Cookbook Recommendations

COOKBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

We are frequently asked to provide a list of cookbooks that will be helpful for individuals and families making dietary changes and looking for more healthy options. The following books come with our recommendation and they all offer some different ideas. Our ultimate goal is to provide you with the tools necessary to create a diet that does NOT rely upon processed foods, and instead emphasizes traditional foods and traditional preparation methods. Our meal should be rewarding, furthermore our diet should not rely on “snacking” as a rule. I believe our diets should complement our lifestyle and provide optimum health. As said by Hippocrates about 2,400 years ago, ”Let Food Be Your Medicine.”

NOURISHING TRADITIONS
By Sally Fallon, Pub. By Promotion Publishing, 1995 (800-231-1776)
The most enlightening book we’ve found about the traditional ways of maintaining health through foods. With in depth discussions about the nutritional implications of eating food prepared in traditional ways versus contemporary nutrient deplete, disease causing processed foods. Highly recommended.

THE JOY OF COOKING
By Irma Rombauer, Has been in publication longer than most of us have been around
[Must buy a pre-1980 copy] This is an old standby with information that has accumulated over several lifetimes, as much a history of food as a recipe book. The older addition has more traditional cooking methods that worked several generations ago. It is subtitled, “A Compilation Of Reliable Recipes With An Occasional Culinary Chat”

GOOD MAINE FOOD
By Marjorie Mosser; Pub. by Down East Books, 1939
This is really one of my favorites for practical and user-friendly local recipes. It even includes a month of daily diets used back in the Early 1900’s in a typical Maine household. This book was published in 1939 and never revised or altered. Brilliant.

The Best of Gourmet
By Ruth Reichl
The big yellow book that was many years in the making. Several recipes are top-notch and all are relatively simple to prepare. Tends to use traditional fats and oils in recipes. Great resource for great recipes.

THE NEW BASICS
By Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
The best description for this book is that it is the current day Joy of Cooking for the Silver Palate crowd. Very easy to read (as opposed to the sometimes historical language in the Original Joy of Cooking), and has some of the greatest recipes our kitchen has seen.

Real Food
By Nina Plank.
This book is a well-written essay about real food written by a journalist who objectively dispels many common dietary myths. The result is an easy to read essay on “What to Eat and Why.”

Diabetes Diet
By Richard Bernstein, MD
Bernstein’s successful program for diabetes management is an excellent resource for those that need to follow a very low carbohydrate diet.

Visit Dr. Maurer’s website FatBackDiet.com for information about food and wellness.