Do you still have cookbooks? Do you use them?

[Phentex]

I just purged three containers of cookbooks. Many I loved and used but haven't looked at in years. I am keeping my original Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker, Julia Child, Mark Bittman, my grandmother's Italian cookbook from her church and a few more recent vegan/Mediterranean cookbooks. I also have a notebook with bound recipes that are old favorites and some I've found on the internet, including from this forum. lol

What do you have? What do you use?

[Ocelot II]

1. A Joy of Cooking from 1946. I don't use it much, but it was my mother's,

so no matter what I might do with the others, I'm keeping it. I suppose I could ditch some of the others since I don't do much cooking any more. Some of those old church lady cookbooks have some good desserts.

[Phentex]

9. Mine is sentimental too

but I used it a lot and still have pages bookmarked with some tried and true

[OnDoutside]

2. Yes I do, but not a lot. I have a couple my mother had

and a number I bought, the best of which was the Ballymaloe Cookery Book by Darina Allen. It's like an encyclopedia for bases etc.

[Phentex]

10. I haven't heard of that one

everybody needs a good basic cookbook

[OnDoutside]

59. The Ballymaloe Cookery School has a very good reputation

It's just outside Cork City in the Republic of Ireland. The Allens have been multi generational.

https://www.ballymaloecookeryschool.ie/

[spooky3]

3. I tossed a few last year. I kept Better Homes and Gardens

Because I use it regularly. I kept a few others for sentimental reasons. I find that recipes online are hit or miss—despite good reviews.

[Phentex]

18. I can safely say the vegan recipes are

definitely hit or miss! But I printed the good ones and make notes as needed

I can kill time just by reading the reviews of online recipes. There's usually some good tips.

[biophile]

28. And Betty Crocker cookbook

Love them both. Basic cooking, which is pretty much where I start and then customize

[dhol82]

4. I still have all my cookbooks

Don’t use them much anymore since it’s just so much easier to go online and do a search. However, they are available for perusing and getting ideas.

I am a book nut and can’t dispose of my cherished children.

[Phentex]

11. I woke up wondering

what I had given away that maybe I shouldn't have! But it'll be less for my kids to deal with later

[onecaliberal]

5. I have a Betty Crocker that belonged to my grandmother.

It’s for baking. When I want to bake something from scratch, it’s my go to. The little handwritten notes inside are a treasure.

[Phentex]

12. Yep!

I found a basic Better Homes and Gardens binder book but decided my others like the Betty Crocker were enough

[usonian]

6. I have quite a few, but not too many.

Just too many to list. I basically scan them (as in scan with eyeballs) now and then for ideas.

I got a lot of magazines at the thrift store and rather than scan them, i just removed the (too many) excess pages.

I use Paprika app, old version because I don't want to pay for the new shiny version all over again. It is very good at cleaning out endless life stories that accompany recipes on the web. And exports nicely.

Joy of Cooking sold an app but discontinued it, I think.
I'll double check.

AND I have all my Mom's recipe cards that she typed on a Selectric. Scanned them for preservation.

FWIW, I use music scores almost entirely in pdf format on the ipad pro. Some remain to be scanned.

[birdographer]

8. Have you used Copy Me That?

I love this add-on to the browser. When on the recipe page, it pulls out the recipe from all the text and saves it. You then view it, take out anything you don't want (added tips, etc.), and it gets added to your personal collection on a website and it is printable, all free. I have pages of recipes now, which can be searched. Very cool and handy.

[usonian]

40. Thanks. I am "invested" in Paprika in terms of having everything in one place,

and the export to html tree allows me to share it with anyone with a browser, all on my or their disk or thumb drive.

Good that others are doing the hard work, but I dread storing my data anywhere else. I even dropped Evernote, but that's because they were bought and fired the entire U.S. staff!!

I used to run company and department computer networks.

Happy cooking! 🍝

I am up to 4188 recipes and they still sync across all my decoders and computers.

