Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook

This must be my absolute favorite cookbook. It will show you how to do many things. It will give a basic recipe and then tell you about variations on the recipe that you can try. If you only have one cookbook, this is the one you should have.

If you are novice, it will give you easy to follow instructions. If you are an experienced cook, then it is a handy book to look up such things as cooking guides for meats, or bread recipes.

The Busy Cook’s Look it Up Book by Dodi Schultz

This is my second favorite cook book. It help with such things shopping, weights and measures, cooking times and how much to cook.

Getting an international cook book can be frustrating. This is where the section in this book on weights and measures comes in. It helps you convert other measuring systems to the one you use.

In the section on “How Many for Dinner?” you will get help in knowing how much to cook. All the measurements are for adults and it does not help with children. If they are teens, especially boys, you will need twice the adult portions, and for children younger than teens, generally half the amount. However, if the children are very young, they may not eat anything at all. Young children get very excited and sometimes have trouble eating at dinner parties.

There is a good section in this book on Substitutes and Stand-ins and also on getting out food stains.

All in all this is a great reference book. I notice that this book is available for purchase through Amazon.com, but there is no picture. I cannot find it in Amazon.ca. I guess it is not popular enough. However, it is a great book to buy. You might find it in a second-hand bookshop.