# I am a cook book addict!



## Terri (May 10, 2002)

That can only be the reason for all of those cookbooks, and now that I can look up recipes on-line, there is no reason to keep so many! 

I am keeping about 30: the rest go to goodwill. 

The ones I am getting rid of have ORDINARY recipes like cassaroles. The ones I am keeping are unusual ones, like the confederate era cook book and the one with recipes from white house. 

Also I am keeping the "Taste of Home" one that my son gave me, of course! He was a kid and loved pasta, so one Christmas he got me a magazine-type cookbook with all sorts of pasta recipes. THAT one I will never part with! LOL!

For my fellow old recipe fans: The best recipe from the book of confederate and union era recipes, in my opinion, was the pork and apple pie. Basically, you layered raw pork and slices of apple in a pie crust and baked it. 

I cannot tell you how long to bake it, as the ovens back then had no temperature control: you will just have to stick a knife into it see if it feels done! I did not put a top crust on mine so I could check if the meat was done.


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## reneedarley (Jun 11, 2014)

One of my friends, a cook book addict, married a chef. She said they spent their honeymoon in bed reading cookbooks!!!!!


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

me too


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## Echoesechos (Jan 22, 2010)

Hi my name is Echo and I'm a cookbook addict. Lol A couple years ago I cleaned out half my cookbooks. Did that cure me of getting more? Nope. I just bought one actually. I can't seem to resist community style cookbooks. I have some I will never get rid of. Like the cookbook my grandmother was given as a wedding gift.

I feel your pain... Good luck.


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

Winnowing out the herd of cookbooks in my kitchen is on my epic to do list. LOL


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

Cookbook addict here too. I read cookbooks like some people read trashy novels...oh yes.

I now have (waaay) more cookbooks than the local library does. Not exaggerating. It did not get this way by randomly collecting cookbooks with wild abandon. I carefully look them over before buying...and won't buy a book unless there are at least a half dozen recipes I would like to try. 

I have "purged" my collection several times and it does not even look like a dent was made in them!

I think it may have something to do with the fact that I keep adding more than what is going out. Fortunately, the local thrift store sells books for between 25 cents to a dollar each! This community has a TON of dedicated cooks... and sadly, when someone's Mom or Aunt so-and-so or Granny passes away, the younger generation is NOT interested in their inherited collection. 

But I sure am! :stirpot:



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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

My cookbook collection looks like the Library of Congress


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Cookbook addictions are relatively harmless. Well, not if you choose carefully! I was carefull to remove all of the dessert cookbooks to eliminate temptation. 

I should no longer eat everything I want to!


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## rkintn (Dec 12, 2002)

I don't have a collection but my daughter sent me a Thug Kitchen vegetarian/vegan cookbook for Christmas.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Pork pie, huh? How about one for four and twenty blackbirds....?

geo


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Used to be a cookbook junkie. But now tend to collect individual recipes.


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## alida (Feb 8, 2015)

I reduced my cookbook collection from eight feet worth of shelving to five keeping only Reference type books,like Joy of Cooking and Bernardin Canning (equivalent to the Ball Canning in the U.S.) and books that had stories or discussions about a recipe in addition to the recipe itself. There's also a box which holds a couple small,fragile cookbooks and a notebook of recipes my father wrote out when he was a apprentice baker in Holland in the late forties.

My problem is the cooking magazines... The old Bon Appetit, Cooks illustrated, Canadian Living, Taste of Home, Gourmet, the southern cooking magazines I used trying to make biscuits worthy of the name (still haven't been able to make a respectable one),the single topic ones...etc. I love the stories and discussion in them as much or more than the actual recipes so for now they are are stored in magazine holders such as your library uses,on three feet of shelving and current ones sit in a big wooden apple basket. It's about time for a cull of those too...one of these days.


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

alida said:


> My problem is the cooking magazines... The old Bon Appetit, Cooks illustrated, Canadian Living, Taste of Home, Gourmet, the southern cooking magazines I used trying to make biscuits worthy of the name (still haven't been able to make a respectable one), the single topic ones...etc. I love the stories and discussion in them as much or more than the actual recipes so for now they are stored in magazine holders such as your library uses, on three feet of shelving and current ones sit in a big wooden apple basket. It's about time for a cull of those too...one of these days.


