Cookbook Thread

[mvscal]

Maybe pin this for ongoing contributions.

I will start and steal Mikey's thunder.



This one made things click for me years ago. My copy is now dog-eared and splattered. So many great recipes that I have in frequent rotation. The roast chicken with lemons. Seems pretty boring when you look at it...it is far from it. The best roast chicken unless you're doing on a roti. The Bluefish with potatoes, garlic and olive oil is something we make a couple times a month. It's great with mackerel, unfortunately, the OL is not fond of bluefish or mackerel, so we use monkfish now. The osso buco is on point. The tomato sauce with onions and butter is absolutely ridiculous. Nothing that stupidly easy should be that good, but it is. I have even run across it in restaurants.

There are some misses, though. Her carbonara recipe is an absolute abomination. You would probably get knifed if you tried to serve that in Rome. It was so bad, I never bothered with it again for years until I ran into a proper recipe.

[Mikey]

That's been sort of my bible of late. The minestrone and the roasted chicken with lemons are both in the regular rotation. The chicken is so good that I started cooking my Thanksgiving turkey based on that recipe. Stuff it with lemons, but I don't start it with the breast down. Especially using Meyer lemons, which are juicier and not quite as sour as regular lemons, it results in incredibly rich pan drippings and resulting gravy. Last T-day I got cooked a 22 lb fresh bird and got almost two gallons of wonderful broth from the carcass. I've made the osso bucco, which was very good, and a few other things as well. I'm going to have to try the tomato sauce.

I have a couple of shelves of cookbooks but, like I said, Marcella has been my go to for the past couple of years. Everything from Joy of Cooking, to Julia Child, to some old books from my mom and mother in law, to various regional books to a couple from Alice Waters. As much as I like French food, I'll leave the French cooking to the restaurants for the most part. One that really intrigues me, and that I've had sitting out in the kitchen for a couple of years is this one. I've looked through it but haven't tried anything specific yet.

[mvscal]

I got cooked a 22 lb fresh bird and got almost two gallons of wonderful broth from the carcass.

Um, two gallons of water is about 17 pounds. Even mtool would be hard pressed to shove that many lemons up his ass. I'm sure he would be game to try, though.

[Mikey]

I got cooked a 22 lb fresh bird and got almost two gallons of wonderful broth from the carcass.

Um, two gallons of water is about 17 pounds. Even mtool would be hard pressed to shove that many lemons up his ass. I'm sure he would be game to try, though.

My mistake. It was two half-gallons (normally equal to one gallon). Still a lot of lemons to fit up there.

Somehow I accomplished this feat with only three lemons. I'll let you figure it out.

[mvscal]

I got cooked a 22 lb fresh bird and got almost two gallons of wonderful broth from the carcass.

Um, two gallons of water is about 17 pounds. Even mtool would be hard pressed to shove that many lemons up his ass. I'm sure he would be game to try, though.

My mistake. It was two half-gallons (normally equal to one gallon). Still a lot of lemons to fit up there.

Somehow I accomplished this feat with only three lemons. I'll let you figure it out.

That math doesn't really pencil out. You're saying a 22# bird plus 3 lemons yielded a gallon (8.5#) of broth? Am I missing something?

[Mikey]

Um, two gallons of water is about 17 pounds. Even mtool would be hard pressed to shove that many lemons up his ass. I'm sure he would be game to try, though.

My mistake. It was two half-gallons (normally equal to one gallon). Still a lot of lemons to fit up there.

Somehow I accomplished this feat with only three lemons. I'll let you figure it out.

That math doesn't really pencil out. You're saying a 22# bird plus 3 lemons yielded a gallon (8.5#) of broth? Am I missing something?

I thought you knew how to make broth. Most people add water and simmer for 8 to 12 hours. The lemons weren't actually in it by then. I apologize if you can't figure this out without someone holding your hand. There also were some onions, carrots, celery and herbs that got strained out at the end.

