The best
Holiday Cooking books:
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The best of Holiday Cooking books by number of unique Reddit comments:
![Holiday Cookies: Showstopping Recipes to Sweeten the Season [A Baking Book]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/614k4xOdt4L._SL500_.jpg)
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Holiday Cooking books:
I love the old Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book. My sister and I fought over my Mom's until I found that they reprinted them. You can find them on Amazon. Hands down the best pie, cookie, and cake recipes. I use it religiously!
I think you should get a cookbook of 30 minute meals from a reputable source, such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981
Then go through and flag recipes that would work for your family, and make a list of those, then slot them into your menu.
I also think you should also resign yourself to having a plan b with the kids - if something new doesn’t turn out you’ll just give them a peanut butter sandwich or whatever and it won’t be the end of the world.
When I am concerned that the recipe I want to try might be a miss with my husband, I’ll generally make sure to have a favorite of his as another meal that week, so the week overall will be a culinary success for him and I won’t feel guilty if the new dish disappoints.
Are you familiar with the YouTube channel How to Cook That? If you're into baking cakes and desserts, I think you'll really enjoy her content. She also has a recipe book available on Amazon!
The Best Recipe cookbook is by Cook's Illustrated and is one of my favorite cookbooks. Every recipe I've ever made from it has been fantastic! Part of the reason for that is it provides multiple variations of the dish and explains why it stands apart, so I'll the version I think that I will like.
They take old recipes, new recipes and experiment and create something new and explain why different variations work or not work. They really do a deep dive into a recipe and tell it's story, and that's where I've learned a ton.
It has everything in it, and explains both how and why each recipe is as good as it is. I bought this book 20 years ago, and still use it multiple times a week.
https://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Editors-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184388
I've been using this book for over 20 years. It's by far the best out there.
Their Best Recipes is phenomenal. It covers all your basic American dishes and goes over common cooking techniques (how to butcher meat, make stock, cookware recommendations). It’s the most comprehensive cookbook I’ve used.
So for beginner cooks I really recommend the Betty Crocker cookbook. It's what I used when I was starting out on my own and it's great at teaching the basics. It has lots of photos and goes through a lot of basic techniques.
But for a classic family recipe of mine, I still use my grandma's meaty spaghetti sauce. With a few variations.
2 lbs ground beef 1 large onion (or 2 smaller), chopped small 2 cans tomato paste 2 cans tomato sauce 2 tsp each dried oregano, dried parsley, garlic powder, salt 2 Tbsp white sugar 1 Tbsp dijon mustard 2 bay leaves a bit of oil
Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the meat. That means put the meat in the pan and leave it for a good few minutes, untouched, until the underside forms a dark brown layer. Then stir it around until it's all cooked.
Remove the meat using a slotted spoon from the pan to a bowl temporarily. Add the onions to the pan and cook until soft.
Add onions, meat, and all other ingredients to a crock pot, stir, and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. If you don't have a crock pot you can use a dutch oven on the stove on low for 3 to 4 hours (you can also brown the meat and onions in the same dutch oven).
The cooking time is approximate, this is an extremely forgiving recipe. Basically you can eat it when it looks ready.
Er hat auch ein Kochbuch speziell für festliche Gerichte
Best Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen. It covers most of the staple American recipes and includes information on cookware reviews, knife handling, and pretty much any basic kitchen skill. I also love that there are intros to recipes that explain why they landed on the recipe listed- it helps me figure out what substitutions I can get away with or how to improvise.
You should look into purchasing The Book on Pie by Erin Jean McDowell!! Her book has changed my pie life. The first quarter of it is dedicated to teaching about all the different pie crust techniques and she has a TON of crust and pie recipes to pick from. Her book is also great because she makes it so easy to understand how to customize the pies if you want. It’s so worth it.
She has has a series on Youtube called Bake It Up a Notch that you should check out. She has a whole episode on pies.
The Best Recipe is pretty good.
Interesting writeups on how they optimized each recipe.
Ann Reardon, a food scientist and pastry chef, is releasing her first cookbook in June. She has a wonderful YouTube channel called “How To Cook That” and gives fantastic tips on how to make things turn out the way they’re supposed to. I highly recommend her for this kind of thing.
Crust is the chocolate variation of the press in cookie crust from Erin Jeanne McDowell's Book on Pie:
4oz room temp butter
50g sugar
1 large egg yolk
1tsp vanilla
180g ap flour
28g natural cocoa (sifted together with the flour)
1/2tsp salt
1tbsp water
Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla, mix, add flour and salt, mix, add water
Press into a 10 inch tart ring
Bake blind (without weights) at 350F for 20-22 minutes
Layer of ganache:
113g chocolate
78g cream
heat together
Orange curd:
equal weights egg yolk, sugar, and juice (mostly orange, a bit of lemon)
edit: also lots of red and yellow gel food coloring
Combine, heat over low/med until 185, stir in some butter off heat (I used 1/2 stick of cold cubed butter to 500g curd)
Have you seen the new book by Erin Jeanne McDowel? She just wrote the pie bible and it’s amazing. Also check out her pie making videos for Food52 on you tube. I leaned so much from her even before I had the book!
Looks delish! If I may be so bold, I highly recommend the Avant Garde Vegan Xmas book. All the food in there is amazing. a little extra effort than I would usually put in but top notch and blows tofurkey out of the park. My non vegan family likes the recipes in here also!