This was my problem too until I got the notion to keep only the pages that the "good stuff" are on, and file them away! My file box is a growing collection of all of my magazine favorites at my fingertips. No more rummaging through stacks of magazines, wondering where that article or recipe is...




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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

The amount of cupboard space I could clear up if I could just get rid of cookbooks/magazines... :shocked::Bawling:

I think I have every single edition of Bon Appetit from 1980 through about 1996...

I've inherited all the grandparents' treasured recipes and books, because I'm the only sibling that enjoys the art of cooking...

People give me cookbooks because they know I love them... and they are right, I really do!

I've actually purchased very few of the blasted things, yet I have a vast collection!!

What do you get rid of? Aunt Mabel's favorite barbecued beans recipe? Ex-mom-in-law's famous stuffed potatoes? The much-stained, carefully handwritten, curled and worn scrap of paper containing your ageing father's best beer batter recipe for fish?

I can't do it. Not even the dang Bon Appetits. The best I can do is box them up, put them in a quiet corner of my attic with a note that says, "Throw away or keep, as you please, now that I'm dead. Thank you for your help! P.S. Be sure to try that beer batter recipe for fish!"


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## lazyBum (Feb 27, 2012)

I like cookbooks. But, I hate cooking and cleaning up afterwords. And 9 times out of 10 I fail the first time I try a recipe. Everything comes out raw. I always have to increase time and temperature the second time. Don't know why.

Of all my books I only bought one of them. The Duck Commander Kitchen I think. I browsed through it in the store. There was a tip in there for peeling hard boiled eggs I had never heard before. I went home and tried it and it worked great. I went back and bought the book just for the amount of frustration the one tip saved me.


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## alida (Feb 8, 2015)

CajunSunshine said:


> This was my problem too until I got the notion to keep only the pages that the "good stuff" are on, and file them away! My file box is a growing collection of all of my magazine favorites at my fingertips. No more rummaging through stacks of magazines, wondering where that article or recipe is...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have done that from time to time,usually for Canadian Living or the like which are general interest magazines with recipes, but cooking magazines themselves,especially theme issues - that's a different story for me. 
I have noticed that I tend to use online recipes more these days. 
The books and magazines are pure decadent - cozy up in a recliner on a cold winter day when the snow is falling - type reading for the most part.


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

lazyBum said:


> I like cookbooks. But, I hate cooking and cleaning up afterwords. And 9 times out of 10 I fail the first time I try a recipe. Everything comes out raw. I always have to increase time and temperature the second time. Don't know why.


Get a thermometer for your oven. Somethings wrong in there. I had the same problem with my previous stove. There was no consistency with the temp variation either.



lazyBum said:


> Of all my books I only bought one of them. The Duck Commander Kitchen I think. I browsed through it in the store. There was a tip in there for peeling hard boiled eggs I had never heard before. I went home and tried it and it worked great. I went back and bought the book just for the amount of frustration the one tip saved me.


Care to share that tip so none of us have to add that book to our burgeoning collections?


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## lazyBum (Feb 27, 2012)

When you remove the eggs from heat dump the hot water. Then break a small hole in each egg. I use blunt handle of a piece of silverware. Then refill the pot with cold/ice water until they have cooled down. The cooked egg shrinks a little. The shell and membrane peels right off.


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## jordie (May 12, 2016)

Terri said:


> That can only be the reason for all of those cookbooks, and now that I can look up recipes on-line, there is no reason to keep so many!
> 
> I am keeping about 30: the rest go to goodwill.
> 
> ...


plenty of recipes on line that are free why buy a book....just type in your main ingredient and you get heaps of ideas on what to cook for the day


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## FarmChix (Mar 3, 2013)

Alas, I thought I was alone in my addiction. I bought the one by the Kilchers...it's a fun read. I love the part about their hidden pantry - no one gets to go see. LOL


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## FarmChix (Mar 3, 2013)

jordie said:


> plenty of recipes on line that are free why buy a book....just type in your main ingredient and you get heaps of ideas on what to cook for the day


What do you do when your internet is down and you suddenly decide to make a new recipe?? LOL


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## Steve_S (Feb 25, 2015)

Love cooking & kitchen experiments for the gastronomical adventure and over the years have gone through many a cookbook but one will be in my dying hands and you'll have to pry it loose from my grip... The original Five Roses cookbook.... not the little thin paperback ones, the real & oh so rare hard cover deal. IF you ever see one, GRAB IT ! I've seen some outrageous prices for used ones on e-bay but they are a treasure.