[Phentex]

13. The magazine and newspaper versions

were purged years ago although I still have a bound recipe book with handwritten recipe cards and a few newspaper favorites. I do think one of my kids will want those.

I have a pack of blank recipe cards. What do I do with those?

[usonian]

55. Scan everything, though I will treasure and pass along Mom's recipe cards.

Even if my daughter is incredibly modern. I keep a few family treasures intact. Just enough.

Over the years, I have stored ideas on all formats, including computer outliner apps and mind maps. But the larger cards (5 x 8) seem to hold just enough. Great ideas should be short and clear before moving forward with them. But I digress. I just snapped part of my bookshelf with the sampler books, if not the everyday ones ( do they exist? )

I will post later, since imgbb is dead as a doornail right now.

Lovers of books argue that having a subset of the world handy is good. The internet is overwhelming, even if one is selective.

BTW large cards make good crumb scoopers. I prefer the metal ones.

[birdographer]

7. We use them!

Vegetarian Epicure 1 & 2 (we aren't vegetarians but go meatless often), Good Housekeeping cookbook copyright 1963 (we bought it around 1971), How To Cook Everything (SO handy), Instant Pot cookbook. Also recipes found online, printed, and if they are good, hole-punched and put in a notebook along with recipe notes.

[Phentex]

14. I'm pretty sure the Good Housekeeping one I had was from the 80's

it had a German Gold Poundcake recipe that I used as a base for so many carved birthday cakes! Oh, the memories!

[MyOwnPeace]

42. I have done the same printing and saving!

I now have a stack of 3-ring binders filled with recipes that look fantastic - and I'm SO far behind in trying them!
I really have to stop 'clicking' on those "25 best -------" lists!!!!!!

[Diamond_Dog]

15. I have a couple old classics that I use for general recipe information

Betty Crocker’s for example. My mother hated to cook and was only too happy to pass her Betty Crocker cookbook along to me. She probably got it as a wedding gift.

I made a lot of cookies when my boys were kids and I used the Betty Crocker Cookie Book a lot. Well I still make cookies for them and they’re adults now 🙂

I have way too many others that I hardly ever use, mostly were given to me as gifts throughout the years.

[Phentex]

16. My favorite cookie recipes

are in one of the small Everyday Food magazines holiday version. Oddly enough, I got rid of a signed Martha Stewart Cookies book. Ha!

[cyclonefence]

27. I loved Everyday Food

and I feel betrayed by Martha Stewart for discontinuing it. That and not continuing to sell at KMart.

I have a laminator and tore out the recipes I wanted and laminated them. Punched holes and put them in a binder. Ditto recipes from Cooks Illustrated.

Now I have an online sub to Cooks Country, which gives me access to America's Test Kitchen, Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country. Not only recipes, but ratings and recommendations. I print out the recipes I want, laminate, bind.

[Phentex]

31. Cooks Illustrated

went out with an earlier purge. I sent some to one of my kids though. Had so many good tips and recipes all in one place.

Everyday Food was great. I don't have them in the kitchen anymore but I found a ton in a box upstairs. I don't know what to do with them. I'm trying to find a way to package them as a set to donate. But yes, I'll get distracted by looking at them again!

[cyclonefence]

56. I bet you could sell those Everyday Foods on eBay

if you wanted to go to the trouble.

[TBF]

17. Fannie Farmer Hardcover - 13th Ed. - is my favorite

I have a whole bookshelf of cookbooks and will probably just pass them down to my daughter who loves to cook. An interesting one is the Housekeeping in Old Virginia cookbook - that one was passed down to me from my mom.

[Phentex]

19. Some of them are just great reading!

I'm not even sure where so many of mine had come from. Gifts probably

[mitch96]

20. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking changed the way I cook.. It's the "anti cook book"

It shows you what to do to make a dish TASTE good not just follow a set of instructions.
The why behind the how..The balance...
She also has a chart of ingredients of regional cuisine.
Highly recommended..
m

[Phentex]

34. I guess I am failing on the purge idea

I read this and thought I HAD that book! Then I looked on a bookcase in another room and have found a dozen or more other cookbooks including the one you mentioned and What Einstein Told His Cook, Heat, Yan Can Cook, Jane Fonda! etc.

