Cookbooks - do you use them? I'm doing a slow review & declutter of mine

[RobinEllacotStrike]

As part of a gentle declutter and also to inspire variation in our meals I am reviewing a cookbook or 2 a day from my collection. I really don't use cookbooks much these days but I have felt it difficult to let go of them - so I am spending a bit of time with each book to see how I really feel about it.

I mostly get new recipe ideas from Instagram these days.

1. Tom Kerridge - Dopamine DIet

Tom lost 10 stone or something - very impressive. The book is super cheffy and realistically there in nothing in this book I will make despite most recipes being low carb which I like. I don't want a recipe where I buy a jar of picked lemons & then have to declutter the jar months later as the rest of them go unused. Made me realise I like to cook tasty but basic day to day. I'm never going to cook duck for dinner. On the positive side I am looking at perhaps incorporating more anchovies in my cooking - but this was more inspired by Toms chatty opening paragraphs rather than any recipe.
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	2. <strong>The Enchanted Broccoli Forest - Mollie Katzen</strong>

This is the 2nd copy of this book I have purchased. Classic vegetarian cook book and the follow up for the fabulous Moosewood Cookbook (I know I have a copy of this too but I can't find it).
KEEP & I will make an effort to explore this book again further.

What cookbooks are you actually using?
What cookbooks have taught you meals you now make regularly?
Do you still buy cookbooks?

I have a love/hate relationship with cookbooks (and books in general) I went a bit crazy during covid buying cookbooks and making new meals. Work went back to the office, life restarted and time fell away so I gradually stopped using them. Last year I did a big clear out and kept about 5. Haven't actually looked at the ones I kept since! Should probably get rid of them too.

My pet peeve is that I like a general cookbook (like pinch of nom, bored of lunch) for easy, tasty family meals but they decide to include sections like breakfasts and desserts in almost all of them which I don't need or want!

I now just screenshot recipes if I like the look of them.

I love flicking through them & reading rather than cooking.
Only a few of my cookbooks have recipes I actually use…

5 is impressive!

I don't think I've ever made a breakfast from a cook book - if you don't count the egg chapter of "how to cook V1" by Delia. And I don't really make desserts. Now I've lost a tonne of weight I don't see too many desserts in my future and really I prefer ice cream from the gelato shop if I am having something sweet anyway.

Cookbooks may well disappear in the not too distant future.

I used to treat cooking/food like a hobby, a pleasurable experience, which for someone with a tendancy toward obesity isn't a great life focus. Now I treat food much more functionally & I try & emotionally distance myself from "pleasure" food triggers.

I am interested in health & nutrition so from that perspective I am interested in food - I've also really simplified what I eat.

I have loads of cookbooks and enjoy them, but cooking-as-a-hobby is behind me as life with SEN kids is too busy to be spending half a day at a time experimenting with sauces.

Jamie Oliver books get used consistently.

Georgina Hayden's introduced some great recipes which have become part of our routine.

Not used ever - Nan Ban (too complex), Polpo (also too complex) Greedy Italians and Hawksmoor (basic).

Interestingly the recipes we use the most-most are Nigella Lawson and Hairy Bikers, though I don't have their books. Nigella's recipes always work a charm for me.

Cook books are the only books I would never get rid of. I love browsing through, maybe will cook a recipe a year, but I just love them.

If I am after a recipe, ironically, I go online to the BBC food website. But I just love the books.

Meghan Markle is bringing out a cookbook.
I’m gonna have to get it… Flower Sprinkles!

More With Less, the Mennonite community cookbook. I bought it in paperback in around 1980 as a student who had no money and no idea about cooking.

It really influenced my outlook, cooking, everything really. I’d never get rid of that one, but probably will have to replace it after an oil-related tragedy involving a deep pan and some falafel frying.

I have loads of cookbooks but found that I only use one or two recipes from most of them. A couple of years ago I went through them all and photocopied all of my favourite recipes, I then put them all into a huge ringbinder and it has been the best thing ever. Also easy to add new ones when you see them, just print from online ones, easy to flick through for inspiration, useful for the weekly menu.

quite a few of the dishes I have been making repeatedly for many years are by Nigella Lawson! I do love reading "How to Eat" even if the font/super fine text drives me crazy.

