Cookbookers Message Board

What kinds of cookbooks do you all collect?

I have mostly vegetarian cookbooks catalogued, but I have more than just those. I read my cookbooks like novels sometimes! :)

I love cookbooks that have descriptions with the recipes: what inspired the dish, what to serve with, why it's named that way, etc. So that there's more going on than just listing ingredients and preparation.

I also collect teabooks which are frequently cookbooks as well. But these haven't been catalogued yet! :)

Not so much "collectors" as gatherers here. My wife has a habit of getting a craving for something and then finding cook books to make it. I haven't cataloged many of ours yet.

I have a large collection of cookbooks. You'd think I have enough but I can't resist buying them when I see them at my favorite thrift store for 25 cents for paperback and 50 cents for hardback.

I forgot to say what kind I collect. I love the Junior League cookbooks. I also like the church ones. I have about 94 cookbooks cataloged.

I have a lot of diabetic and low-fat cookbooks. I also have cookbooks specifically for teas, smoothies, stirfry/wok and holidays. In addition, I subscribe to a cooking magazine. I hope that LT will give me a way I can catalog my periodicals.

Like Kaykwilts, I am somewhat addictive about picking up new cookbooks even though I have a large collection and don't use most of what I have.
I am also addictive about collecting miniature ceramic teapots, cute mugs, kitchen gadgets and food/cooking oriented plush animals. As addictions go, however, I think I could be doing worse.

My dream kitchen will have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that can organize and display all of my books and other kitchen knickknacks.

If there is an OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) for collecting and organization, I think I have it. Perhaps all thingamabrarians have it!

Like ehschwab, I like books with narratives surrounding the recipes, or even just discussions of food and nourishment more generally. I'm just getting my rare/vintage food book collection off the ground, and have catalogued most of it, though I'd like to write more about many of them.

I especially like finding cookbooks that show signs of use and wear, with pasted in recipes from other sources, notes and annotations. It's fascinating to see how people use their cookbooks, and to see traces of popular culture filtered into food culture.

And I just love food. So I have contemporary books too, some of which are comprehensive, and many of which are about preparing simple, healthy, fresh food.

DawnFinley and ehschwab have put it well. The 'extraneous' materials in a cookbook are often the greatest pleasure.

I went through a few years of somewhat random collecting - always reacting strongly to books on baking, culinary history, Asian and world cuisines. When it comes to cookbooks, I'm both obssessive and guilty: for a long while, I haven't been well enough to cook much, and haven't let myself buy (or request) anything more.

What - of those you have - are your top five, can't-do-without-it/dearly-love-it cookbooks?

I find my mother's battered old Fannie Farmer an essential, as is a 1940s cooking encyclopedia, The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery. Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone may be my all-time favorite cookbook. Some old James Beard books make utterly charming reading; and I Hear America Cooking is marvelous on regional cuisines, vanished recipes and techniques and each area's culinary history. It's also a spirited defense of American cooking against the French model of what qualifies as a cuisine, or as 'authenticity.' And I do love to browse, say...massive volumes on Asian food, on baking, etc. Which is a little rambling, sorry; it's almost three in the morning.

I have a weakness for ethnic heritage cookbooks, even ones that aren't part of my ethnic heritage, because the recipes seem to make more sense to me. It's like the distilled knowledge of thousands of cooks.

Soups (Cookshelf) by Parragon
The cabbage soup recipe on pg 116 is wonderful, use italian sausage, and omit leeks, serve with crusty bread. This soup is made in the family once a week.

Old Fannie Farmer Cook Books--The only peanut butter cookie recipe the world should eat.

The Heritage of Southern Cooking
by Camille Glenn
Best Sourdough Recipe, use with Trappist Bread recipe.

The Christmas Cook : Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets
by William Woys Weaver
I love using these recipes for Christmas, my kids love them. Expecially the Gelatin Filled Oranges. I love molded cookies, and have a collection of Springerle Molds--and hope to die with the most in the world.

500 Cupcakes
nominated by my children. Good muffin recipes too.

Opinicus: I have one tiny Springerle mold, but I have been absolutely sick at heart, in my time, over not having a given rolling pin mold, etc. They're exquisite. I'm glad to meet (bump into; know) someone else who appreciates them. Likewise, though less so, cabbage, and (or in!) soup, and Christmas cookbooks. Incidentally, the touchstone leads to one which sounded intriguing, but which I've never seen.

