Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 5)

[heidih]

In cased you missed this here is a link to Amanda Hesser's recent stoop sale of her cookbook purging - a clever idea that could be advertised via Craig's List or the like.  Donate $5 for a food related charity and bring a family recipe 

 

http://food52.com/blog/14454-amanda-hesser-s-cookbook-stoop-sale-had-family-recipes-cookies-and-you

Edited October 24, 2015 by heidih (log)

[Smithy]

I had missed that note. What a great idea for the book sale! Thanks, Heidi.

liamsaunt, I spy a copy of The Black Dog Summer at the Vineyard Cookbook on your shelf. Nice to see that someone else owns that book too! I've only made a few things from it, over all these years, but I enjoy browsing through it and daydreaming about Martha's Vineyard anyway.

[liamsaunt]

Welcome back, liamsaunt!

 

I love pictures of other people's shelves. Thanks for including those. It's great to see that lovingly (I assume) shopworn copy of Joy of Cooking. And that someone other than I has every hardbound annual edition of CI.

 

Could you post more pictures after your project is done? A library ladder in one's house: It doesn't get much better than that!

 

Funny you noticed that.  My Joy of Cooking was my bible when I first got married and wanted to learn how to cook things other than the five recipes I made over and over again in college.  It got a lot of use, as you can see.  I don't cook from it too often anymore, but I still make their cornbread.

 

I will post pictures once the bookshelf project is done, but it might be a while!  I have been moving very slowly on making this house my own and have a long way to go.

 

I had missed that note. What a great idea for the book sale! Thanks, Heidi.

liamsaunt, I spy a copy of The Black Dog Summer at the Vineyard Cookbook on your shelf. Nice to see that someone else owns that book too! I've only made a few things from it, over all these years, but I enjoy browsing through it and daydreaming about Martha's Vineyard anyway.

 

There are actually a bunch of really good recipes in that book. The pan seared striped bass with garlic mustard sauce is delicious.  I also like the chili scallops with greens, the blackened shrimp with red pepper coulis, and my husband likes the codfish with lobster sauce.

[sartoric]

I'm not sure how many cookbooks I have, guess about 140.

They do have their own dedicated bookshelf in the kitchen, mostly Asian and other on the left, mostly European or western on the right.

[Okanagancook]

I have a few bookshelves for my magazines and books

 

Magazines: Fine Cooking; Bon Appetite, Food and Wine;

 

This is the entire bookshelf we had built in a few years ago:

 

And these are the three sections:

 

A couple more built ins:

[Norm Matthews]

Every time we have a yard sale, I have a few less cookbooks. The 3 drawers below the desk are also full of cookbooks, but this is what is left.  There used to be a couple more book shelves full as well as this one.  There are two books in there that aren't cookbooks. One is a bible and the other is a first edition (in dust jacket) of Atlas Shrugged.  After I read that book, I was convinced Ayn Rand was a total kook.  

Edited October 27, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[kc2rock]

sigh...I had, until the first of the year, a bookshelf in the kitchen...30" wide, about 72" high, and full of cookbooks.  A move forced a major thinning of the collection, but some of my treasures that I saved are "Favorite Island Cookery"(1973) and "Favorite Island Cookery, Book II"(1975), by the Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Honolulu, and "Nisei Kitchen" by the St. Louis Japanese American Citizens League (1975).  Also my mother's copy (rarely used!!) of the 1943 edition of "The Joy of Cooking". 

 

I gave away a lot of books that I'd only read, but not cooked from.  It made me a little sad, but I kept my favorites, and am down to nearly one and a half shelves.

 

I kept my 3 Diana Kennedy books, and all my copies from the brief run of the magazine "Kitchen Garden".

[SylviaLovegren]

I was pleased to find Julia Della Croce's Umbria at a recent sale, and right next to it, Nancy Harmon Jenkins' Mediterranean Diet.  Both really excellent!

[Darienne]

So much for promises made to myself not to purchase any more cookbooks.  But then I'll bet that many of us have made the same vow...and subsequently broken it.

Borrowed Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express from the library and was so pleased with it, that I bought it.  So now I have my own copy. 

 

But no more...do you hear me?...no more buying cookbooks.

[joiei]

Getting ready to add another book to my collection.  CHef Irv Miller's "Panhandle to Pan" written from his experience cooking around the Florida Panhandle.  http://jacksonsrestaurant.com/

[weinoo]

I just added these 2 used books to my collection...trying to up my game:

 

[Tammy]

i'm so glad most of you have more cookbooks than I do.  I stopped buying them when I couldn't find favorite recipes because I couldn't remember which book they were in.  Now every morning I spend about an hour typing recipe names and other assorted information into an index.  I'm determined to be able to find recipes easily when I want to make them.

 

When I first started this I thought it would all fit on one spreadsheet.  How wrong I was.  Desserts have an entire folder just for the spreadsheets in that area.  Cookies, Cakes, Tortes, Tarts, Pies, Fruit, Pastries...and it just keeps on growing.

