How Many Cookbooks do You Own?

[BillP]

Here's a two part question: How many cookbooks do you own? And of them, how many do you actually use on a regular basis?

[caroline88]

1. More than I care to count.

2. Thanks for closing with an easy one - Zero.

Caroline

[abarrera]

On my last count, I estimated i'm very close to the 200 mark!. I have being collecting since I was 20 and now I'm in my late fifties. As to using them, I think that I have cooked at least one recipe from each one, but my favorites change. The Joy of Cooking have got me out of quite a few special occasions and not so special ones. I also value a lot a book that my mom brought from Cuba which got me crazily interested in cooking and cookbooks ( I literally sit down and READ them as if they were a novel). Lately, since I'm also a mystery fan, I've taken to read books in which the mystery in intertwined with cooking and/or recipes. Some include recipes, too. AS to the ones more used in the long run, I was given the Betty Crocker's cook book and The Grand Diplome Cooking Course set. They are battered, yellowing, stained from spill but still used.

[BillP]

200! Wow, abarrera, that is a lot of cookbooks. I am envious. I have about 50 and I thought that was a lot. I read cookbooks too. Even when you don't cook specific recipes, concepts sink in and later give you an idea for something while you're cooking. There are some cookbooks that are very readable too. I'm halfway through Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province which is absolutely fascinating. It's a cookbook first and foremost, but there are stories of the people interwoven throughout. Hunan was Mao's home province, and it's also home to China's fieriest food. I highly recommend it.

As for mysteries... have you read either of the novels Anthony Bourdain wrote before he made it big with his memoir, Kitchen Confidential? I haven't read Gone Bamboo, but Bone in the Throat was entertaining, Elmore Leonard-esque tale set in NYC's Little Italy about a line chef who gets mixed up with the mob. A lot of the anecdotes Bourdain would use in Kitchen Confidential turned up here first.

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abarrera wrote:
On my last count, I estimated i'm very close to the 200 mark!...
Lately, since I'm also a mystery fan, I've taken to read books in which the mystery in intertwined with cooking and/or recipes.

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[ziki]

BillP wrote:
How many cookbooks do you own?

Not sure, I never actually counted them. I estimate 50-100?

And of them, how many do you actually use on a regular basis?

I use them irregularly. With food everything is kinda unpredictable with me. Sometimes I am more interested and sometimes I only cook the basics (or make improvizations) from head.

ziki

[BillP]

I have a typical small NYC kitchen and I ran out of bookshelf space in there about a six years ago. There are stacks of cookbooks in just about every room of my house. I need to do something about that. That's what my girlfriend says, at least.

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ziki wrote:
BillP wrote:
How many cookbooks do you own?

Not sure, I never actually counted them. I estimate 50-100?

And of them, how many do you actually use on a regular basis?

I use them irregularly. With food everything is kinda unpredictable with me. Sometimes I am more interested and sometimes I only cook the basics (or make improvizations) from head.

ziki

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[BillP]

Caroline, you're a cook-from-your head type? That's great. I used to be slavish to the recipe, but I can wing it most of the time now. Though not with baking. Too much science involved.

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caroline88 wrote:
1. More than I care to count.

2. Thanks for closing with an easy one - Zero.

Caroline

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[LizzieAnn]

Probably about 80 published ones, another dozen binders filled with recipes, as well as many cooking magazines!

I use some frequently, some occasionally, some seasonally, and am always looking for more!

[ziki]

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BillP wrote:
I have a typical small NYC kitchen and I ran out of bookshelf space in there about a six years ago. There are stacks of cookbooks in just about every room of my house. I need to do something about that. That's what my girlfriend says, at least.

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According to organizing gurus we use only about 20% of what we own. I tried to get rid of some cookbooks (and I did) but the effect was not evident because I bought many new ones instead.

ziki

[ziki]

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LizzieAnn wrote:
Probably about 80 published ones, another dozen binders filled with recipes, as well as many cooking magazines!

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Yes, right, me too! I threw many notebooks with recipes away because I realized I will never cook them anyhow, nevertheless, I keep on collecting, LOL.

ziki

[caroline88]

Bill,

I am pretty good at following recipes (especially baking ones!) but then I decided that I was in charge of what I want to put in my dish. Recipes are merely suggestions.

Currently, I do not have a kitchen. This means, most of my cooking utensils are in storage and I have limited storage for herbs, spices and other exotic ingredients. And my cooking needs to be extremely simplified. I have no worktop, and a two pit electric stove minimizes the number of options.

My focus is on low cost, healthy and quick&easy because I am saving for that glorious kitchen and I want to eat early in the evening (much healthier too than going to bed with a full stomach). One of the luxuries of living alone, I can do "boring" each and every day as long as I enjoy my own meals

Caroline

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BillP wrote:
Caroline, you're a cook-from-your head type? That's great. I used to be slavish to the recipe, but I can wing it most of the time now. Though not with baking. Too much science involved.

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caroline88 wrote:
1. More than I care to count.

2. Thanks for closing with an easy one - Zero.

Caroline

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[Jessica]

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ziki wrote: Yes, right, me too! I threw many notebooks with recipes away because I realized I will never cook them anyhow, nevertheless, I keep on collecting, LOL.

