Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 1)

[maggiethecat]

Add 32 for me.  Garage sale:  set of 5 Elizabeth David cookbooks ($4.00) and the COMPLETE set of 27 Time-Life Foods of the world cookbooks ($10.00).  The latter -- the hardbound and spiral notebooks, each in a separate box (perhaps this should count at 54?).

Susan: What a score!

Three more for me. Cornbread Nation 1, John Thorne's Pot on the Fire and Madame Maigret's Recipes.

(That last one being TDG reaearch, she rationalizes.)

So: 31, 203

[Nick]

Maggie, what's that average out to cookbooks/person?

Oh, there have been 300 replies so that would average around 100 per person? If each cookbook averages say 200 recipies, that's 20,000 recipes and if you divided that by 365 days - that's 54 years of recipes. Then if each recipe takes 1 1/2 hours to put together and cook.......

Oh, never mind.

[snowangel]

(That last one being TDG reaearch, she rationalizes.) 

No need to rationalize cookbooks. Get rid of the guilt...

[torakris]

add 2 more for me!

Elizabeth David's Classics

and a Japanese book on bread making in 35 minutes in the microwave , this is more for the kids then me, honest!

while we are at it add the 2 more I just ordered that should be here next week, both for the kids one in English and one in Japanese

[maggiethecat]

Maggie, what's that average out to cookbooks/person?

Oh, there have been 300 replies so that would average around 100 per person? If each cookbook averages say 200 recipies, that's 20,000 recipes and if you divided that by 365 days - that's 54 years of recipes. Then if each recipe takes 1 1/2 hours to put together and cook.......

Oh, never mind. 

Nick:

No I do mind! That's the kind of simple arithmetical puzzle I adore. Fifty-four years of recipes. Talk about being chained to the stove.

30,000 cooking hours. Thanks for your handy dandy new formulae.

[KateW]

Now that I'm all unpacked I can add to this. I have 12 "real" cookbooks, a few books of food writing with recipes incorporated into it, and a handful of cook's illustrated and Gourmet.

[maggiethecat]

31,219

[maggiethecat]

and a Japanese book on bread making in 35 minutes in the microwave , this is more for the kids then me, honest!

Kris:

Please, please please let us know how this works out. My mind is boggling Big Time.

[Marlene]

and a Japanese book on bread making in 35 minutes in the microwave , this is more for the kids then me, honest!

Kris:

Please, please please let us know how this works out. My mind is boggling Big Time.

My little "just for dinner" breadmaker makes bread in 45 minutes. Microwave? That could be interesting!

I picked up another two cookbooks today.

[hjshorter]

Add 32 for me.  Garage sale:  set of 5 Elizabeth David cookbooks ($4.00) and the COMPLETE set of 27 Time-Life Foods of the world cookbooks ($10.00).  The latter -- the hardbound and spiral notebooks, each in a separate box (perhaps this should count at 54?).

Wow! What a score!

Two more for me.

[snowangel]

Add 32 for me.  Garage sale:  set of 5 Elizabeth David cookbooks ($4.00) and the COMPLETE set of 27 Time-Life Foods of the world cookbooks ($10.00).  The latter -- the hardbound and spiral notebooks, each in a separate box (perhaps this should count at 54?).

Wow! What a score!

Two more for me.

Funny thing is that I really hate garage sales. I have enough crap. I went looking for two tomato cages (which they had ).

[torakris]

and a Japanese book on bread making in 35 minutes in the microwave , this is more for the kids then me, honest!

Kris:

Please, please please let us know how this works out. My mind is boggling Big Time.

Actually the breads are cooked in the oven, the first rise takes place in the microwave for 30 seconds (at 150 to 200W), but the breads from start to finish take 35 minutes (including 2 risings and baking).

These are not loaf breads but more like rolls, typical Japanese stuff.

[maggiethecat]

31, 223. 5.91 miles! Bennigan's beckons...(yes, I am being drearily truthful about the local restaurant scene.)

[maggiethecat]

I'm pushing this back up to the top because we have several new faces here who haven't yet counted their cookbooks. Anyone else aquired a new one recently?

Humming: "Hey Jude..."

[torakris]

add two more for me,

I am really going to stop now!

[paul o' vendange]

Looking at my shelves, only about 30-40 total - but they include Escoffier, LaRousse, Bocuse, McGee, Keller, Peterson, Kamman, Child, CIA, David, Pepin, Soltner, Sokolov, Saulnier, Hazan, Dornenburg, Ruhlman...

In other words, if I never acquire another, I will die before tapping these out.

Well, of course, there is Ducasse, Girardet, Robuchon...

Damn.

[maggiethecat]

Yeah, yeah Kris. We know you're in total denial.

Thanks, Paul...I'll make it 40.

31,265

[fifi]

I forget... Do food history and references count? If so, I have fallen off the wagon... again.

3 on food history

1 reference (Oxford Companion to Food)

[Cheffie3]

I have 62... I just bought 7 last month that included Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French cooking volumes I and II

[maggiethecat]

I forget... Do food history and references count? If so, I have fallen off the wagon... again.

Yes, fifi, they do..and they are eating up the bedroom bookcases!

Ok, with you and cheffie...31,331

[hjshorter]

I just inherited at least 60 cookbooks from my grandmother's collection. Not sure if I'm up to an exact count right now.

[maggiethecat]

33,391

Heather...your grandmother had a pretty sizeable collection.

[Marmish]

Add 40 for me - counting the 4 on the way.

[maggiethecat]

33,431. And welcome to eGullet, Marmish.

[hjshorter]

33,391

Heather...your grandmother had a pretty sizeable collection.

Yes, you can see where I got my cookbook acquisitiveness. I only took home about half her collection. Many of them are from the 60's.

Among the books I took home were three volumes of "The Good Cook." Guess what I will be collecting next?

Edit: Oh wow! I have my grandma's first cookbook - Women's Home Companion Cookbook, published in 1943.

Edited July 6, 2003 by hjshorter (log)