The cookbooks sound great. Soups will probably seduce me first - Christmas being far enough away.

Just curious: why do you leave out the leeks in the cabbage soup?

Sheila Lukins' All Around the World Cookbook has some marvelous 'palettes' for making ethnic chicken soups. My favorite creation was a 'Russian' chicken soup, with cabbage, potatoes, onions, lots of dill, and lemon juice, sour cream, and homemade pumpernickel croutons. I forget what else, now. :) But I loved it - it sounds hearty but the effect was flavorful yet refined, delicate.

A little gimmicky, but a neat cookbook, nonetheless.

For Springerle nut's like me:

House on the Hill Connie is a wonder with information!

International Trading Company Lot's of designs, swiss made, imported, some cheaper. The only way to get the swiss ones from Anai Paradies short of flying over. Yes. I've called them (Anais Paradies) , no to usa orders over the internet.

Anais Paradies Site is in Swiss German. Here's a primer super easy. Remember English is germanic based. Geschichte = History, Sortiment = Duh-Assortment, Click online shop, Themes in catalog, Good prices once I coverted the Euro. If you know someone in Europe, have the mold sent to them, then have your friend mail it here, same with the money. If you don't know anyone, maybe call the consulate to see about messengers, maybe fax what you want, send the cash, have them sent it--$$$$!, But first check with ITC to see if they have it, or EBAY!

My kids love springerle! Thank god--cause I really don't care! :-) House on the Hill has a good chocolate springerle recipes, plus the Reindeer mold is awesome in it.

I love historical recipes that have been updated. Especially if they can tie back into my heritage in Europe. I like to collect the recipes, and make them for holiday. If anyone goes springerle nuts PLEASE CONTACT ME--IT'S OK! I UNDERSTAND! Post here or on my profile.

BTW if anyone is put off by Anise (Yuck) there are other flavorings. I'm allergic to Anise (serious migranes).

Good favors: Oil of Orange, Oil of Lemon, Chocolate Extract with dutch cocoa powder, Fiori de Sicilia, Rosewater, Orange Flower Water.
Then play around.
Rosewater with cinnamon, ginger

Get the idea?
Choclate on the backs is good too.

If you like to read cookbooks as novels, try Claudia Roden. I'm pretty much trying to get all her books, and she's beyond wonderful. (and I don't work at her publisher, really :P)

Will check Claudia Roden, VandanCisco. Thanks!
I have a good number of cookbooks, both old and recent. One of my favourite is The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, on the cooking of the Emilia Romagna region, in Italy. Born and bred in Italy, I am always very critical of "Italian" cookbooks (it is a defect, I know...), but I could not find anything I did not like in this particular book.
I also have several of Giuliano Bugialli's books. However, my collection is not limited to Italian cuisine, but encompasses several other ethnic ones.
Other books I enjoy collecting and reading are those on foodlore and gastronomy, such as the ones by Elizabeth David, for example.

Opinicus - my apologies for the delay. I'd been working on a reply, and got distracted, not realizing I hadn't posted it. The links are wonderful, as are your flavoring ideas. I love fennel (bulbs - or seed), but that is as far as I go with anise flavoring; any stronger, and we part company.

Hopefully one day I'll have enough of a collection of springerle molds to make an attractive display; yielding to you the right of 'dying with the most in the world.' :) May you have a great many years in which to amass (and enjoy) them!

I started collecting cookbooks over twenty years ago when I was working internationally. Instead of collecting geegaws and dustables, I wanted to take something home from the culture I was visiting. I have cookbooks from most European countries, New Zealand, Australia, the Phillipines, South Africa, and Brazil.

I then started to get obsessive about Hawaiian cookbooks. I joined Ebay in 1998 and greatly expanded my already overflowing collection. Since I now have over 700 cookbooks (hardly any of them entered here yet), I now concentrate on Food History and Food Essays rather than just another book on bread.

My favorite cookbook author is Barbara Kafka and my favorite essayist is Margaret Visser. I couldn't live without Harold McGee. I cook a lot of French, Italian, and Indian food.

