The cookbooks we can't cook without

What makes a great cookbook? An easier question nowadays is what doesn't make a great cookbook.

The flood of coffee-table food porn currently in vogue is undoubtedly beautiful, but how many of us have ever been brave enough to cook something out of Thomas Keller's "Bouchon"?

Restaurant cooks once remained in their kitchens, while cookbooks were written by experienced kitchen matrons and food writers — compilations of acquired wisdom and techniques, and foolproof recipes.  Julia Child based 1961's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" on her skills running a cooking school, not a restaurant. When Craig Claiborne published "The New York Times Cookbook" the same year, he was a food editor, not a four-star chef with a six-figure book deal.

But the cult of celebrity had to feast sometime. With the rise of American haute cuisine came the advent of the chef as icon. Some chefs have undoubtedly produced masterworks of their own, but more often the modern celebrity-driven cookbook is a glossy marketing tool and a monument to ego, filled with recipes intended for a kitchen full of culinary-school graduates. Books by chefs, for chefs — the rest of us be damned.

“Somebody's dinner party is at stake,” says Melissa Clark, an award-winning author of cookbooks with big-name chefs like David Bouley, “and many of them don't care.”

In response, Clark recently released her own cookbook, "Chef, Interrupted" (Clarkson Potter, $32.50), a sort of translation guide that reconfigures signature dishes of over 50 chefs for the home kitchen.

Not that she's referring to her collaborators when she describes chefs' often dismissive attitudes, but after having a hand in 16 cookbooks, Clark views modern cookbook publishing as an unfortunate collision of kitchen-fueled ego, cynical publishers and hasty (or nonexistent) recipe testing.

Another factor is in play: the slow death of Americans' cooking skills. "The next generation can't say, ‘I learned this at my mother's knee,’” says Clark. "They'll say, ‘I learned this at Rachael Ray's knee.’”

All this led us to think about our favorite cookbooks — the ones we use every week, the ones with grease stains, dogeared pages and note-filled margins. The ones, frankly, that make the best gifts for food lovers. 

These are books we couldn't cook without.      —Jon Bonné

Does it have a Book of Brioche?
If you’re going to call your book the “Bible” of anything, it had better be thorough, and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Bread Bible” (Norton, $35) lives up to its name. Chapter one of the 600-plus-page book covers tips on every step of the baking process. Levy Beranbaum also includes a list of bread glazes that I find so useful I taped the list inside my cupboard. Recipe favorites include her cinnamon crumb surprise, with a hidden layer of yummy apples as the surprise; delightful crumpets and English muffins; and the only ciabatta recipe that I will ever use. I doubt I will ever work my way through the whole book, but it’s certainly fun trying.

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The best and the bestest
If I were buying cookbooks for a novice cook, I’d choose two: Ann Hodgman’s “Beat This!” (Houghton Mifflin, $16) and “Beat That!” (Houghton Mifflin, $15). I first came across Hodgman’s delightfully funny food writing in Spy Magazine (she once taste-tested pet foods). The foods are often simple — brownies, lasagna, macaroni and cheese — but she brags that they’re the absolute best of their breed. The introductions to each recipe are hilarious and inspiring. She brags: “[Crocked shrimp dip] stands loftily upon the shoulders of all the other dips, gazing out into the sunset or whatever.” The two books even try to one-up each other — in “Beat This!” she offers a guacamole recipe she thought the absolute best … until she found the one she offers in “Beat That!”

Simplicity reigns
Some cookbooks are all business, but Laurie Colwin’s “Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen” (Harper Perennial, $12) collects Colwin’s entertaining food essays, with the recipes almost secondary. Her calm, friendly tone reassures novices that it’s OK if you don’t own a food mill, and that you can make rising bread conform to your schedule instead of vice-versa. She’s kind of like a Food Whisperer, coaxing those of us who’ve been burned back into the kitchen, holding the reins gently and offering plenty of encouragement. (If you make only one recipe from “Home Cooking,” let it be her famed gingerbread.) Colwin died in 1992 when she was just 48, and reading her essays makes her loss ring all the harder.    –Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is MSNBC.com's Books and TV editor.

Easy dishes, intense tastes
Simplicity married to intense flavor is really the charm of Leslie Revsin’s recipes. Revsin was the first woman chef at the legendary Waldorf-Astoria, and “Come for Dinner: Memorable Meals to Share with Friends” (John Wiley & Sons, $29.95) was one of the last books she penned before her untimely death in 2004. Revsin’s approachable recipes reflect her innate understanding of ingredients and how gracefully they can come together. This book enables you to easily create classic dishes with Revsin’s twists — pistachio sugar cookies, feta cheese with tahini and walnuts, roasted tomato gazpacho with cumin, and many more. With doable menus, “do ahead” options for each recipe, and an inviting, evocative style, Revsin’s book is a must-have for home cooks who love to entertain.