Here's a recipe you can follow if you're really interested.

https://www.beyondthechickencoop.com/ho ... key-broth/

[mvscal]

Yeah, I've made stock with carcasses before and wasn't very impressed with the results. I mostly do chicken stock. 2# of chicken feet, 2# of wings and the usual aromatics. That goes into the pressure cooker with a full, natural release so it is never agitated. 250 degrees or so with zero agitation results in a clear stock and full extraction of collagen. That goes in the fridge overnight. Next morning, skim the fat and you get:



It is 100% gelatinized. That gets pressure canned for shelf stability. Yield is about 5 quarts. It's a weekend project, but very little actual hands on time. I don't always have it on hand, but anything that it goes into is elevated beyond any other stock you can buy or make. I would make it more often, but chicken feet seem to be going the way of oxtails. The last batch of ingredients I made for Thanksgiving was $45. $9 for a quart of stock is pretty steep even for premium quality.

[Roux]

You need to go into an Asian grocery store, or one in the 'hood, for the best deals on chicken feet.

[mvscal]

You need to go into an Asian grocery store, or one in the 'hood, for the best deals on chicken feet.

I get my feet at the Mexi mart up in South Omaha. They have an outstanding meat department. Probably the best outside of a dedicated butcher shop. They also do fresh tortillas. If you get there before noon, the bag will still be warm. Good shit.

[Mikey]

You need to go into an Asian grocery store, or one in the 'hood, for the best deals on chicken feet.

I get my feet at the Mexi mart up in South Omaha. They have an outstanding meat department. Probably the best outside of a dedicated butcher shop. They also do fresh tortillas. If you get there before noon, the bag will still be warm. Good shit.

Northgate is the Mexican supermarket here, actually a large SoCal chain. Much better meat selections than any of the other stores. Plus at least half a dozen different freshly made salsas and guac, and a whole bunch of hot dishes like carnitas, barbacoa, costillas, al pastor, etc.,etc.

[Mikey]

I have some of that tomato sauce on the stove right now. I had a bunch of farmers market tomatoes that needed to be used so I’m going with those. My daughter makes this too and swears by it, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

[mvscal]

Tomato sauce with butter and onion? I've always done it with canned San Manzanos. I'll be interested to see how it turned out with fresh tomatoes

[Mikey]

Yes the tomato, butter and onion sauce. I had nine smallish red tomatoes, almost exactly 2 lb. More like 2.1. Blanch, peel and chop into the saucepan. It came out delicious.

TBH, though, I don’t really cook all that much pasta with sauce and don’t have a great feel for it. This was somewhat better than usual but still seemed too thin and didn’t stick that well. I had a half pound of bucatini left from a couple of weeks ago, bronze cut. Cooked for 10 minutes and it was perfect al dente. Put the sauce from the saucepan into a large cast iron skillet, added about 1/4 cup of the pasta water and then the pasta. Heated and stirred for a couple minutes and served it but it didn’t stick that well. I had to spoon some over the top. I actually simmered the sauce (very slowly) for almost an hour instead of 45 minutes. Maybe the fresh tomatoes need to cook down more. Maybe I need a different variety of pasta.

[mvscal]

I figured that might be the case. You really want canned tomatoes for that sauce. Cento brand San Marzanos are my go to. 1 28oz can, an onion and some butter. That's it.

Your pasta was fine. It's so easy, Phibes could serve it to his big tittted wife.

[Roux]

I have 300+ cookbooks. I just like reading them.

If I was only allowed to keep five, this is definitely one of the five:



Sure, it has recipes, but it is more like a textbook, it explains the why and not merely the what. Incredible book.


This has been on my night stand for the past few months, I'm liking it but I don't think it would make my only five cookbooks list. But definitely am liking it.




At least one of my only five cookbooks would have to be a Louisiana cookbook, and it might be this one. This is the real deal here.



Folse has several cookbooks, and all of them are really good.

River Road Recipes is legendary here in Louisiana, probably considered the essential Louisiana cookbook here. It is the all time best selling community cookbook in the country, or something like that. Yeah this would make my only five cookbooks list.




For recipes from Yucatán, this is the book to get. That region has really good food, with seasonings and techniques that I don't really use. Again, this is the best cookbook from that region, I've done a few recipes and they're spot on.




Several other books that I could/should add to this thread, this is just a start.

[mvscal]

I have The Food Lab and have gifted it several times. Tons of great recipes and techniques. It's a great gift to a youngster starting out on their own. Basic equipment etc. I have heard good things about Salt, Fat, Acid Heat.



I have used this one quite a bit as well. It's a good dive into a regional Mexican cuisine outside of Sonoran or Baja.

[Roux]

It's a great gift to a youngster starting out on their own.

Here's another good book for those just starting to learn their way in the kitchen.

[Mikey]

This is often a good reference.