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Pie baker alert! Erin Jeanne McDowell has a new pie cookbook coming in November. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Pie-Everything-Need-Perfect/dp/0358229286/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=erin+jeanne+mcdowell&qid=1596383174&sprefix=erin+je&sr=8-1
She writes for the New York Times and does a lot of food styling, writes for magazines and does cookbook work for other people like Rose Levy Berenbaum. If you haven’t watched this NYT video of her home kitchen tour, she’s hilarious and you’re in for a treat! https://youtu.be/Hwb24ZswXUo
Check out your library or buy a cheap used copy online
https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981
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Tons of other similar cookbooks and web things around. Tray Bakes from Nigella Lawson for example. Fix it and forget it crockpot stuff
Thank you.....I wasn't sure what Milnot was either but I thought it was a brand of evaporated milk!
I have all the things to make this but the Milnot...and due to the fact I have to go to the store today, I will be getting some Milnot
Also, there's this recipe for Nut Bread in an old Betty Crocker Cookbook that my MIL (she's 92 yrs young) makes me every year for Christmas & my B-day....and I love it. Reading this made me think of the Nut Bread, and I am going to try making it myself, this weekend.
Here's the link to the cookbook I mentioned (it also has a great recipe for donuts as well.) This was from Amazon. It was published in 1950.
https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Picture-Cook-Book/dp/0028627717
You need a lot more protein to satisfy a crowd of 15, and a roasted cauliflower , mashed potatoes , gravy , brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc isn't going to cut it. They may be full from eating a lot of volume but WILL be hungry later . Also 1-2 roasted cauliflower would not be enough for 15+ people.
Check out Avante Garde Vegan Christmas recipe book for some Amazing ideas . He does some awesome things with food! If you don't feel like getting his book he has some great YouTube videos .
https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Christmas-Amazing-Recipes-Festive/dp/1787132676
Gaz Oakley has an awesome holiday cookbook all vegan ��
I've used more recipes out of Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic than any other cookbook, and I worked at a bookstore for years, so I know about going through cookbooks!
I found Cook's Illustrated to be an experience and confidence builder. Similar to Serious Eats, they'll try various approaches to a recipe, find what works and what doesn't, and post the resulting final recipe. Their 'Best 30-Minute Recipe' is a great place to start, as the recipes are uncomplicated and you can have a winning result without having invested 2 or 3 hours on an uncertain outcome:
https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981
Baking Illustrated has a lot of great recipes and cooking tips for baking! Not only that, they go into some of the history of each baked good (my fave is the Classic NY Cheesecake) and the chemistry behind how/why you do certain things while baking. I love this book, and use it often!
I really use Google approximately 99.9% of the time. BUT....
This was always a staple for me as I was learning to bake growing up (this book is not limited to baking recipes) - it belonged to my mom and has tried and true basics:
https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cookbook-New-Revised/dp/0307098222
And I recently got this as a gift and LOVE it. The recipes all look amazing, and the format is really cool. For example he shares tips on what to prep ahead and when to begin cooking certain elements of your Christmas feast. The recipes of course also stand alone. And are simple enough that I am willing to give them a go, as a pretty basic cook!
I definitely agree with everybody here who says to check out Youtube. The tutorials can be awesome! However, if you're new to cooking/baking, it can still be hard to know the terms and equipment they are using. Nothing beats a book for familiarizing yourself with these sorts of things. I recommend what I consider to be the Bible as far as learning to cook goes, "The Betty Crocker Cookbook". Assuming, of course, that you are American and will be using American measuring and temperatures.
https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-Recipes-Today/dp/0470906022
You mentioned you want to learn how to make bread! I make my own exclusively, and I highly recommend doing that. Your own bread will be far healthier and filling than anything you'll buy in a grocery store or bakery, and you can add stuff to make it even tastier (my go-to is rosemary and sage). I only just learned to do it about a year ago, and was very intimidated by it because it seemed really complicated, would take hours and hours to do, might need special equipment (a bread maker) and I'd spend a lot of time and elbow grease kneading it. I was lucky enough to find, after a lot of searching, this video I'm posting below. This lady explains it really well and her method is super simple, turns out great every time. You can make sandwich loaves or rolls or whatever shape you want to make with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOJovFzWfw
As you make this recipe over and over again, you'll be less intimidated by the whole bread thing and probably get into more complicated stuff. Check out r/breadit when this happens!
Good luck!
https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cookbook-New-Revised/dp/0307098222
a classic with many instructional pages on how to cook eggs, rice, cuts of meat, etc. I remember looking through my mother's huge ring- binder-type book when I was a kid.
You need to learn to buy the right key ingredients.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Regular Olive oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Red wine
- White wine
- Parmesan Cheese (fridge)
- A spicy cured sausage (fridge)
These are your key larder flavours. You need them all, for sure. Then there are herbs, which you should grow in your kitchen window as well as possible:
- Flat leafed parsley
- basil
- Thyme, sage, oregano (these will be alright dried)
Other cupboard stuff:
- Regular flour
- Polenta/ semolina flour
- 00 Pasta flour (if you want to make your own pasta)
- Canned tomatoes
- Tomato paste
- short grain rice (risotto rice, or arborio is best)
- Various dried pasta shapes/sizes
- Salt, pepper
- lemons
I swear you will be able to make almost anything in any italian cookery book with these things. Just pick up vegetables and the odd bit of meat or soft cheese in your weekly shop, and you're golden.
Have you read Jamie's Italy? Whatever you think of him, this book is excellent - simple, straightforward, authentic, tasty as hell.
Big fan of this book from America's Test Kitchen: http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981. As you prepare more and more of these meals, you'll also be developing techniques that will allow you to cook far more meals, efficiently.
I could dig out a cookbook and transcribe my favorite...
If you're curious about what sort of variations have positive results, this is one I think your collection should include... though its more aimed at quality than cost awareness.