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A few years ago, trying to save money, I went on a campaign to borrow cookbooks from all of my friends, and make copies of the recipes that appealed to me. The result is this *manic* binder full of great dishes, with absolutely no logical organization whatsoever (I just punched holes and snapped them in). Categorizing this binder has been on my To Do list for, oh, about 7 years now. Somehow I doubt I'll ever get to it. Besides, it's kind of a treat to flip through the pages and "discover" a recipe I forgot was in there.

Ziki, I have the same issue -- I know for a fact I'll never cook most of these! But for some reason I have this lingering notion that my next dinner party will be the talk of the neighborhood, based on some dusty recipe in my crazy, crazy binder. I want to get rid of the thing -- it's huge and ugly -- but when spring cleaning rolls around, there it sits, winking at me...

Otherwise, I have a few of the classics -- Joy, The Silver Spoon, etc. But my big cookbook weakness is for the ones that focus on a specific idea, like I Love Crab Cakes!, or 101 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles, or Vegetable Love.

Usually these books are thin (actually Veg. Love is over 700 pages...), and like BillP, I have them stacked in random places throughout my apartment. I think my dream kitchen definitely needs a built-in bookshelf!

Jessica
Book Club Editor

[KristyR]

I probably have ~100 cookbooks. It's funny to look through all the titles, because a lot of them represent a different time in our lives. When we first got married - the learning to cook ones and the ones with foods our mom's cooked. When we decided to eat healthier - vegetarian, organic, and "fresh" food cookbooks. As we started a family - easy, quick cooking, and one pot meals. Now as our kids are becoming interested in cooking - kids cookbooks. The cookbooks I use the most often now, especially for parties, mom's group, company etc. are the Barefoot Contessa ones by Ina Garten. The recipies are easy, taste great, and I have no problem finding the ingredients.

[caroline88]

Jessica,

I have a binder like that, from all the recipes that I found in newspapers and magazines. Except, I have copied them all. (typing, in a word document!) A few hundred pages.

My categories (IIRC) are Indonesian, Chinese, Entrees, Main courses, Vegetables, Salads, Vegetarian dishes, Oven dishes, Desserts, Cakes, Tips & Tricks, Drinks & snacks.

It was a lot of work but the great thing is, these are all only recipes of things that I enjoy eating. Why copy a shrimp recipe? I do not eat shrimps in any shape or form. And because it is in Word documents, I can also do a search on ingredients. Like when I have a craving for pineapple, this is a nice way to get something completely different.

Caroline

[Jessica]

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caroline88 wrote: Jessica, I have a binder like that, from all the recipes that I found in newspapers and magazines. Except, I have copied them all. (typing, in a word document!) A few hundred pages. My categories (IIRC) are Indonesian, Chinese, Entrees, Main courses, Vegetables, Salads, Vegetarian dishes, Oven dishes, Desserts, Cakes, Tips & Tricks, Drinks & snacks. It was a lot of work but the great thing is, these are all only recipes of things that I enjoy eating. Why copy a shrimp recipe? I do not eat shrimps in any shape or form. And because it is in Word documents, I can also do a search on ingredients. Like when I have a craving for pineapple, this is a nice way to get something completely different. Caroline

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Caroline,

A searchable word doc ... What. A. Great. Idea!

Come that fateful day when I actually organize my beastly binder, I think this is the way to go.

Thanks!
Jessica

[LizzieAnn]

Cookbooks make a great collection. Sometimes I just look through them & read the recipes. I especially love cookbooks with pictures!

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ziki wrote:

Yes, right, me too! I threw many notebooks with recipes away because I realized I will never cook them anyhow, nevertheless, I keep on collecting, LOL.

ziki

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[LizzieAnn]

I did the same thing when I moved a couple of years ago. I not only bought enough books to replace those I got rid of, but lots more besides. At least cookbooks are a fun addiction!

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ziki wrote:

According to organizing gurus we use only about 20% of what we own. I tried to get rid of some cookbooks (and I did) but the effect was not evident because I bought many new ones instead.

ziki

[ziki]

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LizzieAnn wrote:
I did the same thing when I moved a couple of years ago. I not only bought enough books to replace those I got rid of, but lots more besides. At least cookbooks are a fun addiction!

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Right, I know the feeling and I agree wholeheartedly.

ziki

[ziki]

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KristyR wrote:
I probably have ~100 cookbooks. It's funny to look through all the titles, because a lot of them represent a different time in our lives. When we first got married - the learning to cook ones and the ones with foods our mom's cooked. When we decided to eat healthier - vegetarian, organic, and "fresh" food cookbooks. As we started a family - easy, quick cooking, and one pot meals. Now as our kids are becoming interested in cooking - kids cookbooks. The cookbooks I use the most often now, especially for parties, mom's group, company etc. are the Barefoot Contessa ones by Ina Garten. The recipies are easy, taste great, and I have no problem finding the ingredients.

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How very true, even how to fast and save the world by eating rightly, veggie books and macrobiotics ....all the way back to meat...full circle...and an old yellowed greased book glued together by a large bit of band aid...my grandma's book with many unedible things with tons of fat and sugar, calf brain and piggie-fot and all that nasty stuff...o) but---with a few useful recipes for eating memories.

ziki

[ziki]

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Jessica wrote:Come that fateful day when I actually organize my beastly binder, I think this is the way to go.

Thanks!
Jessica

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Ah, face it...you never will.

ziki