Cookbooks offer surprising nuggets of info that you cannot get elsewhere. Some are reference books, some are inspiration, some are friends.
What I find so interesting is this: people will spend $3O for an entree but are on the fence about a cookbook that costs the same or a little more. A good book yields many delicious meals and hours/days/years of happiness.
So well put! I do think the "surprising nuggets" are one of the things I love most about cookbooks, because they're often something I'm not getting from a standalone recipe from a website. Cultural context, an anecdote about how the writer uses a tool or ingredient, etc. And the entree point is so true!
And, a recipe in a well designed book is better looking and easier to follow (hello margins notes!) than a recipe online (so linear!). BUT, with so many recipes online and performed in videos, recipes themselves seem dispensable.
You write darn good cookbooks that provide all three--reference, inspiration and comfort. I have and use them all. Now if they were just all the same size, I could group them together. I love Claire Thomson's books that so far are all the same size, one of the perfect cookbook sizes I think. I also used to keep all the Ten Speed Press books together, for multiple reasons actually, but they have broken out of their standard sizing lately, which means some books end up turned sideways or 'misplaced' on other shelves.
That’s interesting! We selected the trim size for my books to reflect the topic and length of the book. There’s also the cost factor. So it’s determined by art, purpose and cost. Some authors aim for a lineup of books like a set of encyclopedias or textbooks.
First things first: I try to borrow a cookbook from the library so I can give it a test drive before I buy it. I hate buying a cookbook only to learn that the author's taste buds don't line up with my own.
Sometimes I will read them like a novel. Recently, I read _The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen_ by Bee Wilson like this (of course, all of her essays helped with that). Sometimes I browse them to get inspired or to remind myself what's in them or to learn something new. I have oodles of cookbooks, but honestly probably have cooked out of about 10 of them. Some I bought because of the author; some because of the breadth of recipes in them; some because they were recommended.
What I like out of a cookbook (other than the tastebuds matching): Blurbs about the recipe without getting too far afield. Pictures of the finished dish. A list of ingredients ahead of the directions. Warning notes about how the recipe commonly goes wrong. Maybe information about recommended substitutions, especially if it is a cookbook for less-experienced folks. A font that is large enough to be legible for most people. (I hadn't looked at a cookbook for years because they made my head hurt. Now, on the other side of eye surgery, I can read easily, but my experience makes me sensitive to accessibility issues.)
I've been trying to use my library card for cookbooks more—it's such a great test drive. And I've had The Secret Of Cooking next to (read: under) my bed for months because I've been meaning to spend some time with it but haven't really had the chance yet!
Cookbooks from the library are great for the test-drive. Sometimes, if I bring home a book and only 1-3 recipes are ones I’d make, I’ll take a photo or scan the recipes, the return the book. Beyond saving $, it saves valuable shelf space for more desirable cookbooks!!!
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 17, 2023Liked by Marian Bull
Maybe my perspective is a little different because I use them for my job but I mostly pick up a cookbook—very often from the library—to:
1. Skim for interesting or new-to-me flavor combinations to spark recipe ideas. Cookbook recipes aren't subject to the flattening that SEO can do to online recipes so they often offer something weirder or more fun
2. Fully read any recipe named like "Sally's Chili" or "Mom's Congee" because usually that recipe has been honed over years of making it and as a result offers a new and full perspective on the dish.
3. research FACTS. While cookbooks don't always have fact checkers, they typically go through more rounds of editing than a website so I trust their details more.
the "mom's congee" tip is so smart and I had never considered this before! and re: 3, I agree—I think my dream of having an enormous cookbook library doesn't so much exist because I imagine myself cooking from every book, but because I know I'd have ALMOST all the cooking / ingredient / cuisine info I could want all in one room and I wouldn't even have to look at a screen to access it........ xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 17, 2023Liked by Marian Bull
I don’t use cookbooks for decorative purposes but I do appreciate when they’re hot. Hotness of course comes in all shapes and sizes and come to think of it, most cookbooks are beautiful in some way. Whether they are weathered classic beauties, minimalist beige bebes, or millennial bate neon pink sexpots - I don’t buy them for their looks but I do appreciate how they look mise en place.
I have two frequent uses of cookbooks. One is a lazy Sunday afternoon read. When I’m feeling too noncommittal for a long-form read like books, and don’t want to read anything on a screen, cookbooks occupy a spot formerly taken by perusing US Weekly magazines. I love the pictures, the little stories, the dose of other cultures, tips and tricks, and gathering inspiration for future recipes. And mostly that it can be a dazzling 5 minute flick through pages or a deep dive into multiple cookbooks, without any of the self imposed pressure to finish a chapter that novels bring.
