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

[Dave the Cook]

We are one decent collection away from 40,000. Wow.

[maggiethecat]

We are one decent collection away from 40,000. Wow.

And that's 7.54 miles.

Welcome to eGullet, OPJK. You've pushed the total to 39, 817.

[AnneL]

50 or so, give or take a couple.

[mikeycook]

Probably about 100.

[rickster]

About 75, approximately 50% baking, 50% "all other"

[Alex]

181. 182 if you count all of the annual bound editions of Cook's Illustrated as one book. 183 if you count My Year of Meats. I think I'll stop buying at 200. (Yeah, right.)

[lilyspence]

585, roughly. Guess I'm a little insecure.

[mixmaster b]

I have 195, including wine & cocktail books. And one on order.

[CompassRose]

Somewhere between 363 (which is what it was when I reorganised the kitchen shelves last spring) and four hundred. I've bought a few more since the reorg, and there are also some oddities (historical and/or literary cookbooks) that don't live in the kitchen.

[maggiethecat]

Goodness gracious! Welcome, newcomers, and thank all of you for your numbers. Not only did we cross the 40,000 mark, we hit 41,000.

41, 406. Or:7.84 miles.

[AnneL]

That's truly inspiring.

[madziast]

now we have to subtract the multiple copies of titles

ok, what's everybody's favorite, #1 cookbook you cook from?

[tanabutler]

The one cookbook I recommend to everyone getting started is The New York Times Cookbook. Every single recipe I've tried is excellent and simple and perfect. It's a good basic starter cookbook, and I use it more than any other. The prettiest cookbook I have is The French Laundry Cookbook.

[ktinkel]

ok, what's everybody's favorite, #1 cookbook you cook from?

Mark Bittmann's How to Cook Everything.

When in doubt, grab Bittmann...

[AlexP]

Give or take a couple... Around 25

I should probably look at them more often to avoid some of my cooking failures

Alex

[Oreganought]

I have 291

Basic French Cooking by Louis Diat was my first.

[SobaAddict70]

A variant question is how many of each genre do you own? I'd say I have more Asian cuisine books and vegetarian or vegetable-focused books than anything else. By Asian, I mean anything from Russian to Indian to the traditional Eastern stuff, to Southeast Asian cooking.

Soba

[madziast]

I'd say I have more Asian cuisine books and vegetarian or vegetable-focused books than anything else.

Soba, share the veg-focused ones--which are your favorite? do you use Tetsuya's?

[KNorthrup]

Leaving any actual series, the largest theme in my collection is breakfast. Overall, I try to limit myself to themes/cuisines/techniques that I don't already have anything about. To spend less, in theory. Doesn't work very well for that but it makes for a wonderful variety.

[maggiethecat]

41,722.

I gave the "favorite cookbook" question some thought and realize that I probably don't use one more than another. A new cookbook, like "Zuni Cafe" (Christmas present) or "Way to Cook" (anniversary) will get a good workout for awhile, just to get the flavor of the book and be insprired by new recipes.

But, otherwise: I'll pull out a specific cookbook according to what's on hand, or what I want to cook. The popover recipe from "Joy," Madhur Jaffrey for Indian, "Kitchen Sessions" for caramel-lime ice cream....

Or I'll simply pull a random stack from the shelf and look for inspiration.

[fresco]

It did seem to me that the more cookbooks I accumulated the less I actually used them for recipes, because, of course, you internalize so much. Hard to recall whether this was always true, but I would much rather read a beautifully written book that tells me something about food than a beautifully done book that tells me how to prepare food.

[John W.]

84. TK and CT fighting for prime bookshelf space.

[maggiethecat]

Thank, John W. That's 41, 806.

Oh, so close to eight miles!

[hjshorter]

If pressed I would say that we probably have more Asian cookbooks than any other, but only slightly. We have a lot of different cuisines represented.

My favorite changes from season to season. Right now it's the Barbecue Bible by Steve Raichlen.

[marrowbone]

284 not counting the tiny little paper books that come with pressure cookers, blenders,smokers,etc. Not sure why I keep them but I guess this really is an addiction.