Desert Island Recipe Books

Cooking For Every Occasion ed.Marion Howells, Octopus Books 1971. I was given this as a wedding present. It covers every single thing I have ever tried to cook. My copy is very battered and tattered, but I will never part with it!

Leith’s Cookery Course Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave.

My 1958 Good Housekeeping cookery compendium, just because my mum's handwriting is inside

Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess and Nigel Slater’s Cookery Year. I couldn’t choose between the two. If allowed a third, Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem.

When I got married in 1969 my mother gave me The Dairy Book of Home Cooking. She bought it from the milkman. Sadly I no longer have it.

If I was forced to choose only one, it would be Ozlem's Turkish Table, by Ozlem Warren.

Possibly Rick Stein's Coast to Coast because there are a lot of fish recipes and healthy salads which I like. Marooned on a desert island made me think it would come in useful.

PS sorry it isn't really a reference guide though.

It'd have to be Rose Elliot's Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking

My own file of recipes with our most used ones.

kittylester, ditto.

Ditto here too. I have lots of cookery books dating from the late 60s up to very recent ones, and my Granny’s and Great Aunt’s recipes from the late C19/early C20, but the majority of things I need recipes for, the recipes are torn or copied from magazines and newspapers and filed.

Mine is the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book 1975 Edition, but nowadays I usually refer online to various sites. I try to use UK sites when I'm not looking at German ones, the American ones usually have ingredients that I've never heard of or can't get. Best UK site is probably BBC Good Food.

I used the Reader's Digest book of meals through the year as my go-to until my mum moved house and didn't move it with her!

My own collection of clippings and shared recipes is the one I use most often.

On a desert island I guess a good guide to fish recognition and prep would be handy!

My own collection too- but also hand-written recipes from both my mother and my MIL- many traditional South African and Cape Malay dishes.

I received Delia Smiths Complete Cookery Course as a wedding gift.

My mother was a dreadful cook, everything was served with a big dollop of resentment, meal times were a battleground.
As a result of this I entered married life weighing about 7 stone and I had a bad relationship with food.

Delia with her no nonsense attitude and sensible, affordable recipes taught me how to cook.

I still use the book although it’s falling apart.
I am now an accomplished cook, a healthy weight and I am so thankful for this culinary bible.

365 Ways to Cook Fish and Shellfish.
365 Special Coconut Recipes.

I do have my mother's Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management so that could help with old-fashioned basic recipes.

Love my battered BeRo book too.

Kate1949

When I got married in 1969 my mother gave me The Dairy Book of Home Cooking. She bought it from the milkman. Sadly I no longer have it.

I have a battered copy of that, Kate1959, still use it sometimes.

However, are we allowed to have a house cow on the desert island?

I was on a catering course years ago I was encouraged to purchase Larousse Gastronomique. I must have about seventy other various cook books as my passion is cookery. I fell for the sales talk and purchased the book which was rather expensive.
This is an encyclopaedia about food recipes tips everything is covered. It’s so heavy and physically unpractical but I refer to it all the time. It is fool proof without doubt but I don’t think my family would appreciate inheriting it.

I like Jane Grigson too. I’ve got English Food, and her Vegetable Book. She is Sophie’s mother.

My all time favourite is Leith’s Vegetarian Bible.

I have also got a lot of use out of an old book from the 70s that was my mom’s. I can’t remember what it’s called - I think that it might have been bought from the milkman.
It is a big hardback thing. I’m sure that someone will know !

Oh I see that Kate and Callistemon have already mentioned it! I should have known!

I’ve got Mrs Beeton too. It’s a cosy, comforting read

That must have been the first issue Kate1949, it was first published in 1968. I have the 1977 version, it’s falling apart mind.