled "ISBN 3593353466"
today there were only three hits, and the first two were written by me.) I
knew the author as something of a food scholar, and editor of the Austrian
_Gault-Millau_ magazine in Vienna, where that book, like many others in many
languages, was readily available. (Not a cookbook, but it illustrates the
problem.)

In article >,
"Max Hauser" > wrote:

> If you use the standard that a few outstanding practical recipes justify
> getting a cookbook, the Gourmet Cookbook (1950) abundantly delivers.

--snip--

> That's a few examples. I'd like to hear of other durable cookbooks.

"Italian Regional Cooking" by Ada Boni.

Isaac