Thank you for telling me about the different cookbooks you rely on for basic cooking information. I was struck by a few trends in the answers: North Americans - regardless of whether Canadian or American - tended to use the same classic texts as each other. Brits hit all the extremes, from Mrs. Beaton's, which predates all the North American offerings, but with a heavy sample of other cookbooks, new from generation to generation, up to quite recent additions to the fold, with Mrs. Beaton's and Delia being the most frequently mentioned. N.A. has more modern additions, but I'd already mentioned How to Cook Everything (1998) in the post, so perhaps its users refrained from responding because of that.

North American Basic, All-purpose Cookbooks

• The Joy of Cooking
  
• The Kitchen Companion
  
• The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
  
• Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
  
• Betty Crocker
  
• Elizabeth David
  
• James Beard
  
• Julia Child
  
• A Maida Heatter cookbook
  
• The Settlement Cookbook
  
• The Original Moosewood Cookbook (veggie friendly)
  
• A Roz Denny vegetarian cookbook
  
• Comfort Food
  
• How to Cook Everything

British Basic, All-purpose Cookbooks

• Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management
  
• Marguerite Patten, Everyday Cookbook
  
• The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson
  
• Good Housekeeping cookbooks
  
• Pauper's Cookbook (1970s)
  
• (Prue) Leith's Cookery Bible
  
• The Complete Cookery Book
  
• Delia

Other Recommended Highly Versatile Cookbooks

• Larousse Practique
  
• Reader's Digest's The Cookery Year (British, but listed by someone living in the US, so not sure where to list)
  
• Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking
  
• The co-op cookbook: Vår kokbok (Swedish staple)
  
• Silver Spoon (Il cucchiaio d'argento; Italian staple, 50s style, recently translated into English)
  
• The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors
  
• Rachael Ray's 30-minute books