Best Cookbooks To Make You Feel Confident in the Kitchen

Buyer's Guide To Finding an Amazing Cookbook

The task of choosing a cookbook can become simple when you know what you want. Consider what type of meal you want to cook. Is it vegan, vegetarian, or meat-lovers? If you have just started out, look for beginner-level recipes. If you prefer a specific cooking tool or have a signature cooking style, look for books that touch on these preferences. Use the buyer’s guide below to zero on the right books for your needs. 

The Different Types of Cookbooks 

Since the range of cookbooks is infinite, we have first classified them into following types to make your choice simpler.

Single-subject cookbooks 

Single-subject cookbooks focus on one subject. It could be a specific ingredient, cooking technique, tool, a target group (e.g. for vegans), or a class of dishes. Some examples include cooking for kids, holiday cooking, grilling books, outdoor cooking, or a collection of pizza recipes. You can choose a subject of your interest and buy a book centered around it. 

International and ethnic cookbooks 

These books fall into two categories, a kitchen reference of a specific culture translated into another language, or books that convert recipes from another culture into the techniques, ingredients, and language of a new audience. They often serve as a culinary log describing the background and context of a recipe for their readers. You can get one of these if traditional cuisine inspires you. 

Community cookbooks 

These cookbooks came as a unique genre in culinary literature. Their focus is home cooking with special attention to regional, ethnic, family, societal traditions, and local history. These are created by gathering recipes from the people of a certain region, so you can trace their origins back to the community where they actually originated. 

Chef cookbooks

Some cookbooks feature recipes created by a specific chef, often in conjunction with a restaurant or a cooking show. If the said chef is particularly famous, they may release a series of books over the course of years. If you are a follower of such chefs, such books are bound to attract your attention. 

Professional cookbooks

Professional cookbooks serve as a guide to working chefs and culinary students. They are sometimes also used as textbooks at culinary institutes. They feature recipes and techniques, and also discuss service and kitchen workflow matters. They may not be an ideal pick for home cooking, because they deal in substantially larger quantities. 

How To Choose a Good Cookbook

When it comes to cookbooks, the choices are infinite. Here are some parameters to judge the books against:

Number of recipes 

The first thing that you should check in any cookbook is the number of recipes it contains. Contrary to common belief, you don’t have to go for the book with the highest number of recipes. Rather you should decide how you are going to use the book and then look at the number of recipes it contains. 

If you plan to cook from the new book alone, choose a book with more recipes, as doing so gives you more options and variety. But if you will occasionally cook from it, a book with a small number of recipes will do just fine. 

The idea is to prefer quality over quantity. A book with 20 useful recipes is a better option than a cookbook with 500 recipes that you’ll never think about trying. 

Ingredients

You should also keep an eye on the type of ingredients the recipes call for. Recipes from other cultures often call for uncommon ingredients that you might be hard to come by. If you are a beginner, it’s best to play safe and choose a book with ingredients that are readily available.

Experience level 

Cookbooks are written for chefs of all experience levels. You should also consider your level of familiarity prior to purchasing one. If you are a complete novice, choose a book that is introductory level with comprehensive directions. You can gradually progress to an advanced level, once you are familiar with the basic ingredients and cooking techniques 

Visuals 

If pictures teach you more than words, a book with photos should be your first choice. The visuals not only walk you through the various steps of the recipe, they also give you a better idea of what the final dish should look like. Experienced home cooks may do without such visuals, but having them in a cookbook increases its visual appeal.

Equipment 

Some single-subject cookbooks feature dishes that you can prepare with only one appliance, such as an instant pot, grill, air fryer, or slow cooker. These books make your time in the kitchen more efficient. If you are inclined towards such equipment, make sure to purchase the book with recipes for that particular appliance. 

Instructions 

A recipe is as good as the directions that accompany it. A good cookbook will provide clear and concise directions that explain each step of the method in a satisfactory manner. This way you won’t have any difficulty understanding and following it. An easy-to-read font and fun, playful language also make the book enjoyable to use. 

Special tags

Special tags may be a minor detail in any cookbook, but they take on a major role when you want to look out for special conditions, allergens, or special diets. They can be a huge help when you are cooking for guests with varying dietary needs, or when you have little time to make dinner. Special tags help you quickly narrow down on the most suitable recipe. 

Some Cookbooks That You Should Avoid 

Cookbooks can be fun. But not all of them are worth the money you are spending. Here are the types of books that you are better off without:

Cookbooks with too many recipes 

Always be wary of cookbooks that feature too many recipes. You may think $10 for 1000 recipes is a steal, but think about how many of those recipes you are actually going to try. The people who create such books are usually more concerned with quantity than quality. You are better off buying an option that offers fewer but more interesting recipes.

Celebrity cookbooks 

It’s typical for a celebrity cookbook to tell you about the personality, background, and stories of the celebrity themselves. They will have recipes, but they are likely written by a ghostwriter rather than the celebrity themselves, so they aren’t very credible. The books actually serve as advertisements to gain popularity. The same goes for pop-culture books. 

Benefits of Using Cookbooks 

Cookbooks began as kitchen bibles that didn’t just provide different recipes, they also contained kitchen and household techniques. It may surprise you but some books still follow the same pattern, providing you with tips and tricks to help you run your kitchen and home more smoothly. Here are some other benefits of using cookbooks:

Guarantee consistent results 

Cookbooks present you with the right amount of ingredients and proper directions to create a certain recipe. If you measure the ingredients correctly and follow the directions, you will obtain consistent results. 

Convey a story 

Did you ever get a chance to explore what is inside your kitchen? Each cabinet contains ingredients or tools that can tell you a story. Some cookbooks do a good job of telling you the background story of how the various kitchen tools took shape. They also tell you how to use the kitchen equipment that you previously didn’t even know you had. 

Help you become a better host

A good book helps polish your skills as a host. If you have been negligent about the special dietary needs of your guests, a cookbook will help change that. Plus, it also helps you create more meaningful menus with each course complementing the flavor of the other. 

Build culinary vocabulary

Do words like paw-paw, sauce gribiche, and mousseline intimidate you at a restaurant? Reading your cookbooks carefully will tell you what they, and other words like them, mean. If you are lagging behind in culinary language, open a cookbook to stock up on your vocabulary. 

Introduce you to new flavors 

Cookbooks help you let go of your picky eating habits. They contain a treasure trove of exotic and unexpected recipes with inviting pictures that you can’t help but try. When you try new recipes, you introduce yourself to new flavors that you didn’t know about before, but will grow to like a lot.