Have cookbooks become obsolete?

JoanMcWench

JoanMcWench

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Most of my friends & family that cook do not own one cookbook. I ask them: Where are your cookbooks? They laugh. They laugh & look at me like I'm a crazy old cat lady. I'm twenty-seven! Stupid kids...

Anywho, I own cookbooks. Good, solid, classic cookbooks. Do I reference them as often as I should? No. It's too simple to look things up online. Another positive is this style of interaction. Where people try different variations & you can live through them without investing in the experiment. So, have cookbooks become obsolete?
 
 
You can watch a video or print a recipe off the Internet, but for someone who is not used to cooking or has not done much baking, a cookbook will be better. It will show each stage of the recipe and might have illustrations to show how to prepare each ingredient.

Cookbooks are big sellers, particularly around Christmas. They make great gifts because they are often beautifully illustrated and it is more of a pleasure to look through a cookbook than to scroll down a menu or list of search results.
 
I remember speaking to this a few times here already. If I didn't say it before in these words, I am here to say they are becoming obsolete in my humble opinion. With the internet and the television shows not a lot of people I believe are into cookbooks that much. Still I wouldn't mind a gift of a cookbook.
 
I much prefer looking through books for recipes despite working in IT!
There is something nice about being able to browse through my collection, but books only survive in my collection if they get used and have more than one or two useful/nice recipes in them. If they don't they are recycled via charity shops or sold online.

If I find a recipe online I like, I actually print it off and it gets sick into my recipe book...

Guess this IT Engineer is rather old fashioned :laugh:, but I would much rather spill something over a piece of paper than a laptop or tablet (guess I've just been asked to do too many miracles over the years when people have killed their electronics and not have anything backed up)!
 
I think I use cook books to give me ideas about things to cook, but if I know I want to cook a specific thing and don't know how, I'll probably look it up online (unless I happen to know it's in a book I have).

I was recently given a big book of preserving food (jams, chutneys, smoking, salting etc) and really enjoyed leafing through it, getting ideas for flavours. Most of the techniques, I know already.
 
I like to look at the pictures as well as the recipes in the books, it may be me but it is easier to comeback to the book than it is the article online. I do print off some recipes I like but the problem is finding someplace to place the printed recipe so that I can find it again. I can find the book when I need it.
 
I hope not. I favour books in general, I like the feel and texture you don't get with a cold hard computer.
 
With the rise of modern technologies where all can be search through internet like cooking recipes with just one click and you can already browse what you are looking for. But despite of this I still rely on my cookbooks and I had many of them. I am very organized when it comes to any books that I had. I covered them well with a nice plastic cover so that I can use it for so long and I always keep it safe in my bookshelves. For me cookbooks cannot become obsolete and I will really use it even the passage of time.
 
winterybella said:
I remember speaking to this a few times here already. If I didn't say it before in these words, I am here to say they are becoming obsolete in my humble opinion. With the internet and the television shows not a lot of people I believe are into cookbooks that much. Still I wouldn't mind a gift of a cookbook.
Click to expand...

I am inclined to agree with you on this. Cookbooks are becoming somewhat obsolete but I do know quite a few people who would rather flip through an actual hard copy cookbook than sit in front of a computer and search through recipes on the internet.

It all really depends on what the individual feels comfortable with. I personally don't use cookbooks as often or even at all! The internet has really sucked me in and I much rather prefer just searching through it for specific recipes.
 
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