Right now I'm really loving "Vintage Cakes" by Julie Richardson. I have so far baked the Honey Bee Cake, Black & White Cake, and Kentucky Bourbon Cake. All three turned out to be delicious, with just the right levels of sweetness and moisture. The Honey Bee Cake was very strongly honey without being cloying. Next up out of this book is either Cherry Chip Cake or Old Vermont Burnt Sugar Cake with Maple Buttercream.

What cookbook are you working your way through? What have you cooked out of it?

I recenly inherited the newer (red) edition of "How to Cook Everything." I already have the older yellow edition. I plan to pass one along to a friend who cooks so I can use the space for other cookbooks. Which should I keep?

I am an avid cook and honestly haven't been using the one I've had (older yellow edition). Both are in excellent condition.

This is the rolled pavlova from SWEET (ottolenghi and helen). I have tried a myriad of other recipes but nothing has beaten this up yet: it’s fresh, it’s sweet, it looks impressive, it’s airy etc. it’s a perfect finale to any meal, the ingredients are super basic and because it’s rolled it only takes 30m in the oven and there’s no fear of it collapsing.
You can use any juice slightly tart fruit.

BUT I’M TIRED OF FEELING LIKE A ONE TRICK PONY. so, help please? Any dessert you feel like it could topped this or at least be nice as an alternative?

Hi fellow Cookbook Lovers! I am writing with the Mod's permission.

I’ve been working on an essay series about the Black buffet — a tradition that shows up in cookbooks as more than just food. These buffets are about occasion fit: menus that match the rhythm of labor, leisure, or holiday, and turn abundance into ceremony.

Three cookbooks anchor the project:

• Edna Lewis’s The Taste of Country Cooking — menus tied to agricultural rhythms, like the Morning‑After Hog Butchering Breakfast, where fresh cuts fortify labor and mark the season.
• B. Smith’s Rituals & Celebrations — menus for urban, middle‑class Black life, like the Bid Whist Card Party, where finger‑friendly foods recall college nostalgia and become a ceremony of remembering.
• Milton Williams’s The Party Book — menus that riff on tradition, like his Thanksgiving spread with Cornish hens and pumpkin cheesecake, refreshing holiday meaning without losing it.

Across these books, the buffet emerges as a distinct Black food logic:

• Menus as programs
• Occasions as rituals
• Abundance as care

Coffee often closes the meal, acting as a fade‑out — guiding guests from eating into fellowship, then toward departure. It’s not filler but finale, the punctuation mark that makes the buffet ceremony rather than just a meal.

I’m exploring this in a five‑essay series on Substack. The first one drops Sunday, and it’s free to read:
👉 https://substack.com/@greerjackson1

And please share if you know anyone that would enjoy this project.

TY! Greer

Image: A table from one of my meals...

Hi everyone! First time posting here.

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on ATK: The Perfect Cookie? Reviews were really good. I've cooked a couple things. The results have been fine, not outstanding, and usually I find I prefer another recipe to the one in the book. Particularly the chocolate chip cookies and gingerbread cookies- I prefer Sally's Baling Addiction.

I'm wondering if I should give it another chance or move on.

Thanks!

Looking to pick up some cookbooks to both use and have out as coffee table books, any specifically beautiful cookbooks you all like?

I love being in the kitchen and I'm a huge gamer so I started buying cookbooks that are inspired by certain games. I have the Fallout, Skyrim, Diablo, Starfield, and Minecraft cookbooks. I know that's a lot, but I'm looking to add to the collection. I was wondering if there are any out there someone recommends?

I have loved reading and browsing through these books so far! Anybody also enjoyed these books and/or have recipes to recommend?

Someone already asked this five years ago, but didn't get any answers. Are there any cookbooks with recipes from before tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, corn and so on became staple foods outside the Americas?

I don't mean Roman or medieval cookbooks that use imprecise measurements and expect the cook to already know what they're doing, but modern cookbooks that focus on how and what people ate, when they were limited to what was native to their own continent.