I'll have to focus on that bookcase another day!

[rsdsharp]

21. We have quite a few -- everything from what is essentially a textbook from the CIA,

to America’s Test Kitchen, Julia Child (not Mastering the Art. . .), Joy of Cooking, and Betty Crocker, to dedicated Chinese and Italian cookbooks, to church cookbooks and ones we did as a promotion when I worked in radio.

I have no plans to get rid of any of them.

[Phentex]

35. I ended up getting rid of a bunch of community type cookbooks

they brought back memories but they were just collecting dust

Seems like a lot of churches made/make them!

[elleng]

22. Yes. No.

Saved cookbooks I had 'at home,' when cooked for family. Mostly 'home alone' now.

Julia Child, and a great Italian one with pics. SADLY missing great old James Beard.

[Phentex]

36. yeah we cook differently now

still make some old favorites here and there but no more big family style meals

[moose65]

23. I have many!

I don't think I've ever tossed a cookbook. Many of them I use, but others I find myself just reading - I find them quite entertaining and you can really see what was popular at the time they were published.

I do look up recipes online, but I HATE the endless life stories that accompany them! In a cookbook, you just get the recipe!

[Phentex]

37. Yes I think we have vented about that before

and someone mentioned that's how the person makes money. The longer we scroll, the more they make. But it's irritating! And most of the stories are just silly. I use the jump feature when possible!

[moose65]

60. Yeah, me too

I jump to the recipe if possible.

I recently learned that recipes can’t be copyrighted, because the mixture of those ingredients always leads to the same result. For example, you can’t copyright a cake recipe that starts with creaming together butter and sugar and then adding eggs, because ALL cake recipes start that way. That’s why online recipes have those endless stories with them.

[bernieb]

24. Cookbooks, Yes!

I have the Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1941. It belonged to my maternal grandmother and, to me, it's a relic of a time gone by. She altered the measurements on a lot of the recipes to fit her family of eight
and wrote them in the margins.

I also have my mother's "notebook" recipe book in which she gathered her own recipes. She clipped a lot of them from the newspaper (Cleveland Press, Cleveland, Ohio). If you turn these over and read the back, you'll get a glimpse of WWII history! Reports of who was wounded, who was missing in action, who had been captured and who had been killed, reports of those visiting home and obituaries of those who had died. Also, stories about the local Red Cross and how to feed your family during rationing. It's better than a history book because it is local and was current. I would call it a primary resource. I plan to preserve as part of my family history.

[Phentex]

38. That's amazing!

It's wonderful to have such great resources - almost like a little time capsule.

My grandmother never spoke or wrote in English so I have my mother's handwritten translations. The quantities are strange sometimes and I find myself asking did she really means a dozen eggs in that recipe???!! They have yellowed over time but I kept them.

My son asked me for one of my recipes the other day. Honestly, it was something I threw together so I didn't really have an official recipe. I think I need to type up a few things and pass them on.

[sinkingfeeling]

25. I still have about a dozen cookbooks. I sold or gave away

around 30 when I moved. I still use them, but also get daily recipes from Allrecipes, WP, and other internet sources. I also have 2 'books' filled with clipped recipes, handwritten ones, and notes. One from my mom and one from my grandmother. They used old Sears catalogs as a scrapbook.

[Phentex]

39. This thread is making me realize

I have more than I suspected. This - after an earlier purge as well.

Hang onto your personal books!

