Ben Starr

If I could rely on only one cookbook for the rest of my life, this would be it. Half recipe book (and each recipe is exhaustively tested and modified to produce an audience-tested PERFECT rendition) and half reference book on mastering the 50 most common cooking techniques and skills, this book is sheer perfection.

Similar to The Science of Good Cooking, Michael Ruhlman takes you on a journey through 20 basic cooking principles that, once you've mastered, will elevate your cooking skill to the level of a professional chef. Half reference and half recipe book, it is indispensable!

The first masterpiece from America's favorite food geek, this book changed my life as it helped me understand the chemistry and physics of what is happening inside food as it cooks. Again, part reference book and part recipe book, Brown explains the science behind cooking principles like brining or searing, and then recipes that perfect illustrate and execute these principles. And in true AB style, the chemistry and physics mumbo-jumbo is explained in a whimsical and simplified manner that anyone can understand.

Again, a book that is half reference and half recipes! Read this book and you won't have to use recipes any more. A handful of simple ratios reduce the complex mathematics behind cooking into an easy-to-remember set of numbers that will have you whipping up pie crust, fresh pasta, delicate custards, or perfect vinaigrette without ever having to crack a cookbook or reach for the internet.

Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. Outside of my top 4, which are just as much reference as they are recipe, this is the only strict-recipe cookbook I'd have if I could pick only one. America's Test Kitchen is in the business of exhaustively testing and perfecting master-recipes for all the American classics, from lasagna to Key lime pie to homemade French fries to fried chicken. They have a legion of test cooks that toil in their massive kitchens, finding the PERFECT way to make each dish, then doing blind taste tests with both chefs and everyday folks, to make sure they've created the best possible version. This massive compendium of their history will consistently win you major "WOWs" from your friends and family, wondering how on earth you pulled off a cheesecake better than their Grandma's. Absolutely a must.

Julia churned out plenty of cookbooks in her lifetime, but this one is my favorite. So perfectly illustrated, with step-by-step photos on how to debone or truss a chicken, how to "French" green beans and store fresh greens. And her editors didn't interfere with her conversational writing style, so as you read, you will literally hear that distinctive voice of hers, as if she was sitting across the kitchen drinking a glass of wine and guiding you through your first filleting of a whole fish. A classic that will never be obsolete.

This book is as close as we'll ever get to a master compendium of humankind's knowledge and practices of fermentation. Katz has wandered the globe, documenting rapidly-vanishing ancient recipes, traditions, and methods of fermenting everything from vegetables and fruits to meat and dairy products. I could never live without this cookbook. Fermentation increases not only the flavor of ingredients, but their nutritional value and bioavailability. While the advent of refrigeration has rendered fermentation unnecessary, because we no longer need to store things at room temperature, our bodies yearn for fermented foods as much as our palates enjoy them. Katz teaches you to make sauerkraut, yogurt, wine, homemade sodas, and a litany of other things your mind has never even dreamed of.

3 decades ago, Alice Waters pioneered the farm-to-table trend that only now is a buzzword that is widely familiar. She revealed a great secret to Americans - you can't make truly amazing food without truly amazing ingredients, and chefs and cooks often get in the way of those ingredients with their techniques. Her legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, is still one of the world's greatest restaurants, simply because they maintain close relationships with their farmers so they have the finest of ingredients, prepared lovingly and simply, so that they truly shine. This cookbook series teaches you to back off and let the ingredients be the star, rather than you.

For those who are baking-challenged, in true Cook's Illustrated fashion, this cookbook provides insanely tested and perfected "supreme" versions of every classic baked good, from dinner rolls to cheesecakes to biscuits to cookies. You'll never get better results with any other recipe, I promise. Everyone should have this book on their shelf, ESPECIALLY if you're scared of baking.

I list this last because I NEVER use any of the recipes in it, but I look at it all the time. Get the oldest copy, the earliest edition you can find. It's a piece of history, and will remind you of whence we came! The older copies have instructions like how to skin a squirrel, and how best to cook a possum. If you choose to use any of the recipes, it will teach you that you shouldn't trust most recipes. Half a teaspoon of salt in a casserole? For decades, this was the go-to cooking reference for our nation, which is why our cuisine was scorned the world over. But it was the life's work of Rombauer, and the continuing work of her daughter, and is of priceless anthropological value. It should be on every cookbook shelf in the nation.