The Conran Cookbook

The best cooking depends on a sound knowledge of the raw materials, and the first half of the book is packed with meticulously researched and illustrated information about buying and preparing the vast range of ingredients available today. Over 1,000 illustrations include practical step-by-step photographs to illuminate essential food preparation techniques such as cleaning, filleting and boning fish and meat, making bread, pasta and pastry. Comprehensive cross-referencing makes information easy to find, allowing you to explore any subject from a straight-forward description. The second half of the book includes more than 450 recipes from past and present classics that represent the essence of homecooking.

View other editions of The Conran Cookbook.
View books by Simon Hopkinson, Terence Conran, Caroline Conran.

The must have book for the kitchen - Rated
I have spent hours drooling over this book! When it arrived in the post I was wondering what was in the package because the book was a lot bigger and thicker than I had anticipated.

When it comes to cookery books this one is quite something. Most of today's cookery books seem to be just recipe books and assume you know everything about cooking . . . which of course most of us don't, otherwise why would we be buying them.

Back in the 1950s and early 60s every housewife would have started married life with a cookery book showing her all that was needed to cook traditional meals and showing the different techniques in the kitchen, books like the Radiation Cookery Book or the Main Cookery Book (published for use with gas cookers). Fairly basic books but full of useful information.

The Conran Cookbook has taken this idea and expanded it. The inside cover describes the book as "Taking you from the market place to the plate . . . encompassing everything the home cook needs to know from the essential knowledge necessary to choose and prepare over 1,000 ingredients to equipping the kitchen, planning successful menus and cooking over 450 delicious and nourishing dishes".

A few words are not going to describe to you what this wonderful book entails. The book is split into three main sections, which are:

· The Purchase and Preparation of Food
· Equipment
· Recipes

The most informative section of the book is The Purchase and Preparation of Food which is sub-divided into nine categories:

· Fish and Seafood
· Meat
· Game and Poultry
· Eggs, Dairy Foods, Cooking Fats and Oils
· Grains, Breads, Pasta and Dumplings
· Vegetables
· Fruit and Nuts
· Herbs, Spices and Flavourings
· Coffee, Teas and Tisanes

If you have a question about something to do with food and its cooking you will more than likely find it here. If you have only one cookery book in your kitchen this should be the one.

As you would expect from any book carrying the Conran name, it is beautifully designed and illustrated, as well as been clearly written and easy to follow. You wanted to know about fish? All the main varieties of fish and shellfish are illustrated and there are guides to preparing all the different types, with each guide having step by step photographs showing how it is done. This is the theme throughout the book covering every area of food and its preparation.

It is a mine of information. Not only is it for those new to the art of cooking but also for those who have been cooking for years and are afraid to ask about something for fear of embarrassment.

This would make a great Christmas present or be ideal for newlyweds . . . or better still why not enrich your cooking skills by getting a copy for yourself. It will be a shame to get food stains on it but that is where it is going to be kept, close at hand in the kitchen. Did I forget to mention that there are some great recipes as well?

Larousse Gastronomique, eat your heart out! - Rated
I bought this book a couple of years ago and find myself reading it as you would a novel.Its a reference book but also a very good cookbook. Tonnes of information to appeal to people who live to eat and appreciate GOOD food.

The basics are covered. Whole chapters dedicated to the buying and preparation of foods. Meat, fish, vegetables, rice, oils etc. all the food groups are in there. No really, it is interesting! Later on in the book come the recipies.

Technically, as a "cook for pleasure" you could manage on this one book alone as your kitchen reference section.

Then, via a very clever reference method, you can flip from the preparation page to the relevent section with the appropriate recipe, of which there are loads of good ones, all nationallities(or you can just go straight to the recipe section if the tech stuff's bores you).If I'm struggling thinking of what to do with produce I bought from the supermarket, because it looked nice or it was in season(thierfore cheap)!Or I just simply want to know what something I've never heard of is, 9 times out of 10 this book will have the answer.I also own Larousse Gastronomique, brilliant as it may be, for us mere mortal cooks, Conran is probably more appropriate.