My Culinary Bible

Every chef has their cooking bible of sorts, right? For many, that cooking bible, or favorite cookbook, might be "The Joy of Cooking" or Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." For me, it is "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook." Seven years ago, my Mom gave me Marion Cunningham's great classic cookbook for my birthday and since then, it has served as my everyday cooking guide. Like "The Joy of Cooking," arguably the first user-friendly cookbook, Fannie Farmer is complete with helpful cooking and baking tips, liquid and dry measure equivalents, temperature and oven heat definitions, and of course a comprehensive glossary of every culinary term imaginable.

What I like most about the cookbook is its simplicity. There are no frills to the recipes, no complicated steps, no laborious preparations for a simple roast chicken – just easy to follow, simple, but perfectly tested recipes. The recipes are also basic enough that any dish could be doctored to your own sophistication.

This weekend, Fannie and I bonded over pumpkin bread. I wanted to bake this weekend, rather than cook, and as it was a glorious Fall weekend in the Big Apple, I decided on pumpkin bread. Fannie's recipe, which calls for flour, sugar, baking soda, a pinch of salt, pumpkin puree, a medley of aromatic spices, a tad of vegetable oil and ground walnuts could not be more simple. In no time, my pumpkin bread batter was assembled and my kitchen was taking on the smells of something far better than City living.

Of course no dish in my apartment is made without drama, and there is always some culinary twist (like an oven that takes three times as long to cook anything), but Fannie's simple pumpkin bread recipe was far from tasting simple. After three hours of baking (I could have baked the bread faster using my hair dryer), the bread was perfectly pumpkiney, perfectly seasoned and perfectly delicious. I owe it all to my Fannie Farmer Cookbook!

Until next time...