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Do you find that cooking books help you become a better cook or give you some interesting ideas? If so, which ones do you recommend?

I like pages through cooking books to give me inspiration to cook. I don't necessarily follow a recipe, but I get an idea of how to cook the meat, or to use some interesting vegetable in a certain way.

All recipe books should have photos. I don't know why they even print books without pictures. We eat with our eyes first, so we need to see what the end product will look like.

I love the cooking books of the Two Fat Ladies: Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson. They are funny and informative.

No. I just like to stare at all the amazing food and wonder where I can get it without having to make it myself.

Yes, they do give me inspiration on trying new ingredients or new ways to cook things I have often used before. As for recommendations, I would have to definitely say any of the Cook's Country or America's a Test Kitchen books/magazines are excellent. I also just recently got a book for making homemade bread which is called: The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger that has 300 recipes to try in it. It has been quite good so far! Yummy homemade bread!

I love to cook specially baking, cookbooks gives inspiration and good recipies and i will recommend a few dessert and bread cook books "Baking: From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan, "Artisan Baking" by Maggie Glezer and Baking with Julia.

WinterCandyMints wrote:No. I just like to stare at all the amazing food and wonder where I can get it without having to make it myself.

haha

Cooking I can do.
Baking, not so much.

But baking is lots of fun!

Debbi Fields "Great American Desserts" was gifted to me quite some time ago, and I've found the book to be surprisingly informative and helpful. The recipes are superb, and if you are a beginning baker, there are some very helpful tips available to you.

Absolutely! Two cookbooks that I often refer to is The Joy of Cooking and Vegan Planet. Both are very different, but offer wonderful approaches to cooking.

The Joy of cooking ( America's cooking " bible " ) and France's cooking bible " The Larousse Gastronomique " plus EVERY Julia Child book ever written...

I find cooking books give me ideas about putting different ingredients in recipes I already made. Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (yes, Jerry Seinfeld's wife!) gave me inspiration to add "hidden" vegetables and other healthy ingredients to dishes.
I also enjoy reading US regional cookbooks, as I find new recipes that are native to different parts of the country.

I have to admit, that I am a really, really bad cook. I am in a serious relationship, and I really want to start cooking my fiancé some food. I figure it is time for me to show him that I could... possibly... cook...maybe. But I have no idea where to start! I have managed to evade this subject for a long time, and I want it to stay that way, but I don't want to be totally helpless in the kitchen. Which cookbooks do you recommend? I am a vegetarian, and he consumes meat like it is candy. I want to make things that both of us can eat, and really enjoy, but there aren't a lot of cookbooks that cover that. Which ones should I start out with?

The Joy of Cooking and Better Homes and Garden's cookbooks are great staple books. I like to use recipes as a baseline for my cooking. Then I jazz up the recipes according to my tastes and likes. For baking though, best to stick fairly close to the recipe. I have really enjoyed recipes from the Goose Berry Patch cookbooks as well!!

Another very good " basic " but very interesting book is Betty Crocker's Int'l. cookbook...an easy way to learn " ethnic-cooking "