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Food/recipes

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How do you decide which cookery books to get rid of?

38 replies

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:01

I have loads and really need to cull
some. Think everything and every type.😖

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Radiatorvalves · 27/05/2025 14:03

Ones you don’t use? I have loads and struggle to cull mind you.

suki1964 · 27/05/2025 14:06

The ones you no longer use/never used

When I decide to go through mine after realising Ive only ever used 2 or 3 recipes from a book, I scan the recipes in question so I still have them - pass the book on

JockyWilsonsaid · 27/05/2025 14:07

It is a bit of a weird mental Venn diagram comprising books I don't cook from, don't want to read and don't like the style of the recipe/layout/content. I've got some I've never used once, but the book is too nice to cull.

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:17

So how to feed your family on a fiver type books when your kids are all adults and you’re down to one at home can go…..?

I like to cook and like good food and great recipes.The above books served a purpose but aren’t the the type I’d choose to use now but could be useful however I’m not going to need them am I? I need to lose half a stone- maybe keep the Pinch of Nom books but again not books id choose to turn to.

Delia Smith? Bar the Christmas one I have never used the rest but there are some good recipes in there…. Dip in to Nigella, Hairy Bikers…. What about those random Jamie Oliver books you know have some good faffy recipes in there some where…

Currently in a roasting tin, Meera Sodja type phase. Would never get rid of Nigel Slater .Mostly veggie….

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MikeRafone · 27/05/2025 14:18

I struggled to do this, but need to have another cull and am looking for inspiration

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:19

Would never get rid of Hugh FW either….

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Radiatorvalves · 27/05/2025 14:28

I think we have very similar tastes!

MikeRafone · 27/05/2025 14:31

I had a collection of 12 books which were magazine subscriptions- collected over weeks, probably years. I took out the recipes I had cooked and ditched them at the tip

pissibly going through the books and photocopying the recipes I’ve used and putting them all in a book

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:33

Radiatorvalves · 27/05/2025 14:28

I think we have very similar tastes!

Ottolenghi isn’t going either…

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Memorable · 27/05/2025 14:36

Ohh good thread! I’m similarly drowning in cookery books. I don’t really use them anymore. And when I need a recipe I go online rather than trawl through loads of books nowadays. But I can’t seem to let them go 🫤

I think they give me a false sense of reassurance that I could in theory be a culinary whiz under different conditions. In reality I stick mainly to the same old meals and a takeaway on a Friday

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:37

Got several of those Good Food 101 books I never use and my mum went through a stage of giving at Xmas( presumably all on the website now)?….. 1000 cocktails recipe book… do I need that?😫

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IretcyG · 27/05/2025 14:53

It’s now making me a bit emotional. It’s like clearing out your life- found my weaning file, bye bye Annabelle Karmel😭😭😭 and books I had as a student.

Need to get it down to 2 shelves in my swanky new kitchen.

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HumanRightsAreHumanRights · 27/05/2025 15:02

I have a recipe book with blank pages for my son (had one for my older son who took it with him when he left home).

Any recipe they cooked and liked got copied into their recipe book over the years.

My older son is still adding to his.
It's like a little ring binder so you can add to it.

I also got one for myself, so I've copied out all the recipes I use from any of the books/websites or magazines as I've made them if we like them, plus a couple that were my grandmothers recipes or my dads.

There are about two dozen original books I keep, either because they were gifts from people, like my dads favourite recipe book, or because I just really like them, but they are more ornamental than used now.
They sit on top of my Welsh Dresser and really only get taken down to clean.

The rest get filtered out over time.

I tend to find there will be at most half a dozen recipes in any one book that any of us actually like the sound of enough to try.
Once we've been through those and copied the ones we like, that book sits around for a bit then ends up in the charity shop.

YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME · 27/05/2025 15:03

I had a few but realised the recipes that worked, we preferred, tasted good and didn't cost me huge money to produce, came from Delia's Complete Cookery, an old Mary Berry (pre- Bake Off) and a 1960s Mrs Beetons. So alongside my Good Housekeeping Cookery Encyclopedia, the 3 favourites stayed, the test were shipped off to the charity shop.