The second use of cookbooks starts with the index. You might assume all are built the same but they are not ! Some skimp, only listing a few key items. Some organize ingredients under subcategories like ‘seafood’ - save that for the table of contents! When a cookbook lists out all the ingredients in the book, one by one in alphabetical order, with page numbers, I find it most helpful. Whenever I have ingredients to use up in my fridge, or maybe I have one thing I’m craving I know I want to start with, I’ll head to the index of a few cookbooks to look up those ingredients and see what recipes emerge. I love the spontaneity of it, how it can reveal surprising ideas, without being overwhelming as searching on google for, say, “salmon recipes”, which brings an avalanche of options. It’s sort of like the book chooses for me, or heavily narrows down my choices, which is such a luxury in this era of endless choices.
I absolutely do this type of lazy sunday reading too—when I can't commit to reading a book but want to READ! Also I love this index habit, it makes me think of how when I get a new book I always read the acknowledgements first. (I'm nosy!) I'll now be flipping to the back more often thanks to you....
As a librarian with book indexing experience, I say an index can make or break a book. I just reviewed a book on virology...the index listed “vaccines” in the index, then neglected to include reference to the main section on vaccines. Sigh.
I have cookbooks all over the house which is a source of contention with the rest of the family, but dang it they eat well. I love everything about them. I read them like novels before bed, but I’m also known to carry them with me at all times and will be found in the work break room reading them there too. I get a lot of free cookbooks from publishers now from promoting them on IG, but many of them I would buy anyway. I don’t get to travel much, so I learn about other cultures and cuisines from cookbooks. I love art and food photography so I get inspiration from the design and styling of the book and photos. I don’t like to cook from internet recipes so I use the Eat Your Books subscription to search for recipes in my cookbooks by ingredient. Cookbooks are my favorite thing really and I’m never without one.
I use cookbooks to diversify my tastes, to change my approaches to food and cooking. I try to keep the number below 350-400 and every few months will send a few I have moved on from off to the library for their sale room. I tend to have several cookbooks open at a time on my kitchen table, and I browse through them randomly for a couple weeks before marking a few things to try. I usually cook impulsively based on what my body tells me I need to eat, and sometimes whether I see something that looks new and different. I used to be very careful about keeping books unmarked and unflagged so I wouldn't reach for books based on past history, but in the last 2-3 years I have begun adding stickies on recipes that I actually make fairly true to instruction (I generally deviate and frequently substitute ingredients and proportions), and inserting bits of paper as bookmarks into parts of the books I want to explore further. I have been pleasantly surprised to see every book I own become quite cluttered with these paper bits, so I guess all these books are worth it. I live where there are NO restaurants to speak of, except a good bakery, but I maintain a huge vegetable garden with chickens, have a hunter husband, have local access to raw milk and other staples, am unhesitant to order specialty ingredients (like chocolate), have subscriptions for fish (Sitka), fresh pressed olive oil, etc., so cookbooks are the tools I need to use my own initiative.
I recently wrote a post on books about cookbooks and I briefly talked about how I see cookbooks but the truth is, it depends on the cookbook. The way I use say an America's Test Kitchen book is very different to the way I use a book like The Nutmeg Trail. One is a pretty utilitarian, best recipes and practices sort of book and the other is an exercise in storytelling where the recipes are part of the story, not the only thing that is important.
For cookbooks like the latter, I read them like I would read a novel or other type of literature. There is definitely room for both types of cookbooks in this world, even if I have zero room for any more cookbooks on my shelves.
Oh-oh, I am in trouble now - I just signed up for Eat Your Books!
What I do with my cookbooks? I do it all. I have numerous locations/shelves in our living and dining room where I place them. Some shelves are loosely organized by author/subject/ old favourites so I can almost pull the one I want out in the dark. Like Recipes for a Small Planet, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1, Classic Italian Cooking, Moosewood Vol 1. I am a huge Nigel Slater fan so those are all lined up in my vintage hoozier where I can gaze at them while I eat my lunch and read someone else's cookbook. I have a corner whatnot shelving unit where the cookbooks are stacked on their sides, in order of colour. Those I "play" with and enjoy occasionally rearranging. There are numerous stacks of cookbooks on chairs and on my two vintage highchairs that grand kids have outgrown; these are ones I am browsing.
