By Lucia

July 14, 2008 4:13 PM | Link to this

To paraphrase Charlton Heston, they will have to pull my cookbooks out of my cold, dead hands. Seriously, cookbooks are are like comfort food that I want to linger over and magazines are like fast food, portable and consumable and disposable. There are two exceptions to my “disposable” magazine rule: Cook’s Illustrated and Fine Cooking. All others, including Gourmet, get passed along. I use internet recipes for research and rarely for pleasure reading.

By Stan

July 15, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this

Meh, I don’t use cookbooks very often at all. I have a few: a couple of family ones, the old paperback red & white check/tablecloth cover (better homes?)

I mostly use the internet from trusted sources. I’m a fan of Good Eats so I use foodtv and look for AB’s recipes and a few others. Even then I only use it as a guide. I don’t follow and recipe to the letter (except for some of the family’s)

I will from time to time look for something different when the mood hits, be it at the grocery checkout or something on tv or mag. and go find a recipe for something I’ve never fixed before.

Stan

By FCm

July 15, 2008 9:34 PM | Link to this

Depends on what I am making…For the most part, I love to READ cookbooks more than I like to COOK from them. I could do several definitive histories from the ones on my folks’ shelves.

I also read the Food Network…I have bought some cookbooks (AB, Emeril) and borrowed others from friends (Mario Batali, Lady Deen—wish I met her sons before they met their wives!). Most everything I make from these books get rave reviews.

Mostly I tend to make the same old thing all the time.

By Voice of Reason

July 16, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this

I do, at times. But I have a question:

What is a great way to collate and preserve all my favorite recipes and even ones I’ve cut out, but have yet to try? Do you just cut the books and then glue/paste onto some kind of paper? And I’m sure I want it to be a ring-binder-type thing, so I can pull out what I want.

But I hate that recipes sometimes are half on one side of the page and then the rest on the back side, and I have to copy a page so I can cut it and ut everything together. Hence I have numerous books and a stack of torn out recipes from magazines that I now can’t find anything. Help. [and I don’t want to do index cards]. it seems I’m going to just have to find time to photocoy stuff so I can cut/paste all. Please advise. Thanks.

By Cookin' At Home

July 16, 2008 3:56 PM | Link to this

I have a small bookcase full of cookbooks in my kitchen - many of which got me started cooking years ago when I was first living on my own. I especially like some of the ethnic cookbooks (Chinese, Cajun, Polish, Austrian) that have a few chapters at the beginning introducing the history and nuances of that culture’s cooking before you actually get to the recipes. I’m also lucky to have some old ones from my grandmother (dating back to the 1930’s) and a recipe box of handwritten recipes in both English and German from old relatives. True, the internet has more than anyone could ever want to find but sometimes it’s fun to just go to a section of an old cookbook and find something that looks interesting and try it.

By liz

July 16, 2008 4:29 PM | Link to this

I enjoy recipes from all sort of places: people, magazines, books, newspapers,tv and radio, and now emails and internet. Cooking is to to share recipes, and best of all the food. We all have food in common,and that is one way to help make the world a better place. I feel finding recipes from different sources has equal value as long as people can share food with one another.

By Laura

July 16, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this

I have an obsession with cookbooks and I have tons of them…but ironically get most of my recipes online!

By Becky

July 16, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this

I love cookbooks..I don’t always follow a recipe to the T..I had something here & there..In fact I was in DC for the 4th & I bought “The Congressional Club Cookbook”..My coworker about croaked when she found out that I paid $48.00 for it, but to me it is worth every penny..FCM, I have one of Paula Deens books & I enjoy cooking from that one also..I enjoy cooking from the cookbooks that they sale from churches also..

By Foodie

July 16, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this

My collection of church and fund-raising cookbooks is PRICELESS. Yes, there are many free recipes to be had on the internet, but the afore-mentioned cookbooks have real family favorites in them. Southern churches are the best for their cookbooks!

By BillP

July 16, 2008 4:51 PM | Link to this

We’ve got 2 cookbooks we rely on. Between America’s Test Kitchen and Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” I’m pretty well covered.

We’re also gradually making a Food.com cookbook by printing out recipes from the website (Tyler Florence and Alton Brown are THE MEN!) sliding them into vinyl page protectors and putting them in a loose-leaf binder.

By UGA_GAL

July 16, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this

My ex-husband used to say that I never met a cookbook that I could not live without! Perhaps he was right since my collection now totals over 1200 books! I am now giving away most of my books to my nieces and hanging on to the Southern Living Annual Recipe Collection (1979-present) and about 50 others that will fit onto 3 shelves.

I find myself drifting more to the internet these days but it is soothing to curl up with a nice Junior League Cookbook on a Sunday afternoon. My current favorite is Par 3 which is a sequal to Tea Time at the Masters. Great recipes and beautiful pictures make this book a keeper!

By Billie Edwards

July 16, 2008 5:29 PM | Link to this

Hi…I am a collector too….I have approx 1600 books….Do you have any southern cookbooks…..I have the S/L you mentioned and lots of Jr Leagues……….

By Theresa

July 16, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this

hey jeanne — I definitely still use my cookbooks! I’ve got a corner in the kitchen wiht all my favorites. But I also take cooking magazines (hot right now on Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food) and I use the Internet a lot also. I did check out from the library three cookbooks last week to check them out — the Jessica Seinfeld slipping veggies to your kids book, a book about how to make fancy petit fours and then a french book on losing weight with recipes. I might buy the fancy cake book — there lots in there I want to try and can’t in just three weeks. But it is $30.