I hope this grows into a thriving community.

kd9, I'm most impressed, and eager to see your books as they're entered in LibraryThing.

I'm posting my cookbooks right now, so I see that I generally collect the following types:

European food (French, Italian, German, Greek)
American food (general and regional)
"Community" cookbooks (Junior League, church groups, ladies' auxilaries, etc.)

My current favorites in each category are:

Escoffier
With Bold Knife and Fork
San Francisco Firehouse Favorites

You can always tell what the good recipes are in a used cookbook or a cookbook handed down to you by your mother or grandmother. The good recipes are the ones on the pages with food splatters and stains. At least that's the way it goes with my cookbooks. I don't usually write in books but I do write in my cookbooks. I'll make a notation of the day I made it, any changes I made, whether or not the family liked it and if I'll make it again.

kaykwilts: So true! It seems that every time I'm craving some recipe I've always liked, it's not in any cookbook I have but in my mother's collection in some half-destroyed Fannie Farmer or Jeff Smith book.

Check out the 100 shared books on this groups Zeitgeist. I'm going to have to go get a snack now--because now I'm hungry.

I collect vegetarian cookbooks from around the world. Preferably of a traditional vegetarian cuisine or a vegetarian interpretation of traditional cuisine. Preferably in the local language. Preferably an original work and not a translation. Preferably published locally. I have to give in on one preference or another regularly, but on vegetarian only in extreme circumstances.

A trend in the EU, where a large publisher contracts a local design firm to hire local writers / translators and assemble something that they actually publish centrally, is messing up my map, because the copyright still says e.g. Germany.

I was thinking about how to categorise my collection, and it falls mainly into these:

Christmas cookbooks: The Feast of Christmas: Origins, Traditions and Recipes, for example, or Vegetarian Christmas

Ethnic books from all over - Indian, American, Dutch, French. Some were bought on holidays and are in the original language, which can be a challenge! Cuisine Et Gastronomie De Bretagne, Easy Malayasian Style Cookery ("Australian Women's Weekly" Home Library)

Classic standards by authors like Jane Grigson, Julia Child, Elizabeth David, or Nigel Slater, some of which are essays rather than recipe books

Historical food books; Apicius and Lady Elinor Fettiplace are good examples

Reference books like Larousse Gastronomique

Self-published books from supermarkets (Sainsburys), church groups, fan groups, charities and manufacturers like The Art of Asian Cooking : Recipes from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston or Römertopf Cooking is Fun. 350 Delicious Recipes for Healthy, Tasty Easily - Prepared Food

Low-fat, good GI and other diet books (most of which are still downstairs in the kitchen library, and not on the system yet)

Books I've bought in order to do a party or themed meal, Please to Table is a prime example of that for our Russian New Year's, or Mediterranean Cookery for the year we did a Taverna

I'm looking forward to seeing what else appears in our Zeitgeist !

I have about 140 cookbooks catalogued and have everything from handwritten Polish/Italian family cookbooks to the world's best chili and favorite French soups.

I wonder if anyone would be interested in starting a 'Recipe-a-day/week/etc'-esque thread for people to post their favorite recipes? (That being if the people in this community aren't just cookbook fanatics, but also good food fanatics :P)

That is a swell idea, Dydo!

I hope people in this group haven't moved on, there don't seem to be any recent postings. I just discovered it and I love to read, collect and cook from my cookbooks. My favorites to collect are those which tell a story or are inspired by a story. The Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook, The Narnia Cookbook, The Little House Cookbook or Clementine in the Kitchen and Reminiscence and Ravioli by Nika Standen. I also like cookbooks from or about historical eras. I have a few international cookbooks, some better than others, but when we study a certain place or time, I like to cook the food from that place or time.

Hi,

I have started by listing my African cookbooks, the core of my collection. I collect them in any language I can sort of understand, which means it's mostly Dutch and English, plus books in German and French for countries that have been influenced by either Germany or France. I could cook from Italian, Spanish or Portuguese cookbooks, but just barely.

I'm still thinking about upgrading to add my other (cook)books. In cookbooks that would mean lots more ethnic cookbooks and several ingredient-based cookbooks, as well as assorted other cookbooks.

