Recommended Cookbooks

I posted this morning on Tumblr about making waffles for the kids, and afterwards it occurred to me that I could share a list of my recommended cookbooks, since a good cookbook saved my butt today. So far I have four that I really think everyone who cooks should have:

• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (Worldcat): Bittman is a wonderful modern food columnist, and his prose is clean, readable, and entertaining. For most dishes, he starts with a good basic recipe and then offers several interesting variants to try. Even though I’d say the book is aimed at beginners, he doesn’t shy away from technique.
• The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer (Worldcat): One of the original modern omnibus cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking contains essentially an entire home economics course within its covers. Not only will you find clear and concise recipes for nearly every dish you can think of, but also recommendations on equipment that you’ll need, how to stock a pantry, what different cuts of meat mean, how to truss a chicken, and so forth. This is an excellent book for beginners, and a great foundation for learning to cook.
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (Worldcat): This is a classic, a lovingly written tome by an American in Paris who wanted to share what she had learned about the French culinary tradition. These are rich, buttery recipes, some simple, some complex. Julia’s genius was to not dumb down the recipes that called for technique, but instead to describe the technique clearly and precisely. Her recipes will take some practice, but they are well worth it.
• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (Worldcat): If you took the complexity of Julia’s recipes and distilled them down to their essences, you’d come close to Alice’s recipes. Waters’ philosophy is to use the freshest, best ingredients possible, and then let them shine on their own. Some of her recipes are simple enough that you’ll soon be able to dispense with the book and make it on your own, which is a fun experience. Like Bittman, she usually offers a base recipe and then several suggestions on how to vary it.
  

These are some of my favorite, go-to cookbooks. What cookbooks have saved your butts lately?