I have a file in the kitchen stuffed with recipes I've printed out - that is my personally curated "cookbook" I guess, all covered in my notes and splashes of sauce etc

Putting them in a ringbinder feels a bit radical - I'll sit with that idea a while

I have lots but I’m slowly putting my favourite recipes on mealie and then selling the book on Vinted I’m over the clutter and barely use the actual books

I've got a shitload. DH, who doesn't bloody cook, was a sod for getting them. We had our kitchen done and the plan is a big cull and a narrow bookcase for the ones im keeping. I actually had to buy one of my favourites (nigel slater Appetite)because I lost mine. But I'll keep that, Thomasina Miers, classics like Jane Grigson, Julia Child and a few favourites.
But its what to do with them. I know some people see books as clutter, but it makes me sad to think.of them in landfill.

Will it be Cooking in Severely Reduced Circumstances?

I have Delia Smith's, How to Cook and her Complete Cookery Course.

Apart from using the occasional BBC Food Recipe and the Waitrose Recipe card that I might pick up in store, that's it for me.

Facebook marketplace. You have to price to sell but people will buy them. Alternatively lots of charity shops have book sections and will take them

This is my ambition for this year, although in a slightly different format - I'm typing them up to create my own recipe book and saving it in One Drive so I can access it on my phone when I'm at work and realise I need to pop out and buy food to cook for tea etc. I've also got it shared so DS can access it when he's at uni and wants to cook a "home" meal. Then I'm also going to print it and put into a folder so that I can cook from the paper copies as that's just easier.

I started last year and it made me realise just how many nice recipes I have, but don't cook because I just default to the ones I can remember. Equally, it will mean I can get rid of the books where I only cook the odd recipe and save a bit of space.

That's the plan anyway - we'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts!

There are only 2 that I use a lot regularly - the original edition of Reader's Digest "Cookery Year" and "San Francisco a la Carte" (plus Mrs Beeton for obscure basics.)
Trouble is there are one or two recipes in each of many other cook books that I have... perhaps I should photograph them and chuck the books away... hmmm...

I've got >100, & use most of them regularly.
I have a subscription to eatyourbooks.com that is really useful. It helps to find specific recipes , but I use it mainly as inspiration.

I love some of the more recent ones. But tend to add them to my kindle library. 30 minute Mowgli is my more recent addition & it's great for mostly for mostly Indian cooking. Greekish is good for easy tasty Greek inspired cooking & Kitty Coles Make More with less is great for healthy modern family cooking. Her green sauce was in regular rotation with my teen who ate a very limited diet due to depression.

@Cantonet
Can I ask how you manage to cook using a recipe on a Kindle ? I've tried, but it doesn't work for me. I can't print it out, the typeface's too small, a recipe covers several pages & really can't be turned over with mucky fingers !

Yes I do.
I use my mucky fingers & clean the phone after I've finished. The kindle version of cookbooks are often cheaper as well & it avoids all the clutter of books.
And surely the same mucky fingers will be used in real life books?

I love them and have a subscription to eat your books too. I find inspiration from them. I found I am using Nigella Lawson most in the last few years. But I have gone through many favourites. I am getting old though and don’t like any of the new comers.

@oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends I have also switched to kindle books. I use a large iPad.

I keep buying them, but have a cull every couple of years. If I've not cooked from a book, then it goes, to charity or to one of my neighbours via our local WhatsApp group.

I have been thinking about doing something similar as I'm getting a bit annoyed with lack of space on the book shelves.

I think for ones I page through and realise they don't inspire me, I'm going upload the one or two recipes I like to ReciMe and then donate the books.

But there are some I'll keep - I do find Jamie Oliver's books almost all great and paging through them I almost always find something I like or get inpsired by an idea so I suspect I'll keep most of those. I have an old South African book that you'll have to prise out of my cold dead hands eventually.

But many of the others I suspect I'll ditch. I bought one of those "Ultimate cook books" or something from Good Housekeeping a few years ago and I find that is another good one for inspiration. I'm thinking the process might also remind me of a few I've forgotten - just sort of looking over at my shelf right now I can see a couple that might actually be good and that I've been ignoring for too long!