OMG!!! This has me so excited! Cookery book addicts line up here.

[FellatioNels0n]

I was browsing the net this morning looking for a recipe I knew I had, but I could not for the life of me remember which book it was in. That is such a familiar tale for me - I just end up reading them off Google which sort of defeats the object of all the rows of (150+) cookery books I own.

Anyway, guess what I found?

I am always trying and failing to catalogue my books by recipe type/ingredient but it's just so laborious, and I have often said to my DH that I should invent an app or website that does it for me. Well I don't need to now because someone already has.

www.eatmybooks.com

You pay a small subscription (will be well worth the money imho, I opted for the $25 per year unlimited access) and you click on their vast library of listed books, choose the books that you own, and the indexing is automatically done for you. Providing it has already been indexed by someone, which most of the well known books have been.

If you own a book that has not yet been indexed by someone else you can do it by scanning/importing the info, then others who own the book can benefit from having had you do that for them. So it's like file sharing in a way. The only difference is that you must already own the book - it doesn't give you the recipes, it just allows to you search all of your own book collection by ingredient or recipe type, and will give you an immediate list of key ingredients. What a time saver! (I know, I'm sounding like cheesy infomercial now but I can't help it) I don't know about you but I end up going to the same five or six books over and over because I am overwhelmed by choice and the task of searching through them all, when I need to have something on the table in under an hour.

So, if you have a green pepper and a lump of cod and some tomatoes in the fridge and you don't have time to go through all of your books you just go into your personalised www.eatmybooks.com database and type green peppers, cod, tomatoes and you get an instant list of all your recipes that use those things, and which books they are in. And you can sort them into various sub categories/themes, link to facebok, link to pinterest, include favourite blogs or magazine clippings, and add your own family recipes that live in your head.

I am so happy I could cry a little bit.

[artifarti]

This is exciting that should have been (baby on knee...)

[artifarti]

Ooooh, this exciting! Thanks.

[TheSurgeonsMate]

I listed my books on Friday night, and I'm loving it. I've

(1) Looked for the recipe for gooseberry suet pudding that I've been meaning to try and find - it's not at all where I'd have looked. I'd have been in Rowley Leigh / Simon Hopkinson and other male cheffy books. It was in Tamsin Day Lewis' pie book.

(2) Found that the simplest recipe I own for Sea Bass Fillet purchased this afternoon is by Michelin starred Shaun Hill. I've never bought it before, but I knew I'd be able to find a recipe when I got home.

(3) Found something to do with the other half of a packet of lamb mince I put in my online shop this evening. Meatballs in Tahini from Ottelenghi.

Fantastic.

[mrsmellow]

Damn you anyway - I am supposed to writing my thesis and have just spent more than an hour doing this now
Thank you!

[frenchfancy]

Thanks for the code bran. I'm at over 200 so this may be usedful but it is going to take a while to get them all in.

[BIWI]

I finally threw some out recently, when we had the kitchen decorated, and I've never stopped regretting it

But I have no more room for more cookery books. Actually, we don't have room for more books of any kind in this house!

[WowOoo]

62 after a cull.

If it makes you all happy. Continue to stroke and not use them all constantly. This has been one of my shockers of the day.

Some books I really, really liked only 1 recipe.
I sliced these out v carefully, then gave the books to a charity shop.

Feel awful because one day someone will be looking at the index trying to work out where the fuck the best Moussaka recipe is.

[FellatioNels0n]

Yes I do. I recently culled them when I moved abroad which was very hard. I have about 30 in the UK for when I go home, and well over a hundred here in Qatar. I am always on the lookout for a new one to buy. I find them incredibly comforting to own, read, and stroke.

And occasionally I even cook from them.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

WowOoo how can you throw all of them out? I just checked on EYB and I have 62 books. I did a cull last year and gave away ones I'll never use. But if I have to cut out recipes from them, I'll end up with a box as large as the original collection! And EYB is helping me finding hidden gems all the time from my collection. I've marked so many things to try from my collection, but never find enough time to cook them. Like another poster, I'm rediscovering Delia. I haven't looked at her books for years. But EYB found so many good ways to serve veg from her winter collection in the last few months. I didn't even know they were there.

[WowOoo]

Hang on, Fellatio do you own 150 cookery books?

NigellaPlease do you own 200 odd cookery books?

Is that what I just read?

I've done a hideous thing and cut out recipes I like and use and binned the rest of the book. As a result I now own 7 other cookery books. I do have two nice box files in cupboard. I thought this was too much. Am astounded and impressed

[bigbadbarry]

Amazing! Will investigate later :)

[SilverSixpence]

I just signed up to this! Started a thread on it which was Ignored

I think it's a great site, not all my books are indexed but most of them are and it will definitely help me to make the most of them. I also like being able to search my favourite food blogs. Worth $2 a month IMO

[NigellaPleaseComeDineWithMe]

That may be worth looking into - have about 200 books.....not in the Nigella league and DW is not that keen on having them. I tend to prefer to read them and can recall many of the recipes and exactly which book and even sometimes the page numbers which DW finds a bit spooky.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

Haven't tried paprika. But I've signed up for pepperplate but haven't got around to really test it yet. You can import recipes from some famous sites, but you can do it from books. I cook mainly from books, and a few blogs, so it's a lot of hassle to transfer to the site .

[miggy]

do you recipe addicts use paprika as well, I love it, you can so easily add recipes from internet, blogs etc
then print shopping list too

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

morebeta I cook with both my books and my ipad. I have a serious addiction and can't cook many things from memory. I try out about 2-3 new dishes a week. So I guess that's why I find eat your books so useful!

[XBenedict]

Yes I've subscribed and I'm paying £1.66 a month.

[FellatioNels0n]

Nono nonono! MoreBeta the recipes are not on the website!

head>wall

[MoreBeta]

I have to admit this eatmybooks website does sound fab if you are actually cooking. Cookery books always get messy in my kitchen so I use my laptop now. Cookery books are for bedside reading only and are still enjoyably tactile and did you see that Nigell library in the link!

If God was a chef, that would be what heaven would look like and Nigella would be an angel.

[BluelightsAndSirens]

Oh thank you, I now know what I will be doing this evening!

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

By the way, I also have two of my favourite blogs added to my bookshelf - smitten kitchen and 101 cookbooks. They index some of the most popular blogs and magazines too! (Not sure about the UK ones, since I'm not a magazine collector, yet)!

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

Don't resist. It's brilliant. There are books I didn't even look at before I subscribed to eat your books. It found so many gems for me. I found searching for veg most useful. I seem to get in a rut with them so often.

[BIWI]