I love reading cookbooks like novels, too, in bed is best. Nigel Slater is perfect for this. I am also a fan of Madhur Jaffrey and probably have all her cookbooks. Sometimes this inspires me to go online and watch old Julia Child videos, or Jacques Pepin who is still going strong. I LOVE the voices of some of these authors .... I can hear their voices when I am reading their book.
I also have this big stack of printed recipes from online searches - Food 52, Smitten Kitchen, Bon Appetit, and many recipes in Danish as that is my homeland cuisine and it is best read and cooked in Danish. My favourite Danish recipes are in one of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking (under CRE-FIN), which I collected way back in the early 70s.
If I find an intriguing recipe online, I will look through my own books for variations/ confirmation of how to make it, or vice versa. This is where teh Eat Your Cookbooks is going to be interesting.
I never use library books anymore, mainly because I might get the urge to cook from them, and damage them. It has happened that I had to buy a library cookbook because I stained it. I am quite disrespectful of spilling stuff on the page - in fact, it helps me find a favourite recipe when I can flip to the beat up page. My absolute MOST beat up cookbook is a Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking Vol 1 in paperback. It is literally in 3 pieces. I bought a replacement but ended up giving that to my daughter.
I had the 1975 Joy of Cooking but it fell apart, as did the 1997 one and now I got me a brand-spanking latest edition. Quite the monster book. I made sure it still contained my go-to Blender Hollandaise before I paid for it.
When I have too many cookbooks which happens regularly, I cull them, and give them away to my friends via Facebook. I tend to fall for beautiful cover because of my art/ design background. But that is never the test of a winner. Just look at Nigel Slater's homely covers. Speaking of which, I hear he has a new book at which will go on my Christmas wish list meaning I will order it and pay for it and then my husband can give it to me for Christmas and I can spend the day reading it. The height of fuzzy-cooking-reading perfection.
This reminds me I've been wanting to read Nigel Slater's memoir! One of his newish books also has an roasted onion recipe I think I might be writing about soon......
Most regularly: it’s dinner time. I open the book the follow a recipe, usually one I’ve done before. That because phones are terrible for referring back to over and over.
Less regularly but still frequently. It’s about to be dinner time. Pull a book of the shelf to flip through and see what I have the ingredients to make
Sometimes: I’ve felt bold and offered to host people for dinner. Pull a few books down to flip through and determine a menu and a shopping list.
This is how most of my dinner parties go. I know the advice to never make a dish for the first time when you have guests, but honestly without the guests, I would never make these recipes. It helps that I can, at any time, invoke the pizza contingency and call for delivery. So freeing!
I read them when I’m with my toddler and can’t focus on fiction. I mostly borrow from the library and then buy if I think I will actually cook from it, but plenty of the ones I wouldn’t buy myself end up as gifts for my brothers and BILs and SILs. One book I read for inspiration is An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. Not just good inspiration...I pulled so many of her lessons and quotes into my strategy and design work. If I ever feel stuck, that cookbook helps me feel unstuck. And some of the principle “recipes” will stick with me forever, like fromage forte.
I love cookbooks as an interesting escape, usually choosing ones from different cultures than mine or ones that feature a specific cuisine. I like a good story also. They are my reference library, and I may cook about 1/3 from them, 1/3 from saved recipes I've printed out and have made before ,and 1/3 or slightly less than that from searching online for something to match an ingredient that I want to use. One issue with my cookbooks is that special ingredients take a lot of planning to find or get a hold of at times. That's why I also enjoy hacks like Genius Recipes (food 52)that are more technique based with more standard ingredients.
I've found that my biggest motivation for wanting to cook out of cookbooks instead of a recipe on my phone is that it's so annoying to follow a recipe on my phone and scroll through with my grubby little cooking hands and you can never see the whole thing at once. My mom has always done this funny thing where she finds a recipe she likes online, copy and pastes the whole thing into a word document, and then prints it out. But now I've started printing out recipes that aren't in a cookbook I have so I don't have to look at it on my phone! (have done this with mess hall recipes lol)
a HUGE thing for me when I worked at Food52 was learning that the test kitchen always printed out recipes before testing/making them, and would often tape them to cabinets/countertops, which I've only ever done once but it made me feel SO COOL and on top of my shit. But i completely agree—it's a much more pleasant physical/somatic (???) experience to cook from a piece of paper. this is also in part why it took me so long to buy an e-reader: half the reason I read is to have something physical for my brain to interact with.
