This is a photo of some of our cookbooks. Some might say, "Thats a lot of cookbooks" while others may remark, "That's not so many. I have way more." As we have moved over the years, we continue to pare down our collection, but the truth is, there are some of these books that we have never used and there are two or three that we use very frequently. You will notice that the Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker, sits in a prominent position on the left hand side of the top shelf, where it is readily available. Not only do we use many recipes from this book, but it is a source of a great many how-to's as well. I think this particular cookbook is an essential for anyone seriously interested in cooking. Others we use frequently are the good old Betty Crocker's Cookbook, some of the Junior League cookbooks from the various places we have lived, and some of our old church cookbooks.
We have quite a few Celebrity Chef cookbooks as well. For Example, The Barefoot Contessa(Ina Garten), Giada De Laurentiis, Tyler Florence and Lidia Bastianich. We use them for specific recipes, but certainly haven't worked our way through any of them. And of course we have the two volume set of Julia Child's masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Other cookbooks in our collection hold special memories of places we have visited. For example we have a salad recipe book that we got at the Charlotte Lane Cafe in Nova Scotia. It is a terrific source for many different salads and dressings but more importantly, it brings back memories of that special trip every time we use it. Another example is Savoring Italy by Robert Freson. This is a beautifully illustrated Italian cookbook that features at least one restaurant ( Miranda Minucci"s La Villa Miranda) that we ate in during our trip to Italy.
I guess the debate is, do you need any cookbooks at all ? You can Google Mac and Cheese or Bearnaise Sauce and get more recipes for each than you can possibly make or even read. Alternatively, you can belong to any number of different websites that have recipe collections. Some examples that I follow are Allrecipes.com, Taste of Home and New York Times Cooking. The downside of these sites is that all charge an annual fee.
When I do get a recipe from the internet, I always make a printed copy of it, as I like to have the recipe "in hand" as I am using it. I also like to make notes on the recipe such as "Keeper-save" or "cut the salt in half".
That leads me to the most important book in our collection of recipes. Over the years, we have collected recipes from a number of sources such as newspapers, gourmet groups, classes we have taken and recipes we have gotten off of the internet. Here is our collection of recipes.
This is a 4" thick, three ring binder, that holds all of those collected recipes. We have over 350 recipes in this binder and it is probably the most well used cookbook in our collection. I keep the index in my computer and every few weeks I go through any new recipes I want to add to the collection and update the index. Then I add those recipes to the book. Each class and each gourmet group has it's own section and then there is a section for salads, soups, appetizers, etc. etc. The best part of this book is that I know I like every recipe in it!! It is a compromise between getting all of your recipes from online and your Grandma's recipe box.
I guess you can tell that I lean toward using actual recipe books as opposed to getting recipes off of the internet. Even when I find a good one on the internet I keep a hard copy in our collection. I still love to hold a beautiful recipe book and thumb through it, looking at all of the wonderful photos of the food and the places the recipes came from. I like to set the cookbook in a holder on the counter and refer to it as I prepare the dish, making sure that I haven't left any ingredient out or missed a step.
Whether or not you like an old fashioned cookbook or following a recipe off of your smart phone, I hope you will try many different recipes and get into cooking as a great hobby. Bon Appetite.
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