The 29 Best Cookbooks for Newlyweds of 2021

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We all love picking up takeup sometimes, but one of the many perks of living with your significant other is making and sharing homemade meals together. There's no better time to get cooking than after your wedding—you're settling in, and are testing out all the new cookware and kitchen gadgets from your registry! Whether the two of you are seasoned home chefs or just starting out in the kitchen, cookbooks can offer you step-by-step guides to producing all sorts of appetizers, entrees, and desserts. You'll start to collect an arsenal of favorite recipes that you can whip out for everything from romantic date nights to family brunches.

If you need to master the basics, like poaching an egg or roasting a chicken, you’ve got it. Unleash your inner pastry chef? There’s something for that too. Inspiration for hosting a party with 30 of your closest friends? Enter simple hors d'oeuvres that will steal the show. If you want to experiment with something new to you—whether it's modernist cuisine, Asian ingredients, or cleaner eating—there are tried-and-true resources out there to make those dreams a reality.

Here, our list of the best cookbooks for newlyweds.

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Best Heirloom Classic: The Joy of Cooking

You might already have a beat-up copy of The Joy of Cooking—one of the most robust manuals for the kitchen—but this gorgeous leather-bound copy really takes the cake. Think of it as a new family heirloom.

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Best Wedding Gift: The Newlywed Cookbook

The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and for Each Other — Courtesy of Amazon

What’s better for couple’s cooking than a book based solely on recipes for newlyweds? Check out Sarah Copeland’s inventive, easy-to-execute dishes that are perfect for a pair.

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Best for Basics: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking — Courtesy of Amazon

You may have seen the Netflix show based on chef Samin Nosrat’s modern cooking manual. In both, she focuses on how mastering four aspects of food—salt, fat, acid, and heat—will make you the ultimate at-home chef.

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Best for Laid-back Dinner Parties: Dining In

Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes — Courtesy of Amazon

This book is for anyone who fears staying at home to cook is boring while going out to a restaurant is not. Food writer and Instagram celebrity Alison Roman shares simple recipes for restaurant-caliber dishes that prove staying in is more glam than going out.

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Best for the Instant Pot: The Instant Pot Bible

If you registered for an Instant Pot, you definitely need this manual. It's going to teach you how to cook everything from a simple soup to an elaborate one-pot chicken dinner.

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Best for Farm to Table Food: Six Seasons

This comprehensive book will change the way you think about vegetables. McFadden, the genius chef behind Ava Gene’s in Portland, Oregon, has crafted original, farm-fresh recipes that highlight seasonal ingredients—the perfect choice for an al fresco dinner party.

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Best for Entertaining: Batch Cocktails

The secret to stress-free cocktail party? Delicious specialty drinks that are made ahead of time in big batches, leaving more time for mingling instead of mixing.

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Best for #Couplegoals: Cooking for Jeffrey

Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook — Courtesy of Amazon

If Ina Garten’s dishes work for Jeffrey, her husband of nearly 50 years, they’re bound to be spot on for your significant other too. In this cookbook by the Food Network star, all the couple’s favorite dishes are featured.

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Best for Healthy Food: Whole Food Cooking Every Day

This book is a perfect choice if you're looking to add more healthy dishes to your cooking repertoire. The nutrient-rich, delicious recipes make cutting back on gluten, refined sugar and dairy that much easier.

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Best for Weeknight Meals: Half Baked Harvest Super Simple

Popular food blogger Teighan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest launched her second cookbook, a collection of simple and quick—but always delicious—dishes that are perfect for busy couples.

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Best for Israli Food: Jerusalem

Every single one of London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi's many cookbooks has something great to offer, from creative vegetarian dishes to Middle Eastern-inspired sweets. This one, based on the food of his home city, Jeruselum, is chock-full of flavorful dishes, from herby hummus to savory turkey meatballs.

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Best Coffee Table Book: Foxfire Living

Foxfire Living: Design, Recipes and Stories from the Magical Inn in the Catskills — Curtesy of Amazon

The Catskills inn (and popular wedding destination) launched a cookbook/living guide inspired by their rustic surroundings, farm-to-table cuisine, and laidback design. We’re all in for the hosting tips combined with easy and delicious recipes for cocktails, including mint bitters, and dishes, such as thyme and cheddar biscuits and bison ragu.

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Best for Family Gatherings: Magnolia Table

Leave it to Chip and Joanna Gaines to give us a stellar collection of recipes for getting the whole family together, whether it's two people or twenty. The comfort food recipes are sure to be crowd-pleasers—we’re all about the chicken pot pie.