Yes! I tend to make quick notes of ingredients/directions on a piece of scrap paper to use in the kitchen. Keeps my screens clean and also helps me remember what I'm supposed to be doing (oops, forgot about the 1 hour marination time...).
I love to read cookbooks, but I generally won't buy one unless I feel there's a good chance I will use it on a regular basis. Before Eat Your Books, I already developed my own weird system for indexing my cookbooks (and magazines, and food blogs...) to make sure I use as wide a variety of sources as possible throughout my cooking week. I'm with Jolene on a lot of her cookbook criteria, especially on the "things that could go wrong" and "here are some possible substitutions." I like a mix of weeknight-friendly and project cooking (and baking!), I like new combinations of flavors and techniques, I like to have my palate gently challenged. I feel bad about it, but at this point I tend to steer away from cookbooks that ask me to add to my already overflowing pantry and spice drawer. And I'm the weirdo who doesn't need a lot of photographs in a cookbook :-)
Good question! I have hundreds of cookbooks, although I cook from only a (large) handful of them regularly (25 or so). I use some as reference guides, others are on a coffee table (ex Charlie Trotter, Pierre Hermé - neither have been on my kitchen counter!). I like to read my cookbooks and flip thru them for meal planning inspiration (even if I don’t make a published recipe, I’ll riff off of one); I keep a stack on my kitchen island as my breakfast/lunch reading material when I’m home alone. Rarely do I read cookbooks in bed, but I also have a rule about no food in the bedrooms, so maybe that’s part of it? My favorite cookbooks are well-used, full of bookmarks, notes, a spines that are worn with love. BTW I love when I cookbook has at least 1 (of not more) bookmark ribbons attached!!!
I would love to hear which are your most-worn cookbooks! And I love having a mix of coffee table and kitchen counter books. I think when I was younger I really had something against the Charlie Trotters of the cookbook world because I found them "useless" and occasionally rude/impractical (I remember when the Coi cookbook came out and the RECIPES WERE IN THE BACK i was so mad) but now I do have a few books that I keep just for inspo and I have come to terms with it haha
Everything except using them as coffee table books! I buy based on if I have tried and enjoyed a recipe (whether it be from the cook or from a restaurant). If there is a regional cuisine, I try and buy based on reviews, or in-depth browsing at the book store. But I also love stories with recipes mixed in like An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, The Cooking Gene, L’appart, etc.
i LOVE LOVE LOVE the cooking gene! It's so smart, I think probably my favorite food memoir of the last 5-10 years (forget when it was published). as an oral history fiend I got so fired up about it. Also I have to look up An Omelette and a Glass of Wine!
So great to read about others who have tons of cookbooks, you are my people! Like Misha I tend to go through and flag all the ones I want to make at the start, I use these colourful stickies made by Semikolon and sort of match the color to the ingredients- if I like the recipe I’ll leave it in the book. Works as a kind of shortcut later, so if I’m looking for a tomato recipe for example I’ll check the red flags in the books I have lying around. But I also rely on the indexes- love books indexed by ingredients. Lately I’m looking for books that focus on vegetables, and things I’d be willing to make on a weeknight (and be able to eat before 9). However, one of my all time favourites is Sunday Suppers at Luques, by Suzanne Goin. Everything in there is delicious, but tends to take a bit of time. Cookbooks have taught me so much, I use them to learn about ingredients, to try different ways of working with ingredients- it seems like many cooks have a signature that you discover if you make enough of their recipes.
Also after listening to the Everything Cookbooks episode on Amy Thielen's COMPANY and menu cookbooks I've been wanting to return to Sunday Suppers at Lucques—I remember when I started at Food52 people used to talk about it with such reverence, but I'm not sure I've ever actually cooked from it
Cookbooks offer surprising nuggets of info that you cannot get elsewhere. Some are reference books, some are inspiration, some are friends.
What I find so interesting is this: people will spend $3O for an entree but are on the fence about a cookbook that costs the same or a little more. A good book yields many delicious meals and hours/days/years of happiness.
I am a bit biased....
So well put! I do think the "surprising nuggets" are one of the things I love most about cookbooks, because they're often something I'm not getting from a standalone recipe from a website. Cultural context, an anecdote about how the writer uses a tool or ingredient, etc. And the entree point is so true!
