The 7 Best Cookbooks of 2021
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Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Recipes & Perspectives From the Legendary Pitmaster
Dinner in French—My Recipes by Way of France
The Modern Larder: From Anchovies to Yuzu, a Guide to Artful and Attainable Home Cooking
The Arabesque Table: Contemporary Recipes From the Arab World
Last year at this time, my favorite cookbooks had some pretty distinct themes, placing high value on simplicity and sanity, while occasionally being peppered with something fun to help break out of the doldrums. This year, when we might have started inviting a few vaccinated, boosted guests over for dinner again, it feels like there's a little more desire to cook a fancy meal or fashion a well-made drink.
It's still too early to know how safe it is to venture out and travel, so for this year's list, I've chosen books that try to thread the needle between cooking as a way to explore and learn about the world, while still helping us create some fantastic food in our kitchens.
Be sure to read our other cookbook recommendations, like books to improve your technique in the kitchen, and our list of books to help you get the most out of your Instant Pot, multicooker, or slow cooker.
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- Courtesy of Penguin Random House
Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Recipes & Perspectives From the Legendary Pitmaster
By Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie (Clarkson Potter)This is the first major cookbook from a Black pitmaster, something shamefully overdue. Teaming up with food writer and filmmaker Lolis Eric Elie, the duo have created something inspiring. My favorite part is the huge section on how to build a barbecue pit in your backyard—one that's large enough to cook the book's first recipe, a whole hog. Don't worry, there's still plenty for regular home grills. I also liked to see how if you have a few of Scott's rubs and sauces on hand, they form building blocks that help you make many of the recipes, from smoked prime rib to a lemony tequila cocktail with a bit of vinegary barbecue sauce subbing in magically where honey and simple syrup might have gone. Last summer, I made ribs, pork T-bones, burgers, marinated chicken, and apple hand pies, and for every recipe, I loved Scott's emphasis on technique. Maybe next summer I'll go whole hog.
For more Black barbecue history, which is to say barbecue history, try Arian Miller's book Black Smoke ($30, UNC Press) and keep an eye out for Bludso's BBQ Cookbook coming next spring ($30, Ten Speed Press). For more Black food history, check out Bryant Terry's beautiful new Black Food ($40, 4 Color Books) and the Netflix television series High on the Hog.
- Courtesy of Clarkson Potter
Dinner in French—My Recipes by Way of France
By Melissa Clark (Clarkson Potter)My love of cookbooks comes from my mom, so it was good sign when I noticed that her copy of Dinner in French had scores of Post-It Tabs marking recipes she wanted to make when we were together. Clark recently wrote Dinner in an Instant and its follow-up, Comfort in an Instant, for the Instant Pot crowd, but she and her family have a longstanding love of France and French cuisine, and her 2020 cookbook combines sensibilities from both sides of the pond. (Yes, this book is from last year, but I'm including it here because it's my favorite way to “visit” France without actually climbing onto an airplane.)
The book is a clever spin on Gallic cuisine, with a nod to the occasional need to streamline dinner prep, but still ending up with something that you could imagine eating at a Parisian bistro. Recently, Mom and I made Clark's chicken-liver mousse with bourbon, which we smeared over toasted baguette slices. Next to that, we had savory Gruyère bread, peppered with chunks of ham (or olives) and scallion. We could have made a lunch out of just that, perhaps with her endive-parsley salad, but we set them out for family-dinner appetizers, and they were gone in an instant.
- Courtesy of Roost Books
The Modern Larder: From Anchovies to Yuzu, a Guide to Artful and Attainable Home Cooking
by Michelle McKenzie (Roost Books)If, like me, you've succumbed to the siren call of Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks over the past decade, then, like me, you might have ended up with a lot of exotic-to-you ingredients that were new to your spice drawer. Thanks to Ottolenghi and other authors, I've got dried shrimp and dried lime, kombu and bonito flakes, sumac and schmaltz, and well, you get the picture. With all of these ingredients—staples to some, exotic to me—I feel like I'm always two or three good recipes from incorporating them into my regular mix.