[Old Crank]

26. I had to purge a huge number

when we moved to Germany.
I'm down to 2 by Julia Child, The Larouse Gastronomy, Making of a Chef by Kamman, The Cake and Pie and Bread bibles by Rose Levbaum. One by Alton Brown.
I have been making a binder of recipies. I can pull them out and tape them to the cabinet while cooking.
A lot of online looking for stuff. Usually combining 2-4 of them to make my own.
Plus I've been having fun with the WaPo 4 day a week eat voraciously news letter. (Good for rut breaking)
Plus other stuff I just know.

[Phentex]

41. I had a bunch of cake and pie cookbooks

and I don't recall ever making pie. I made cakes for sure but did I need entire cookbooks for just cakes? ha ha

Tons of bread baking cookbooks even though my family always wanted Italian bread and focaccia.

My husband tries some from WaPo here and there

[DinahMoeHum]

29. Absolutely!

However, while I use recipes from many of them, others I keep for intellectual enjoyment.

In the latter category, for instance, I have books from Willam Shurtleff /Akiko Aoyagi regarding tofu, miso and tempeh. They are not merely recipe books, but informational and historical re the manufacture of these foods

[Phentex]

43. Good point!

I gifted The Food Lab to someone recently and it reads like a science book in a good way

[mahina]

30. Giant Italian books by region with beautiful photos, Kripalu Kitchen, Indian vegan cookbook, huge vegan cookbook,

Korean vegan cookbook, Marcella Hazan, etc. I don't have room for them but I'm keeping them anyway.

Purging books is the hardest part!

[Phentex]

44. Did I recently purchase a Sicilian cookbook for the pictures?

and recipes but the darn thing was just beautiful. It's staying for a while.

[mahina]

49. I actually don't remember ever using any of the recipes

This century except for the vegan ones and I’m not vegan. Your post makes me feel better about it thanks lol

[rockbluff botanist]

32. I prefer a hands on cookbook

And no, I am not a Luddite. As a botanist (retired) I was on my computer every day.

I do look up recipes and other food related subjects and love chef driven YouTube videos but I do love my books.

I have over a thousand cookbooks. Some from my great grandmothers, grandmothers and mother. I have served dishes made from theses older books and my friends rave at this new (to them) dish (from the 40's).

I did, recently, cull some. My son also took some. The used bookstore in Jacksonville that I contacted likes cookbooks.

[Phentex]

45. amazing!

I think I got some from a cooking school teacher when she was purging but now I just want them in the hands of someone who will use them. My house is too small for a thousand cookbooks but I love the idea.

[fierywoman]

33. I have yards (x 36") of cookbooks -- I'm slowly donating them to the King County Library system

(since my library has saved me from spending hundreds of dollars on books.)

[Phentex]

46. I love the library!

I was able to look at a digital version of a Mediterranean cookbook from the library before I decided to just buy it.

[fierywoman]

54. Exactly! But with me, more often than not,

I look at the book and think : meh and return it and don't buy it. Or sometimes I copy a few recipes on index cards from it.

[PJMcK]

47. Yes and yes

In fact, I just bought a new one, "Tasting History" by Max Miller based on his YouTube channel.

We have most of the standard cookbooks, Julia Child, Betty Crocker, etc. The first one I ever had is called "The Starving Artist's Cookbook" which was the perfect first one to have as it had lots of fundamental lessons with recipes like how to make ice cubes, boiling water and my favorite, how to make filet mignon, ("You can't afford this so make up with your parents.&quot . Another favorite is the Silver Palate Cookbook.

I also have a three-ring notebook that I've filled with recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines. It's a real SCRAPbook!

My wife sometimes looks online for new variations. She's also fond of the Townsends YouTube channel.

[Phentex]

50. I had a Silver Palate

that must have gone out with the last cull.

Haven't heard of Tasting History and I must not google, must NOT google!

[PJMcK]

61. Here you go

Max Miller is quite entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/@TastingHistory

Enjoy!