I haven't gotten round to rating my cookbooks yet, and couldn't really tell you which are the best. For me, that changes over time and with the circumstances.

I have a preference for books focusing on one ethnicicy or culture, I find I can learn a cuisine by studying a few specific cookbooks and getting a feeling for the types and mixtures of spices, preferences for type of taste and this way I can create or adapt dishes to have the flair of a certain cuisine.

I do the same with cookbooks geared toward a specific kitchen tool (such as a microwave cookbook or slow cooker) it's an indispensable learning tool for becoming adept at short cuts in my regular cooking, or when I'm limited in someone else's kitchen and have to make a dish in a new way. (I once lived in an apartment without a stove, everything had to be cooked in a microwave, crockpot or electric frying pan...that was a challenge!)

I also seek out instructional cookbooks, such as from Culinary Institutes or great masters of cooking (ie: Julia Child). Books which go into depth on technique and presentation really kink me out.

Also, from my cataloging them on LibraryThing, I discovered I have managed to collect a few 'food specific' cookbooks, ones that focus on either a single food or on a few, unusual ingredients. In putting them online I remember pausing and thinking, 'why do I have these, I never even look at them' and was tempted to get rid of them. Of course, I decided to go through them first and I realized I really liked a lot of the recipes. I started seeking those recipes out and making them. Now I've decided to include ingredient specific cookbooks as a distinct area of my collection which I am now actively focusing to expand. I hope to develop the most extensive and enviable collection. (A couple of my girlfriends noticed them, btw, and started calling me whenever they needed new ideas for a common ingredient.)

I am especially fond of Middle Eastern cookery and have quite a few cookbooks covering that area. Like others, I love when a cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes...I appreciate nice pictures and a little narrative background. I even managed to buy a 80$ cookbook (Kulinarisches Arabien) on my tight student's budget just because it is a beautiful mixture of cookbook, travelogue and coffeetable book. Most of my cookbooks are in German, but I have some written in English and even one in Turkish. The fact that for example Lebanese cooking is mostly covered in French books makes me want to refresh my French, though.

Mostly old ones that I remember my mother using; not that she was a good cook, but the memories of the books on the shelf are powerful. Mostly all I do is look at them and remember, though; I'm not the family cook. If I had time and nothing else to do, maybe...

I like old regional cookery books, too; have a few Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch ones. Reading them is as good as a trip to Lancaster County.

I like reading the explanations that go with the cooking instructions, too. Laurel's Kitchen is good for that. Part cookbook, part memoir.

Still cataloging...

I've been seriously collecting cookbooks since about 1989. I had several already at this time. I'd been cooking professionally for several years and my Brazilian restaurant had just closed. I was beginning to cater a bit as I decided what to do next.

Someone gave me Craig Claiborne's autobiography. The narrative is pretty lousy, actually. But there's a section in the middle of the book where he lists his favorite books on food. That was amazingly helpful, in the beginning. I'm pretty sure that I have most if not all of the books on that list.

Most importantly, Claiborne introduced me to both M.F.K. Fisher AND Elizabeth David. I'm not sure, now, how I'd missed them before that. I'm a pretty well-read guy and I'd been a foodie for a long time. Never mind. These two women (or, rather, their work) have exercised a huge influence over me professionally and personally since that time.

My collection is divided somewhat loosely into a few categories. Here are the most important ones and some of the books that matter to me in those categories:

General: Joy of Cooking. The rest are just pretenders. There are mistakes a-plenty in each edition. I went mad after I read Stand Facing The Stove (the biography of Rombauer and her daughter Rombauer-Becker). I started collecting as many of the editions of Joy as I could. I have all of the major revisions except for the 75th Anniversary one. I'm not actually sure what happened to my copy of the first edition that the grandson edited, either, actually. Generally, in my restaurant kitchen, I'll hit the internet before I refer to Joy. There are plenty of times that Joy gives me better answers, surer answers than I can find online.

Food Writing/History: Elizabeth David and MFK Fisher are always my touchstones, as I said before. But a book called Fading Feast stands out. It's a book of collected essays (and recipes) about "disappearing American regional foods". It's sad but beautiful.

