Old cookbooks – free to read/download

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

It was the issue you raised.

 

No.

 

[TdeV]

Right. Not epub which is what much of the rest of the world uses.

But Gutenberg et al conveniently also make mobi.

Edited July 21, 2019 by TdeV
Clarity (log)

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

From the amazon site:

 

Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PMP through conversion; Audible audio format (AAX).

 

 

Half of those aren't e-book formats and it doesn't include EPUB, the most.common format.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Half of those aren't e-book formats and it doesn't include EPUB, the most.common format.

 

Yes.  And?

 

 

Edit:  amazon makes a tool called KindleGen that can convert EPUB format.

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@Porthos you may be able to use amazon's Send to Kindle service to get the cookbook into your Kindle library.  I say "may" because we are still not sure what your file format is.

 

Type "send to kindle" in the search bar of amazon.

 

[andiesenji]

5 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

Added, thanks!

 

 

 

 

Do you have a working link for this, please? I searched a bit with google (not that much I must say, a couple minutes) and found nothing. Thanks!

 

 

 

Teo

 

Sorry, I do not.  I mentioned that I had the book on a discussion group and the company contacted me, paid me to scan the book, sent me a hard drive to copy the scanned images to.  I took my high resolution scanner (for artwork) to the office and connected the HD to my office PC so the scans would be saved directly to the HD. When finished I sent the HD back to the company. I only used Macs at home so the format wouldn't work for me anyway.  I remember the company was in Lakewood, NJ but haven't a clue about the name. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

OK, I took one for the team.  From archive.org I downloaded a MOBI copy of Fisk + Ellenberger - An ice cream laboratory guide 1917 that @teonzo kindly linked.

 

Using Send to Kindle I emailed the file to amazon.  Each Kindle device or app has an associated email address that ends in @kindle.com.  This address can be found or changed from the amazon kindle device settings page.  The book then magically appeared in my Kindle content.

 

I am now reading An Ice Cream Laboratory Guide on my iPad Kindle app.  Interesting that while the book is over a hundred years old there is a vibrant discussion of the use of stabilizers in Philadelphia style ice cream.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Here is the link for Send to Kindle by email:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email

 

In addition to the email option there are other Send to Kindle options that I have not tried.

 

 

Edit:  @Porthos here is the information for android devices...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/android

 

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[teonzo]

38 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

Sorry, I do not.  I mentioned that I had the book on a discussion group and the company contacted me, paid me to scan the book, sent me a hard drive to copy the scanned images to.  I took my high resolution scanner (for artwork) to the office and connected the HD to my office PC so the scans would be saved directly to the HD. When finished I sent the HD back to the company. I only used Macs at home so the format wouldn't work for me anyway.  I remember the company was in Lakewood, NJ but haven't a clue about the name. 

 

Understood, thanks.

Well, sooner or later it will be put available on the web, it's just a matter of patience.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

38 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I am now reading An Ice Cream Laboratory Guide on my iPad Kindle app.  Interesting that while the book is over a hundred years old there is a vibrant discussion of the use of stabilizers in Philadelphia style ice cream.

 

That's one of the many interesting things that we can find in those old books. Lots of things that we think to be recent inventions are much older. In one of those books I found a recipe for "mushroom ice cream", such a thing is still considered weird nowadays, so go figure way back then. Spherification was not invented by Ferran Adrià, it was documented in the 1950's, I've been told it was used by Russian astronauts as a way to drink liquids at 0 gravity (never checked this source though). In the book by Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel (this was written in this century) they talk about dishes in the Indian courts in the XVII and XVIII century, stuff that would be considered avantgarde if done today. Lots of interesting things in those books, problem is getting to know which titles to search.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Here's another possibly useful article:

 

https://www.pcmag.com/news/334440/how-to-put-free-ebooks-on-your-amazon-kindle

 

[TdeV]

Personally, I wouldn't increase Amazon's control over my data and would download electronic material outside of Amazon's control, hence my suggestions up-thread about how to find out where one's data is.

 

Here's what @paulraphael said in another thread about Joule:

"The simple fact that the unit won't work unless paired to an account should be cause to boycott it. This means, fundamentally, that you bought it but you don't own it. Buying something like this is a declaration of absolute trust, not just in the company's leadership, but in all future leaders, regardless of what happens economically or who acquires them. This argument is laid out pretty well by Wired, in reference to Microsoft's recent eBook atrocities: https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-ebook-apocalypse-drm/"

 

There's no reason to believe that Amazon (like Microsoft) won't someday develop a new business model which includes shutting down their ebook presence. Of course, I'm also unwilling to have an Alexa, since I have difficulty being high-minded about Amazon's ability to restrain itself in data mining.

 

YMMV.

Edited July 21, 2019 by TdeV
Correcting punctuation (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The option is turned off by default but Safari also has a Send to Kindle feature.

