Best Fall 2020 Cookbooks include at least one you probably can’t live without.

The list of fall 2020 cookbook releases includes some big names in the food world, including my favorite gal, Ina Garten (Ina if you see this, just know that we would be besties if we met IRL. )

Best Fall 2020 Cookbooks

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So, Fall 2020 books.

Actually for a food writer, I don’t have a ton of cookbooks.

I tend to stay in my lane and read baking books but I do have some good cooking books.

Here are my six favorite cookbooks.

Also, and this is no criticism of cookbook authors, but sometimes cookbooks disappoint.

My house is small and there’s limited space on my shelves so if I’m going to buy a cookbook, I want to love it and I want it to be useful.

Out of this crop of Fall 2020 cookbooks, I’ve got the Ina Garten in my shopping cart.

Ina is one of my favorite recipe writers,

I’m assuming she writes her own recipes (?) because her ingredient lists tend to be minimal.

You don’t need a lot of ingredients for a good meal.

One of our favorite meals, an Ina recipe, is grilled tuna steaks.

Fresh tuna steaks, salt, pepper and a bit of oil is all that’s needed.

I think I’ve given my lecture about recipes with lengthy ingredients before.

It’s why I stopped reading Cooking Light magazine.

Enough already.

I think Cooking Light has gotten the memo however.

They came out with a slew of “Five-Ingredient” cookbooks around 2018.

Let Cookbooks Teach You

The best cookbook will teach you techniques you don’t know about.

For example, Irvin Lin in his Marbled, Layered and Swirled cookbook taught me how simple it is to make a fancy looking cookie.

Make two types of dough and smushing a bit of each together to form a two-tone or two-flavor cookie like his recipe for Arnold Palmer Cookies.

Case in point–and don’t laugh this is a really old photo–the recipe for Arnold Palmer Cookies–from his book.

Lin also taught me to scrunch up a piece of parchment paper in a ball to get it to lay flat.

That’s for people who buy their parchment paper in rolls instead of flat sheets.

The flat sheets are a luxury but I go through A Lot Of Parchment Paper so I buy it by the two-roll pack at Sam’s Club.

Back to the cookbooks, I’m also interested in the British baking book.

My dad is British and I only knew his mother when I was a young child.

So, I’m always curious about how British people do things in the kitchen.

I’m in a British baking group on Facebook.

Do you know what I’ve learned about British people and their baking habits? They’re just like us.

New Cookbooks = New Products

The best cookbooks will also introduce you to new products and/or ingredients.

Someone sent me a vegan cookbook to review last winter.

From that one I learned how great it is to buy a container of already minced ginger and keep in the fridge for super fast stir fries.

Believe you me sister, I’m always leery of products containing things like ginger or garlic that are supposed to be used freshly chopped.

I’ve never bought pre-chopped garlic.

But this ginger is something else.

Look for it the next time you’re in the produce aisle.

I make a few chicken dishes with Asian flavors and being able to reach in and just squeeze a tablespoon of ginger has been great.

I don’t mind chopping ginger but when I need to get dinner cooked, it’s just One More Thing, you know?

And if I can skip it, even better.

Speaking of the prepared ginger, I probably wouldn’t use it in a soup or some other fresh application but in a marinade for chicken parts that are going to be thoroughly cooked? I say go for it.

The other cookbook I’m interested in is the drinks one.

I like the idea of a cocktail–a drink with interesting flavors–without alcohol.

I like alcohol but it’s calories I don’t need at 50 with a slowing metabolism.

Plus alcohol really dehydrates me.

Even just one martini and I feel the effects the day after.

Can you relate?

More Recipes

If you like pumpkin in your drinks, you might like this drink.

Of course, if I’m being totally honest with you, I’ll take a slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast over a pumpkin spice scone any day of the week!

Find more recipes in this new crop of Fall Cookbooks.