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Tammy said:

i'm so glad most of you have more cookbooks than I do.  I stopped buying them when I couldn't find favorite recipes because I couldn't remember which book they were in.  Now every morning I spend about an hour typing recipe names and other assorted information into an index.  I'm determined to be able to find recipes easily when I want to make them.

 

When I first started this I thought it would all fit on one spreadsheet.  How wrong I was.  Desserts have an entire folder just for the spreadsheets in that area.  Cookies, Cakes, Tortes, Tarts, Pies, Fruit, Pastries...and it just keeps on growing.

 

Eat Your Books

[weinoo]

No more you say?

 

 

 

[Tammy]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

No more you say?

 

 

 

The spice companion looks like a good add for reference purposes.

[Alex]

12 minutes ago, Tammy said:

The spice companion looks like a good add for reference purposes.

 

Tammy, you may not be aware of this, but Paula Wolfert has quite a history with eGullet and its members.

[Alex]

Thanks for resurrecting this topic, Mitch. Since my last accounting, nearly two years ago, we've added eight books:

Cookie Love

A Super Upsetting Book About Sandwiches

Asian Ingredients

The Flavor Bible

Samarkand

Bean to Bean

Joe Beef

Shake, Stir, Pour (by our own Katie Loeb)

[Paul Fink]

I have select collection of 54 classic cook books. I haven't bought any in years.

But I'm the guy who believes in the classical cuisine 

[chromedome]

20 hours ago, Alex said:

 

Tammy, you may not be aware of this, but Paula Wolfert has quite a history with eGullet and its members.

Oh, you betcha. Many years back, as a culinary student, I posted a question about an obscure Middle Eastern ingredient. PW responded within hours (from an internet cafe in Istanbul, yet...), to my delight and amazement. I was already a fan of the writer, but her interactions here made me a fan of the person as well. 

[weinoo]

On 3/28/2017 at 9:42 AM, Tammy said:

The spice companion looks like a good add for reference purposes.

Tammy, the guy who wrote The Spice Companion has a highly-regarded store here in NYC.

 

The store is called La Boîte, and Lior collaborates with  a diverse array of chefs and others, from Jim Meehan on cocktail seasonings to Eric Ripert on, well, other stuff.

 

 

[cakewalk]

He is very highly regarded, but I have to say: I took a class with him at ICE a while ago. It was hands-down the worst class I ever took in my life. I was so furious. An absolute cash cow. I have no doubt about his expertise. But he ain't no teacher!

[Tammy]

Teaching is a special skill.

[liamsaunt]

So, the project I mentioned earlier is finally happening this week.  Well, this week and next week.  Floor to ceiling built in triangular bookcases with bottom cabinets, and a fireplace refacing.  The bottom cabinets will hold the cooking magazines I keep.  I lost the battle with my husband to have a rolling ladder to access the top shelves of this project so I will probably put decorative items on the very top. In his defense, I am very accident prone.  Here is the project site, cleared and ready to go

 

 

And all of my exiled books, piled up in my weekday dining room.  Haha in this picture in addition to books I use often I see books I have not opened since college (Moosewood) and ones that were gifts that I have never even looked at (ahem, Robuchon). They are mine though and I like them, and they are about to get an awesome new home. This project is the first part of what will eventually be a complete gut to the studs kitchen renovation, as the main kitchen in my home is open to this family room.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

So, the project I mentioned earlier is finally happening this week.  Well, this week and next week.  Floor to ceiling built in triangular bookcases with bottom cabinets, and a fireplace refacing.  The bottom cabinets will hold the cooking magazines I keep.  I lost the battle with my husband to have a rolling ladder to access the top shelves of this project so I will probably put decorative items on the very top. In his defense, I am very accident prone.  Here is the project site, cleared and ready to go

 

 

And all of my exiled books, piled up in my weekday dining room.  Haha in this picture in addition to books I use often I see books I have not opened since college (Moosewood) and ones that were gifts that I have never even looked at (ahem, Robuchon). They are mine though and I like them, and they are about to get an awesome new home. This project is the first part of what will eventually be a complete gut to the studs kitchen renovation, as the main kitchen in my home is open to this family room.

 

 

Great if you are burning cookbooks.

 

[Darienne]

Even though I have stopped buying cookbooks, I have recently acquired 5.  

A friend, who is a Personal Care Worker, was begged this week by an elderly male client to take his wife's cookbooks.  She passed away 18 months ago and it was time now to begin to give away her belongings I guess.  My friend kept about a dozen for herself and  now on my dining room table I still have at least four dozen cookbooks which I promised to dispose of.  My friend is in the process of moving and I'm even keeping her allotment until after the move.

 

If only someone lived within easy driving distance of us.  I guess they'll go to my library for the stacks and the next book sale.