 

Somewhere I read that Alexa would do it if you asked her nicely.  I have not been able to find the article again.  And I'm not sure I fully trust her.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

Personally, I wouldn't increase Amazon's control over my data and would download electronic material outside of Amazon's control, hence my suggestions up-thread about how to find out where one's data is.

 

Here's what @paulraphael said in another thread about Joule:

"The simple fact that the unit won't work unless paired to an account should be cause to boycott it. This means, fundamentally, that you bought it but you don't own it. Buying something like this is a declaration of absolute trust, not just in the company's leadership, but in all future leaders, regardless of what happens economically or who acquires them. This argument is laid out pretty well by Wired, in reference to Microsoft's recent eBook atrocities: https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-ebook-apocalypse-drm/"

 

There's no reason to believe that Amazon (like Microsoft) won't someday develop a new business model which includes shutting down their ebook presence. Of course, I'm also unwilling to have an Alexa, since I also have difficulty being high-minded about Amazon's ability to restrain itself in data mining.

 

YMMV.

 

My mileage may vary.  I have plenty of documents on CD-ROM that have turned to dust, and magnetic tape backups as well.  (Floppies though are pretty reliable as long as you have a working supply of drives, controllers, and software.)

 

Dead tree books are good but not perfect.  The oldest in my collection, circa 1723, is brown and crumbling but still mostly readable.  Many books published in my lifetime are not in great shape either.

 

I admit I have reservations about Alexa but for me security trumped privacy.  If I fall at home Alexa can get help.  Perhaps I should say when I fall, as it is not an infrequent occurrence.  And Alexa will read me a cookbook as I bleed to death.

 

If you are concerned with privacy don't go near the library.  Books are paired to an account.  Our library uses Bluetooth to track patrons same as retail stores use Bluetooth to track customers.  And community libraries don't retain old books.  Older titles are weeded out constantly.

 

 

Edit:  and then there is always Microfiche...

 

https://obsoletemedia.org/microfiche/

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[teonzo]

I fell into a dangerous rabbit hole. Who knew that Nostradamus wrote a confectionery book?

 

I just added these titles to the first post:

 

Dumas Alexandre - Le grand dictionnaire de cuisine
1873
https://archive.org/details/legranddictionn00dumagoog

 

Gill Thompson - The complete practical pastry cook
1889
https://archive.org/details/completepractica00gill/page/n4  

 

Kidder Edward - Receipts of Pastry & Cookery For the Use of His Scholars
1720
https://www.loc.gov/item/44028152/

 

Lamb Patrick - Royal cookery The complete court-cook
1710
https://www.loc.gov/item/44025907/

 

Marinetti Filippo Tommaso - La cucina futurista
1932
https://www.mori.bz.it/gastronomia/Marinetti - Cucina futurista.pdf

 

Nostradamus - Traite des Fardements et Confitures
1556
https://www.oldcook.com/doc/livre_nostradamus_confitures.pdf

 

 

 

Teo

 

[liuzhou]

59 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Who knew that Nostradamus wrote a confectionery book? 

 

Probably not Nostrodamus. There is little to no evidence that actually he wrote that. His name was attached to all sorts to sell them. It's called marketing now.

 

In fact he probably didn't write half the so-called prophecies.

Still an interesting old book, though

[blue_dolphin]

I think I mentioned above that Dave Arnold's been doing a segment on Classics in the Field on his Cooking Issues podcast.  

 

A recently mentioned book is Ruth Mary Griswold's Experimental Study of Foods published in 1962 so it's less old than @teonzo may have had in mind for this thread but I thought I'd mention it here anyway since it does meet the "free to read/download" criteria.   Here's a link to an online version of Experimental Study of Foods.  

Edited to add that this is also not a cookbook.  It was written as a text for Food Science students.  Dave speaks of it as a predecessor to McGee and especially raves about the first sections on "Introduction to Food Experimentation" and "Introduction to Food Science" as well as the last sections on "Food Experimentation."  Even if I'm not doing experiments, I'm often comparing recipe outcomes when I change things and found her considerations worth a read and thought others may as well.

 

If you want to hear the rest of Dave's rave about the book, the segment starts around the 55 minute mark here: Cooking Issues Episode 376: The Army Ant of Grass

Edited August 7, 2019 by blue_dolphin
to add "not a cookbook" info (log)

[teonzo]

Thanks!

If you listen to other podcasts by Dave Arnold then please share the books he is talking about, thanks (I have no time for podcasts unfortunately).

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

Just added these ones:

 

Hall Mary Elizabeth - Candy-Making Revolutionized Confectionery from Vegetables
1912
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33974

 

Pease Martin - Candy Making Secrets
1908
https://archive.org/details/candymakingsecre00peas/page/n2

 

Sherwood Snyder - The Art of Candy Making Fully Explained
1915
https://archive.org/details/TheArtOfCandyMakingFullyExplained

 

Terhune Herrick Christine - Candy Making in the Home
1914
https://archive.org/details/candymakinginho00herrgoog/page/n8

 

 

 

Teo