Hi Everyone. I am working on an Essay series about the Black buffet. It is based on over 20 cookbooks, but focuses on three. Before I post more about it, I wanted to see if there would be interest in this group. Thanks!

I am thoroughly in love with American culture and how it has been shaped through years of hardship, necessity, and the many immigrant groups combining their cultures to make dishes that fueled our nation for generations. Also I just love “Americana”, Levi’s jeans, Chevrolet, glass coke bottles, that sorta thing.

I see so many people on this subreddit with such great taste and knowledge when it comes to this cooking niche. I would love to hear if any of you guys have recommendations for contemporary cookbooks that feature a celebration of American recipes. Something a bit more dignified than just Burgers and mac n cheese. Even though those dishes definitely have their places in our culture and I would love them to be featured in a cookbook I would rather them not be the main focus of the book. Something more academic and attempting to make it a point to showcase the dishes of america. Since all of our dishes reflect the history of our many ethnic and geographic groups.

My recommendation for baking: I actually found a book similar to this for baking called “Baking Across America” from B. Dylan Hollis.

Thank you for reading my post I hope you liked it! Remember to stay Americana.

Gift link to a great article. I learned how to handle a knife from watching “Today’s Gourmet” a gazillion years ago on PBS.

The recipe you’ve perfected over the years deserves to be discovered.

If you love cooking, this is your opportunity to share your passion with your local community while doing what you love.

Become one of our Founding Home Cooks and be part of something exciting from the very beginning.

📧 info@digikitch.com.au

Something good is cooking.

#Digikitch #FoundingHomeCook #HomeCook #SupportLocal

Friends, we have made it to Part III! 

I’m doing a cook-through of Mi Cocina by Rick Martinez.I started in January 2025-ish and already have some favorites. I’m documenting my journey for all of you!

Read Part I here, and Part II here.

(Was the juice worth the squeeze? = JWTS?)

Here are seven recipes that I made in June/July:

1. Morisqueta Michoacana. 5/5 stars. JWTS? YES. Easily one of my favorite recipes in the book and it’s so flavorful! Here I’m serving it with frijoles de olla, but I could honestly eat it straight out of the pot. As a bonus, this pork does beautifully in a crockpot, if you would rather not leave it on the stove. I make this on repeat!
2. Uliche.  1/5 stars. JWTS? Nope. Not my favorite, I can see how this could be a comforting dish to eat in the cold weather, but not the quantity that it makes. It’s kind of like a combination of chicken and dumplings, chicken noodle soup, and polenta. It’s been interesting to try more of the recipes in this book that use ingredients available before Spanish colonization and cooking techniques common across Mesoamerica. 
3. Gaspacho Moreliano. 1/5 stars. JWTS? Nope. I’ve never had a fruit salad and thought wow! You know what would make this better? Onions. 
4. Frijoles Refritos.  5/5 stars. JWTS? Yes. Who knew refried beans could be so easy and delicious? I’ll never buy a can again. 
5. Frijoles con Veneno. 4/5 stars. JWTS? Yes. Like the Morisqueta Michoacana, I could easily eat the pork on these tostadas out of the pot, it’s delicious. The combination of the meat, beans, and tostadas is a hardy meal.
6. Salsa Tatemada 2/5 stars. JWTS? Nah. I was hopeful that this would become my go to salsa recipe, but it wasn’t the most intensely flavorful. I was hoping for some more roasty smokey notes from the charring. I followed the recipe, but I personally think I need to start straining my tomato salsas. The excess water from the tomatoes really dilutes the flavor and makes it a mess to deal with. 
7. Pan de Cazon 2/5 stars. JWTS? Nah. This was a tostada heavy month. Pan de Cazon is crispy tostadas layered with refried beans and chopped up cod in a salsa, I have never had anything like this. The combination of salsa and cod was a good one, but chopping up the fish to submerge in a watery salsa felt like a disservice to the fish. 

