Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 2)

[JAZ]

One more for me (considering where I work, I think I've been showing admirable restraint) -- American Boulangerie by Pascal Rigo, who owns Bay Breads and several other bakeries here in San Francisco. I'm hoping it will inspire me to start baking bread again.

[Moderator note: The original Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 1)]

Edited February 1, 2014 by Mjx
Moderator note added. (log)

[curlywurlyfi]

have just unpacked my cookbook box (moved into a new flat end of June, has taken this long to get a shelf in the kitchen), so add my 47 to the list (50 if you include the three bulging lever arch files of clippings marked Starters, Mains, Puddings)

[heyjude]

Six more for me yesterday. Among them are Tom's Big Dinners by Seattles own Tom Douglas, The Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies by Dede Wilson and the latest Cook's Illustrated release, Restaurant Recipes at Home. And a Junior League collection, a remaindered Seattle Chronicle Vol II and an old Good Cook Eggs and Cheese. I have about ten more on the way and will report when they arrive. I'm especially eager for Paula Wolfert's new one and a couple of baking and dessert books.

[maggiethecat]

48,784.

You're a Woman of Steel, JAZ. I admire your resolve--and I suspect you're using that employee discount on other cool stuff.

[Barb]

257 visible in my cookbook bookcase. I'm too lazy to fish out the ones that fell behind in the bookcase or count the ones that aren't where they're supposed to be and figure out how many I've lent to friends that will never be returned.

[maggiethecat]

Welcome to eGullet, Barb. I'd love to pretend that you've misplaced 69 cookbooks, but I'll curb my enthusiasm and wait for a legit 50,000.

49,041.

[edsel]

Love how you're keeping the running count, Maggie. My 357 (with a big asterisk) books should put you closer to the 50K mark.

I've been lurking on eGullet for ages but never saw fit to post (or join) until now. The asterisk applies to four boxes of cookbooks from my late mother's collection, which I haven't had the heart to open yet. Tejon's remarks about his grandmother's cookbook collection might inspire me to finally unpack some of those cartons of books, so I'll be adding to my count later.

Edited November 2, 2003 by edsel (log)

[maggiethecat]

Edsel: It makes me very happy to welcome you to eGullet. In the year I've been a member I've learned so damn much, and met so many truly great people.

49, 398.

Wait for awhile before you open your mother's collection. It can't ever be easy, but with the tears you'll also feel very close to her. And please: count and report back.

[rajsuman]

Where do I even begin? My grandmother loved to cook - she taught and inspired me in all things food related. The recipe box alone is a treasure to me, and looking through has left me even more impressed with my grandmother and the way she ran her kitchen.

Cookbooks:

The Joy of Cooking

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen

McCall's, circa 1965

Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, circa 1950 (very interesting reading - and the pictures!)

Larousse Gastronomique, circa 1965 

various Sunset cookbooks on canning, herbs, BBQ, etc.

many Tex-Mex and Mexican cookbooks

several regional cookbooks, church compilations, etc.

Then, the recipe box. Ahhh.....what riches. Each recipe has notes by my grandmother, including a list on the back of every time she served that dish, complete with dates, who was there, what she served with it, and how much each serving cost. In it is the sourdough pancake recipe I remember having for breakfast when I stayed at their house, the rolls our entire family demanded for every holiday meal (they were that good), the sweet chili sauce recipe from my great great grandmother, and more. I'm still going through all of it, reading all the little notes in each margin, and am immersed in memories. What a gift.

I'm so jealous- both my grandmas had all the recipes in their heads - my big loss. I once bought a totally useless cookbook from a second-hand shop just for the nostalgia factor. It is a stained, much-used copy with remarks pencilled in the margins. Have never cooked from it and I don't suppose I ever will.

Suman

[Suzanne F]

Oh dear. Visited Strand today: 10 more:

Feng Shui Food by Steven Saunders and Simon Brown

The Cook Book Decoder, or Culinary Alchemy Explained by Arthur Grosser (1981) -- for the food science geek in me

Long Ago in France and As They Were, both by MFK Fisher

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Herbs and Spices, Gualtiero Simonetti (John Gilbert, trans.)

The Cheese Companion by Judy Ridgway

The Penguin Atlas of Food, for the statistics lover

Women Who Eat, edited by Leslie Miller (straight food writing pieces)

Snail Eggs & Samphire, a collection of pieces by Derek Cooper

The Primal Cheeseburger by Elisabeth Rozin. Yes, it's the BC equivalent of Much Depends on Dinner.

At least I kept my promise to myself: nothing but literature and reference works. Uh-huh.

[hjshorter]

My mom did some further cleaning out of my grandmother's things, so eleven more for me, including a Good Housekeeping Cookbook in extreme disrepair - both covers held on with scotch tape! It appears to be from the 50s and the cover is black, with red and white lettering. Does anyone have this who can give me a publication date?