The kitchen-sink approach
Mark Bittman, author of the popular weekly New York Times column, "The Minimalist," has written many successful cookbooks. His flagship book, “How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food” (Macmillan, $35), containing 1,500 recipes, is currently in its twelfth printing. Essentially a "Joy of Cooking" for today’s cook, Bittman's opus spent more than 130 weeks on the Los Angeles Times Cookbook Hot List. Written in an endearing voice with an “anyone can cook” attitude, it takes the fear out of the kitchen. Although the book has been parsed into smaller volumes ("How to Cook Everything: The Basics"; "Holiday Cooking," etc.), I recommend buying the original.

Authentic Indian
“Savoring India” (Oxmoor House, $39.95), written by Julie Sahni, a cooking teacher and leading authority on Indian cuisine, has all the earmarks of a Williams-Sonoma publication — breathtakingly beautiful pictures and authentic recipes. This book also offers engaging sidebars on Indian customs and festivals, and is a must-have for lovers of Indian food. The book spans the Indian spectrum, bringing recipes from the deserts of Rajasthan, the beaches of Goa and the emerald lagoons of Kerala.  Don’t let the glossy coffee-table appearance fool you: It is not just for armchair cooks. "Savoring India" is sure to get plenty of mileage in your kitchen. -Monica Bhide

Monica Bhide writes about food and culture from suburban Virginia. She is the author of the "The Everything Indian Cookbook" and "The Spice is Right."

Old-school methods
The price tag could buy a healthy supply of truffles, and recipes in the 1938 original are hardly more than descriptions of technique, but the workhorse “Larousse Gastronomique” (Clarkson Potter, $85) can't be beat for its comprehensive how-tos of European cuisine. Want a diagram of beef cuts?  How about three – one each for French, British and American butchers. Feel like sole? There’s meunière, dieppoise or any of two dozen other methods.  Some complain the Larousse has grown stale, though the revised 1988 edition rectifies prior oversights like, say, American cooking. But you can’t argue with its boundless culinary wisdom.

Old reliable
Standing in defiance against every food fetish since pesto is the old, reliable “Joy of Cooking” (Scribner, $30). Sexy, it ain’t. But Irma Rombauer and daughter Marion have condensed a world of indispensable kitchen knowledge into one streamlined (if weighty) tome. The 1997 edition feels appropriately modern, though the original retains an unreconstructed charm, not skimping on details about jellied beet consommé or how to cook raccoon. “Joy’s” biggest strength has always been simplicity and an unapologetic focus on technique. Essential food science is explained simply and clearly. The comprehensive recipe collection covers more intriguing ground than you’d expect — from Ghanian peanut soup to grapefruit sherbet, and yes, even a pre-1980s take on pesto. “Joy” is everything the modern cookbook isn’t, and for that it deserves enormous credit.

Tastes of Italy
Equally straightforward is Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” (Knopf, $30), the one must-buy book from the woman whose role in translating Italian cuisine for Americans is downright iconic. This 1992 release combined her first two cookbooks into a single volume. While it’s short on flair, the explanations are encyclopedic (22 pages on making homemade pasta) and the flavors spot-on. Both northern and southern styles get their due, and her accumulated wisdom is plainly evident in topics like a nearly foolproof method for frittate. The only other Italian contender with as many recent appearances in my kitchen is “Italian Slow and Savory” (Chronicle, $40), Joyce Goldstein’s consideration of slow-cooked goodness. Its focus is narrower, but the flavors are layered and rich, the braised and roasted results a model of perfection.    —Jon Bonné

Jon Bonné is MSNBC.com's lifestyle editor.

Mom, is that you?
Where’s Mom when you need her? With "Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook" (MacMillan, $30, 1998 reprint of 1950 original) it’s like she’s looking over your shoulder. Baking a pie? Study the step-by-step black-and-white photos and your crust will shatter delectably at the touch of a fork. Stuffing a chicken? Be sure to heed that helpful, exclamatory list of “Don’ts in Roasting Poultry,” e.g., “Don’t prick skin!”  From Appetizers (goose-liver bonbons) to Vegetables (segregated as “mild flavored” or “strong flavored”), the loose-leaf tome was made for the 1950s kitchen, with easy instructions for economical, appetizing and, yes, man-pleasing dishes. As much fun as the old-fashioned recipes are the tinted drawings depicting happy children, smiling husbands and briskly efficient wives.

What you knead
There’s no guesswork in Bernard Clayton’s "New Complete Book of Breads" (Simon & Schuster, $35). Whether you want to make a crisp baguette, a flaky croissant or a chewy rye, the recipes tell you exactly what you’re in for — the ingredients you need, the time and equipment each step takes and the special care a perfect outcome may require. First published in 1970 and revised and expanded in 1995, Clayton’s tribute to bread is nearly as much travelogue as instruction manual. You’ll learn not only how to make panettone but where in Italy it originated. Most important, Clayton lovingly conveys the sensory experience of baking and sharing bread.