And, a recipe in a well designed book is better looking and easier to follow (hello margins notes!) than a recipe online (so linear!). BUT, with so many recipes online and performed in videos, recipes themselves seem dispensable.
You and I can talk about this for days....
You write darn good cookbooks that provide all three--reference, inspiration and comfort. I have and use them all. Now if they were just all the same size, I could group them together. I love Claire Thomson's books that so far are all the same size, one of the perfect cookbook sizes I think. I also used to keep all the Ten Speed Press books together, for multiple reasons actually, but they have broken out of their standard sizing lately, which means some books end up turned sideways or 'misplaced' on other shelves.
That’s interesting! We selected the trim size for my books to reflect the topic and length of the book. There’s also the cost factor. So it’s determined by art, purpose and cost. Some authors aim for a lineup of books like a set of encyclopedias or textbooks.
First things first: I try to borrow a cookbook from the library so I can give it a test drive before I buy it. I hate buying a cookbook only to learn that the author's taste buds don't line up with my own.
Sometimes I will read them like a novel. Recently, I read _The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen_ by Bee Wilson like this (of course, all of her essays helped with that). Sometimes I browse them to get inspired or to remind myself what's in them or to learn something new. I have oodles of cookbooks, but honestly probably have cooked out of about 10 of them. Some I bought because of the author; some because of the breadth of recipes in them; some because they were recommended.
What I like out of a cookbook (other than the tastebuds matching): Blurbs about the recipe without getting too far afield. Pictures of the finished dish. A list of ingredients ahead of the directions. Warning notes about how the recipe commonly goes wrong. Maybe information about recommended substitutions, especially if it is a cookbook for less-experienced folks. A font that is large enough to be legible for most people. (I hadn't looked at a cookbook for years because they made my head hurt. Now, on the other side of eye surgery, I can read easily, but my experience makes me sensitive to accessibility issues.)
I love getting cookbooks from the library! It's a great way to see if I want to own it or not. They can be expensive!
I've been trying to use my library card for cookbooks more—it's such a great test drive. And I've had The Secret Of Cooking next to (read: under) my bed for months because I've been meaning to spend some time with it but haven't really had the chance yet!
Cookbooks from the library are great for the test-drive. Sometimes, if I bring home a book and only 1-3 recipes are ones I’d make, I’ll take a photo or scan the recipes, the return the book. Beyond saving $, it saves valuable shelf space for more desirable cookbooks!!!
Maybe my perspective is a little different because I use them for my job but I mostly pick up a cookbook—very often from the library—to:
1. Skim for interesting or new-to-me flavor combinations to spark recipe ideas. Cookbook recipes aren't subject to the flattening that SEO can do to online recipes so they often offer something weirder or more fun
2. Fully read any recipe named like "Sally's Chili" or "Mom's Congee" because usually that recipe has been honed over years of making it and as a result offers a new and full perspective on the dish.
3. research FACTS. While cookbooks don't always have fact checkers, they typically go through more rounds of editing than a website so I trust their details more.
the "mom's congee" tip is so smart and I had never considered this before! and re: 3, I agree—I think my dream of having an enormous cookbook library doesn't so much exist because I imagine myself cooking from every book, but because I know I'd have ALMOST all the cooking / ingredient / cuisine info I could want all in one room and I wouldn't even have to look at a screen to access it........ xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I don’t use cookbooks for decorative purposes but I do appreciate when they’re hot. Hotness of course comes in all shapes and sizes and come to think of it, most cookbooks are beautiful in some way. Whether they are weathered classic beauties, minimalist beige bebes, or millennial bate neon pink sexpots - I don’t buy them for their looks but I do appreciate how they look mise en place.
I have two frequent uses of cookbooks. One is a lazy Sunday afternoon read. When I’m feeling too noncommittal for a long-form read like books, and don’t want to read anything on a screen, cookbooks occupy a spot formerly taken by perusing US Weekly magazines. I love the pictures, the little stories, the dose of other cultures, tips and tricks, and gathering inspiration for future recipes. And mostly that it can be a dazzling 5 minute flick through pages or a deep dive into multiple cookbooks, without any of the self imposed pressure to finish a chapter that novels bring.
