How many cookerybooks do you own and

[ThePiperAtTheGatesOfDawn]

how many have you never used and which one is your fave?
We have 23 books and a tin full of recipes torn out of magazines
We have 3 that have not been used
At the moment the most used in The preserving Book (pickled cucumber is yummy)
The worst recipe is Jamie Olivers pasta with broccoli in his 30 min meals book
The best is Rick Steins med escapes Parmigiana di melanzana

I have 8 and use them all but tend to stick to the same few recipes out of each, and there are loads of recipes I've never tried.

My favourite book is "Fay's Family Food" by Fay Ripley which has a recipe for the adults but then details how to adapt it for children and babies. We have no DCs yet but the recipes are quick and easy, and I suspect once I start weaning my impending child I'll be turning to this book quite a bit.

Worst book I have is "Jamie's 30-minute-meals" - everything is so faffy and expensive, and takes way longer than 30 mins, but his Bloody Mary Mussels are divine.

By 'Ginormous' do you mean an all-encompassing encyclopaedia of cooking Millie?

If you're in the UK, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book (the Cook's Classic Companion) is an investment you're unlikely to regret making as it is a comprehensive guide to all you need to know about cooking from equipment, techniques, everyday cookery, menus for festive occasions, bread, cakes, pastries, preserves... it covers everything culinary and then some.

If you're in the US, Fanny Farmer's Cookbook is the definitive tome of my personal choice.

Maybe 20-30, haven't counted - could be more. Apart from baking & preserving, I tend to read them for inspiration, rather than cooking directly to a recipe. My favourites are probably

The Constance Spry cookbook
Sunday Times cookbook by Katie Stewart
365 Cakes Pastries and Breads
An Indian Housewife's Cookbook

Because we grow most of our own veg & try to eat local/in season, older cookbooks are much better for us I find.

Will watch this thread for new ones to look out for though!

29. I had special shelves put in the kitchen when it was redone and I'm working on filling them :)

I tend to get a lot of cookery books as presents as it's an easy cop-out.

Most used - Jamies Italy (but just for one recipe) Jamies 30 min meals (again for 1 recipe) and the Fay Ripley one (again for 1 recipe!) I've got one called "Truly, Madly Pasta" that comes out a lot.

Least used - All the other Jamie books and the cooking with your child Annabel Karmel one.

Want - the My Daddy Cooks one and (since reading this thread) HFW's Meat one as I've still got a couple of shelves left to fill

1. Another vote for Prue Leith's Cookery Bible here. Her recipes always work.

174 and counting...my fail-safe faves are anything by Nigel Slater. I can always find something to cook from one of his.

Around 50. I wouldn't be without my Katie Stewart books - I think they are all out of print now and mine are worn and a bit sticky.
I've recently inherited a Dairy Book of Home Cookery dating from the late 1960s and the 1946 Good Housekeeping Book, which, apart from recipes, gives useful advice on employing and training servants!

I have about 50. The Good Housekeeping 100 series are really good and pretty failsafe. I have my granny's cookbook which she had when she was a WAAF cook during the war which is pretty useless except for hilarity value and a fab pancake recipe. It has lots of handwritten notes in it which make it hugely sentimental though.

I love Hummingbird bakery cookbooks. I'm slightly obsessive about slow cooker recipe books as well.

Least useful are the Gary Rhodes ones. The man is incapable of cooking anything without a VAT of cream and a pound of butter.

About 6-7. Most used is probably my ringbinder of ones printed off from the internet or recipe forums, or the laptop with my MIL's recipe collection saved on it (yes I know I'm cheating a little here)... most used actual BOOK is a ringboundy one (always love those type of cookbooks instead of page flappy shut ones that end up covered in gunk) of family baking favourites (biscuits and muffins and stuff) that my mum picked up somewhere like The Works or somewhere equally cheap - it's got some really nice sweet and savoury muffins in.

None on bookshelves - had them on bookshelves in the kitchen before and with the steam/condensation/oily air in there they just got ruined - they're all in the kitchen cupboard.

My old boss bought everyone a Bero cookery book for christmas one year... my mother promptly nicked it to replace her own.

approx 200 plus recipe files/boxes. I occasionally try to find one to get rid of and generally fail because my books are like my other babies...

We do use jamie a surprising amount, I adore Nigella's how to eat, HFW meat is incredibly useful, Rick stein is great and then I use lots of american books and mags, particularly for baking. Simon Hopkinson has many solid recipes I cook over and over again. Love tessa Kiros Falling Cloudberries - can recommend many recipes to those who have it and haven't used it yet. Ludi's chicken is the one we make prob most often. Madhur jaffrey I go back to time and again for her precision and proper understanding of eastern cooking, her recipes are always reliable. I also love camellia Punjabi's curry cookbook, I think everyone should have a copy.

i have one spectacularly useless book written by some viscountess that lacks measurements, tin sizes and many other pieces of useful info. Lots of refs to living a stupidly lavish life. Fun to read occasionally. I also have a hilarious one I found 2nd hand called the gay cookbook, it made me roar with laughter in the shop so I had to get it in the end. Unlikely to ever cook from it tho.

Gordon Ramsay and Tom Aikens books I have almost never cooked from but the TA book has some recipes I may eventually go back to. GR food often too rich and refined.

I had about 7 and gave them away when i was renting and was moving around. Then i didn't buy any more because i like the bbc good food online (with people's comments) and mumsnet. I 've got a folder with hand-written recipes from my mum and mil and some printed threads from mumsnet i.e. what to cook for 12 people, 5 veggies, or there was that tread about 100s ways to cook a salmon fillet or 100 ways for a chichen curry. I prefer the mn recipes because are easier and practical. With the fancy books i get a bit panicky but thats because i'm not very good cook.

I 'm at some of you with 100s cookery books. I'd like to read them but not to buy ingredients and try them. Just to sit on the sofa and read them.

About 15 - the one most used is the Student Vegetarian Cookbook. Oh, and the Farmhouse book for microwave fruit cake.

73, but about 25 of them are cake decorating-related, and I can write them off as business expenses :o I also have 3 scrapbooks of magazine recipes and several ring-binders of internet-copied recipes.

Most used of the 'proper' cookbooks would be Delia's Complete Cookery Course, Sainsbury's Wholefood Cookbook and Lindsey Bareham's A Wolf In The Kitchen.

Of the cake books, I live by Nigella's Domestic Goddess & Feast, Annie Bell's Gorgeous Cakes and the Be-Ro book.

Least used book would be Elizabeth David's Italian Food. A beautiful book to look at and to read, but no actual recipes to follow. Jamie at Home remains unopened.

Worst recipe is lentil & spinach pie from the Sainsbury's Vegetarian book. Even DH had to give up after 3 mouthfuls...

Best recipe is White Fish with Green Pea Dahl from A Wolf In The Kitchen. Simple, but omg gorgeous!

I like reading Ainsley Harriot's Barbecue bible but sadly find that either the weather isn't good enough to barbecue or if the weather is good enough, I am not organised enough to have the ingredients so it's burgers on the barbie!