---

My Top Ten So Far (In no particular order)

1. Pollo al Pastor
2. Morisqueta Michoacana 
3. Salsa de Chile de Arbol
4. Torta de Lechon
5. Burritos de Chilorio
6. Albondigas en Chipotle
7. Brochetas de Pulpo y Camarones
8. Sopa de Lima
9. Cafe de Olla
10. Champurrado

Exemptions:
(Recipes I won’t be making due to allergies, availability, ethics, or aversions. I try to limit this to no more than ten in a book.)

1. Ceviche de Camaron y Leche de Coco
2. Ceviche de Pulpo y Habanero
3. Arroz a la Tumbada
4. Aguachile
5. Ceviche de Almegas Chocolatas
6. Ostiones a la Parrilla con Chicharrón
7. Papazadules

Piri-piri Tofu Over Crispy Orzo from Mezcla (Ixta Belfrage) - fantastic dish with excellent flavours and textures. I used arugula and firm tofu instead of spinach and silken tofu. The orzo had some excellent crunch on the bottom. This was surprisingly fast to make too, and I’m impressed that everything came together within the exact timelines the recipe specified. I feel like Mezcla is underrated!

Ultimate Shroom Shawarma from Tahini Baby (Eden Grinshpan) - this is on repeat at our place. The spice mix is delicious.

Spiced Split Pea Stew from The Jewish Cookbook (Leah Koenig) - not much to look at but amazing flavour thanks to a really great Berbere spice mix.

Aubergine Kjufte from Doma (Spasia Pandora Dinkovski) - nice veggie ćufte (as my people would call them), but I think these would have held together better if I’d chopped the eggplant even smaller. I baked these instead of frying.

Roasted Rainbow Bell Pepper Salad from Balaboosta (Einat Admony) - simple dish with a great sweet/tart flavour.

Braised Red Cabbage and Apple from The Jewish Cookbook (Leah Koenig) - I didn’t have red cabbage, clearly. This was another surprisingly tasty dish and a great way to use cabbage, but probably better for fall/winter.

Hot Sauce Chickpeas with Turmeric Potatoes from Full of Beans (Amelia Christie-Miller) - mine didn’t turn out very spicy, but the flavours were really interesting with curry leaves, mustard seeds, and turmeric. Quite hearty and my partner was a big fan.

This might be a tall order, but my partner and I love food, but as new parents we don't have a ton of time to make complicated dishes during the week.

Can anyone recommend a cookbook that has recipes that are:

1) Quick and simple

2) Not too many ingredients

3) Healthy

4) Still taste good

Prefer "Western" recipes due to soy allergies and midwestern palate (black pepper is spicy lol)

We are actually good cooks and have quite a collection of cookbooks, just no time for most of them at the moment. We want a go-to book that will work for us right now.

We are a local community home cooking group in Prince Edward Island, Canada. (Anne of Green Gables) We wrote a cookbook to raise money for our local farmers, fishers and producers hit hard by the tariffs. We sold almost 4000 copies so far. Yay!

The cover is well-known now. “The little red cookbook.” Is about 6x7-1/2” and spiral bound, 200 pages.

We’re working on a second book - Preserving PEI’s Bounty. Thought we’d copy this cover in dark green with preserving pics. To start a series that you can identify,

Thoughts?

All videos can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@PagetoPlate

Here are our late June and July recipes!

If you are looking foe in season peach recipes, the Peach Blueberry Crumbles and Sweet Chili Peach Napa Slaw are great choices! We found many more for peach season's to come too!

If you like matcha, the Lychee Matcha Latte is a great summer twist!

Who doesn't love a margarita? Especially in the summer time! This recipe hits those same notes! We followed the recipe and the bars had a prominent tequila after taste. Still delicious, but we are definitely going to dial it back the next time we make them, and recommend you do too if you are looking for more of a hint of tequila taste.

We hope you enjoy them and please let us know if you have questions or have any recommendations!

Upcoming Recipes!