[zeusdogmom]

48. Still have 6 shelves of them (one bookcase)

Love to cook and refer to the shelves often. I especially enjoy the “church ladies” offerings where many recipes start with a stick of butter or a can of cream of mushroom soup. 😄. I have a couple from my mother-in-laws kitchen, complete with her spatters. 🥰. The list of contributors from the 1950 and early 1960’s were always Mrs. John Smith, etc. By the 1970 this list used the woman’s actual name, ie Betty Smith or whatever it was. I have my mother’s over stuffed recipe box - when my daughter saw that she exclaimed “Grandma cooked?”. The main thing my kids remember about my mom’s cooking was that she disliked cooking and really wasn’t very good at it. But she made The. Best. Rice Krispie bars. I also have the recipe box I started as a 4-H member in about 1957. It too is crammed full. Actually pulled a recipe out of it today to make Blackberry Jam with Chambard. Jars just came out of the canner.

[Phentex]

52. That's funny about your daughter!

My kids have asked about some recipes but I was really into experimenting in the kitchen so much of what I made can't really be repeated. I can give them an idea though.

I do have a funny memory about a recipe. Early in my marriage I attended a bridal shower for one of my husband's nieces. Aunt Joan made a veggie pizza she called Spring Pizza and it was a big hit. I got her recipe and made myself a little recipe card. Over the years, I made it several times for family gatherings and people always commented on it. Many years later Aunt Joan told me how much she enjoyed it and I said well I got it from you. She absolutely denied ever making it! Here I am with a recipe card called Aunt Joan's Spring Pizza!

[True Blue American]

51. A few!

Not much. My recipes are in my head. I might see a new idea from the Kitchen or video's.
For instance corn in the husk in the microwave. Easy to clean the husk and silks.

[Phentex]

53. That used to get posted here every so often

it's a great tip!

[kimbutgar]

57. Yes I have a small shelf of them

Recently I moved a senior who I packed 3 boxes of cookbooks. She is 80 years old and I doubt she would be doing much cooking. And the cookbooks were untouched from the last time I moved her!

[Phentex]

65. It's hard to let go!

The memories are still there *sigh*

[sorcrow]

58. I have a few favorites

My go to these days is America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. I like the why's and wherefore's.
Joy of Cooking, of course. I think mine is of the vintage that still has a recipe for beavertail.
Japanese Cooking A Simple Art. An excellent resource first published in 1980.

Regards,
Sorghum Crow

[Phentex]

66. It's essential to me to understand the why

But not many cookbooks explain the way some of them do.

My husband and I got a chuckle looking back at one of our favorite recipes from a Food & Wine cookbook. We thought it was so hard when we made it all those years ago. But now that we have a ton of experience (old) it doesn't look difficult at all!

[tishaLA]

62. I have a few and I use them

because they're from people I trust. Kenji Lopez Alt's The Food Lab, ATK's complete cookbook (whatever it's called), Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread book, Fat Salt Acid Heat, and Jacques Pepin's New Complete Technique

Oh, I forgot Fagioli....it's a book of Italian bean recipes....I belong to a bean club and I'm always looking for new ideas.

[Phentex]

67. Never heard of a bean club!

That sounds interesting.

I like to give The Food Lab to young people starting out. It's fantastic at explaining things.

[tishaLA]

70. It's the Rancho Gordo bean club

I spent like 3 years on the wait-list to get in. Every 3 months they send out 6 1lb bags of heirloom (dried) beans and it's been a revelation to me--i always thought I hated Lima beans because my mother used to buy frozen packages of them when I was a kid and they were mealy and tasted no bueno, but the heirloom limas, properly cooked, are just fantastic. And that's just one example.

The owner also has a thing called "Project Xoco" that supports small farms in Mexico by paying living wages to farmers, buying their beans, and helps keep scarce breeds from dying out (most of their beans are indigenous to Meso America.

[Phentex]

72. My husband hated Lima beans as a kid

But I love them so I made for the family. My kids both love them now and my husband eats them too.