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## alida (Feb 8, 2015)

Steve_S said:


> Love cooking & kitchen experiments for the gastronomical adventure and over the years have gone through many a cookbook but one will be in my dying hands and you'll have to pry it loose from my grip... The original Five Roses cookbook.... not the little thin paperback ones, the real & oh so rare hard cover deal. IF you ever see one, GRAB IT ! I've seen some outrageous prices for used ones on e-bay but they are a treasure.


A friend of mine has one of those too,from her grandmother who got it when she married in the early '40's. The family uses a newer edition now as the old one is too fragile to do more than look through once in a while. The old edition will eventually go to my friends son who cares about cooking and family history, a lot, and will treasure it too as many pages have his ggrandmothers handwriting noting who liked a recipe,what brand of whatever worked best, temps when they used a wood stove for awhile.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

I love them.
Love them.
5 years ago I goodwilled 90% of my collection.
I am now in the process of rebuilding!!!

I love them!!!


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## summerdaze (Jun 11, 2009)

I have more Taste of Home magazines then anything else. I have the very first one they came out with.
Have several Gooseberry Patch, an Amish cookbook, some vegetarian books, and a couple of really old ones, passed down from Mama. One has handwritten recipes contributed by Mrs Duncan Hines.

I have a big photo album full of my oldest and dearest recipes, usually pulled out at holidays. My problem is, now that I'm vegetarian, (was vegan, but too expensive in the winter months) a lot of what I have COULD go bye-bye. But I don't want to.


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## Clem (Apr 12, 2016)

Terri said:


> Cookbook addictions are relatively harmless. Well, not if you choose carefully! I was carefull to remove all of the dessert cookbooks to eliminate temptation.
> 
> I should no longer eat everything I want to!



All addictions start out as harmless. 
"I'll just have one"

"Another one can't hurt"

"What the heck, it ain't killed me yet"

"Get outta my way, I'm on a mission"

I'll never forget my first love...uhh, I mean addiction...when the original "oil crisis" came along in 1973. The price of crude oil quadrupled, and it was so bad you could only get gas every other day, all us "back to the land"ers were reading up on high performance wood stoves, wood gassifiers for running tractors, and so on. No internet, you had to go to the book store. Everybody had copies of the whole earth catalog.

Next thing you know, we all were broke from buying books about every sort of self-sustaining idea anybody could come up with, since the genre was hot at the moment, publishers would publish anything. Even "How to make clothes from discarded dryer ducts" (Here's a picture of my first aluminum underwear made from second hand flexible ductwork:










Nothing harmless about books. They're every bit as dangerous as crack.


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## RideBarefoot (Jun 29, 2008)

Clem, your sparkly underwear is very appropriate for New Year's Eve!

I will buy a cookbook for ONE recipe I want to keep out of it.


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## coolrunnin (Aug 28, 2010)

Clem said:


> All addictions start out as harmless.
> "I'll just have one"
> 
> "Another one can't hurt"
> ...


That's looks a bit itchy...


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

...not to mention any clanging and banging going on in there.

I suppose it could get downright...musical?



.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmChix said:


> What do you do when your internet is down and you suddenly decide to make a new recipe?? LOL


It's one of the significant uses for our printer... 

If it's good enough to actually try to make, it's good enough to get printed off. If it doesn't work out so well, it just goes away.

 

Most of the time, the computer isn't in the kitchen anyway. Or if it is, I have wet dough on my hands and the computer goes into "sleep" mode. (Been there, done that.) The paper copy doesn't go blank in a few minutes if untouched. It doesn't care about the electricity or the internet connection. 

To each their own.


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

>sigh< Gotta love this place...where else could you go so quickly from benign cookbooks to...exotic underwear? (Well, we can't have boring :flameproofundies: white tighties in here. It just wouldn't be right.) 




.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I found a cookbook I forgot I had: I shall have to read it tomorrow! It will be an excellent way to start the New Year!


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

lazyBum said:


> I like cookbooks. But, I hate cooking and cleaning up afterwords. And 9 times out of 10 I fail the first time I try a recipe. Everything comes out raw. I always have to increase time and temperature the second time. Don't know why.


Check your oven temp. Most are off by 40 deg _or more_.