Food Reference: Larousse Gastronomique. I love the first two American editions, but the red one is the one I use because it's the one I have read cover-to-cover. Long story. Also I use Handbook of the Nutritional Contents of Food. Believe it or not.

Professional cookery books: Professional Baking is certainly the most useful, although sometimes, for large-quantity cooking of really traditional foods, any of them is helpful.

Vegetarian Cookery: Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone is the one I use most often, probably. Or The Greens. Let's face it: Deborah Madison has exquisite taste. I don't use Anna Thomas, much. Or Mollie Katzen - although I STRONGLY recommend her cookbooks for children.

Vegan Cookery: How it all Vegan is not only hilarious but useful. We totally jacked their Vegan Banana Pancakes for use at our restaurant and I tell our customers that, too. It looks as though they are taking a break from their partnership to work on other projects.

Baking: I should break this category up. Bread, cakes, other baking. something like that. I don't. Bernard Clayton, Daniel Leader, Peter Reinhart and, once again, Elizabeth David are my go-to guys on bread. I Learned to bake bread from my ex-wife, who learned from her grandmother. Oddly, my hero Rose Levy Beranbaum's book on bread didn't really light me up. But on Christmas Cookies, Cake and Pies & Tarts she is really my source of inspiration. My catering company probably survived on her lemon bars (from Rose's Christmas Cookies) for the entire seven years of our existance. Fresh lemon curd on a shortbread crust. No starch in the filling at all. Nothing to get in the way of LEMON.

Collectable Books: I include both genuinely old/rare books and facsimiles of genuinely old/rare books in this section. Probably my favorite is Lucy G. Allen's A Book of Hors D'oeuvres - which is entered in my catalog but not coming up as a touchstone for some reason. Never mind. Lovely little book.

Ethnic books: Too many to pick one that I love. Possibly one of my Tapas or Brazilian Cookery books. I haven't entered ANY of these yet into my catalog. I do love the full version of the Lord Krishna Vegetarian Indian book.

Cheese Books: Favorite? I dunno - most of them are the most beautiful food porn. :)

Tea Books: The Michael Smith book is the best of these.

I have to end this for the day - I'm a long way from done with either cataloging the books or listing subjects. Never mind.

By the way: Barbara Kafka is a great cookbook writer AND essayist. The Opinionated Palate was the only reason to read Gourmet for many years.

mcglothlen, thanks for all the precious insights. Coming from a pro they are valuable indeed!!
:-))

I just received in the mail my copy of The Recipe Book of the Mustard Club by Dorothy L. Sayers. A nice little booklet with what sound like fine recipes in it. I can see DLS's hand in writing it, from all the quotes and phrases.

How odd. I tried to start a new thread called Have you ever written or contributed to a recipe book? But it doesn't show up on our menu. I can find the post when I type in the search box. What did I do wrong, I wonder?

one of the great things about LT is you can always blame It if something goes wrong. so I can assure you that you have done nothing wrong MrsLee

Thanks! I think I'll try again and if I get the thread started here I'll do that nifty cut and paste thingy. Then if two of them are here tomorrow...we'll deal with it then:) 'Cause I really want to know the question I asked.

I give up. I've tried three times. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow.

I hope this will be of interest to folks in the cookbookers group. My wife and I are opening a bookshop in Portland Maine this spring which will specialize in books on food, wine and the arts. The shop has been named 'Rabelais', and will have new, out-of-print and rare books, as well as some prints, photographs and ephemera. We're building now, in a space next to Hugo's a great portland restaurant, on perhaps the ultimate foodie block in Portland. I've been a librarythinger for a while now, but just with pieces of my own, mostly non-cookbook library. our shop will have several thousand books in gastronomy, the arts and whatever else strikes our fancy. You can see a bit of what we're about on our nascent website: www.rabelaisbooks.com. We'd love people's feedback on what to carry, what you like in a shop, don't like, etc. Thanks.

I think your site is very dangerous for my pocketbook. I live in California, will I be able to purchase from you online?

I think some of the other threads in this and similar groups will give you a good idea of what people like. Many good wishes for your success.

I just bought a new cookbook - it looks interesting-will report when I have tried some of the recipes.
Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa. by Diana Henry

Torontoc: The name (Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons) is wonderful! And I LOVE "middle-eastern"-preserved lemon. YUMMMMMMM...