Also included in this shipment:

A pamphlet from the American Meat Institute, titled Ideas With Meat, with a note in my grandmother's hand that says she sent away for it in 1950.

Cooking With Condensed Soup published by the Campbell Soup Company of course, also from 1950, with tips such as: "A clever cook keeps a full soup shelf!"

A recipe booklet from Prince Enriched Golden Macaroni Products

A Gloucester Cookbook from the Goucester Fisheries Association. Plenty of cod recipes in this one.

The French Chef Cookbook, pub. 1968, with pictures in the center.

Recipes on Parade: Vegetables a collection of 200 world wide favorites of military wives, with a note and recipe contribution from Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson

[maggiethecat]

49, 419. Suzanne and Heather, you got yourselves some very interesting cookbooks, ladies.

[heyjude]

I've been too busy shopping and have over 25 new, used and remaindered books. This season promises to be stellar on the new book scene. Ten of these are baking or dessert books including Sherry Yard's, Bittersweet, American Desserts, Great Cookies, Sweets, and the Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook. Among the others are Thai, Spanish and Portuguese, Mushrooms, two Bistro cooking (Balthazar and Gordon Hamersley), Best American Recipes and It's All American Food, a used Southwest the Beautiful, a 1951 cocktail book called Bottoms Up illustrated with racy art and with no recipes, from 1987, All You Can Eat, A Feast of Great Food Cartoons. It's amazing that I have not yet been lured off Atkins, but so far I've only been reading and not baking. Alford and Duguid's Home Baking is on the way which will be a real test. I love seeing others' lists. Thanks.

Edited November 15, 2003 by heyjude (log)

[torakris]

Add one more for me!

the Foods of Paradise finally arrived, this book is a fascinating read, more of a history of Hawaiian cuisine than a cookbook,

[Dave the Cook]

I received, from a dear friend who must think I am in need of some sensitivity, Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. They're going straight to the top of the stack.

Suzanne, I have a tattered copy of Cookbook Detective. It's a lot of fun, though the recipes aren't much to speak of. I bought a used paperback copy five or six years ago, and still consult it from time to time.

[maggiethecat]

49,447.

heyjude: I too am amazed that you've stayed carb-free. And I want a copy of "Bottoms Up."

Dave: I'd be interested in what an SSB thinks of Colwin.

[MatthewB]

Today I picked up Cooking at Home with the CIA (that's Culinary Institute of America).

[guajolote]

I think a cookbook from the other CIA would be interesting, especially if you expand your definition of "cooking"

[Dave the Cook]

Not to mention "home."

[maggiethecat]

49, 448.

[kopi-susu]

I'm going to multiply shelves by an average no. of books per shelf . Is that OK? Only counting the ones that are put away the way you're supposed to put away books, not the ones that are laying across the tops of the properly-shelved ones. Not counting the ones still in boxes, mostly because they're ones I think are dumb and probably will never use.

So 27 shelves times 30 books per: about 810 cookbooks

They take up about half the long wall in our basement where we had built-in shelves installed. The other half of the wall is my husbands tech books. Fiction gets it's own wall. AND we're selling off what we can bear to part with on Amazon. Doesn't seem to have made much of a dent.

Cooked professionally for ~ 20 years, so a respectable accumulation

[jo-mel]

I'll chip in 375.

Are we at the moon, yet?

[jo-mel]

OOPS! I found 5 more--- on the shelf under this desk.

[maggiethecat]

So 27 shelves times 30 books per: about 810 cookbooks

Holy Cow. I want to prowl through your collection, kopi-susu

Jo: The moon is our ultimate objective. For now, I'd be happy to get to Trio as the crow flies.

A milestone: We broke 50, 000! Wha hoo!

50, 598 to be exact, or:9.58 miles.

[Alex]

Rummaging through umpteen cartons of books while making room in the basement for our new freezer , I discovered nine more cookbooks:

An Invitation to Indian Cooking -- Madhur Jaffrey

American Cookery -- James Beard

Fast Vegetarian Feasts, rev. ed. -- Martha Rose Shulman

Main-Dish Grains -- Martha Rose Shulman

The Mediterranean Pantry -- Aglaia Kremezi

Italian Family Recipes from The Romagnolis' Table (PBS show from the 70s)

Cucina Fresca -- Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman

The Vegetarian Epicure, Books 1 & 2 -- Anna Thomas

Also uncovered:

The Man Who Ate Everything -- Jeffrey Steingarten

The Art of Eating -- M.F.K. Fisher

The Rituals of Dinner and Much Depends on Dinner -- Margaret Visser

The Artful Eater -- Edward Behr