Keeping Food Magazines

[nakji]

I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to magazine disposal - I clip what I like, and then pass them on to other interested parties. English language material is hard to come by, so I like to spread the joy around.

Does anyone devote valuable shelf space to magazine collections? Which ones?

[David Ross]

Call me a geek when it comes to saving food and cooking magazines-

BBC Food-Random issues going back about 5 years.

Saveur-every issue back to 2000.

Bon Appetit-Holiday issues, (Nov. & Dec.), going back to 1986

Gourmet-Holiday issues, (Nov. & Dec.), going back to 1973

And yes, I regularly pull them off the bookshelf and read them and cook with the recipes in the magazines.

[heidih]

I had boxes of Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur just sitting in the closet. Once in a while I would go "digging" for some article but with the internet it became pointless. When I moved about 18 months ago I just pitched them after plucking all the Laurie Colwin bits from Gourmet.

[David Ross]

I had boxes of Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur just sitting in the closet. Once in a while I would go "digging" for some article but with the internet it became pointless. When I moved about 18 months ago I just pitched them after plucking all the Laurie Colwin bits from Gourmet.

Gulp. I shudder at the thought of all that history on the page going in a bin. I'll never get totally past the sentimentality of a paper magazine.

[nolnacs]

I currently keep Cooks Illustrated, the Art of Eating and Saveur. I'm thinking I might toss the Saveur magazines though since I am running low on shelf space and it doesn't interest me nearly as much as the other two.

[Peter the eater]

My wife keeps Bon Appetit and I keep Fine Cooking. Everything else gets chucked or goes the way of the garret.

[vloglady]

Yes, I keep Cook's Illustrated. Love that mag.

[Snadra]

My favourite food mag is Cuisine from New Zealand. I don't have a subscription, but I keep every copy I buy.

I had a subscription to Gourmet from about 1995 until it fizzled and have kept all of them. Every once in a while I pull stacks of them out and flip through them - I like a window on the past, even if it's a fairly recent past. I have convinced my mother to keep all of her old ones (going back to the 70s) and plan on wasting fuel to ship them over one day.

But I have great difficulty divesting myself of any printed material.

[Pierogi]

I subscribe to a ton....Fine Cooking, Cuisine at Home, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Cook's Country (the sister publication to Cook's Illustrated) and I'm almost ashamed to say Food Network magazine (which is surprisingly good) and Everyday Food from Martha. I used to take Gourmet (snifffffff) and Cook's Illustrated. I now buy CI off the newstand when it interests me.

The only one I religiously saved was/is CI. I will occassionally save a special issue (I can think of a couple of Saveurs and Gourmets) that are dedicated to a topic I am particularly fond of, or if the edition has so many interest recipes that I end up wanting essentially the whole thing. But usually I'm like Nakji, I take out what I want, and pass them along to other food-centric friends for them to read and use.

I do prefer a paper magazine and a paper newspaper and paper recipes, but I'd be on one of those hoarding shows if I kept it all. There comes a time you have to draw the line.

[CaliPoutine]

When I moved back to California from Canada, I didnt have the pleasure of packing my own stuff. My ex packed 14 boxes of magazines . I would have never taken them all because they were heavy and the international move was very expensive. I ended up only keeping chocolatier, Food and drink( free magazine from the LCBO) and Food Network magazine. Oh, I kept everyday food too. A few months before I knew I was leaving, I sold a few years worth of Saveur on Ebay for a nice amount. I cut out what recipes I wanted from Food and Wine and Bon Appetite. Gourmet too.

I get CI and at the end of the year, I buy the cookbook( which is the magazine in bound form) and sell the 6 issues on ebay. Usually for what I paid to read it.

[CaliPoutine]

I currently keep Cooks Illustrated, the Art of Eating and Saveur. I'm thinking I might toss the Saveur magazines though since I am running low on shelf space and it doesn't interest me nearly as much as the other two.

I sold 3 years worth of Saveur on Ebay for a nice amount.

[Chris Hennes]

I think the only one I keep at the moment is Art of Eating: everything else is lucky to get read, let alone kept.

[plum tart]

I have Gourmet mags back to the 50s; Food and Wine back to the 80s; Saveur back to when it started and nearly a complete set of Fine Cooking.