The second use of cookbooks starts with the index. You might assume all are built the same but they are not ! Some skimp, only listing a few key items. Some organize ingredients under subcategories like ‘seafood’ - save that for the table of contents! When a cookbook lists out all the ingredients in the book, one by one in alphabetical order, with page numbers, I find it most helpful. Whenever I have ingredients to use up in my fridge, or maybe I have one thing I’m craving I know I want to start with, I’ll head to the index of a few cookbooks to look up those ingredients and see what recipes emerge. I love the spontaneity of it, how it can reveal surprising ideas, without being overwhelming as searching on google for, say, “salmon recipes”, which brings an avalanche of options. It’s sort of like the book chooses for me, or heavily narrows down my choices, which is such a luxury in this era of endless choices.
I absolutely do this type of lazy sunday reading too—when I can't commit to reading a book but want to READ! Also I love this index habit, it makes me think of how when I get a new book I always read the acknowledgements first. (I'm nosy!) I'll now be flipping to the back more often thanks to you....
As a librarian with book indexing experience, I say an index can make or break a book. I just reviewed a book on virology...the index listed “vaccines” in the index, then neglected to include reference to the main section on vaccines. Sigh.
Yes! I love great indexes too. I wish more cookbook publishers insisted on them.
Also this reminds me of a great book review I read this summer, on a book about indexes. I especially love the last bit, about men who forced their wives and children to index their books, and then those wives and children used the indexes to passive aggressively roast the author https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/06/22/life-is-short-indexes-are-necessary-dennis-duncan/
I read that. Hilarious.
I have cookbooks all over the house which is a source of contention with the rest of the family, but dang it they eat well. I love everything about them. I read them like novels before bed, but I’m also known to carry them with me at all times and will be found in the work break room reading them there too. I get a lot of free cookbooks from publishers now from promoting them on IG, but many of them I would buy anyway. I don’t get to travel much, so I learn about other cultures and cuisines from cookbooks. I love art and food photography so I get inspiration from the design and styling of the book and photos. I don’t like to cook from internet recipes so I use the Eat Your Books subscription to search for recipes in my cookbooks by ingredient. Cookbooks are my favorite thing really and I’m never without one.
wow yes dream home design is where a cookbook is always in close range
I use cookbooks to diversify my tastes, to change my approaches to food and cooking. I try to keep the number below 350-400 and every few months will send a few I have moved on from off to the library for their sale room. I tend to have several cookbooks open at a time on my kitchen table, and I browse through them randomly for a couple weeks before marking a few things to try. I usually cook impulsively based on what my body tells me I need to eat, and sometimes whether I see something that looks new and different. I used to be very careful about keeping books unmarked and unflagged so I wouldn't reach for books based on past history, but in the last 2-3 years I have begun adding stickies on recipes that I actually make fairly true to instruction (I generally deviate and frequently substitute ingredients and proportions), and inserting bits of paper as bookmarks into parts of the books I want to explore further. I have been pleasantly surprised to see every book I own become quite cluttered with these paper bits, so I guess all these books are worth it. I live where there are NO restaurants to speak of, except a good bakery, but I maintain a huge vegetable garden with chickens, have a hunter husband, have local access to raw milk and other staples, am unhesitant to order specialty ingredients (like chocolate), have subscriptions for fish (Sitka), fresh pressed olive oil, etc., so cookbooks are the tools I need to use my own initiative.
I recently wrote a post on books about cookbooks and I briefly talked about how I see cookbooks but the truth is, it depends on the cookbook. The way I use say an America's Test Kitchen book is very different to the way I use a book like The Nutmeg Trail. One is a pretty utilitarian, best recipes and practices sort of book and the other is an exercise in storytelling where the recipes are part of the story, not the only thing that is important.
For cookbooks like the latter, I read them like I would read a novel or other type of literature. There is definitely room for both types of cookbooks in this world, even if I have zero room for any more cookbooks on my shelves.
I loved your post on cookbook collection books!!!
Thank you!
Oh-oh, I am in trouble now - I just signed up for Eat Your Books!
What I do with my cookbooks? I do it all. I have numerous locations/shelves in our living and dining room where I place them. Some shelves are loosely organized by author/subject/ old favourites so I can almost pull the one I want out in the dark. Like Recipes for a Small Planet, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1, Classic Italian Cooking, Moosewood Vol 1. I am a huge Nigel Slater fan so those are all lined up in my vintage hoozier where I can gaze at them while I eat my lunch and read someone else's cookbook. I have a corner whatnot shelving unit where the cookbooks are stacked on their sides, in order of colour. Those I "play" with and enjoy occasionally rearranging. There are numerous stacks of cookbooks on chairs and on my two vintage highchairs that grand kids have outgrown; these are ones I am browsing.
