Reddit mentions of The Best Recipe

• Microplane graters if she doesn't have one yet. Accompany the super fine grater with a few nutmeg nuts so she can grate her own fresh nutmeg.
  
• Digital kitchen scale
  
• America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated cookcooks or magazines. I have The Best Recipe and I love it for when I want to make the "perfect" version of a recipe. All the recipes have an accompanying article about how they modified/perfected the recipe. Warning: don't get this unless she enjoys slaving for hours on a recipe!
  
  Those ideas aren't super creative, but they are good staples that she will use constantly if she doesn't already have them.
  
  Personally, I am too particular about my cooking stuff... I have to pick it out myself. What about getting her a gift smaller gift that you are comfortable with, and then get a gift card to a local foodie store? This way you can shop together and she can pick exactly what she wants.
  

YESS. My father in law gave me The Best Recipe cookbook almost 20 years ago and it is STILL my go-to. It opens automatically to a few recipes, the cover is worn, some of the pages have stains; it's clearly loved.

The problem with this thread is that if you make a couple of these, the GF will continue to want more! I invested in a cookbook a long time ago, and it's literally changed my life. You can buy the one I use for under $6. Now we make a different recipe every night and they all taste amazing.

I could dig out a cookbook and transcribe my favorite...

If you're curious about what sort of variations have positive results, this is one I think your collection should include... though its more aimed at quality than cost awareness.

One of my favorite books out there is Best Recipe.

This book has a great compilation of recipes, but also goes into great detail as to why things are done certain ways historically and how different methods during the cooking process give different results, even down to methods for selecting the best produce for certain dishes.


(I linked the more expensive hardcover edition, because it's that good.)

*Edit: Read the reviews on Amazon. They tell it better than I can.