Special Feature: Products Sally Recommends

American Cuisine Cookbooks

by Nancy Freeman

introduction  |  cookbooks  |  reading


The following is a purely personal and by no means thorough listing of favorite cookbooks and good reading on American food.

Marion Brown's Southern Cookbook
by Marion Brown
Marion Brown's book has been in print since 1951 and with good reason: it's a classic. A thorough survey of Southern cooking, it contains nearly 1,000 recipes from old Southern homes, fine restaurants and hotel kitchens. This book should be on the shelf of any cook interested in Southern food.

Fusion Food Cookbook
by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison
If you're going to do fusion, do it right. Carpenter is one of the strongest proponents but knows when enough is enough and preaches restraint. You'll have to stock your pantry with ingredients from all over, but that's the idea, no?

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
by Marion Cunningham
What is there to say about this book that you haven't heard before? It belongs in everybody's kitchen.

The Welcome Table, African American Cooking
by Jessica B. Harris
Food historian and anthropologist Harris provides both an excellent collection of recipes and an informative text on the evolution of African American food. Find out what you ought to know about the African contribution to American food and get into some serious soul cooking.

The New York Times Heritage Cookbook
by Jean Hewitt
This book offers recipes from all regions of the US. It is slightly dated, but an excellent source. You'll be surprised at how many ways there are to cook an elk in Montana.

The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook, Traditional Cooking of New Mexico
by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison
Rancho de Chimayo, founded in 1965, is a restaurant no one should miss when visiting the Santa Fe area. Its cookbook reflects genuine New Mexican cooking. This isn't fusion or an "interpretation" of Southwestern cuisine. This is authentic, down to the Velveeta.

The Shaker Kitchen
by Jeffrey S. Paige
The Shakers were a small enough group that we don't have enough room to discuss them in this article. But they were some of the great cooks of New England. Jeffrey S. Paige, chef of the Creamery at Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire, studied with Shaker sisters and shares some of their inventive cuisine.

Joy of Cooking
by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
Another one of those what-more-can-be-said-about-it books. This has been reissued over and over again since 1931. Everyone needs to have a copy of some version in their kitchen.


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