What are your favourite recipe books & how old are they?

[TheStroppyFeminist]

I picked up an old Nigel Slater recipe book yesterday and I still cook from it, it's this one from 1998. I was looking up how long to cook a camembert for but I could see food splatters over the recipe for chicken with basil and lemon which I used to cook a lot and I remember really loving this book.

Real Food: Amazon.co.uk: Slater, Nigel: 9781857029710: Books

I still use Hugh's meat cookbook quite a bit even if he is vegan these days, the lamb with garlic, anchovies and rosemary is fantastic and his roasting times are bang on.

The River Cottage Meat Book: Amazon.co.uk: Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh: 9780340826355: Books

I have newer cookbooks as well, Meera Sodha's Fresh India, Tom Kerridge's pub kitchen (although I haven't cooked from the latter), Jay Rayner's Nights out at home, which I love but haven't finished yet and Nigella's Cook, Eat, Repeat which didn't make me want to cook anything from it really. I loved her "How To Eat" though and still refer to it sometimes, it's great (1998!)

What are your favourites and why? And how old are they?

Mine is the Penguin cookbook. My copy was so old and tatty it fell apart, and I bought a new(er) second hand copy to replace it. Edited to add - it is at least 50 years old (the cookbook, not my specific edition). It was published in 1971 or earlier.

I love buying recipe books, and leafing through them, but then stick to the same few, tried and tested recipes. The books are for fun, and buying them and cooking recipes from them are two entirely separate hobbies, imo! 😂

Delia's complete cookery course and Nigella's How to Eat remain my most used books and I have about 60.

Yes Delia for me too. I still make stuff from that book, including her Christmas cake, Christmas puddings and mince pies.

The Joy of Cooking, which is my mum's. The cover is hanging on by threads, and faded, but I can go through and easily pick out the various things I ate growing up.
My mum's own 'recipes book' which is an old spiral bound notebook with handwritten recipes and pasted-in bits.
Both date back from 70s. She's also got a great collection of Australian Women's Weekly cake ones that I think my sister and I will fall out over inheriting!

One that I actually kept myself is a Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit cookbook - it's aimed at kids and was from about 1985. I remember making the buns and peppermint sweets as a child, and have given it to my DS now.
Other than that I rarely hold onto any cookbook, it would have to hold at least 8 out of every 10 recipes that I've made, and liked enough to remake, to be kept.

A Delia Complete Cookery Course from 1979, and a Rose Elliott from 1990.

Can't bear to part with either of them!

Appetite by Nigel Slater - one of my oldest cookbooks, must’ve had it at least 15 years. Has some bangers, some basics.

Dinner by Nagi Maehashi - only had it a year but cooked more successful repeat recipes from it than any cookbook I’ve ever owned

Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Wearnley - has a few recipes in it I’ve cooked for aeons and continue to - a baked curry, flatbreads, pizza dough etc - must’ve also had that book at least 15 years

But my most oft used are the recipes I’ve torn out of Sainsbury’s magazine over the years. Have people over for supper next weekend and for mains it’s a couple of recipes about 2 years old, and for pudding one that’s about 13 years old.

I must be pretty modern lol at the moment I'm living the pinch of nom books also. Love hairy bikers/dieters

When my mum passed away last year, I got her file of recipes, and have been gradually typing them all up, so I can put them in a One drive online, and dsis and I (and any other relatives who are interested) can have access to them.

You could photocopy the ones from the Australian Women's Weekly.

Inhave three editions of The Golden Wattle. 1930’s from my grandmother, 1960’s from my mother and my 1980’s. But I do have my GGM’s chopping board which is 1907-1910 and I use it regularly.

@evtheria For your birthday cake book, it’s still in print https://www.amazon.com.au/Childrens-Birthday-Cake-Book-Vintage/dp/174245058X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HUD8140QLEG0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Usr4ECDsHlJ46DCZKkM5roWq1qvqbQ2Yw69uyCQFgH0wtEZtvlI50KJ_fb_9HEfqF5LpxPC7dwsiQ6spTXqTG1wVOYsdjPtC-Vvu-ZbBIm16FsEOG7VnCR_-Xa5V3g-eJFmG2XuxIL6MTokq0f-q6ODatUF1CuWNAG_B6XqrS29f-DuAirfBGi_D6uaWwMDRmWlWQOBcig5k7jcFrw2JWGYCh9v3_KOmVaptQXqF3IGjWXd6pXwgnCWKZxn72TS9xSzPar5noDXz9hZkAMlT4hjO3s69fHyuHc0jeMzuVP8.WfzDJ1nS7wbjDbtGLdHHUH9eLH466BQEF0Y7QX2ngPg&dib_tag=se&keywords=women%27s+weekly+cake&qid=1729378720&sprefix=womens+weekly+cake%2Caps%2C368&sr=8-1

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius
Thank you! Scanning & uploading is a great idea, as all the family live far apart.