Help, I'm addicted to cookbooks

[spinbaby]

I just ordered the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I have stacks of the things already but I can't help myself.

[elleng]

1. Hey, don't worry,

they won't kill you (unless, of course, you EAT them!!!)

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. I used to be, but there are so many recipes online nowadays

that I've stopped buying cookbooks by and large. (Although I did buy up one magazine special with various canning recipes recently. But I'd bet that even those recipes are mostly online if I looked enough.)

[spinbaby]

4. Not the same

It's hard to snuggle into bed for a good read with on-line recipes, even on an iPad. It's not so much making the recipes as reading about them.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. Well, there is that.

I've got the 'Vegetable Bible' lying at the end of my bed, although it's more coffee-table food porn than anything else.

[Retrograde]

7. Glad I'm not the only one who does that!

I plan enormous feasts that I'll never make in real life, especially when I'm not feeling well and don't want to eat.

My favorite food porn is "Last Dinner on the Titanic": I know I'll never make that 11 course first-class dinner (complete with caviar, filet mignon, truffles, and foie gras), but I love to read about it!

[NJCher]

11. OMD

that's so funny. I do stuff like that, too.

I've sort of calmed it down a bit, but it used to be really bad, my penchant for planning large feasts that I never actually cooked. I think the daily "what's for dinner" thread has helped a lot. I can just post a modest ambition over there and that seems to take the wind out of my sails.

spinbaby, I am an incurable cookbook nut, too. I have a nice bookshelf in my office, all full of cookbooks. And I do use them on a regular basis!

But unlike you, I am perfectly happy to have all a new set of cookbooks stored on my Nook. I have run out of space to store hard copy, anyway.

But there is nothing like cruising through a hard copy cookbook, looking for fun recipes to try.


Cher

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. I will help you by taking your cookbooks off your hands.

You don't have to thank me for this service.

(I have pretty much stopped getting cookbooks. I have a three-shelf bookcase in my kitchen, plus two more shelves of cookbooks in my study.)

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. I've really only got one shelf worth.

In the bedroom, next to the bed. I only take them downstairs when I specifically choose to make a given recipe.

[Retrograde]

8. Try your local library

Lately, I've been checking out cookbooks that sound interesting rather than buying them. If there are more than a dozen recipes I like, or if there is a lot of culinary or cultural background, I consider buying them - especially if I still want to make or refer to a recipe a couple months. If there's just one or two recipes I want, I'll write those down or look for them on line.

[Warpy]

9. I was like that for a long time, reading them like sensible people read novels

Then I went too blind to read and started to pick through them. First to go were the ones with glossy pictures that suffered from chef-itis, requiring hours of prep for every recipe, complicated sauces, a list of thirty ingredients. Next to go were cookbooks that might have been fine for someone but the flavors weren't balanced for my own palate. Then the exotic ones that required ingredients available only in NYC or LA. Then the "family" cookbooks that made enough for an army with recipes that resisted being scaled down or frozen. That got rid of most of my cookbooks and pared the whole thing down to one shelf of a small bookshelf for the seldom used books and six in the kitchen, two of those for gluten free baking, soon to be one.

It was actually a relief to get rid of so many of them. I had read them, enjoyed them, and now they are cluttering somebody else's kitchen and being enjoyed.

I also pared down the bookshelves jammed with books I'd read, the ones I was probably never going to read again. I did keep a few old friends that will be with me until I kick the bucket, but most of them are out there making new friends.

In a way, going blind was a gift that allowed me to see what was important and what could be cast off and sent down the line. Unusable cookbooks led the way.

[The empressof all]

10. I just got rid of most of mine....

I now just buy kindle versions or use recipe sites. I kept some of my older books that can't be replicated but honestly I rarely dig them out anymore.

[Luminous Animal]

12. I love reading them and they are riddled with post-it notes. Fortunately, I'm a block away

from a great used book store that has a robust cookbook collection.

[grasswire]

13. you and me both, baby

Many shelves of cookbooks. The more obscure, old, and/or odd the better! I mostly like to pick them up at estate sales and thrift shops. Can't remember the last time I bought a newly published one, although I have been given some now and then.

I never thought of planning menus just for the fun of it!

[spinbaby]

14. I love planning menus

Sometimes I even cook them.

[grasswire]

19. I am more likely to plan...

....how I'm going to spend the Powerball jackpot.

[AwakeAtLast]

15. I have no help to offer you

I read them like books. I find that even though I've read lots of recipes, there are very few that I actually use in my day-to-day cooking. The keepers are worth their weight in gold!

[dem in texas]

16. Glad to know that I am not alone.

I love to read a cookbook in bed before I fall asleep. Also, going to an estate sale and finding an unusual cookbook. I have well over a hundred cookbooks just on Mexican cooking (my favorite type of cooking). I have all the Rick Bayless books, the ones from Patricia Quintana and all Diane Kennedy's books. Lots of old Mexican cookbooks in Spanish, my Spanish is fair, so these are fun to read. Love all the old southern cookbooks, too. But when it comes to every day cooking, my old 1960's Joy of Cooking is still my favorite and I use it all the time.

[grasswire]

18. my stash also runs in themes

A shelf just for New England cookery. One filled with southern gems. Lately (since I discovered that my genealogy includes Scandinavian ancestors in the form of Vikings) I've been picking up some of those, older ones. A shelf of restaurant cookbooks such as Mama Leone's in NYC, Omar Khayam's in SF, Luchow's, etc. And lots more shelves.

[Freddie]

17. I was too until I discovered the Big Oven site/app

It's free. 100000s of recipes and ratings, comments, photos. You can also use it to store your own favorites.
However I do still look for cookbooks made by "real people"--church and other fundraiser type books where people contribute the recipes they make at home.

[dem in texas]

20. have to look out for some of the online recipes

I have tried a few recipes that I got on line that turned out to be duds. One recipe, I went back and someone else had posted about how bad it was. Also found some that are really good. Still love to find an unusual recipe in an old cookbook.

[laundry_queen]

21. I have this issue too

It really doesn't help my work is next door to a bookstore. *sigh* Online recipes have helped me buy a few less books than I otherwise would have, but I still prefer books.

[justhanginon]

22. Like so manyof us who love to cook, I have tons

of cookbooks and cooking magazines. The problem for me is remembering where a certain recipe is located when a wild hair strikes and you want to make something either ethnic or just complex you made one time 10 years ago. I tried keeping 3x5 cards referencing the recipe title and the book or magazine i used. I just never did it religiously and it unfortunately never became a habit and so the problem remains. Half the time by the time I find the info I'm no longer in the mood for that dish.
Still love to just read cookbooks for pleasure.