There doesn't seem to be any kind of cookbook that I don't collect, but some are just more books by favorite authors. My base for everything was Escoffier in 1948, Larousse Gastronomique and
Mastering the Art of French Cooking vols. 1 & 2.

Low fat and diet/healthy books
like Jane Brody's Good Food Book

everything by:

Julia Child
with Dorrie Greenspan, other chefs, and her own books
French


Marcella Hazan
Anna del Conte
mario Batali
Italian

Barbara Tropp
Nina Symonds
Buwei-Yang Chao
Chinese

Elizabeth David
Mediterranean, French, Italian, Summer, Bread

Jane Grigson
Sausage, vegetables

Claudia Roden
Moroccan, Jewish, Mediterranean

Paula Wolfert
French, Morroccan, World

Madhur Jaffrey
Julie Sahni
Indian

Mimi Sheraton
German, Jewish

Maida Heatter
Rose Levy Beranbaum
Nigella Lawson,
Dessert baking

Bernard Clayton
Nancy Silverton
Carol Field,
Bread Baking

Jessica B. Harris
African, Caribbean and Hot

Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz
Caribbean

Elizabeth Luard
Spanish, Latin american and World Peasant

Jeff Smith
everywhere, easy

#43 >almigwin, do you have Lynne Rossetto Kasper's books? They are wonderful and "authentically" Italian!

#44: aluvalibri- I had one of her books a few years ago and gave it to my son because I had Marcella and I was happy with that. I don't remember what I didn't like about Lynne Rosetta Kasper, but I'll see if my library has one of her books and try again if you say so. Since I've never been to Italy, I wouldn't know about authenticity.

Well, I am a native Italian and I can guarantee about the accuracy and authenticity of the recipes. In fact, I think Rossetto Kasper is one of the best American writers of cookbooks focused on Italian cuisine, along with Marcella Hazan, Vincenzo Buonassisi, Giuliano Bugialli, and a few others. If you want a real Italian cookbook, you should look for the Artusi. It was written in the late 1800s, but it is kind of the 'canon' for all the following Italian cookbooks.

#46 aluvalibri- At the risk of destroying my retirement income buying used books on the the internet, I ordered the Artusi in a paperback version published by some university in 2003 and two by kasper-Italian farmhouse cooking and the splendid table which is the one i used to have.

#47> And you will not regret it, almigwin!!!
I know the paperback version you are talking about, I have it too, as well as the Italian one. I also have the other books you purchased and love them!
Buon appetito!!!

Thanks for the great suggestions on Italian cookbooks, aluvalibri. It is a significant hole in my collection.

As for what I have, I've really had to limit myself based on what we might have room for. I seriously collect Jewish cookbooks between 1940 -1970, Finland-Swedish cookbooks, World War II cookbooks and cooking ephemera. I also have a pretty good collection of Swedish cookbooks, Finnish cookbooks and a large collection of food advertising ephemera from 1910 - 1965 (500+ pieces with specialization in pressure cookers and refrigerators - of all earthly things!).

#46: Hazan, Buonassisi and Bugialli are all native Italians, too, yes?

I will certainly look for the Artusi.

I'm wondering if you know if there are facsimile editions available of the first editions of Il Talismano della Felicita or Il Cucchiaio d'argento. I have the TERRIBLE English Translation as well as the 1972 Italian edition of Il Talismano della Felicita but I'd love to have the first edition in some form. I don't' care about the collectability - I just want the text. :)

Actually... I haven't looked for either of them in a while. Maybe this is the time to try again.

#49 > Larson, you are very welcome! Here are some excellent Italian cookbooks, a few by Americans, most by Italian writers:

Cucina of Le Marche by Fabio Trabocchi
Enchanted Liguria by David Downie
In a Roman Kitchen by Jo Bettoja
Italian Cuisine by Tony May
Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni
A Passion for Piedmont by Matt Kramer
Pasta Classica by Julia Della Croce
Risotto and Risotto Risotti by Judith Barrett
Rustico by Micol Negrin

Sorry, some of them did not touchstone and at least one came out as another book. No matter, the point is that they all are very good books, with extremely accurate and authentic recipes. You will probably realize that at least four of them focus on regional cooking, and that is because our cuisine is so varied that it changes according to the area (but I am sure you know that).

