Which cookery book have you used most over the years?

Dairy book of home cookery for me. Ordered off and delivered by the milkman. Thought I was so sophisticated! On my third copy ( thank you ebay) as first two “ borrowed “ by my eldest GD and then GS. Love it and refer to it frequently. And like earlier post, Dorothy Sleightholme, my first “celebrity chef “

The Hamlyn full colour cook book was my go to book when I got married in 1970. My Grandma and mum also gave me their BERO cookbooks (early ones, I have 4) which I have used just about forever.

Oooh, I had forgotten to Dairy Books. Loved those.

DaffyDill

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 have my mother's BeRo book too, with lots of little cakes and pastries. Coffee Kisses were our particular favourite.

kittylester

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

Yes, it's amazing how many cookbooks I only use for a couple of recipes too.
I had a multi volume part-work collection called Supercook from the 70's I think. It's really useful if you want to cook something fancy using a particular ingredient as the index is very well split up. It's particularly good for curries.
I can honestly say that I never had a failure using the Supercook recipes, they must have been very well tested. Virtually everything has a colour picture too which is useful if you're making something unusual for the first time.

I have an old GH "Home Baking" book which has all the basics and a lot of traditional recipes. Also I had a few copies of the various Dairy Books of Home Cooking over the years which are good for basics. One Greek friend borrowed it and her family kept asking her to make things from "the good book"!
Recently I've bought an excellent pressure cookery book which simplifies things a lot and has recipes which can be easily adapted: Modern Pressure Cookery, Catherine Phipps. I wish I'd had it years ago, it's much better than the old GH one and I think I would have used my pressure cooker more.

My go to recipe book is from the tv show Farmhouse Kitchen in the late 1970s, it was on in the afternoon and I’d sometime catch it if I had an afternoon off. Think it cost about £2.85 but I have used it so much. The family’s favourite lemon and parsley stuffing recipe is from there plus lots of cakes and biscuits. Also tells you how to press a tongue too but not used that recipe I must admit. Long before the days of microwaves being in every home and I imagine a lots of the ladies who contributed to the book were probably quite old in the 70s so long gone now.

Hamlyn all colour cook book features a very young Mary Berry. A full colour photo of every recipe. Been using it since 1979

I'm also a Cranks fan

For myself the The Dairy Book of Home Cookery (original). My copy is dated 1977 and it's falling apart. The main cook in our home is DH, who uses that and also lots of other cook-books. These include: Madhur Jaffrey. Delia, various books about bread, the Cranks cookbook, Rose Elliott, Josceline Dimbleby, and Sainsbury's cookbooks from the 1980s.

Marguerite Patten’s Savoury Cooking from 1970

BBC Good Food...website not a book though!

I'm another who uses Delia Smith.

I have a cookbook which I got from the milkman in 1985. In fact it’s my second one. The first one fell apart and I found the second one in a charity shop. I have many other cookbooks but I still use the dairy cookbook regularly and use the internet for anything else.

Still refer to the Atholl Crescent cookery books, plain and advanced, probably dated before the 1950s. This was from the Edinburgh Domestic Science College. Authentic recipes for scones. Also a version of Mrs Beeton dating from the sixties and the still popular Readers' Digest cookbook.

Katie Stewart's Times Cookery Book (although updated with industrial quantities of garlic). My copy is a falling-apart 1970s paperback.

Margarite Patten for some really basic stuff but then a whole shelf of others inc. Hume and Downes, Nigella, Stein, the Every Family should have a Dog, the I Hate to Cook, and a bunch of recipes culled from journals over the year. Especially collect game cookery books for venison, pheasant, etc. recipes.

Back in the 70s Delia's was my go to book too. I'm now on my 3rd copy and still use some recipes from it. I also have an old Be-ro book and also an old W.I. book that I bought at a car book sale. When I bought it lots of the pages already had handwritten notes and ratings for a lot of the recipes.
I have other more modern books that I rarely use. My favourite recipes, either family recipes or internet recipes I tend to eventually laminate before they get too bedraggled.

Just checked and you misremembered Witzend . What she says is, in a generic section on vegetables is that they should be boiled until tender, 10 - 20 minutes, which is quite reasonable. She also says to use as little water as possible and put a tight lid on the pan, effectively steaming the veg - again the time seemsright for that.

But otherwise, no cooking times mentioned just 'cook until tender'

I had never looked at the veg section before. Before Delia, it was a good cookbook with all the basic recipes, for pastries, batters, puddings pies and meat cooking.

Delia. Think that it's a second copy. Has everything you need.

MiniMoon

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.

Where did you get the Cumbria WWI book Mini Moon? I have been trying for years since my mothers slipped through the net.
When I first married it was Delia Smith now like many others spineless in fact we had her truffle Torte with my twist with the family at Easter. Then Mary Berry, and for really good simple Italian food Anna Del a Conte. It's where both Delia and Nigella acknowledge they got lots of their Italian Ideas from. I also have a copy of the Chiappata sisters Italian/Welsh that is dropping to pieces with use.

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...

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.

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.

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.