I love reading cookbooks like novels, too, in bed is best. Nigel Slater is perfect for this. I am also a fan of Madhur Jaffrey and probably have all her cookbooks. Sometimes this inspires me to go online and watch old Julia Child videos, or Jacques Pepin who is still going strong. I LOVE the voices of some of these authors .... I can hear their voices when I am reading their book.
I also have this big stack of printed recipes from online searches - Food 52, Smitten Kitchen, Bon Appetit, and many recipes in Danish as that is my homeland cuisine and it is best read and cooked in Danish. My favourite Danish recipes are in one of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking (under CRE-FIN), which I collected way back in the early 70s.
If I find an intriguing recipe online, I will look through my own books for variations/ confirmation of how to make it, or vice versa. This is where teh Eat Your Cookbooks is going to be interesting.
I never use library books anymore, mainly because I might get the urge to cook from them, and damage them. It has happened that I had to buy a library cookbook because I stained it. I am quite disrespectful of spilling stuff on the page - in fact, it helps me find a favourite recipe when I can flip to the beat up page. My absolute MOST beat up cookbook is a Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking Vol 1 in paperback. It is literally in 3 pieces. I bought a replacement but ended up giving that to my daughter.
I had the 1975 Joy of Cooking but it fell apart, as did the 1997 one and now I got me a brand-spanking latest edition. Quite the monster book. I made sure it still contained my go-to Blender Hollandaise before I paid for it.
When I have too many cookbooks which happens regularly, I cull them, and give them away to my friends via Facebook. I tend to fall for beautiful cover because of my art/ design background. But that is never the test of a winner. Just look at Nigel Slater's homely covers. Speaking of which, I hear he has a new book at which will go on my Christmas wish list meaning I will order it and pay for it and then my husband can give it to me for Christmas and I can spend the day reading it. The height of fuzzy-cooking-reading perfection.
This reminds me I've been wanting to read Nigel Slater's memoir! One of his newish books also has an roasted onion recipe I think I might be writing about soon......
Most regularly: it’s dinner time. I open the book the follow a recipe, usually one I’ve done before. That because phones are terrible for referring back to over and over.
Less regularly but still frequently. It’s about to be dinner time. Pull a book of the shelf to flip through and see what I have the ingredients to make
Sometimes: I’ve felt bold and offered to host people for dinner. Pull a few books down to flip through and determine a menu and a shopping list.
This is how most of my dinner parties go. I know the advice to never make a dish for the first time when you have guests, but honestly without the guests, I would never make these recipes. It helps that I can, at any time, invoke the pizza contingency and call for delivery. So freeing!
I read them when I’m with my toddler and can’t focus on fiction. I mostly borrow from the library and then buy if I think I will actually cook from it, but plenty of the ones I wouldn’t buy myself end up as gifts for my brothers and BILs and SILs. One book I read for inspiration is An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. Not just good inspiration...I pulled so many of her lessons and quotes into my strategy and design work. If I ever feel stuck, that cookbook helps me feel unstuck. And some of the principle “recipes” will stick with me forever, like fromage forte.
Everlasting Meal is one that I got from the library first. I loved it so much, I ordered a copy before I finished reading it.
One of my favorite food books of all time!
I love cookbooks as an interesting escape, usually choosing ones from different cultures than mine or ones that feature a specific cuisine. I like a good story also. They are my reference library, and I may cook about 1/3 from them, 1/3 from saved recipes I've printed out and have made before ,and 1/3 or slightly less than that from searching online for something to match an ingredient that I want to use. One issue with my cookbooks is that special ingredients take a lot of planning to find or get a hold of at times. That's why I also enjoy hacks like Genius Recipes (food 52)that are more technique based with more standard ingredients.
I've found that my biggest motivation for wanting to cook out of cookbooks instead of a recipe on my phone is that it's so annoying to follow a recipe on my phone and scroll through with my grubby little cooking hands and you can never see the whole thing at once. My mom has always done this funny thing where she finds a recipe she likes online, copy and pastes the whole thing into a word document, and then prints it out. But now I've started printing out recipes that aren't in a cookbook I have so I don't have to look at it on my phone! (have done this with mess hall recipes lol)
a HUGE thing for me when I worked at Food52 was learning that the test kitchen always printed out recipes before testing/making them, and would often tape them to cabinets/countertops, which I've only ever done once but it made me feel SO COOL and on top of my shit. But i completely agree—it's a much more pleasant physical/somatic (???) experience to cook from a piece of paper. this is also in part why it took me so long to buy an e-reader: half the reason I read is to have something physical for my brain to interact with.
