To get rid of every recipe/ cook book in the house?

[YouBelongWithMe]

We're getting our kitchen re-done - it's being fitted next month.

We're in the process of clearing out drawers, cupboards etc so that we're only putting back items that are useful, pleasing etc.

We don't have a large cookery book collection by any means - maybe 35/40. Lile most, we've accumulated them over the years. There are books we've used to bake with the kids, and some books which contain recipes that have become integral to our meal planning (step up, Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals).

But all these recipes are either ingrained in our brains or available online. All our most recent additions to meal rotation have come via instagram or YouTube channels.

I'm tempted to get rid of them all. My mum is horrified ('what kitchen has NO COOK BOOKS' 🤣) but I can't help thinking they're just virtue-signalling clutter now.

Does anyone else have no recipe/ cookbooks?

Nothing better than seeing comments and advice from somebody to say they switched the chicken for fruitcake, barbecue sauce for blended fermented oysters, cheese for spray cream in a can, topped it with a garnish of cat crunchies and pulverised used Catsan granules for a seasonal theme and it tasted like shit so Nigella has missed the mark with this one.

If I had kids I would keep some so they can browse anytime.
If it's just you, it's your choice.
I can't see why you'd get rid of them all unless very short on space.

Yes ridiculous phrase usage here.

Some people have to be negative about every nice thing in the world.

Same here. All I need.

I have about 80-100 on display shelving, 90% of them never used because like everyone else I get all my recipes online. I pay 99 p a month to store them on Copy Me That, so hopefully that won't go bust and disappear.

One of my 'haven't got round to it yet' decluttering tasks is to thin them down to free up one or two of the three shelves to display my Lego collection instead.

We go that from MIL as a wedding gift. It's still there, 40 years later. I don't think I've opened it in over 20 years but would part with it.

Love Delia's complete cookery course, as an 18 year old who'd never been taught to cook (apart from sponge cakes!) I learnt so much from that book a long time before the Internet! I also treasure Delia's Christmas book from a similar time with an inscription from my grandmother.

I had a cull a couple of years ago and now try only to buy second hand (check out National Truet second hand books if your local chazza isn't any good).

I do think that we are increasingly seeing content going behind pay walls so whilst currently I do access recipes and ideas online, I wouldn't ditch my go to books for only online. I also get frustrated by ads and can't bear long winded videos.

My current favourite is asking Chat GPT to come up with recipes and ideas for specific ingredients to meet my dietary requirements (which it remembers) this is great but I'm very sure will become paid access sooner rather than later.

Feel free to bin them - or better yet give them to one of those free book swap things if you have any nearby, I bloody never find cookbooks at them and when I leave one it tends to disappear immediately. We are under no obligation to keep things we don't need and decluttering is healthy.

I know this is a bit old school but what I did was buy a nice notebook ( you used to be able to get one that says recipes on it ) and go through the cook books and write them down adding the changes / cooking times you found worked better .
I enjoyed the process and like I have something quite personal to us .
( Although I still look online as well )

I rarely use mine now by my 5 year old DS loves leafing through them salivating at all the pictures of the food and bakes. 😂

I really enjoy cooking from my books, but I am also quite ruthless of getting rid of ones that are duds. I do use Eat Your Books to index them all which makes sure I use them, so instead of googling "lamb biryani recipe" I look in Eat Your Books first and 9 times out of 10 I find a better recipe than a random one online. I used to use food blogs a lot more than I do but the videos and ads have got so much more intrusive - I generally only use Smitten Kitchen, RecipeTin Eats and Simple Home Edit now for online recipes.

The best is buying a new cookbook though. I often stand in Waterstones flicking through and mentally flagging everything I would like to cook. If I can't find at least 10 things immediatey I don't buy it. Then I carry it home in triumph and have a wonderful few hours reading it cover to cover with a cup of tea.

I often try and get one book out on a Sunday when I'm meal planning for the week ahead and leave it on the cookbook stand I have to the right of the hob all week. Currently on Clare Thompson's Veggie Family Cookbook this week so dinner on Tuesday and Friday both from that book, and next week I think I will do Moro Easy.

I thought I had a lot. I joined a Facebook cookery book collectors group. I know now I do not have a lot.

I have a small collection of cookery/ baking books. They are not stored in the kitchen, they have their own section on my bookshelf.

Maybe that's an option gor the ones you want to keep?

Mine are also not stored in the kitchen - I just take one out and have it on the side in the kitchen as my working book for a week or two.

Or if I'm planning something I'll pull a whole stack out to leaf through, but that is generally on the sofa with my feet up!

After 40+ years of cooking I can usually work out how a dish has been made. My cakes are a variation on yoghurt sponge, crushed biscuit cheesecake or shortbread. So I only look up recipes if they’re out of my repertoire and the Internet is fine for that. I have Darina Allen’s One Pot Feeds All on my Vinted wishlist but no way would I buy it full price.

DD is still learning so I got her Jamie’s Ministry of Food from a charity shop and there’s Nigella’s How to Eat on a shelf somewhere. Delia Smith wouldn’t get chucked as it’s a classic. I also have the Cucchiaio d’Argento, Italian cookery bible.
When I was a cooking novice living alone I’d often eat my sorry efforts while reading a cookbook!

Online just does not have the same appeal as being able to browse through a book.
I have not counted my cookbooks. And I have given many to secondhand bookshops. But I still have probably around a 100. Probably more.
I love being able to leaf through them. Working out what to cook.
No cookbooks would be misery to me.

I've never owned a cookbook. I'm 48. Anything you think you might need, scan or photograph it.

Same, I’ve got 100s and they are stories, history, memories. I have them from restaurants I’ve been to, some have handwritten messages in the front as they were gifts

But then I’m not a kindle fan either, love books

I think if you know how to cook properly, able to twist and tweak, know ingredients and especially spices very well, able to substitute well then it’s pointless.

I choose a book or two every other week and cook from it. Love my cook books!

If you never use them, it is daft to keep them. I would go through them first and tear out (or photograph, but that could get lost) anything I think I might ever want again. It would be less than one book's worth I reckon.

Thanks for posting this, it's reminded me how much i love a cook book! I've been hunting for a Mary Berry baking recipe online but couldn't find it on her website. I've dug out my MB Baking book and there it is, along with some others I'd forgotten about. I'm only just rediscovering the joy of cooking after illness and overwhelming work - I've had a happy hour revisiting the delights of a cook book!

Please do not tear out recipes from cookery books. Take a picture instead. For those who like to buy secondhand books, finding a torn book would be so very disappointing. And some shops may well not sell any of the remaining book. So it just gets dumped.

For basics, I still use a 1970s version of Good Housekeeping complete cookery, first used during A level Food and Nutrition.