#50 > mcglothlen, yes they are native Italians.
I have no idea whether there are facsimile editions of Il cucchiaio d'argento and Il talismano della felicita`. Are you looking for the Italian edition? Have you tried Ebay Italy?
My sister was given the first one as a gift when she got married, fortytwo years ago, and still uses it regularly. I remember when, as a child, I looked at the black and white illustrations in that thick book...
I wish I had a copy...

What kind? All kinds, I love cookbooks!

I thought I'd mention that FINALLY I've tagged all the books in my catalog. So finding my stash of, say, Brazilian cookbooks will be a lot easier now. :) There are still a few hundred books to add, but the 800 or so that are now catalogued are going to have to be good for now.

I also have made a quick pass at rating and reviewing a few of the books in my catalog.

#53 - a word from someone who's been there, though not with wuite as many books: Tag them as you enter them! Really its much quicker, particularly if you have a stack of books that get similar tags, as those on the add books page stay and don't need re-typing for the next work.

No kidding! I couldn't agree more. I didn't really have a handle on the whole thing yet. Now I get it. When I finally start dragging the crates of cookbooks down from the attic, that's exactly what I'll do. Thanks! :)

Hi! I just discovered this amazing site! I like cookbooks from the Mediterranean basin - Italian, Spanish, Greek - and the Middle East. Also Jewish cookbooks and I am trying to learn how to cook Indian food. I am very interested in historical cookbooks as well. I will be posting my cookbooks as soon as I receive my little cat-shaped barcode scanner!

I'm also new to the site. Having initially thought it was for literary books I logged mine (or at least my favorites) then found this group. So now I have to find a spare day (week?) to add my 800 or so cookbooks. Presumably it would be better to set up another library so novels are separate? Does that mean I need a different name?

Having always been a cookbook fanatic my fantasy was to create a website selling cookbooks from round the world (and work from home, thereby seeing more of my kids). This was back in 1996 when the internet seemed more of a level playing field. So I launched in 1997, got some good reviews & awards, sold a lot of books but could never make enough to make it worth all the outlay and time (couldn't compete with amazon's discounts). So sadly I closed it down in 2001.

But one good thing was I ended up with a huge number of cookbooks as the publishers would send me review copies. Some I'll never use (they're in the basement and I should sell them on eBay), some I use a lot (they're in the kitchen) and some I refer to every so often (they're in the library).

The books I use all the time are all the output of Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver - I'm originally a Brit though now in the USA. Their recipes always work, are interesting and they have a little bit of chat for each recipe. The other books I use a lot for every-night dinners are the Cook's Illustrated books The Best Recipe and The Best 30-minute Recipe. I also clip a lot (Boston Globe, Bon Appetit, Gourmet and Cooking Light).

I'm especially keen on desserts and baking and my favorites are both Nancy Baggett books The All-American Cookie Book and The All-American Dessert Book and Dede Wilson's Bake It to the Limit. I just bought Dorie Greenspan's Baking which had good reviews though I haven't tried anything yet.

For entertaining I use Nigella's books and I also love a recent acquisition Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin. I loved it so much I bought both my sisters copies for Christmas.

If I cooked a different recipe every night for the rest of my life I could never use up all the recipes I have but somehow I always need more cookbooks.

This post has gone on long enough but I'll be back. I'm so happy to have found the Cookbook Addicts Support Group.

Welcome!

#58 - I'd just add them to this library, why would you want them seperate? If you need to use the power edit (p/e icon) to add the tag fiction or novel or.... to your novels and cookbook or simialr to the others.
You can add anything with an ISBN, and a few people add things even without ISBNs.

I suppose my reason for separating novels and cookbooks is that I've loved looking at other libraries that share books with me to see books I might like (as if I need recommendations with 120 books waiting by my bed and a list almost as long of books I want to buy). And it would be annoying to wade through several hundred cookbooks to see the novels (or vice versa).

You seem to be an old hand at this (I looked at your profile) so I'd welcome your advice. If I add a p/e icon can someone just look at fiction or cookbooks?