A few years ago my daughter took all the Gourmets, Food and Wines, and Fine Cooking and stacked them in my downstairs gardening room for disposal. (I won't give up Saveur!) Anyway, they still haven't been disposed of. I just can't do it. I love browsing through them, noting how food tastes and cooking has evolved, reading my favourite food writers etc. And I love the covers - especially the Gourmet covers. Oh nostalgia is so seductive !!! Part of my life is in these magazines, lost between the covers and ready to be rediscovered by ME.

I don't like to mutilate a magazine by cutting recipes out of it, so I put aside those issues with recipes I use and put a post it note on the front listing the recipe.)

I will have to bite the bullet when I retire and have to move from my house with lots of room to something smaller. I'll have to weed my cookbook collection too!

[Paul Bacino]

I think one of the better publications that flies under the radar.. that I keep

Intermezzo

[ElsieD]

I keep Cuisine at Home (I get the annual bound edition every year) and the CI Annuals. The mags we get are C@H, CI, Fine Cooking (I have the DVD Archives), Canadian Living and Bon Appetit. The magazines all get passed on.

[Hest88]

I keep the ones that have about 3 or more recipes I want to use. I'll clip and toss the others. However, I did keep the last few issues of Gourmet as well after the big announcement.

[Mjx]

I keep CI; I'm bad at parting with things, so I don't subscribe to any others. I'm thinking of simply ordering the bound CI books in future, however.

[Lindacakes]

I read Saveur cover to cover and then "process" it -- I cut out whole articles that I want to keep, individual recipes that I want to keep, and any pictures or notes that I want to incorporate in other notes and files.

I have several years worth of Gastronomica, but I'm thinking of processing them, too, maybe most of them through eBay.

[Katie Meadow]

I try not to hang onto magazines after a year's gone by. At that point I go through the older ones and clip out any recipe I really want to keep, which usually means I have made it more than once. The recipe goes into a binder and the magazine gets tossed. I only get one magazine now, a gift sub, and I'm inclined to give that one up when it runs out. I figure old Gourmet and Bon Ap recipes can always be found on Epicurious. Culling yearly is the only way I will look at most of them again, or even remember where anything is. Seems more cost effective than building new shelving, especially if there are many issues in which only two or three recipes are keepers. Which I'm sad to say is the case for me.

[OliverB]

I don't keep any of them. These, as well as my photography, music, and art magazines, I read, mark what I want to read again (or keep) by writing the page number on the cover with a sharpie. Once read a checkmark goes through the bar code so I know I'm done with it. Once in a while I go through these read again or tear out what I want to keep, the rest goes into recycling. The torn out articles get piled up or put in a binder (for cooking) where I promptly forget about them while I am busy with new issues.

I don't think I've made any recipe twice (counting cookbooks too), there are too many to try and play with. Mostly I don't even use recipes though.

I do keep some magazines about my favorite movie genre, everything else goes out the door. Wait, one new photo magazine, Advanced Photographer, might be kept as well, at least until I tried all the things they mention.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I keep Bananas Quarterly for the international recipes at the back. Beyond that, nope.

[kitchensqueen]

I had boxes of Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur just sitting in the closet. Once in a while I would go "digging" for some article but with the internet it became pointless. When I moved about 18 months ago I just pitched them after plucking all the Laurie Colwin bits from Gourmet.

Gulp. I shudder at the thought of all that history on the page going in a bin. I'll never get totally past the sentimentality of a paper magazine.

Me too! I collect Saveur and am trying to round out what I'm missing - I cringe thinking that editions I covet ended up in the trash heap! If anyone else feels compelled to trashs theirs, pm me! Let's make a deal!

[taetopia]

I had boxes of Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur just sitting in the closet. Once in a while I would go "digging" for some article but with the internet it became pointless. When I moved about 18 months ago I just pitched them after plucking all the Laurie Colwin bits from Gourmet.

Same here. There were stacks and stacks just collecting dust. I simply had to get rid of them. I did leaf through many magazines, clip some recipes, and put the clips in a binder. Guess what that binder is doing? Collecting dust. Might be time to revisit it and see what I kept, and why!

[Toliver]

I used to be a keeper (Bon Appetít & Chile Pepper Magazine). But it just got to be too much. So I became a clipper and a tosser. Now I just have to wade through what was kept and clip & toss.

[AnythingButPlainChocolate]

My guilty secret - Jamie Magazine (Jamie Oliver).