Reddit mentions: The best midwestern us cooking books

Aight girl-

Foreign Cuisine-
How to Eataly - Oscar Farinetti - We made the most AMAZING brisket meatballs and a super simple yet completely delicious red sauce out of this book
Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan - Where the Cornish hens and gougeres came from.
Real Korean Cooking - Maangchi - Korean Fried Chicken. We've made them twice now because they're so good and can't wait to do more.
Mexican Everyday - Rick Bayless - Learned how to make perfect guac from this book and so far we've made these v tasty chorizo/mushroom/potato tacos. The recipe is SO cheap and SO voluminous that we had it as a taco filling, a quesadilla filling, and we're making a hash with it for brunch this morning.
Every Grain of Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop - We haven't tried anything out of here yet but there are sooooo many good-looking recipes in here.
Entice with Spice - Shubhra Ramineni - Likewise, haven't made anything out of here yet but looking forward to trying it all out soon.
Jack's Wife Freda - Dean & Maya Jankelowitz - This is actually a book from a restaurant that my fiance and I LOVED when we last visited NYC. It's got a lot of fusion recipes. Mediterranean/Israeli/South African/etc. Really unique flavors and also v comfort-food based. We're making rosewater waffles out of this book tomorrow!


Baking-
Rose's Baking Basics - Rose Levy Barenbaum - This book is incredible. She has tons and tons of step-by-step photos which is SUPER helpful. We made the dark chocolate caramel tart out of this book, but pretty much everything in here looks amazing.
Modern Baking - Donna Hay - I mean... There is some INSANELY decadent looking stuff in here. We haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I can't wait to!


Misc-
Cook Like a Pro - Ina Garten - It was really hard to pick just one Ina book but I liked most of the recipes in this one. She has this ridic recipe for a dijon mustard chicken that is INCREDIBLE. Also, this bitch knows how to cook some veggies. Big fan of this one.
The Food Lab - /u/j_kenji_lopez-alt - I just love this guy, tbh. We've made a really fantastic beef tenderloin out of this book and an incredible red wine sauce to go with it and of course, his famous roasted potatoes which are now my holy grail recipe for roasted potatoes. This book is like a science textbook only instead of boring stuff it's FOOD science, which is my favorite kind.


Those were all the ones we purchased ourselves (though technically Eataly was a gift BUT we love it and plan to use it often.) We have other cookbooks in our stable that we've received as gifts, which is what resulted in my fiance and I deciding we wanted to embark on this journey. We kept being given cookbooks and never doing anything with them. But man, do people love it when you send them pics of stuff you cooked out of a book they gave you. If people give you cookbooks, use them!! It will make their day to see it's being used. Here's what else is on our cookbook shelf-


The Forest Feast Gatherings - Erin Gleeson - This is a vegetarian book my fiance's mom gave us a few years ago for Christmas. We have a bunch of veggie friends (and friends with a lot of different allergies) so we turn to this book to have a few things that are edible by all of them when we have them over, as we often do. This book has a really delicious salad that has pomegranate seeds, pear, and hazelnut that is out of this world good. I also got my HG salad dressing from this book.
The Salad Bowl - Nicola Graimes - Another gift from my fiance's mom. Is she trying to tell us something?? Honestly haven't looked much into this book yet but it sure is pretty.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz - This was a gift from the assistant in my office. Everyone in my office knows me as the Harry Potter girl because I have a lightning bolt tattoo, haha. We haven't made anything out of this yet, but we probably will have some sort of epic feast with recipes from this book when GoT starts back up later this year.
Talk About Good - Louisiana Lafayette Junior League - My boss gave this to my fiance and I as part of an engagement gift. My fiance went to school in New Orleans. It's primarily New Orleansian/Cajun food. Haven't made anything out of it yet, but we are looking forward to it.

And that's what's on our cookbook shelf for now.

edit also omg thanks for the gold!! <3

I grew up along the Gulf Coast so I have a deep love for Cajun and Creole cookbooks. I also love the old Justin Wilson PBS episodes you can find on Youtube. I love buying used cookbooks, it's amazing the deals you can get.


Do you have any recommendations for books I should add to my collection? Here are the Cajun/Creole books I already have.

Southern Creole Style Cook for Love and Life - Diabetic/Hypoglycemic oriented cookbook. My mom found it at someone's home who had a bunch of stuff on their lawn to give away for free. It's a pretty good book spiral bound like a Junior League book.