Yes

You can see my cookbooks by clicking on the cookbook tag in my tag cloud.

the power edit mode makes it easy to add the same tag to many (upto 100) books at a time

Re #58 janeekelly - Wow, I am totally impressed! 800 cookbooks?!? I can't wait to see what you've collected.

How to answer this? Asian cookbooks (now mainly ones that are unusual or meritorious), esoteric cookbooks from other (non-US) countries, and pre-1950 US cookbooks and recipe booklets. Many years ago, before I started the US collection, I counted my cookbooks and found I had more than 2000. Now I have some in storage, and I have accrued a lot more. Can you tell this newbie is going to have great fun inputting all of this? (Right now, I am just doing a smattering of this and that, so I can figure out the optimal tags. I also can't reach many of my books, so I may have to clean and reorganize as I go along.)

Welcome! As they say, "just plunge on in!" We can't wait to read about your collection and learn about new (or old) cookbooks. We all catologue in different ways and for different reasons. Find tags that are most meaningful to you and help you out the most - ultimately librarything is your own tool (dispite the fact that we are all facinated too!)
Frankly, I am interested in how you amassed your collection.

Picked up a marv new one just out this month.

A World of Dumplings: Filled Dumplings, Pockets, and Little Pies from Around the Globe" by Brian Yarvin who is an instructor of food and also of commercial photography, so you can just imagine why this one caught my eye.

Can't wait to try it.

New group member here, slowly going through the house. I'm now cataloging the dining room and the first run of those are cookbooks. Thus the location tag of "drcb". 334 drcb so far, and maybe 6 shelves to go.

I came into the marriage with maybe 10 cookbooks and a subscription to Bon Appétit. My wife added her inherited cookbooks, and lots of new purchases.

I was the primary cook when we married, but the stepkids rebelled after the eggplant pizza (eggplant as the "crust"). I mostly am the chief dishwasher nowadays.

As Alton Brown will say in a yet to be cataloged book title, I'm Just Here For the Food.

When I catalog each book, I try to clean up author pages, links and photos. Recent cookbook author photos that I've added are:
Michel Stroot, hmm $7,750 a week at The Golden Door
Jean Anderson
Mara Reid Rogers formerly of the AJC, who also runs a dating service
Lora Brody who wants LT to know that she does cooking classes in Paris
Margaret Rudkin in a nice LoC collection for those mining for public domain photos
Roy F. Guste one of my favorite restaraunteers

Found a fun book in the library yesterday and read it last night. It's about Chinese gourmet cooking called The Last Chinese Chef by nicole Mones who wrote Lost in Translation that became a movie with Scarlet Johansenn and Ackroyd.

The author had a textile business in China for 18 years, and knows a great deal about it, and about the history of grand chinese cuisine of the kind that exists in banquets in china but hardly ever is seen in the U.s. She has more info on her website www.nicolemones.com.

The book has a bit of mystery (did her husband have an illegitimate chinese/american child) and a love story: Eurasian chinese chef tries to win olympic contest of imperial cuisine. Food writer there to watch and describe it.
Does illegitimate child belong to her dead husband? Does she fall for chef? Does chef win contest?

You guys have got to check this out.

Salad anyone? :-)

#67 - Lost in Translation starred Bill Murray not Dan Ackroyd ;).

But the Lost in Translation book by Nicole Mones is not the basis for the movie by the same name. The book came first and the movie had nothing to do with it.

Lost in Traslation is sitting on my TBR shelf. But now I'm looking forward to finding The Last Chinese Chef -- I am always in the mood to read food books in this dreary last part of winter.

68 NativeRoses. I need to know HOW did you come across this video? It is way outside my norm but I might have to follow a few more recipes. (I am feeling a bit old right now).

According to NPR, 2010 was a monster year for cookbooks. Here's their link to their best picks of the year. http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131357002/2010-s-best-cookbooks-real-life-labors-o...

Thanks for this link. I have just ordered the Essential New York Times Cookbook. I have too many cookbooks, but will welcome one more. Cooking is an uncontrollable passion!

Very fun to read! I have a of Nigella's books and just love them :)

Here's an article about cookbooks as literature with a list of the best. http://www.themillions.com/2013/05/the-cookbook-as-literature.html