The Year’s Notable Cookbooks (Published 2011) (2024)

It’s hard to do justice to all the great cookbooks published this year, but here are some of the Dining staff’s favorites:

ANCIENT GRAINS FOR MODERN MEALS by Maria Speck (Ten Speed Press, $29.99). Yes, part of the appeal is the title: “Ancient” sounds so much more interesting than “whole.” But Ms. Speck’s skill as a researcher, and her dual heritage in Greece and Germany, enrich the text — and not just inflavorful recipes like bulgur with butter-roasted almonds and cinnamon, and brown rice cakes with pecorino cheese, olives and sage. Refreshingly, she covers — and then dismisses — the subject of eating whole grains for health in the first half-dozen pages. She’s interested in flavor first, texture second and history along with both. JULIA MOSKIN

COOKING IN THE MOMENT by Andrea Reusing (Clarkson Potter, $35). Most chefs aren’t writers, but Ms. Reusing, of Lantern restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., is a compelling exception. She built her reputation in the kitchen with ingenious combinations of Asian and Southern ingredients. Here she offers a vision of modern domestic life that includes chickens and small children, local bok choy and carnitas — and it’s written so nicely that you don’t hate the visionary. JULIA MOSKIN

THE FOOD OF SPAIN by Claudia Roden (Ecco, $39.99). The first hundred pages of this doorstop by a prolific and serious food writer and Sefardita, or Jew of Spanish origin, offer a comprehensive history of the evolution of Spanish food. They are followed by a collection of clear recipes divided into a dozen sections, starting with tapas, and made accessible by inviting the cook to use canned beans and stocks. My guests raved about the thick spinach and chickpea soup, giant Galician tuna empanada in flaky pastry and lamb stew with honey. FLORENCE FABRICANT

THE HOMESICK TEXAN COOKBOOK by Lisa Fain (Hyperion, $29.99). The author was never told in her Texas elementary school that if she ordered queso or kolaches or chalupas once she left home, she’d get only a plateful of disappointment. Transplanted to Manhattan, she found out. In her Dr Pepper-deficient environment, Ms. Fain taught herself to conjure the flavors she grew up on, and the fruits of her research make up this appetite-rousing book. PETE WELLS

MODERNIST CUISINE: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF COOKING by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet (The Cooking Lab, $625). Dr. Myhrvold, a former Microsoft chief of technology, and his merry band of lab assistants have published an epic account of all cooking methods known to humankind — from primitive clambake to immersion circulator. The recipes are likely to drive home cooks mad, but the photography is both revolutionary and museum-worthy. JULIA MOSKIN

A NEW TURN IN THE SOUTH by Hugh Acheson (Clarkson Potter, $35). Though he is the chef behind acclaimed restaurants in Atlanta and Athens, Ga., Mr. Acheson thinks and cooks like a civilian. His modern, Southern-leaning recipes are models of clarity and simplicity, and reading them makes you feel at home: the book begins with lemonade (spruced up with mint, rosemary and vanilla) and ends with chocolate-chunk oatmeal cookies. PETE WELLS

ODD BITS: HOW TO COOK THE REST OF THE ANIMAL by Jennifer McLagan (Ten Speed Press, $35). Sweetbreads with orange and cuminmayseem like something that only the mysterious wizardry of high-end chefs could produce. But with this book on offal guiding you through a Sunday’s worth of soaking and poaching these truly odd bits, they can be an elegant dinner on a Monday night. Light the candles, pour the wine, bring out the good silver; you’ll think you’re in a restaurant. NICK FOX

PLENTY: VIBRANT RECIPES FROM LONDON’S OTTOLENGHI by Yotam Ottolenghi (Chronicle Books, $35). This collection of vegetarian recipes has been avidly taken up by those who shun meat, but it will be an eye-opener for carnivores. (Mr. Ottolenghi is one himself.) With their cosmopolitan influences and unfamiliar seasonings — stock up on sumac — these dishes make a compelling case that vegetables hold far more interest than meat for cooks and eaters alike. PETE WELLS

RUSTICA: A RETURN TO SPANISH HOME COOKING by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish (Chronicle Books, $35). Beautifully photographed though somewhat randomly organized, this book, by an Australian chef who was born in Spain, covers key regions and ingredients with many alluring home-style recipes: crisp baby shrimp fritters, fat green beans with garlic confit, roasted cod zapped with hot garlic and chile dressing and cheesecake with a caramelized top. FLORENCE FABRICANT

SEOULTOWN KITCHEN: KOREAN PUB GRUB TO SHARE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS by Debbie Lee (Kyle Books, $24.95) isn’t a comprehensive guide to the cuisine, but her beer-friendly recipes are an easy way in. And once you make the pimento-scallion glaze — part of several dishes and delicious alone on burgers, cold shrimp, eggs — it won’t seem an inconvenience to go to a Korean store for the thick crimson gochujang chile paste you’ll need. While you’re there, you can pick up magnolia berry syrup for Ms. Lee’s chicken meatballs, soju for her chile chicken wings and sweet rice flour for her jeon-style shrimp cake. (If you give a moose a mandu....) NICK FOX

SIMPLY GREAT BREADS by Daniel Leader (Taunton, $22). When did bread become so complicated? Too many new bread books are thick with words, expounding on dry topics like the differences between a levain and a poolish. This slim volume, perfect for novices, contains just 28 recipes that manage to cover a lot of ground, from English muffins to ciabatta to chocolate babka. JULIA MOSKIN

THE SWEETS OF ARABY by Leila Salloum Elias and Muna Salloum (Countryman Press, $21.95). The authors of this intriguing cookbook are sisters of Syrian ancestry who plumbed the text of the “Tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights” for food references, then adapted recipes from medieval manuscripts to accompany 25 of Scheherazade’s stories. Most of the confections, made with nuts, phyllo, dates, saffron, honey and sesame oil, will be discoveries for those who know only baklava: many are fried, and even the halvah, perfumed with rose water, is unusual — a firm pistachio jelly. FLORENCE FABRICANT

TENDER: A COOK AND HIS VEGETABLE PATCH by Nigel Slater (Ten Speed Press, $40). The organizing principle is the tiny farm Mr. Slater tends in the 40-foot yard behind his house in London. He has seeded the book with tips for urban gardeners: how to weed asparagus (by hand), what to do when foxes take up residence (get used to them). Most recipes are in a Mediterranean mode, and all bear Mr. Slater’s impatience for nonsense and his unerring instinct for what’s good to eat. PETE WELLS

TRULY MEXICAN by Roberto Santibañez with J. J. Goode and Shelley Wiseman (John Wiley & Sons, $35) focuses on sauces, with chapters on salsas, guacamoles, adobos and moles. So rather than create composed dishes, you can use his unusual red peanut sauce or deep, rich adobo D. F., made with chiles and Mexican chocolate, to dress rotisserie chicken. Try a few more recipes from Mr. Santibañez — Rosa Mexicano’s culinary director before he opened Fonda in Brooklyn — and anchos, pasillas and guajillos could become regulars in your cupboard. NICK FOX