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Best Old-School Classic: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

No kitchen is complete without this Julia Child tome. In it, you’ll find instructions, recipes, and illustrations for more than 500 dishes, snacks, and desserts.

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Best for Creative Inspiration: Modernist Cuisine

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking — Courtesy of Amazon

This award-winning, 6-volume set fuses revolutionary food photography with the science of cooking. This massive collection includes inventive recipes for everything from a simple chicken broth to molecular gastronomy-inspired dishes.

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Best for Mexican Food: Made in Mexico

Made in Mexico: The Cookbook — Courtesy of Amazon

The chef behind contemporary Mexican restaurant Hecho en Dumbo, Danny Mena put together this collection of dishes—from street food to desserts—inspired by his childhood in Mexico City. If you’re one for guacamole and churros, this is the cookbook for you.

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Best Unexpected Collaboration: From Crook to Cook

From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen — Courtesy of Amazon

Yes, Snoop Dogg launched a cookbook to tailwind off the success of his food show with Martha Stewart, Snoop & Martha’s Potluck Dinner Party. Here you’ll find everything from fried chicken to gin and juice, and it may (or may not) call for a secret ingredient.

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Best for Unusual Desserts: Momofuku Milk Bar

Momofuku Milk Bar: A Cookbook — Courtesy of Amazon

Pastry chef Christina Tosi shares the secrets behind the famous sweets that have gained her a cult following. Think birthday cake truffles, cereal milk ice cream, and everyone's favorite, Crack Pie.

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Best for Indian Food: Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking

The grand dame of Indian cooking in America, Madhur Jaffrey is the go-to resource if you want to learn how to cook your very own Dal Makhani, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Carrot Halva.

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Best for Science Lovers: The Food Lab

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science — Courtesy of Barnes & Noble

Forget most things grandma taught you. This book delves into the science behind how to cook things well, including how to get the perfect crust on a rare steak. It dispels some old-school myths and offers new, and simple, techniques to up your kitchen game.

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Best for Scandinavian Food: Aska

Fredrik Berselius holds two Michelin stars at Aska, his restaurant in Brooklyn, so it’s no wonder his sleek cookbook is just as discerning. Rooted in his Scandanavian heritage, the text feels like Nordic design-meets-coffee-table book, and is just as beautiful in a living space as it is open on the kitchen counter.

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Best for Comfort Food: The Dude Diet Dinnertime

Popular blogger and chef Serena Wolf admits we all love our “dude food” sometimes—wings, burgers, mac and cheese and other not-so-healthy treats. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be loaded with grease and preservatives. In this cookbook, she gives us plenty of “cleaned up” versions that are better for you, without sacrificing flavor.

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Best for Learning Skills: Jacques Pepins’ Complete Techniques

This illustrated guide will literally walk you through the steps to make all the basics, like poached eggs, sourdough bread, plenty of French sauces, and even a puffy meringue.

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Best for Southern Food: Whiskey in a Teacup

Actress Reece Witherspoon just may be the hostess with the mostess. She shares her favorite recipes, riffs on entertaining at home, and dishes—no pun intended—on plenty of Southern food secrets.

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Best for Ice Cream: Salt and Straw Ice Cream Book

You didn’t think you needed a cookbook dedicated to ice cream until now. Scoop up the recipes behind the cult-worthy Portland ice cream shop’s decadent flavors—think sea salt with caramel ribbons, honey lavender, or butter-roasted chestnut.

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Best for Italian Food: Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine

Lidia Bastianich partners with her daughter, Tanya, on this comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide to Italian food. You’ll be whipping up hand-rolled gnocchi and bolognese sauce in no time.

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Best for Asian Food: Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes: The First Cookbook from the Cult Food Magazine — Courtesy of Amazon

Chef and Momofuku founder David Chang’s now-defunct—and much beloved—food journal has lived on in this killer cookbook. It’s filled with many of the Asian recipes from the magazine.

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Best For Detoxing: Clean Eats

Clean Eats: Over 200 Delicious Recipes to Reset Your Body’s Natural Balance and Discover What It Means to be Truly Healthy — Courtesy of Goop

Cardiologist and detox specialist Dr. Alejandro Junger has put together a collection of vegetarian-focused, paleo-friendly and grain-free recipes to improve your health and wellness, one meal at a time.

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Best for Spanish Food: Tapas

Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America — Courtesy of Amazon

If you love Spanish food, the recipes of José Andrés will become your go-to resource for recreating those favorite dishes at home. The chef has shown Americans how to eat Spanish food, so it’s no wonder that this iconic cookbook, focused on tapas, is still a winner nearly 15 years later.

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