Cajun Low-Carb by Jude Theriot

Paul Prudhomme Louisiana Kitchen

Prudhomme Family Cookbook

Patout's Cajun Home Cooking

Justin Wilson #2 Cookbook - Cookin Cajun

Cajun Creole Cooking - Terry Thompson

I don't have bound editions of these but they are ones I enjoy that are free to read online because they're so old.

The Picayune Creole Cookbook 1901

Cooking in old Créole days. La cuisine créole à l'usage des petits ménages


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I also love historical cooking books: Food on the Frontier: Minnesota Cooking from 1850 to 1900 with Selected Recipes (Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society) is so interesting as is Buckeye Cookery & Practical Housekeeping: Tried and Approved, Compiled from Original Recipes and The Settlement Cook Book 1903

Talk About Good!!!

One of the best cookbooks with some fabulous Cajun and creole recipes. The Lafayette and Baton Rouge junior leagues had a friendly rivalry and both put out some of the best selling junior league cookbooks.

For those interested here’s an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029

And here’s a great article in the Washington Post about it: How a 50-year-old community cookbook became a mainstay in almost every Cajun kitchen

Source: from Lafayette, LA. Mais cher dat cookbook good good yeah.

Well, sounds like you have a better pantry than you realize! Some of these can also be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen, if you're short on time during the week (and, these days, who isn't except retired people?) You can make (among other things)...

• Chicken stir-fry
  
  
• Various kinds of chicken and vegetable soups and stews
  
  
• Garden salad
  
  
• Bean salad
  
  
• Stuffed bell peppers
  
  
• Pizza
  
  
• Pasta primavera
  
  
• Tacos
  
  
• Quesadillas
  
  
• Beans and rice
  
  
• Various sandwiches and wraps
  
  
• Egg salad
  
  
• Chicken salad
  
  
• Omelettes or frittatas (My grandpa's specialty was green pepper and potato frittata, after Grandma lost her cooking abilities to a stroke. It was pretty much the only thing he could cook, being a man from a traditional background who wasn't taught to cook.)
  
  
• Enchiladas
  
  
• Lasagna
  
  
• Homemade ravioli with spinach or cheddar filling. Pierogi work, too.
  
  
• Many different casseroles are a possibility, too. (You may, however, have to prepare your own binder, such as gravy, if you lack canned cream of whatever soup.)
  
  
• Chicken piccata
  
  
• Apple pie
  
  
• Chicken pot pie
  
  
• A homemade tomato sauce that would make any nonna proud (I suggest doing this in a Crock-Pot if you're really pressed for time, although you should know that it actually doesn't need to simmer for more than an hour or so.)
  
  
• Gravy
  
  
• Fried rice
  
  
• Apple fritters
  
  
• Apple crisp/Brown Betty/whatever you call it
  
  
• Lemonade
  
  
• Fried chicken (or oven-fried chicken if you want to reduce the fat)
  
  
• If "pasta" includes rice noodles, you can make pad thai
  
  
• Welsh rarebit (which is really just toast with a cheddar cheese sauce)
  
  
• Chicken cacciatore (which I guess would fall under the "stews and soups" category)
  
  
• Fajitas
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Thanks for the recommendation! Here's a link to buy Talk About Good! from the Junior League and it appears Amazon carries it, as well.

Talk About Good by The Lafayette Junior League

Original edition of 1967 now in its 26th +/- printing. Same one my parents use. Has many base items that are foundations of other dishes.

Also my dad has used Pots, Pans, and Pioneers by Telephone Pioneers of America. Large collection of authentic recipes. Biscuits, breads also meats.

I use both of these; the recipes therein are classic.

Buy this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029
It’s Junior League of Lafayette’s cookbook originally published in the 70s or 80s. It’s basically everybody’s grandma’s best recipes

EDIT: first printed in 1967 now in it’s 30th printing

https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029/

https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682

Does she cook? Maybe get her some cookbooks from here. https://www.amazon.com/Plantation-Cookbook-Junior-League-Orleans/dp/0963192507/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1479912019&sr=8-12&keywords=new+orleans+collectible https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KM7MPAB810FP5DHMCQ4K https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EQXGKS2CW7MJ03X3BB39

Had this is Chicago years ago. Was the best god damn mac and cheese I've had in my life.

I know there's a cookbook on amazon but sadly the SIDES are not included in the preview.

Anyone know the recipe ?