I still collect them. I received two for my birthday.

Sue

I enjoy reading cookbooks, but I don't collect them exactly. Two summers ago, I donated most of my cookbooks and only kept the ones I really enjoy perusing. I recently was given a gift card to Barnes & Noble, so I picked up some newer cookbooks, but I haven't had time to read them yet.

I collect them. Have a few first editions from the 50s (BHG, Betty Crocker etc). I love reading old cookbooks....My prize is Vincent Price's A Treasury of Great Recipes from 1965. Pristine.....and not the 50th anniversary reprint.

i quit cause I have so many....whole bookcase full, including one that was a weekly buy at the market...each letter of the alphabet...treasure my Joy of cooking...it was like my 17th birthday present...falling apart...

I still buy a few, but I have pared down some for my move. I enjoy going through them to get inspired. I do like books focusing on various cuisines around the world. Then of course there's The Joy of Cooking, and a couple Steve Raichlen grilling books. And I've run into a few very old cookbooks, too.

My favorite cookbook is one my mom made me and my sister. Back in the day when there was tracing paper, my mom made a cookbook with one page original and the next page was traced. I have many cookbooks and sometimes pick some up at estate sales. Another cookbook I love is called Cooking up a Storm and was made after Hurricane Katrina when misplaced people started looking for recipes they could no longer find.

My mother was from North Carolina, and one of her friends went to North Carolina for the Quaker Yearly Meeting and brought her back a cookbook. That was in 1955 and it is the cookbook I cooked out of all the time I was growing up. I loved the book....an example of notes in the margins and recipes written on blank pages and plenty of cake batter splatters...made by me when I baked cakes using the recipes. It disappeared after my mother died. I am sure my sister took it. I found it on Amazon...paid $55 for it....but I got it. I wish it was my mother's copy but this is second best. Another of my favorites was The Southern Cookbook, which was a paperback. I got my favorite waffle recipe out of that one...also when I was a teenager. I like the cookbooks put out by church groups....and also Junior League Cookbooks are a favorite. The last cookbook I bought was at the thrift shop...for 90 cents....from a ladies group in North Dakota. It had several recipes for what they call "hot dish". I guess that means casserole?? I also like cookie cookbooks....that goes back to when I was collecting really good cookie recipes. And I have a lot of recipes that I saved on Pinterest.

We made a family cookbook a few years ago as my grandmother's generation was starting to die out and we wanted to have their recipes written down. Even though most of them cooked by sight, we were able to translate the recipes to current measures. We included old pictures and a family tree and printed out copies in a small three ring notebook which were distributed to all of the "cousins." It's especially useful for the holidays when families want to make the family traditional favorites.

Guilty. But I probably have only 350, give or take. ETA: Ooopps. Counted one bookshelf rows worth, and think I very seriously underestimated the number.

I don't actively collect cook books but I do love them and if I see one in a thrift shop I will buy it. I have 2 shelves and a basket of books. I have coveted Julia Child's books for a long time but haven't purchased one. I have quite a few church and community cookbooks mostly from the US and quite a few I have received in swaps. My favourite go to cookbook for basic recipes for cakes and pancakes and cookies is my Mom's old Five Roses Flour cookbook. I read cookbooks like novels, rarely follow any of the recipes but get ideas.

I too love cookbooks. I recently posted a pic of a Julia Child cookbook which had the original store receipt in it from 1965. I thought that was pretty cool. I bought some cookbooks for $2 each at a large book sale and grabbed 2 Julia Child cookbooks that were in a Free box outside. When anyone is giving away cookbooks on Freecycle I always ask for them. I've got ATK and Cooks Country cookbooks and others that way.

Used to. You could find some really nice ones in thrift shops or antique stores that had a book section. Now days I don't come across very many. Also over the years I bought newer books, Crabtree and Evelyn was/is a favorite, etc. I now have Mom's older Betty Crocker cookbook too with her notes.

