Americans have passed recipes down for generations. A love for preserving flavors both familiar and exotic is a part of our culture. And while it is true that in our fast-paced times, we are cooking less and less, when we do pick up a cookbook, we want it to be filled with recipes and information on which we can rely. It is difficult to narrow our recommendation of must-have  cookbooks of all time down to just ten. After all, name a well-known chef and we will show you his or her book (or books!)

But as we reflected on this daunting task, ten cookbooks definitely rose to the top. They represent every category of cooking we could seek to find in a cookbook, from the preservation of tradition, to the technique of professional chefs, to an entire manual dedicated to celebrating a single ingredient.

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