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Rubbish cook books

Mummycat

I love to cook and have quite a few recipe books, only one of them had a recipe for either flakey or puff pastry and I could find no recipe for rough puff pastry. Several of the books had recipes needing puff pastry, but they all said "shop bought", I don't want to buy it ready made, it's mostly horrible and expensive too, especially in larger quantities, if you can buy it in large quantities, most packs would barely be enough for a couple of pasties.

I get really fed up of recipe books that don't tell you the basics, I might only make puff or flakey pastry once or twice a year so I don't remember the recipes, but why is it so difficult?

  • I think I've got my grandma's copy of The Glasgow Cookery Book that she must have used after leaving school. Saying that, my mum always said that her mother was 'not a cook'. She did a decent roast beef, a good scotch broth, and her shortbread was excellent, but I think that was all she was taught to do at her fancy girls boarding school lol.

  • If you can try and pick up a book called How To Cook Without A Book by Pam Anderson. The fun sounding title is what drew me to it originally but it's actually such a fun book and it does tell you the basics, gives step by step instructions and it's not overwhelming. Not for me anyway.

    It's got this sort handy basic info like on what you can put in the fridge, which I guess that's obvious for a lot of people but not for me. For me it's a lifesaver.

    But for me the winner is how it explains recipes in a simple way and in small text not just 5ml spoonful, it actually explains it as well which I find more useful. It might not be for everyone but this book is one I do highly recommend. Slight smile

  • in reply to Mummycat

    BBCgood food is an excellent source of recipes with no long stories or videos. This includes a lot of technical stuff like rough puff and stuff. 

    The book my family has always used for covering the essentials is Good Housekeeping. It's enormous, and has many different editions, but it has good instructions for all the classics. 

  • in reply to Royston (Roy)

    I did, but I eventually found a recipe in a book so I shall use that instead.

    I don't like looking up stuff like recipes as all to often it's a youtube video and I hate them.

    We did have a book with all the recipes for pastry in them, but somebody has ripped those pages out and now they're lost.

    I'm not a fan of Mrs Beeton, but thanks for the offer

  • When I was in my late teens, my maternal grandmother gifted me a copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Cookery and Household Management, which I consider to be the best cookery book I own. In terms of pastry, it lists the recipes for:

    Butter crust pastry, Choux pastry, Common sweet short crust pastry, Filo pastry, Flaky pastry, Hot water crust pastry, Puff pastry, Rough puff pastry, Short crust pastry, Suet crust pastry, and Wholemeal short crust pastry.

    If you would like me to provide you with the recipe for Rough puff pastry, please let me know Mummycat.

  • Do you know a recipe for SPAM? I’ve now replied twice to no avail.

  • I did send you a reply and once again it’s gone to Room101. 

  • Have you tried googling puff pastry on your new pooter? It’s not too technical, I often find quite easy to follow recipes with the BBC food recipes.