Cook

The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition
$35.00
I'm a fair cook, of the country meat and potatoes and apple pie variety. Well, include Italian dishes in that. And Tex-Mex. And catfish, and a few other things. I was a charter subscriber nearly thirty years ago to Cook's Illustrated and there's seldom an issue goes by that I don't find one of two things I immediately want to fix. And I always enjoy the methodological and sidebar discussions even for dishes that are not to my taste. When the first edition of this now-hefty volume was published in 1999, I bought a copy immediately and began filling it with post-its. It quickly became my kitchen Bible and its tried and true renditions of all the classic American recipes became the canon. But it contained only ("only"!) 500 recipes. The second edition is twice the size of the first, more than 1,000 recipes, all following the same test-to-destruction methods Christopher Kimball and his staff have made famous. (I should note that some have been reworked and revised/improved, and a few deleted, mostly for updated nutritional reasons.) And "best" is right. It's not just hyperbole. As he says in the Introduction, "We mean simply the best version of a particular recipe (in a particular style) that we can develop in our kitchen through our testing process." Put their version of anything up against one from any other book or magazine, and the CI version will nearly always prove superior. And they'll always tell you why, so the magazine and this book are also an ongoing educational process. Open the volume at random and you'll probably see at least one title on any given page that will start you salivating: Home-Corned Beef Brisket and Cabbage, New England Style. Pozole Rojo. Buttermilk Pancakes. Spicy Sichuan Noodles with Pork. Boston Baked Beans. Breakfast Strata with Spinach and Gruyere. Cinnamon-Raisin Bagels. Blueberry Pie. And on and on and on. And nowhere will you find weird ingredients or expensive single-tasker utensils. There are thirty-two chapters, from Appetizers to Puddings and Custards, and there are frequent illustrated mini-lessons on such topics as slicing an onion, rolling out pizza dough, deglazing, and slicing a T-bone steak. And for all this, the price is rather less than two best-selling novels. It's the perfect wedding or Christmas gift for the cooking (or eating) enthusiast; I've given away at least half a dozen copies in the past five years. I own three shelves of cookbooks -- but this is the one I would take to a desert island.

W���sthof Classic 6-Inch Cook's Knife
$125.00
I have a decent collection of W���sthof Classic and Henckels Pro-S knives, and I do a lot of home cooking. This is my favorite knife in the collection. I've had it for over 6 years and its still sharp after almost daily use with just weekly honings. Its the perfect size, weight, balance, and thickness for most prep jobs ranging from cutting meat to slicing vegetables. I prefer it over the Henckels similar knife because it is lighter. I rarely use the 8 in chefs knife anymore except for cutting up a large roast for soup.

How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition), Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
$35.00
Just as others have said, the name says it all. It pretty much contains everything or at least a variation of everything. If there was no internet and I could only choose one cookbook this would most likely be it. Those moments when I think, "Hey I want to make some ______." this is the first place I look. About 97% of the time it's in there, or at least something close. The book also contains some basic info for each major category which is great for actually learning how to cook, not just following direction.

Cook's Illustrated
$35.70
We've subscribed for years and along with the companion "Best Recipe" cookbook it's my most trusted resource. The dear, departed Gourmet mag and cookbook run a close second. Some people get all worked up over Chris K to which I say relax already. He doesn't write the recipes and if you ignore his letter from the publisher you won't know he's there.