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 15:20

The thing is as I flick through books I never ever use ( eg Delia’s white how to cook series) and gems of recipes jump out.

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marylou25 · 27/05/2025 16:46

I have many many books and that is after doing a cull recently! Will need to do more at some stage, gave away some on FB and dropped others into the library where they have a box where you can leave a book and take a book, left a load there. Also went through all my baking books and got rid of anything that was cup measures, realistically I'm not going to bother making anything from them!

MassiveOvaryaction · 27/05/2025 17:22

It's like saying goodbye to part of your life though isn't it? Needs to be done with suitable reverence! Can you pass on to your younger generation maybe?

Just as I started thinking about a cull dc got more into cooking and they've added more to the shelves. I've still got my copies of 'Grub On A Grant' and 'Peckish but Poor' knocking about too. Thinking may get rid of my very 90s Gary Rhodes ones though, they were all a bit faffy!

OMGitsnotgood · 27/05/2025 17:26

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 15:20

The thing is as I flick through books I never ever use ( eg Delia’s white how to cook series) and gems of recipes jump out.

That happens to me too. Which doesn’t help when you are trying to cull! I take a book at a time, take a proper look through (rather than a flick) and make a list of recipes I think I am likely to make from that book in a notebook. Then when I am meal planning I flick through my notebook. Makes me more likely to use it.

if there are only say 3 or 4 recipes I would make, I try to find the recipes online, if I can’t I take a photo and take the book to a charity shop.

oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends · 27/05/2025 17:43

I use eatyourbooks.com a lot to find recipes in my collection (close to 100).

I recently culled some old Delia & Jamie books that I was given & never cooked from.

MassiveOvaryaction · 27/05/2025 17:48

OMGitsnotgood · 27/05/2025 17:26

That happens to me too. Which doesn’t help when you are trying to cull! I take a book at a time, take a proper look through (rather than a flick) and make a list of recipes I think I am likely to make from that book in a notebook. Then when I am meal planning I flick through my notebook. Makes me more likely to use it.

if there are only say 3 or 4 recipes I would make, I try to find the recipes online, if I can’t I take a photo and take the book to a charity shop.

That's a really sensible way of doing it @OMGitsnotgood, thanks for the advice. And given that several of us here cook I could add the photos to a shared album..
Just got to get through the getting them all down and having a look through bit first!

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 17:55

Great advice. Just discovered all of Delia’s are online on her website.

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IretcyG · 27/05/2025 17:59

Pretty sure I’ve got Grub on a Grant kicking about too. The family camping books are gone( why I needed 3 I have no idea), won’t be doing that en famille again.😭

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suki1964 · 27/05/2025 18:08

IretcyG · 27/05/2025 17:55

Great advice. Just discovered all of Delia’s are online on her website.

So many of the "cooks" are. I like a lot of Jamie's and he gives all his up online

At the moment Im holding onto Delia complete, Goodhousekeeping, ( spot on for the basics ) Ken Hom , and funnily enough The Hairy Bikers curry book, these are the ones I turn to time and time about . Others come and go, these stay with their stuck together pages and broken spines

BeNiceWhenItsFinished · 27/05/2025 18:34

Choose several that you know you refer to regularly. Keep them downstairs. Sort out a few that you know you've never really used, or are obsolete like recipes for kids/family etc, and they can go to the charity shop now.

Put all the rest on a shelf in a spare room or in a box at the bottom of a wardrobe. Wait a year. If you still haven't looked at them, get rid.

myrtleWilson · 27/05/2025 18:50

I have just had (or tried to have) a cull of books I wasn't using - not to say the books are not great for the right person but haven't worked with me. I'd be happy to post any one to people who may want them - otherwise I'll recycle them... Feel free to DM me using a different username for additional privacy!
Ones I have for onward distribution are

Cook as you are - Ruby Tandoh
Midnight Chicken - Ella Risbridger (the story behind this book makes me cry)
Meat Free Mowgli - Nisha Katona
Maangchi's Real Korean
Bazaar - Sabrina Ghayour (all vegetarian)
NOPI - Ottolenghi
Ottolenghi - Ottolenghi
Pasta - Antonio Carluccio
Together - Grenfell Hubb