Recently, tired of seeing cookbooks not just in burgeoning bookcases, but all over the house, my wife suggested it was time for me to pare down my collection.
I agreed, but trying to determine which of my cookbooks were essential and should be kept and which I could get rid of was not an easy task.
Sure, some decisions were easy. For example, do I need an Oreo cookbook containing dozens of recipes using the crushed cookie as an ingredient, none of which rival simply eating a couple of Oreos with a glass of milk? No. Do I need a cookbook devoted entirely to polenta? Probably not. Do I need a half dozen books on pie? Well, yes, actually.
My idea of essential cookbooks is admittedly idiosyncratic. Yet there is one book that I suspect most cooks would not want to be without, a truly essential cookbook. Julia Child thought so. She called it “the one book of all cookbooks in English that I would have on my shelf if I could have but one.” She was talking about the Joy of Cooking.
I’ve acquired several different editions of Joy over the years and they are staying on my bookshelf, joined by the latest version. I believe it is the best in the book’s almost one hundred year history.
The Joy of Cooking is something of the odd duck in cookbook publishing. It’s a general interest book, has virtually no glossy photographs, and it was not written by a celebrity. But it has endured for decades because its authors treat readers not as pupils, but as friends.
Thus, what I learned from combing through my stacks of cookbooks is that even in the internet age, there is still a place for cookbooks, the genre Joseph Conrad said has no other purpose than to “increase the happiness of mankind.”
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Blitzkuchen (Lightning Cake)
Called Lightning Cake because you can make it in a flash, this recipe is adapted from the current edition of the Joy of Cooking, but goes back to the original, published in 1931.
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sliced almonds
4 teaspoons sugar
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in lemon zest and juice. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into butter mixture just until combined. Transfer to greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Combine almonds and sugar and sprinkle evenly over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests clean. Cool 10 minutes and dust top with powdered sugar.
