My Cookbook Collection | Kiersten Hickman

I know the Internet is a huge resource for food and recipes. But when I want to learn new cooking concepts or I’m looking for some cooking inspiration, I’m constantly turning to my collection of cookbooks. They help me to learn new ways to cook things, new flavor combinations, and most importantly, new delicious recipes.

stack of cookbooks with coffee and a notebook

Let me teach you something quick about recipe developers. If you’re making up your own recipe you should never, ever, ever copy someone else’s. While cookbooks are inspiring and teach me new concepts, I do not republish those recipes. Why? Because it’s not my work.

When I make a recipe, I use cooking concepts I learn from books, chefs, and other home cooks, and develop my own recipes and flavors. A lot of the time developing new recipes comes from personal intuition—knowing how something cooks and for how long. You can make a lot of different recipes once you know these different concepts. But it takes a lot of time to learn these things.

Which is why I turn to my books! These books help me to learn all about the art of cooking and trying new things. I learn about pairing foods and flavors for meals, what works well for some types of recipes and what doesn’t, and how particular things cook. So I figured I would share my cookbook collection with all of you.

Are you learning how to cookbook for the first time? Here are the only kitchen supplies you really need—and what I highly recommend.

Here’s what’s in my cookbook collection. I did add some affiliate links to this post, so if you decide to buy, I will add a disclaimer that I make a small commission off of it. Just another small way I make money from this blog so I can continue to give you excellent content week-after-week.

Speaking of cookbooks, did you know I have a free one I give my followers. Click here to get your free cookbook, which comes with 25 dinner recipes and one bonus dessert!

My all-time favorite cookbooks

Here are the list of cookbooks that I consistently turn to again and again.

Betty Crocker’s Good and Easy Cook Book (It’s vintage—buy here)
Bravetart by Stella Parks (buy here)
The Dutch Oven Cookbook by Sharon Kramis & Julie Kramis Hearne (buy here)
Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer & Marion Rombauer Becker (buy here)
The Mac & Cheese Cookbook by Allison Arevalo & Erin Wade (buy here)
Skillet Suppers by Good Housekeeping (buy here)
Sunny-Side Up by Waylynn Lucas (buy here)
The Sriracha Cookbook by Randy Clemens (buy here)

My every-day books

Here are a few of the other every-day cookbooks I use in my collection that I love.

The Dean & Deluca Cookbook by David Rosengarten with Joel Dean & Giorgio DeLuca (buy here)
Eat More Plants by Molly Krebs (buy here)
Gather & Graze by Stephanie Izard (buy here)
Light & Healthy Cooking by Good Housekeeping (buy here)
Mod Mex by Scott Linquist & Joanna Pruess (buy here)
The Newlywed Cookbook by Sarah Copeland (buy here)
Pizza by Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library (buy here)
The Skillet Supper Cookbook by Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen (buy here)
Way to Cook by Cooking Light (buy here)
Will It Waffle? by Daniel Shumksi (buy here)

My vintage cookbook collection

There was a period of time that we loved to collect really vintage cookbooks, and now find ourselves with cookbooks with the craziest recipes we’ve never heard of! Here’s our collection.

Connecticut Cooks (buy here)
Cross Creek Cookery by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (this one is slightly different)
Food for Family Company & Crowd by Jessie Marie DeBoth
Homemade Candy by the food editors of Farm Journal
Hometown Harvest (buy here)
The New Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Restaurants (buy here)
Sherlock Holmes Cookbook by Sean Wright & John Farrell (buy here)
Stew! by Nika Hazelton (buy here)
Super-fast Slow Cooking (buy here)