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Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 4)


Marlene

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Even though we have many, many cookbooks I seldom ever look in them anymore. I go to the market and find what looks good and then come home and plug the ingredients into the Internet. The proven recipes that are exceptional are printed out and put into my special cookbook for future use. I could probably throw out 200lbs of unused books now.

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Even though we have many, many cookbooks I seldom ever look in them anymore. I go to the market and find what looks good and then come home and plug the ingredients into the Internet. The proven recipes that are exceptional are printed out and put into my special cookbook for future use. I could probably throw out 200lbs of unused books now.

If you're throwing them out, remember to throw them my way! :laugh:

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Even though we have many, many cookbooks I seldom ever look in them anymore. I go to the market and find what looks good and then come home and plug the ingredients into the Internet. The proven recipes that are exceptional are printed out and put into my special cookbook for future use. I could probably throw out 200lbs of unused books now.

Or put them on the Free Cookbook thread.

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Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

The Jewish Kitchen, Clarissa Hyman

These arrived, again.

And two more - but what they were escapes me at the moment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hanging out at eGullet.org has been great fun and always an inspiration BUT it HAS fed this minor addiction that I have. Recently acquired about 6 new books but still need MORE!!!!! So I now have the following on order.

"The French Laundry Cookbook"

Thomas Keller

"Bouchon"

Thomas Keller

"Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking"

Anthony Bourdain

"Marcella Says...: Italian Cooking Wisdom from the Legendary Teacher's Master Classes, with 120 of Her Irresistible New Recipes"

Marcella Hazan

"All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking"

Molly Stevens

"Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"

Marcella Hazan

"The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook"

Paula Wolfert

"Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen: An Indispensable Guide for Anybody Who Likes to Cook"

Tyler Florence

"The Cooking of Southwest France : Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine"

Paula Wolfert

"Bistro Cooking at Home"

Gordon Hamersley

"Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors"

Tyler Florence

That is 11!!! more.

They all come recommended from one thread or another. I am sure I will find them all fullfilling in one way or another! Will let you all know if my addiction becomes more worrisome.

Donna

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just counted 86 cookbooks that I can actually locate. I know we have a few more but that's another story (one involving living in a home dedicatd to the preservation of clutter). :rolleyes:

My wife's go-to cookbook is Fanny Farmer.

For me, several Juila Child cookbooks,; and The New Basics Cookbook by Rosso & Jenkins.

Porthos Potwatcher

The Unrelenting Carnivore

Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

;

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I recently whittled mine down to about 35. I have gotten quite a few cookbooks in the last two months (chocolate & vanilla, 3 barefoot contessa books, Martha Stewart Living, Bread Baker's Apprentice, Professional Chef) and I am waiting for Bouchon and French Laundry to come in the mail.

I gave some of the books I don't use anymore to a friend. Some of the books I had were more basic from when I was just learning to cook, and I know I won't use them again.

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Happy in the Kitchen, by Michel Richard -- Michael Ruhlman's choice for best cookbook of 2006.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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I don't own it, but a friend just received a copy of Herter's Bull Cook & Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices (Vol III) for Christmas. He brought it over last night to gloat.

I'm still sort of traumatized, having read that kim chi was created by a US serviceman.

I've gotta find copies for myself.

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I guess I'll join in the fun....I was at 212 and then received two more for Christmas...the Omnivore's Dilemma and the The foods of New Brunswick. The latter was a gift from my 10 yr old son....he bought it for a dollar at a Christmas Fair. So total is 215.

Lefty Ruggiero to Donnie Brasco: "Anywhere you go, all around the world, all the best cooks are men."

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Add two for me: Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan, and a Norman Rockwell cookbook my mom was going to list on eBay, with illustrations throughout. She's got some horrid microwave ones to list, but some cool old ones, too. I limited myself to just the Rockwell.

Edited by Marmish (log)
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Ordered seven new (to me) books, courtesy of Christmas gift cards:

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen – Andrea Nguyen

Modern Art of Chinese Cooking – Barbara Tropp

Fish & Shellfish – James Peterson

Exotic Ethiopian Cooking – Daniel Mesfin

On Food and Cooking – Harold McGee

Joy of Mixology – Gary Regan

The Man Who Ate Everything – Jeffrey Steingarten

Thanks, Santa!

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In the past 5 months just a few for me compared to others:

150 Best American Recipes

Paula Wolfert's Couscous

The Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table

Fresh from Dover Canyon

The Jimtown Store Cookbook

a book on cheese

and to increase my appreciation of the locals' talent - Party Receipts from the Charleston Junior League

Burgundy makes you think silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them ---

Brillat-Savarin

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Hey, Maggie -- how come this thread is in "Food Traditions & Culture" instead of "Cookbooks & References?"

Edited by Alex (log)

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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244,882. Good work! Make that 244, 884 -- we got our McGee this Christmas and the Michel Richard, which looks like a whole lotta fun

We went from 122,025 to 244,884 in two weeks? Someone must have added a heck of a collection. :wacko:

Edited by Alex (log)

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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As some of you know, I have been collecting cookbooks for a long time (over 40 years) and have many treasures. Because we have downsized, I've let go of a few, but the collection is growing, again. I got over 40 during the holiday season. These included great books like Dorie Greenspan's Baking and Happy in the Kitchen, good books like Cindy Pawlcyn's Big Small Plates, and The Worst book, not even one of the worst, I've ever seen. Any one I've shown it to has agreed and then some. I was asked if it is a joke. My question to you is should I post negative reviews here, on Amazon and on ecookbooks.com? I've never done that and I'm reluctant to start, now. My upbringing was firmly in the "If you don't have anything good to say" model. I've been so ambivalent about this, that I actually called the photographer, who has worked on several very successful books, including a Best of the Year, to ask him about his experience. He was incredibly nice both to me and the author. So, I'm still agonizing. This is not a self-published or vanity press book. It's out there for anyone to find. I'm not grandiose enough to think my criticism will have a huge impact, but I also don't want to be cruel. I assume the author does check the websites to see how she's doing. Please, help me make a decision.

Judy Amster

Cookbook Specialist and Consultant

amsterjudy@gmail.com

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As some of you know, I have been collecting cookbooks for a long time (over 40 years) and have many treasures. Because we have downsized, I've let go of a few, but the collection is growing, again. I got over 40 during the holiday season. These included great books like Dorie Greenspan's Baking and Happy in the Kitchen, good books like Cindy Pawlcyn's Big Small Plates, and The Worst book, not even one of the worst, I've ever seen. Any one I've shown it to has agreed and then some. I was asked if it is a joke. My question to you is should I post negative reviews here, on Amazon and on ecookbooks.com? I've never done that and I'm reluctant to start, now. My upbringing was firmly in the "If you don't have anything good to say" model. I've been so ambivalent about this, that I actually called the photographer, who has worked on several very successful books, including a Best of the Year, to ask him about his experience. He was incredibly nice both to me and the author. So, I'm still agonizing. This is not a self-published or vanity press book. It's out there for anyone to find. I'm not grandiose enough to think my criticism will have a huge impact, but I also don't want to be cruel. I assume the author does check the websites to see how she's doing. Please, help me make a decision.

Judy,

You're clearly a seasoned expert and it seems to me that any cookbook author should be happy to receive feedback from you, since it comes with quite a bit of experience.

Beyond that, I have to admit, I'm very curious.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

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