Kitchen nostalgia?

The Mighty Mince Cookbook. I didn't have a lot of money when the children were little and what I couldn't do with a 1/2 lb of mince! I never did make the 'minced lamb korma' as there were too many ingredients to buy. (Thanks for the reminder Soutra - I might give it go now). The recipes were quite exotic at the time. It now sit happily s beside Jamie Olive's 15 minute meals.

mrs beetons complete book of household management, my copy was a wedding present and is dog eared and fingermarked but it contains everything I have ever needed to know about cooking and other things..
I never did get around to jugged hare or stargazey pie however but the basic recipes were very good.

The Times Cookery Book, by Katie Stewart, a paperback falling apart, covered in food splashes and bits stuck back in with sellotape.
Utterly invaluable in my kitchen.

Oh, and an ancient copy of Home and Freezer with a fail-safe recipe for Almond & Cherry upside down cake.

I have two shelves in my kitchen full of cookery books, but I find myself again and again turning to Mrs Beaton's Cookery and Household Management, my first cookery book bought for me before we were married. My most used recipe? In the 'réchauffe' section - the pork croquettes, a very simple and tasty way of using up left over cooked pork.

With apologies to Mrs Beeton for misspelling your name

I have kept every Good Housekeeping recipe since about 1985 ( don't ask ) and it is interesting how fashion in food changes over the years.

We've moved so many times, and over the years have acquired and lost many cookery books.
The book I would love to still have is one about cooking in wartime. Don't know where it has gone.
I remember one recipe of baby turnips stewed with black treacle, which I made several times.
Otherwise my favourite is Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cookery - I first bought it back in the ?6Os, lost it, and recently bought another copy.

I had a Good Housekeeping book and all the Delia's of and of course Marguerite Patten. On Tv was Phillip Harben, The Galloping Gourmet - Graham someone and of course Fanny and Jonny (Dh still asks if he can be Jonny to my Fanny).

Graham Kerr!!! favourite was Keith Floyd though - what a bad boy - great chef!

The one that holds most memories for me was little Sainsbury's book called, I think, Cooking for Two.
However, what's been most used is my six-volume collection of Good Cooking, collected in my mid teens and which I still regularly consult if I want to make something timeless, like jams or breads.

As a young furiner in the UK, I was absolutely amazed to discover Fanny Cradock!!! I still have the whole series of 'Cordon Bleu' cookery books that were the rage in the 70s- and of course several versions of the Be-Ro book.
And one of the early Mary Berry books.

My go - to book still is a Cumberland and Westmorland WI book from the early 1980's. I have made practically everything in it, with the exception of the home made wine! Those old farmer's wives knew how to cook. My DH is very nostalgic about his mother's cooking.

I still go back to Poor Cook by Caroline Conran (I think!) It was published in the 70's and is fullof economical recipes for meals that were quite exotic then, Greek Meatballs and Semolina Gnocchi for example.

I have the good Housekeeping Compendium Cookery Book. Its by Waverly Press around 1950. My father gave it to my mother. It has the most beautiful plates in it and recipes that never fail.

I also have a "Trex" cookery Book given to me by my husbands grandmother when I was a young girl of all but 21 and a McDougals flower recipe book ( from the same old lady).

I bought myself a reprint of wartime recipes a few years ago.

All have classic recipes. I use them all the time.

MamaCaz I have both of those too

I had the Dairy Book of Home Cookery and also the Dairy Book of Household Management. Both sold by the milkman in the early 70s.

I have both of those too Grandma60

I have both of those too! Excellent books with many favourite recipes used over and over again.

Complete set of Cordon Bleu books, every book written by Elizabeth David, The Times Cookery Book by Katie Stewart, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (hardback ed from 1973).

Oh yes the Dairy Book of Home Cookery. When I got engaged, my mum bought me a copy, also from the milkman

Marguerite Patten's Cookery in Colour was the first cookery book I ever had and I still have it. Looking through it now it seems very old hat, but I relied heavily on it when I started out my married life in the Far East and ringing up mother to ask how to cook something was simply not possible. I also had, and still have, the Be-ro book, which I also use on a regular basis.

Another Be-ro fan here and Katie Stewart and Elizabeth David and the Paupers cook book by Jocasta Innes but folders and files galore of cuttings from magazines.

A Good Housekeeping book which has lost its front cover so I can't remember its proper title-possibly "How to cook". It covers every possible foodstuff and includes light menus for invalids. I still look up things in it. Favourite recipe with a much stained page is the Christmas Pudding.

Our first cookery book was The Evening Standard Cook book by Delia Smith, which we bought in 1975 when we married. It finally fell to bits. She is still our favourite along with Nigel Slater. Never a dud recipe from either of them.