By DecaturCyn

July 16, 2008 7:37 PM | Link to this

Internet and magazine recipes are great practical tools, but the best printed cookbooks aren’t strictly utilitarian. The ones with quirky stories and local lore are a pleasure to read even if they never land in the kitchen. Two favorites are Cooking Southern: Vegetarian Style and a little recipe collection that I found at the Museum of Appalachia outside Knoxville.

By FCM

July 16, 2008 8:56 PM | Link to this

Am I the only person under 40 reading Southern Living Magazine as religiously as my Mother and her Mother? I love the magazine—it even got me to plant flowers! That has been interesting considering I can kill a plant faster than frost!

Anyway, I have a a few Southern Living Cookbooks. I also have the Laura Ingalls Wilder Cookbook, where they were receipes from her index file….Rose’s Chicken Pot Pie and the Pork Chops cannot be beat….Hands down best ever.

Mom has several of the Jr League books. My grandmother collected them. Maybe the Southern Restoration Project will look at those next?

By Serious Cook

July 16, 2008 8:56 PM | Link to this

I have about 700 cookbooks and they are wonderful kitchen literature. I too have SL 1979 - present plus a lot of other SL cookbooks, maybe 50.

I am allergic to many foods and by knowing a lot about how things are prepared I am able to prevent serious reactions—but Epi-pen is always beside me.

I like regional cookbooks and when I go somewhere for vacation or a business trip, i buy a cookbook. It is a nice way to learn about an area.

I subscribe to about 10 food type magazines and can read them by the hour. My favorite is Eating Well.

I use my cookbooks and seldom cook the same time more than 3-4 times per year.

By Malcolm

July 16, 2008 9:29 PM | Link to this

Does anyone remember the cookbook, “Atlanta Cooks for Company”?, we purchased one when they were having the fundraiser, dont remember what it was for but have it for a keepsake more than anything else…….

By elaine

July 16, 2008 10:19 PM | Link to this

My husband loves to tell friends, “his wife collects and reads cookbooks,only dusts the stove.” I do love to read cook books and respected food columnists, know when recipe read if it will be a success. Like many others, Church and Jr.League cookbooks, Natalie Dupree, Southern Living Cooks for Company are mainstays. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, circa 1976 is 100% wonderful food!

By By Myra

July 16, 2008 10:48 PM | Link to this

I still use my cookbooks and my Mom’s and Grandmother’s recipe cards they gave me when I got married. I inherited my Grandmother’s SL Annual Recipe books, I do not use them much though. I love my Paula books, even with all the butter! I really use my Cake Mix Doctor books alot, they are wonderful! I enjoy the Barefoot Contessa show on the Food Network immensely. I would like to purchase her cookbook, but haven’t yet. I would recommend Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook to anyone just learning to cook. It is great!

By lovelyliz

July 17, 2008 7:10 AM | Link to this

I still use my cookbooks, but given that I have a limited amount of space, I’ve found myself relying more and more on the internet. With nothing on TV these days, especially on weekends, I find myself checking out the Food Network and its website a lot.

I used to have several foodish magazine subscriptions: Southern Living, Rachel Ray, Real Simple, Martha Stewart and found that it was almost impossible for me to find that perfect recipe when I needed it. I just don’t have the time, space and willingness to organize everything from those mags so I dropped them.

What would get me back to subscribing would be the option to buy and entire year of the magazine on disc. That way I could get on my computer and search for a recipe by ingredient, occasion, etc.

By JJ

July 17, 2008 7:20 AM | Link to this

I have a serious collection of cook books. When I travel, I like to find the local cook books, those put out by the church groups, the Junior League, etc.

I also love Taste of Home. I have a subscription to that now, for the past 5 years. I have most of them, and refer to the alot. I just recently signed up for Cooking Light.

I love to cook and try new stuff. My tv at home is always on FoodNetwork!!!! Barefoot Contessa is my fav.

By dorae

July 17, 2008 7:36 AM | Link to this

I love cookbooks. Most are read for inspiration and entertainment. But, when I need specifics I go back to my old favorite Fannie Farmers.

By JJ

July 17, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this

FCM - I just got a subscription to Southern Living. I LOVE IT!!!! I like to savor it, and it takes me two weeks to read the entire magazine. I have been so inspired by some of the articles in there.

I actually got a two for one subscription and sent one to my best friend. She loves it too. We call each other the day it arrives…..

And to those of you with 1,600 cookbooks, can I come over and check them out? I only have a mere 30 books……but I have tons of cooking magazines. I’ll swap ya….

Voice of Reason - Two ideas, one, cut the recipe out of the magazine, and you can put it in a recipe box. I have tons of recipes I want to try but haven’t so I just stash them in my box.

I also have a three ring binder, where I put recipes I print off the internet, either here, or Food Network. I bought some tab dividers, and three hole punch the recipes and put them in the notebook. I haven’t tried alot of these recipes just yet, so when I am in the mood to try something new, I go to the notebook.

I actually have two recipe boxes, one with the normal categories, and one that is alphabetized. If I can’t remember a certain recipe, I reference my alphabetical box.

I want to take cooking lessons, to experiment with new ideas. Anyone know of any thing like that in the North Gwinnett area?

By FCM

July 17, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this

JJ—I forgot about Taste of Home. My Mom gets that then I trade her at months end for my SL.

Voice—how about scanning them? Then you would only have to store a disk and could probably make a reference log.

I had a reciepe years ago for a pork dish. You take a loin and marniate 4 days to a week…with onions, wine, vinegar, carrots, spices, etc…Then when you cook it you serve it with a creamy mustard sauce. I have lost contact with the fellow who gave it to me, but he adapted it from Julia Child’s stuff…anyone of you with 500+ books have something like that?