The three I keep in a case on the kitchen counter are: "English Country Cooking at It's Best" by Caroline Conran, "Having Tea, Recipes & Table Settings" by Tricia Foley, written by Catherine Calvart, and a recent online find of several years ago - "Ruth Mott's Favourite Recipes" Heart-warming dishes from BBC tvs Victorian Kitchen cook. And unbeknownst to me until I received it, it is autographed! Heart warming indeed. Altho I have not tried any recipes from it yet.

I collect all kinds of cookbooks. It started in 1970 with my mom giving me her 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook. She taught me how to cook using that cookbook. I used it so much, it started to fall apart. I put it away and bought a "new" old one on ebay.

My mom collected cookbooks her whole life. She really liked old ones like 1930's and older. I got a few of her's when she died. I have some old ones that go back to the 1800's. I always look for interesting and different ones when I go to the thrift store. I like to read them like a novel.

caflowerluver, do you have any of the "White House" cookbooks? I have a 1907 edition, copyright 1887, 1894, and 1899. Has wonderful photos and illustrations and portraits of First Ladies. There are hand written recipes on blank pages too. I think I used a gingerbread recipe from it once.

I used to order cookbooks online. I would get 2 or 3 a month. I have most of a set of Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks, then the US and Canada did some sort of cross border thing that stopped the cookbook club! I was so angry! I wanted a few more of the books to complete my set. I rarely if ever buy books any more for cooking. I find almost all the recipes I am looking for online. I print them off and put them in page protectors inside a binder. I do have about 50 cookbooks from before the online club closed down.

Schoolhouse - I don't have any of those. Sounds interesting. Some of the oldest are 1896 Fannie Farmer Cook Book, 1933 General Foods All About Home Baking, and 1942 The Good Housekeeping Cook Book. That last one is 981 pages and covers everything!

I have several cookbooks. I had a bookcase added to the new kitchen at the end of the cabinet run. I especially like the ones from smaller towns, church, Jr league, garden clubs etc. My absolute favorite most used one is from my very small home town Catholic Church, from many years ago. I know every person that contributed recipes for it, many are gone now. My family had their recipes in it. My copy is well worn. They did a re issue of it just a few years ago and I definitely got another one. There's one from the Lake Charles, Louisiana Jr League called Pirates pantry, which I believe is still available, that I use often. Cracker Barrel has some very good ones in their store area. Local and rural community types. I have one that was my mother's mother's cookbook and then mom's and I ended up with it. It has a lot of writing in it and notes. I am so happy to know that it survived the flood!

https://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Pantry-Treasured-Southwest-Louisiana/dp/0882898655

It's still available! I have the other 3 listed below that one on the page too lol.

I'm relieved to know (and a little surprised) to learn that so many of us still collect. Thanks for sharing!

My mother didn't like cooking so I grew up in a house with just 2 cookbooks. Both seemed to be freebies. One was from the Metropolitan Insurance Co. and the other I loved. It featured Aunt Jenny, the radio voice of Spry shortening. I still remember those pictures of cakes and pies. This would have been in the late 30s-early 40s. Speaking of pictures, have you ever noticed how meat has changed? The Betty Crocker cookbook I got as a wedding present in 1954 had colored pics of several roasts and poultry. The turkey is so different from today's broad breasted beauties---looks absolutely scrawny. And the rib roast is really fatty. Bet it tasted 100 times better than today's, though.

Making a pot of oxtail soup right now, from my Mom's ancient copy of the Joy of Cooking.

I wouldn't say I have a collection by any means but I have quite a few cookbooks in the house. On several of them I read them and bookmarked pages with recipes, tips (or to be grammatically "correct" these days, "hacks") and the like. I've been meaning to either scan them, copy them or tear out the pages that interest me and get rid of the rest. I tend to enjoy the local cookbooks but there's so many duplicated recipes (and I chuckle how so many claim it as their own recipe!) or so similar they're of no interest to me. Back in the days of typewriters I made my own cookbook compilation and used it for years and years. I seldom follow recipes anymore for general cooking so it doesn't get used much anymore.