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Google Books

BadRabbit

By BadRabbit
in Cookbooks & References

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BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
Posted

Has anyone found any old public domain cookbooks or books on food in Google books?

I've done a little searching but mostly end up with books using food as a metaphor.

Special K

Special K

Posted
Posted

Sadly, no. I was just trying to find How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, by Buwei Yang Chao, having read about it in Jason Epstein's Eating. No luck. There's a used one on Amazon for over $1,000, though! :hmmm:

BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

I don't know about google books (I find google's describing the e-book market being in the hands of many, as opposed to being controlled by a single entity as 'fragmented' disturbing, so I avoid them), but Project Gutenberg has a selection of public domain cookbooks.

I've already gone through Gutenberg's books and their selection does not look to be nearly as big as Googles.

You're reading far too much into the statement. A "fragmented maket" is a common business term taught in every university in America and it happens to describe the e-books market exactly. It's not some statement about Google's need to control the world or anything.

Edit: Let me be clear that I'm not saying Google isn't trying to take over the world. I'm only saying that this particular statement is nothing sinister.

Edited by BadRabbit (log)
Le Master

Le Master

Posted
Posted

I've come across a lot over time. Most are in French, however, such as the ones by Escoffier. But there are a few good English books:

The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner by Antoine Carême

Le livre de cuisine (The Royal Cookery Book) by Gouffé

Le livre de pâtisserie (The Royal Book of Pastry and Confectionery) by Gouffé

Le livre des conserves (The Book of Preserves) by Gouffé

Apicius redivivus (The Cook's Oracle: Containing receipts for plain cookery, on the most economical plan for private families; containing also a complete system of cookery for Catholic families) by William Kitchiner (Note that there are two links, one to an early edition and one to the third addition)

All can be downloaded as PDFs and other formats gratis.

Mjx

Mjx

Posted
Posted

I don't know about google books (I find google's describing the e-book market being in the hands of many, as opposed to being controlled by a single entity as 'fragmented' disturbing, so I avoid them), but Project Gutenberg has a selection of public domain cookbooks.

I've already gone through Gutenberg's books and their selection does not look to be nearly as big as Googles.

You're reading far too much into the statement. A "fragmented maket" is a common business term taught in every university in America and it happens to describe the e-books market exactly. It's not some statement about Google's need to control the world or anything.

Edit: Let me be clear that I'm not saying Google isn't trying to take over the world. I'm only saying that this particular statement is nothing sinister.

Actually, I'm familiar with a lot of this terminology; in fact, I took a couple of marketing courses at university, and have done a little work in this area. In this particular case, what it's describing is not actually so bad; if we were talking about medicine, I'd have a different take on the matter.

But I only mentioned PG, because in your original post, you wrote 'Has anyone found any old public domain cookbooks or books on food in Google books? I've done a little searching but mostly end up with books using food as a metaphor.'

I understood this to indicate that you hadn't found any public domain cookbooks; in light of your now noting that google has a larger selction than PG, I guess I misunderstood..?

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

I don't know about google books (I find google's describing the e-book market being in the hands of many, as opposed to being controlled by a single entity as 'fragmented' disturbing, so I avoid them), but Project Gutenberg has a selection of public domain cookbooks.

I've already gone through Gutenberg's books and their selection does not look to be nearly as big as Googles.

You're reading far too much into the statement. A "fragmented maket" is a common business term taught in every university in America and it happens to describe the e-books market exactly. It's not some statement about Google's need to control the world or anything.

Edit: Let me be clear that I'm not saying Google isn't trying to take over the world. I'm only saying that this particular statement is nothing sinister.

Actually, I'm familiar with a lot of this terminology; in fact, I took a couple of marketing courses at university, and have done a little work in this area. In this particular case, what it's describing is not actually so bad; if we were talking about medicine, I'd have a different take on the matter.

But I only mentioned PG, because in your original post, you wrote 'Has anyone found any old public domain cookbooks or books on food in Google books? I've done a little searching but mostly end up with books using food as a metaphor.'

I understood this to indicate that you hadn't found any public domain cookbooks; in light of your now noting that google has a larger selction than PG, I guess I misunderstood..?

I wasn't really clear there. I meant that Google has a larger selection of books online in total (not just cookbooks). It is hard to detemine exactly how many "books" Google books has since they have a lot of things I would think fit more into the "pamphlet" or "booklet" category though.

I was also assuming that because Google had more books online that they would also have more in this particular category (might be a bad assumption).

Edited by BadRabbit (log)
Special K

Special K

Posted
Posted

Oh. My. God. Yes! That's it! Thank you so much - you are AWESOME! I haven't figured out how to read it yet online, but I'm working on it.

Mjx

Mjx

Posted
Posted

. . . .