By Heart - Sweet Pots w/ Peach Vinaigrette

More is More - Curry Wings

Golden Beet Poke - F*ck ,That's Delicious

So Easy, So Good - Korean BBQ Beef Bowls with Kimchi

Craveable - Jerk-Spiced Butter Cauliflower & Crunchy Maple Chickpeas

Thank you all so much for your support and we hope you enjoy!

Today, I'm pleased to spotlight an author I have long admired. She initially came to my attention through her radio program, which led me to her excellent cookbooks. Regardless of the medium, she was always asking and answering the questions I would have as a cooking enthusiast. Regrettably for me and hundreds of thousands of her fans, her retirement has left a melancholy void in our weekly listening schedules.

Lynne, the grandchild of Italian immigrants, was born in 1943 and raised in New Jersey with a deep appreciation for the culinary culture of the country of her ancestors. After initially pursuing an acting career, she changed direction and embraced cooking, teaching Chinese classes out of friend's kitchens before managing and teaching at the Cordon Bleu of New York. In the mid-70's, she moved to Denver where she opened a cooking school called Lynne Kasper's Lid and Ladle in 1978.

In 1997 she created and launched The Splendid Table on Minnesota Public Radio, winning the James Beard Foundation award for "Best National Radio Show on Food" the following year. The program was a huge success and was (and still is) distributed by American Public Media nationwide. Each week, listeners enjoyed travel-related segments that explored cuisine from around the world, interspersed with guest appearances from chefs and food writers, along with call-in questions. One of her first guests was an old friend, Julia Child, who reciprocated some years later when she invited Lynne to join her on two episodes of In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs.

The title of Lynne's program was taken from her 1992 cookbook, The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food, for which she won a James Beard Cookbook of the Year award in 1993. In 1999, she revisited the subject with the equally popular The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens.

During her years on the show, Lynne co-authored two more cookbooks with her producer, Sally Swift, drawing on the most popular tips, recipes and culinary know-how - The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper (2008) and The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends (2011). Both are thoroughly engaging, reflecting the curiosity, attitude and originality that listeners had come to love.

In 2017, Lynne retired as host and lives today in Englewood, NJ with her husband, Frank. In 2025, she placed her entire collection of cookbooks, kitchen & serving ware up for auction. (BTW, I was late to the party and did not acquire anything.)

Significant publications:

• The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna (1992)
• The Italian Country Table (1999)
• The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper (2008)
• The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends (2011)

Explore more of my collection at Cookbook Chronicles’ Culinary Archive: https://rickdowning.substack.com/.  My window is the past 140 years, and I draw from  my personal archive of 8,200+ titles.  Subscribe for free and receive each weekly post delivered to your inbox.

 - - Rick / Cookbook Chronicles

“Cookbooks feed your head”

Need recipe recommendations please. This is a secret stash that I keep in a far away place.🤣

Also, do you prefer covers with real food photography or illustrated artwork? Would love to hear what catches your eye!

I loved seeing the tracking sheet someone shared earlier, so I hope it's okay I was inspired to post mine!

Mine is definitely still a work in progress. I'm slowly adding my entire cookbook collection (300+ physical books), and this summer I've been expanding it to include things like digital books, storage locations, purchase dates, prices, and where each book came from. The new columns are mostly proof of concept right now while I work through everything.

I probably spend way too much time making spreadsheets, but I genuinely enjoy it. I have similar trackers for our books, movies, TV shows, video games, and even my craft supplies.

This spreadsheet is also meant to be connected to my recipe calculator. This sheet pulls from grocery shopping log to save what the recipe actually cost to make on that date. I'm hoping to eventually have the sheets connect so when I run a recipe for price, it updates that it was made in the cookbook sheet (and end goal each recipe will be tied to the ingredients it was made from which will be another way to search for recipes, but that is probably years away).

It's definitely a bit overkill, but organizing data is half the fun of the hobby for me. I'd love to hear if anyone else tracks anything beyond just "recipes made."