In her new cookbook, McKenzie catalogs 58 ingredients like these from around the world and gives them their due, then provides anywhere between one and a couple dozen recipes to help you spread your wings and make them on the regular. (Thanks to the good folks at Eat Your Books for the tip on this one!)
- Courtesy of Phaidon
The Arabesque Table: Contemporary Recipes From the Arab World
by Reem Kassis (Phaidon)There's a peculiar, near-academic sameness to some of Phaidon's cookbooks, yet Palestinian food and travel writer Reem Kassis' new book somehow fits the mold and pops right out of it. Really though, she had me make a rice-stuffed cabbage pie, which takes a lot of the labor and none of the flavor out of stuffed cabbage. Simply layering the cabbage and the other ingredients into a pie dish, then pouring stock over the top, the rice cooks in the oven, and the whole thing takes much less time and effort than traditional stuffed cabbage.
Arabesque is also a contemporary book, with plenty of vegan and vegetarian offerings, including a kubbeh niyeh made with bulgur, walnuts, and pomegranate molasses. Kassis also offers quick-to-cook dishes and recipes with five ingredients or less. Mostly, in this pandemicky time when travel is restricted or difficult, this book is a food tour through the Arab world with an expert guide.
- Courtesy of Mariner Books
The Art of the Japanese Cocktail; Recipes, Tips, and Techniques From Katana Kitten in NYC and Beyond
by Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)I did not start the year thinking I'd finish it by recommending not one but two books on Japanese cocktails, both created by Japanese-born bartenders with bars in the US, but we're all luckier for it.
First, Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig's Art of the Cocktail is a balance between fun and creativity—a very specific evocation of a night out, even if the Omicron variant keeps us from visiting Urushido's New York City bar, Katana Kitten. The book ranges from a truffle old-fashioned with porcini syrup to a boilermaker composed of a chilly can of Sapporo and a shot of Suntory Toki whisky, to a Crown Heights, Urushido's spin on a Manhattan featuring unaged (clear) corn whisky, genever, Suze, and yuzu bitters. We might not feel comfortable venturing to NYC right now, but flipping through the pages feels like a bit of self-care in book form.
- Courtesy of Clarkson Potter
The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese Traditions, Techniques & Recipes
by Julia Momosé with Emma Janzen (Clarkson Potter)Pair the fun of The Art with the crafted beauty of The Way of The Cocktail, Julia Momosé's ode to the drinks of Japan. Working with writer Emma Janzen, along with photographer Kevin Miyazaki and illustrator Yuko Shimizu, they have created a poetic work that blends technique, museum-worthy beauty, and an ode to the seasons.
At her Chicago bar, Kumiko, the Momosé Manhattan hews closer to the classic than Katana Kitten's version; hers using a rye whiskey, yet grabbing a bit of sweet and bitterness from Pineau des Charentes and Bràulio amaro. The most beautiful drink in the book might be the Delicate Refusal, a liquid metaphor for a cherry tree where a salted flower blossom known as a shiozakura blooms in the glass as the cocktail is poured over it.
- Courtesy of Ten Speed Press
Let's Make Dumplings!
by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan (Ten Speed Press)This "Comic Book Cookbook" looks like it's for kids, but anyone who picks it up will be impressed at how fantastic it is. As someone who spent a lot of time with it for a forthcoming review, I came to love the way it took something potentially difficult like the artful folds of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and turned it into something fun.
There's a bit of idiot chatter coming from chefs about recipes being dead in the time of the smart kitchen, but chef Hugh Amano's recipes and Sarah Becan's illustrations create a space where learning is perhaps easier that it is in a regular recipe. As I made their dumplings from around the world—mostly Asia—my confidence grew and I had fun. Then, after every session, I broke out the chopsticks and I had dinner.
