Do you still use cookbooks?

It's been interesting reading through everyone's replies :happy: I feel like I've definitely been influenced by the internet culture. I didn't grow up with the internet but it's been around during all of my work years, and it just became my go-to for everything, including recipes. Plus, I often need visual cues to understand if I'm going in the right direction or not, and not all cookbooks have images. And the way I organize my recipes is internet-dependant too: I keep a google sheet with the recipes I've tried and liked and the recipes I'd like to try,complete with links to the recipes online.

I'm still set on trying to use my cookbooks more, just because I don't like the thought of the books just laying there without getting any love from me. Just for curiosity, here are the cookbooks I currently own (the one that says "Portugal" was inherited from my maternal grandparents, it's a collection of cookbooks from the 20s and it came with them from Mozambique to Portugal):
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Not often for me any longer. When I am in the mood to make something extra special I sometimes peruse them to find a gem or two. I have all of the James Peterson cookbooks and every dish in them is extra special though often requiring substitution because of ingredient availability out here in the boonies.

I have a well worn baking textbook from culinary school that generally guides me in the right direction for pastries. I have a bread baking book which I find useful when exploring new things. It is written in French and it takes me a while to translate the forumulas for myself. To suggest that my French is poor would be an understatement. Also it specifies Euro flours and they aren't in my pantry or even available here in the country except on line. I can get by usually with the basic 4 wheat flours available here. The author is a first rate bread baker. I think that if you want to bake ciabatta then a visit to Tasty Reuben would be indicated. He is an expert. :)
 
Here are two of the oldest books I've got. The first is Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookery, originally published in the 19th century: this copy is from 1909. Amazing colour photos of "cold dishes". Sadly, the book is getting consumed by termites.
The second is called Farmhouse Fare, published two years after the 2nd World War, in 1947. Some pretty spartan recipes in this one!
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Farmhouse Fare .jpg
 
I have one from the early mid 1950s given to my mother as a new bride. It's about 4 inches thick and covers setting a table for casual to formal meals, how to handle the help, building a root cellar (that's an outside storage area built into a hill or partially dug out hole, then built out of heavy blocks of stone or masonry for those not familiar with the term), plans for a smokehouse and directions for use, plus a plethora of recipes, some I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole now.

It has directions on how to make pate choux swans, which I did, and was what got me interested in baking as an older teen.

I saw my first recipe for rarebit in that book and made that too.

My grandmother had a root cellar. It was fun for me and my cousins because the roof was low enough to the ground that we could climb on top with a little boost, and it was always nice and cool inside, even in the summer
 
Agreed, great topic LissaC !!
I don't use my cookbooks as much as I use to, mainly because the recipes I make the most, I make from memory.
When we moved this last time to the home we are in now, I gave a good portion of my cookbooks to the local public Library.
I do use cooking magazines that one of my Neighborhood Gal Pals gives me when she's finished with them.
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This is my collection and only 4 of them I purchased, the rest are gifts.
The old looking one in the middle there is my Great-grand and Grand Mothers' hand written recipes. That's my prized possession!
As for using the internet for recipes vs. cookbooks, I'd say that I look up techniques rather than recipes now.
Also, I stream cooking "channels" on You Tube. There's one where this guy follows recipes from cookbooks, more or less to the T, and funny, one of the series that he did on Italian cooking, he uses one of the books I own!
 
Rocklobster said:
Yes..I have a cabinet full and thanks to my sister who volunteers at a charity book depository, she buys me a few between visits..I have dozens that lay around the house. Drives my wife crazy but she doesn't complain when I come up with a new creation from one of them..just got a new one from Amazon yesterday..I feel a new kick coming on for the winter...
Tip..I leave one or two in the bathroom..many good meals have been planned during my time in there..if you know what I mean..
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I have a magazine basket in my bathroom and I do my best work in there!
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
Agreed, great topic LissaC !!
I don't use my cookbooks as much as I use to, mainly because the recipes I make the most, I make from memory.
When we moved this last time to the home we are in now, I gave a good portion of my cookbooks to the local public Library.
I do use cooking magazines that one of my Neighborhood Gal Pals gives me when she's finished with them.
View attachment 103928
This is my collection and only 4 of them I purchased, the rest are gifts.
The old looking one in the middle there is my Great-grand and Grand Mothers' hand written recipes. That's my prized possession!
As for using the internet for recipes vs. cookbooks, I'd say that I look up techniques rather than recipes now.
Also, I stream cooking "channels" on You Tube. There's one where this guy follows recipes from cookbooks, more or less to the T, and funny, one of the series that he did on Italian cooking, he uses one of the books I own!
Click to expand...
I love the old edition of the Joy of Cooking! 🤩
 
karadekoolaid said:
Do I use cookbooks?
You bet I do. I've just counted 150 and I use them all, at some stage.
The thought process when I'm cooking might go like,
  • right, what have I got in the fridge?
  • Do I want to do Italian, British, American, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian...etc.?
  • Pull out a few, let's say, Italian. Browse for 10-15 minutes
  • OK / now I've got a bit of inspiration: sundried tomatoes, capers, anchovies, courgettes, etc.
Then I go to the kitchen and prepare something.Not often exactly as the recipe says, but more or less following the idea. (and it usually has chiles in it).
If it's something new,( like recently I was looking for Indian Street Food) then I'll go on the web and investigate a dozen or so recipes before deciding how to prepare it.

View attachment 103826
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WOW!!!! I had that many at one time!! I DID buy some that were dated as far back as '72!!!! :whistling:
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
The copy I have is from 1962.
I want to say it first came out in the '30s ??
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Correct. And its a fascinating story: Joy of Cooking - Wikipedia.

Born to German immigrants in 1877, Irma Starkloff was born and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She married Edgar Rombauer, a lawyer, in 1899. Edgar committed suicide in 1930 after a severe bout of depression, widowing Irma at age 52 and leaving her with $6,000 in savings.[citation needed]

Rombauer's children, Marion Rombauer Becker and Edgar Roderick ("Put") Rombauer, Jr.,[4] encouraged her to compile her recipes and thoughts on cooking to help her cope with her loss. Rombauer spent much of the summer of 1930 in Michigan, creating the first drafts that would later become Joy of Cooking. With the help of her late husband's secretary, Mazie Whyte, Rombauer began writing and editing recipes and commentaries while searching for more recipes in St. Louis. During the autumn of 1930, Rombauer went to the A.C. Clayton Printing Company, a printer for the St. Louis shoe manufacturers. She paid them $3,000 to print 3,000 copies of The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat in November 1931.[5]
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Editions of (The) Joy of Cooking, from the 1st printing in 1931 to the most recent edition, published in 2019:

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