Minnesota represents
In "Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland" (Knopf, $30), Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson give Midwestern cooking its rightful place among the great American cuisines. Although the authors pay tribute to geography with recipe names such as Rainy Lake Fish Cakes and sidebars on Grange potlucks and butter churning, their fare is hardly what you’d be served in Grandma’s farmhouse kitchen. Rather, they give a contemporary twist to wholesome, hearty and flavorful dishes such as maple-glazed hen, cider-soaked and brown-sugar-glazed ham and thresher’s beef stew with onions, beer and blue cheese. Although the recipes are easy to make at home, the results are worthy of Watson’s reputation as owner of a popular Minneapolis restaurant, Lucia’s.    —Sylvia Lindman

Sylvia Lindman is a writer in Portland, Ore.

Pizza pizza
I love the monomaniacal obsession of single-topic cookbooks, but I don’t usually turn to them every week. Peter Reinhart’s “American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza” (Ten Speed Press, $25), is the exception.  Reinhart travels across Italy and America, from Naples to Phoenix, and then presents definitive recipes for every imaginable style of pizza. Napoletano, deep-dish, grilled, California — it’s all here. I followed Reinhart’s journey in my own kitchen. I set up a card table by the grill to top a pizza in a manner that was more performance art than cooking; I grudgingly topped a pizza with clams; I happily experimented with smoked salmon. I finally found my mainstay in the same recipe with which I started.  It’s the basic thin-crust Napoletano, but it really is nothing short of perfection.

Getting started
Whenever a friend begins to cook, I always give them a copy of “A New Way To Cook” (Artisan, $40). Sally Schneider’s comprehensive cookbook is designed to be healthy, a fact I often forget, since not a single recipe tastes remotely dietetic.  I used to add Post-its to my favorite recipes — something I stopped doing after one recipient pointed out I had flagged nearly everything.  More than any one recipe, though, Schneider has taught me techniques that allow me to use butter and cream, for instance, in unimaginably tiny quantities for huge results. (I have stopped forcing guests to guess how much butter is in her piecrust. They don’t believe me, anyway.)  I use her methods for steam-sautéing vegetables, pan-searing fish, and soaking French toast even when cooking from less fat-conscious recipes.  The goal of this cookbook is not to eliminate “bad” foods but to eat really, really well — and it more than succeeds.

Goddesses unite
I am far from a domestic goddess. I thank heaven for the word “rustic” every time I bake one of my raggedy looking pies. More than that, though, I thank Nigella Lawson for “How to Be A Domestic Goddess” (Hyperion, $35).  Don’t let the cupcake on the cover fool you — this is a book even for bakers whose arts and crafts skills are lacking.  Baking with Nigella is not about Martha Stewart-style frosting skills, but about feeling warm and cozy. Nigella expects you to lick the bowl.  I pull "Domestic Goddess" out when I need an emotional lift, when I need a foolproof dessert for a dinner party, and when I just want to muck around and make something scrumptious.   —Hannah Meehan Spector

Hannah Meehan Spector is a writer in Los Angeles.

Good mornings
Marion Cunningham’s “The Breakfast Book” (Knopf, $20) doesn’t go for flash, formality or even size. Instead, the humble volume is reminiscent of a friend you’d want to drop in for a weekend visit. The book encourages and comforts. Try blueberry-cranberry bread, warm from the oven. Or homemade granola. Or coffeecake. Even coddled eggs with a batch of Irish oatmeal muffins. The options expand to include breakfast cakes, custards and pies; meat and fish; beverages and even the accompaniments — such as rhubarb-ginger jam — that make breakfast special. Best of all, many of the items you can make will work well for afternoon snacks. Care for a slice of toasted chocolate-walnut butter bread with your coffee?

Seattle snacks
If you've ever wanted to reproduce hungered-for dishes from your favorite restaurant, and actually have them taste like what you’d get from the chef, add “Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen” (Morrow Cookbooks, $30) to your must-buy list. You’ll get Pacific Northwest fusion cooking at its best. Don’t skip the chapters on shopping and ingredients; they’re the keys to authentic reproduction. Recipes from Douglas’ restaurants follow. The ever-popular coconut cream pie? Got it. Lobster and shiitake potstickers? Order up. Some of the recipes — like kazu zuke black cod — are complex or time-consuming, but are completely worth the effort. Douglas has managed to incorporate Seattle’s delicious culinary mix into his dishes. Work your way through his book and you’ll feel like a native by the time you’re done.

Soup's on
For me, the best part of Sheila Lukins' and Julee Rosso's The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook (Workman Publishing, $15.95) can be summed up in three words: "Chicken Noodle Soup." I'd buy the book for this recipe alone. Or the four-cheese macaroni, or the chicken with figs. Even the biscuits — made with molasses and candied ginger — inspire. The book is a seasonal wonder of entertainment-worthy recipes that span multiple cultures. While I prefer cookbooks organized by category instead of theme — I never remember that duck curry is under the chapter "daffodil weekend" – I still rank this cookbook near the top of my list. For helpful sidebars, party tips and consistently great food, it can't be beat.   —Joan Wolfe

Joan Wolfe is an MSNBC.com custom-publishing producer.