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## wildcard (Jun 19, 2013)

I kept my Maw's cookbooks. Some of the pages smell like cinnamon and one page has my thumb print in BBQ sauce from when I was a grade schooler. The dog eared page has my favorite mayonnaise cake recipe that I'll never have again because Girl thinks it sounds disgusting.


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## wildcard (Jun 19, 2013)

Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes has good depression meals for those on a tight budget. I told my ex keep it because I refused to pay her alimony.


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## summerdaze (Jun 11, 2009)

Terri, a friend at work brought me in 3 big boxes of stuff. She gave me 63...SIXTY THREE cookbooks today!!!!! OMG! 

She gave me another box full of DVD sets, and whole series, some never opened. 
My 1 room schoolhouse is going to be opened to the public in mid April, and it's going to feature gardening stuff, but also decorative things, and a sort of flea market element as well. Most of this stuff will be sold there. I plan on using part of the money I make to help support our town library and community center, where they give away clothing, and have a food pantry, etc.
Anyway, thought you'd get a kick out of all those cookbooks that I got gifted with today!


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## jordie (May 12, 2016)

FarmChix said:


> What do you do when your internet is down and you suddenly decide to make a new recipe?? LOL


 I pull some meat out of the freezer...home grown of course and put a few fresh herbs out of the garden and do a bit of experimenting...... Or know a recipe off by heart and modify it to suit my thinking at the time........ have a few flops but my chooks do enjoy them but mostly they work out...keep a note on what I have done and improve on them. Because that is how new recipes are developed and edited on the internet. I have some good cooking skills both on wood stoves and on gas and on electric....and have tinkered with cooking for many years.....guess i should have been a chef but not the case...!


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

My daughter found a cookbook published in 1960 at GoodWill for 2.00.
She is a Chef and is amazed at the difference in food from then today.

I think our library has 5000 cookbooks and we have checked them ALL out!!!
Our rule is if you check it out 3 or more times, we buy it!

Half Price Books has a clearance corner where you can get cookbooks for 1-3.00.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

In the era of the internet, it's so easy to find recipes. 

This morning, I was sitting at the computer checking up on emails and such from overnight and heard my wife and my mom talking downstairs. Mom wanted fried potatoes with white gravy. My wife makes good fried potatoes and she makes good brown gravy but she just won't do white gravy. And so, I got the "Honey, you're needed down in the kitchen!" 

I took a quick look online to see what someone thought was a good basic recipe. It was pretty simple. A little butter, a little flour, salt & pepper and milk.

I stared with a small pot and the butter. Melted that and added the flour stirring it in well. Easy so far. Added half n half because I didn't have milk. Did good. Added a touch of salt and some pepper. (Mom's on a low salt diet so I had to be skimpy on the salt.)

Taste test said it was 'OK' but not great. Kinda bland. Added some more pepper. Better. Added some onion powder and a touch of garlic pepper. Quite a bit better. Added a little fake bacon (I know, it's not one I would use for myself but the folks like it). Pretty good. Added a touch more pepper and a touch more onion powder. And it was really pretty good. 

There might have been a few other things I might have tried if it was just me and my wife. But it was good. Had I stopped at what the recipe said, it wouldn't have been anything special, kinda bland. 

I don't think I've had many recipes for anything that I didn't end up tweaking, some of them significantly. Now, when I get it tasting the way I want it, I try to write that down so that I can repeat it. 

Another thing that matters is the ingredients being used. If a recipe calls for flour, what kind are you using? There are lots of different kinds with lots of different nuances. If the recipe calls for paprika, what kind are you using? Sweet? Hot? Smoky? They're all different. Even the kind of sugar can matter. Plain white? Evaporated cane sugar? Honey? Molasses? Turbanado? Corn syrup? Maple syrup? Stevia? All different with different tastes. What kind of fat? Butter? Lard? Vegetable oil? Coconut oil? Crisco? Olive oil? Grapeseed oil? There are some differences. 

Fun, fun.


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## morninglory (Aug 7, 2003)

I didnt know there were more like me about cookbooks. I am trying to winnow out some to get ready for a move . I would rather look at and read a new cookbook than read a novel. I have some dated back in 1800's. the ones i love best are the hand written recipes that people have handed down.


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## Nsoitgoes (Jan 31, 2016)

My Sweetie has about 200 cookbooks. Some of them very old. I love to sit looking through them. The other day he said "I think you only love me for my cookbooks". By the look on his face I think I may have waited a second or two too long before my denial...


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