Yes! I tend to make quick notes of ingredients/directions on a piece of scrap paper to use in the kitchen. Keeps my screens clean and also helps me remember what I'm supposed to be doing (oops, forgot about the 1 hour marination time...).
haha, grubby little cooking hands is so right. Not to mention the obnoxious pop up ads and autoplay videos these days
I love to read cookbooks, but I generally won't buy one unless I feel there's a good chance I will use it on a regular basis. Before Eat Your Books, I already developed my own weird system for indexing my cookbooks (and magazines, and food blogs...) to make sure I use as wide a variety of sources as possible throughout my cooking week. I'm with Jolene on a lot of her cookbook criteria, especially on the "things that could go wrong" and "here are some possible substitutions." I like a mix of weeknight-friendly and project cooking (and baking!), I like new combinations of flavors and techniques, I like to have my palate gently challenged. I feel bad about it, but at this point I tend to steer away from cookbooks that ask me to add to my already overflowing pantry and spice drawer. And I'm the weirdo who doesn't need a lot of photographs in a cookbook :-)
Good question! I have hundreds of cookbooks, although I cook from only a (large) handful of them regularly (25 or so). I use some as reference guides, others are on a coffee table (ex Charlie Trotter, Pierre Hermé - neither have been on my kitchen counter!). I like to read my cookbooks and flip thru them for meal planning inspiration (even if I don’t make a published recipe, I’ll riff off of one); I keep a stack on my kitchen island as my breakfast/lunch reading material when I’m home alone. Rarely do I read cookbooks in bed, but I also have a rule about no food in the bedrooms, so maybe that’s part of it? My favorite cookbooks are well-used, full of bookmarks, notes, a spines that are worn with love. BTW I love when I cookbook has at least 1 (of not more) bookmark ribbons attached!!!
I would love to hear which are your most-worn cookbooks! And I love having a mix of coffee table and kitchen counter books. I think when I was younger I really had something against the Charlie Trotters of the cookbook world because I found them "useless" and occasionally rude/impractical (I remember when the Coi cookbook came out and the RECIPES WERE IN THE BACK i was so mad) but now I do have a few books that I keep just for inspo and I have come to terms with it haha
Everything except using them as coffee table books! I buy based on if I have tried and enjoyed a recipe (whether it be from the cook or from a restaurant). If there is a regional cuisine, I try and buy based on reviews, or in-depth browsing at the book store. But I also love stories with recipes mixed in like An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, The Cooking Gene, L’appart, etc.
i LOVE LOVE LOVE the cooking gene! It's so smart, I think probably my favorite food memoir of the last 5-10 years (forget when it was published). as an oral history fiend I got so fired up about it. Also I have to look up An Omelette and a Glass of Wine!
So great to read about others who have tons of cookbooks, you are my people! Like Misha I tend to go through and flag all the ones I want to make at the start, I use these colourful stickies made by Semikolon and sort of match the color to the ingredients- if I like the recipe I’ll leave it in the book. Works as a kind of shortcut later, so if I’m looking for a tomato recipe for example I’ll check the red flags in the books I have lying around. But I also rely on the indexes- love books indexed by ingredients. Lately I’m looking for books that focus on vegetables, and things I’d be willing to make on a weeknight (and be able to eat before 9). However, one of my all time favourites is Sunday Suppers at Luques, by Suzanne Goin. Everything in there is delicious, but tends to take a bit of time. Cookbooks have taught me so much, I use them to learn about ingredients, to try different ways of working with ingredients- it seems like many cooks have a signature that you discover if you make enough of their recipes.
as a note taking freak i had to immediately look up these stickers—maybe they are these? i think i'm gonna get myself a set for christmas :) https://www.semikolon.us/sticky-tab-markers-in-a-booklet.html
Also after listening to the Everything Cookbooks episode on Amy Thielen's COMPANY and menu cookbooks I've been wanting to return to Sunday Suppers at Lucques—I remember when I started at Food52 people used to talk about it with such reverence, but I'm not sure I've ever actually cooked from it
WHY didn't I know about these before I began working on my book?!
https://www.semikolon.us/sticky-page-markers-in-a-booklet.html Nope, these ones..more colours!