Which cookery book have you used most over the years?

Apart from the things like Delia, I have dozens on cookery books who I only use for a couple of recipes. Anyone else?

My mum was a great cook and never used any recipe books and when I married and had my own kitchen I just followed what she had done. However when Delia Smith came on the scene I followed her recipes and I used to buy "Home & Freezer" magazine where I found Mary Berry. My personal favourite is Lady Claire MacDonald and I have a collection of her books which I refer to now and again.

Another one who uses the BE Ro book
It’s a very old brown and cream one
I have a newer one .but always go back to mums book

I got married in 1965, so it was Good Housekeeping for me. I still use it for traditional recipes like simnel cake, also jam.
My DH had an aunt who gave us Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking which was an absolute education and which I still use along with her other books.
In the 70s Sainsbury 's had some good little books by Josceline Dimbleby which ivecstill got. I've also got a copy of Mary Berry's big book, and of course nowadays I look online too

Although I cook nearly every day I’m mostly interested in making cakes. Mary Berry has the best recipes and I have most of her books.

Delia of course, though now have just her Christmas book. Then Jamie Oliver and Mary Berry. I have various volumes of the River Cottage series that I refer to often, especially for preserving.

My most used book is by the Medicinal Chef Dale Pinnock - at least three meals a week from this one.

This is one of the first books that I chose myself - bought in 1976 and still in use.

The Delia complete cookery course, a Christmas present from my in laws circa 1979 and the Marks and Spencer hardback cookery book, a first married Christmas present from DB & SiL in 1978.
Now have lots of books and two lever arch files of recipes from magazines. Like Kitty, I have a few favourites in each book.

I have The Good Housekeeping magazine, so a huge amount of my recipes have come from that. I tore them out and filed them over the years, and I had recipes from 1980 through to the present day. Then last year I had a clearance and threw them all away😮. Not sure why.

I use recipes from everywhere and every body. Easiest I think is Mary Berry, so she’s my go to for an easy day. GH can be more complicated, but almost always delicious. Everyone else others have mentioned.

My old GH ‘Cooking for Company’ published IIRC 1970 or 71, which was a present before I was married.
A few years ago it was falling to bits but I found a pristine 2nd hand copy courtesy of abebooks.

I can’t say I’ve used a great many of the recipes but certain pages had become very tatty and almost illegible here and there because of splashes! The Christmas cookery pages especially….

Same applies to the Hamlyn full colour cook book, similar vintage, with a photo of a very young Mary Berry at the front.
The front hardback is now detached from the rest - maybe time to trawl abebooks for a replacement, or else remove the recipes I do use and put in my recipe ring binder.

Mostly the ones I wrote myself –at least I know what I am supposed to be doing. However, if you want to cook authentic fabulous Italian food, go for any book by Anna del Conte. A lovely lady and my hero.

Mum's recipes, adapted, and Good Housekeeping for timing and basic ingredient quantities. I'm an instinctive cook, and with the internet can always find interesting 'what's for dinner' ideas to modify.

For basic baking it's hard to beat the BeRo book. I have a very old copy and a more modern edition that I laminated. The first cookery books I bought were the three Farmhouse Kitchen books that went with the Yorkshire TV series. Dorothy Sleightholme was the first tv cook I remember watching. Over the years I've made lots of things from those books. I still have all of the Delia Smith and some by Mary Berry, Jamie Oliver and the Hairy Bikers.

One of the first I bought Ismail Merchants Indian cookbook bought after watching him on tv about 1986. The Delia cooking compendium I have about seventy cook books vegetarian gluten free vegan. Jewish Polish Asian basically gastronomy from all around the world interests me.
My most expensive Larousse gastronomique I bought it when I did a cookery course. It’s not an easy pick up so I also have Michel Roux Sr sauces cook book I love sauces.

Good Housekeeping, a wedding present in 1962, augmented by an updated version in the mid-70s, Josceline Dimbleby’s Collection, 1984, and the occasional recipe from Clare Macdonald, Jamie Oliver and Nigel Slater. Cooking for one has made me very lazy indeed.

The dairy book of home cookery, some of the recipes were pretty exotic for its time

My favourite cookery books are a Cumbria WI book, Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Easy and the Covent Garden Book of Soup. I have a series of Hairy Bikers books which get used now and then.
These days I usually consult the Internet when I need a recipe.

Apologies ! My best of good housekeeping is 1973.
And as a book mark it has an old computer punch card.
How things have changed.

GH cookery book from my parents Christmas 1958. I had only just met my future DH, so mum was preparing me for doing more than just cookery classes at school.
Also a very old Stork, paperback cookery book, that is falling to pieces. I have to keep it in a plastic bag now.

Another one for Marguerite Pattens Every Day Cook book. It dates from 1977 when I got married. I have a whole shelf of cookery books but I nearly always return to this one. The brown cover has broken off the rest of the book and it’s probably twice it’s size because I used to clip recipes from magazines and pop them in.

Huge Nigel Slater fan here, have all his books, love them all!

Marguerite Patten’s Step By Step Cookery, I learnt to cook from this back in 1977. It was given to me by the mother of one of my friends as a wedding present.

I’m so much enjoying reading all of these posts. Apart from the GH Cookery Book I have a much used copy of the BeRo book. Just recently, trying to eat less meat, I have tried lots of the daily recipes in the i newspaper. It has a majority of veggie ones and they’re a great source of (usually reliable) new ideas. At 80 pence a day the paper is a bargain, with the bonus of a good crossword (we only do the easy version!) as well as a useful recipe.

M0nica

The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilso.n.

I am on my third or fourth copy. It is long out of print. DiL swears by the same cook book

I may be mis-remembering, but I’m sure I used to have a copy of that many years ago - at some point she wrote of ‘stewing vegetables in fat’ and said that cauliflower should be boiled for 20 minutes!! 😱
It would have been an edition from the early 70s or even before, though.

Veering off from the topic ever so slightly, we are in the process of clearing out my inlaws' house at the moment and I found a very old SWRI cookbook. Not sure how much call there would be these days for such delicacies as sheep's head broth, foam soup, mock goose or beef trifle though...