Bean Club sounds so cool. Heirloom anything is hard to find. And project xoco is so worthwhile. I am happy you responded because I love hearing about things like this.

[Fresh_Start]

63. i got rid of cases of them...but still buy them

I use them for inspiration....

[Phentex]

68. Apparently I am still buying them too

but I don't want to keep so many things around anymore.

[pansypoo53219]

64. just my grandma's settlement cookbook. family recipes. + make my own basic. pimp grandma's.

taint pretty, but tastes good.

[Phentex]

69. Those are the best!

Especially in the original form.

[pansypoo53219]

71. i can't get her speghetti sauce cause of the canned tomatoes, or her oatmeal cookies cause she had electric stove. BUT

i added marachino cherries + craisins to the oatmeal cookies. sooooo good. + will try cherry toms for the spaghetti sauce.

onions + bell peppers in the 'bbq' sauce really worked.

[Marthe48]

73. Yes and yes

I not only have mom's, grandmothers' and great grandmother's cookbooks, also great aunt's. My husband and I used to go to auctions, and several times I ended up getting the cookbooks, pamphlets, and handwritten recipes treasured by the family. I keep the heirloom cookbooks, in case I ever need help cleaning and cooking game, and I keep others that are interesting or helpful.

I bought a band cookbook years ago that has a recipe for seviche and a recipe for baklava. I have a Diamond walnut recipe pamphlet, and there is a recipe for spiced walnuts that everyone loves and is gluten-free. I wanted to try making salt-rising bread during Covid and the only recipe I found was in The American Women's Cookbook. I have other cookbooks with other recipes I use at least annually.

I think one of the most peculiar items I have is a spiral notebook that belonged to a local undertaker's wife. It is stuffed with poems about death, eulogies, newspaper clippings of obits, and food recipes associated with the different families in the area. It is a treasure

[Phentex]

74. Impressive!

That you remember all of these and where they are. The last part is fascinating! I'd say that is very much a treasure.

[Marthe48]

75. Thank you

I keep them together in my storage room. I'm trying to shift all of the paper to that room. Slow but sure

[Clouds Passing]

76. American Wholefoods Cuisine Nikki &/David Glodbeck, Joy of Cooking

And my box of hand me down recipes on index cards. The AFC book is a wealth of basic cooking information as well as tasty vegetarian recipes.

[TlalocW]

77. I have a few specialized ones like Mexican grilling, etc.

And then I've taken a few classes on bread-making from a local culinary place that I took copious notes in, but now I'm pretty much making my own cookbook. A few years ago, Walmart sold some Trapper-Keepers, and I bought one as a lark. Before I had a bunch of recipes I had programmed a database-driven website for, but I took it down. I reformatted those, categorized them, and printed it out. Lots of family recipes but also ones I've come up with as well as ones I get off the web that I put into my preferred format. It's easy to add to. Just need a 3 hole punch.

[chowmama]

78. All of them. I still have all of them.

Including the ones I got as a kid for birthday/Christmas and a few of my mother's. Most of the ones I bought myself as a kid were in a paperback series by Bantam about other cuisines and specialty cooking. My mom, the reluctant cook, used to buy old cookbooks from the library sales when they were clearing out their shelves. Some were from the 40's and 50's. I got most of the library ones. (My sister got the Pillsbury Baking Contest books that Mom got every year.) Nobody knew why she bought them, but they made great reading. I'm still on the lookout for the early Cookoff books at garage sales. I still get books once in a while from Half Price Books and garage sales. The kids and DH have also added to my collection over the years.

I seldom use recipes from them verbatim, but I read the books regularly and consult them as a reference and for ideas. I just love old recipes and old cookbooks. The new ones, with a recipe on every page and a glossy photo on the facing page, don't interest me as much. It always seems like you're paying full book price for about 30 recipes. An older book could have hundreds. With a good imagination, you don't need pictures.

Anybody have a 1943 Joy of Cooking, wartime edition with rationing tips, that they're not using? It's on my bucket list.