I was also assuming that because Google had more books online that they would also have more in this particular category (might be a bad assumption).

I honestly haven't looked through the cookbooks on the PG site, although under the 'cooking' subject search, they have 30-some headings, and 100 or so items among them (some are very likely listed under two or more headings). Google books selects works that have some demand; PG has whatever contributors choose to offer, as a far as I can see (which is the reason they have titles such as the 1832 Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry Cakes, and Sweetmeats) :smile:

I tend to look at PG daily, since I have a longstanding crime-fiction habit, and the stuff that appears on oter sites often appears on PG first.

Have you tried Internet Archive? They have quite a large selection of texts, including things from PG and google books.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

Jenni

Jenni

Posted
Posted

Sadly, no. I was just trying to find How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, by Buwei Yang Chao, having read about it in Jason Epstein's Eating. No luck. There's a used one on Amazon for over $1,000, though! :hmmm:

You may be uninterested now that you can read it online for free, but starting prices are pretty low on amazon.co.uk - see here

My Blog: Rice, Spice and Everything Nice

Dakki

Dakki

Posted
Posted

In USA copyright extends to lifetime of the author plus 70 years, or for cases of corporate authorship 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. Until 1998 it was life of the author plus 50 or 75 years for works of corporate authorship; as a result of the extension no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

In USA copyright extends to lifetime of the author plus 70 years, or for cases of corporate authorship 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. Until 1998 it was life of the author plus 50 or 75 years for works of corporate authorship; as a result of the extension no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019.

Hopefully, the digital age will eliminate the loss of publications we experience because of these overly long copyright protections. In the future, it will cost virtually nothing for a copyright owner to make a work permanently available. The term "out of print" will likely be a thing of the past.

Special K

Special K

Posted
Posted

You may be uninterested now that you can read it online for free, but starting prices are pretty low on amazon.co.uk - see here

Thanks. I don't seem to be able to read it online after all, and in fact I'd rather own a copy.

eGullet to the rescue again! :wub:

Dakki

Dakki

Posted
Posted

In USA copyright extends to lifetime of the author plus 70 years, or for cases of corporate authorship 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. Until 1998 it was life of the author plus 50 or 75 years for works of corporate authorship; as a result of the extension no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019.

Hopefully, the digital age will eliminate the loss of publications we experience because of these overly long copyright protections. In the future, it will cost virtually nothing for a copyright owner to make a work permanently available. The term "out of print" will likely be a thing of the past.

Funny how they picked just the time when the public could finally really take advantage of works in public domain to dramatically extend copyright terms. Just sayin'.

At least it's not as huge a mess as patents.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

Special K

Special K

Posted
Posted

You may be uninterested now that you can read it online for free, but starting prices are pretty low on amazon.co.uk - see here

... in fact I'd rather own a copy.

Ah, well, they can't deliver to my address. But I do sincerely thank you both anyway.

Le Master

Le Master

Posted
Posted

You may be uninterested now that you can read it online for free, but starting prices are pretty low on amazon.co.uk - see here

Thanks. I don't seem to be able to read it online after all, and in fact I'd rather own a copy.

eGullet to the rescue again! :wub:

Really? I just created an Open Library account (free) and was reading it in Adobe Digital Editions (also free) in under five minutes. It's nice because the eBook is scans of the book, so it looks very good. And it's also been OCRed so that you can search it.

By the way, thanks for the link, BadRabbit.

BadRabbit

BadRabbit

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

You may be uninterested now that you can read it online for free, but starting prices are pretty low on amazon.co.uk - see here

Thanks. I don't seem to be able to read it online after all, and in fact I'd rather own a copy.

eGullet to the rescue again! :wub:

Really? I just created an Open Library account (free) and was reading it in Adobe Digital Editions (also free) in under five minutes. It's nice because the eBook is scans of the book, so it looks very good. And it's also been OCRed so that you can search it.

By the way, thanks for the link, BadRabbit.

This^^^. Once you have an ebook reader installed, it works.

docdix

docdix

Posted
Posted

Hi,

Go to open library, this link: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6064948M/How_to_cook_and_eat_in_Chinese/daisy

then click on the "Download Daisy Zip".

After the zip file downloads, you will see a number of files. Open the file that says "howtocookeatinch00cha0_daisy.xml" with a browser (either Safari or IE or Chrome) from there, you can cut and paste the entire file into a word processor. It won't be the prettiest recipe book but it will be readable.

Good luck

I'm a plant-rights activist... I only eat meat!

  • 2 weeks later...
Blether

Blether

Posted
Posted

You might be interested in this, though it's limited to Scottish / British. I certainly found The Art of Cookery engrossing.

QUIET!  People are trying to pontificate.

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