Favorite what? Purchase method? All time favorite cookbooks? Favorite new cookbooks? Favorite reading cookbooks? Favorite making reciipes out of cookbooks?

So many recipes are available online that the only cookbooks I buy these days are those that are full of stories from the chef/writer because I read them like novels. When I moved in 2023, I culled my book collection of thousands down to only a few favorites. I brought the first three Barefoot Contessa books, my aged Betty Crocker ring-bound, My Little Paris Kitchen, a family compilation and a few that are specific to machines like my rice maker and microwave.

Since moving, I've purchased Wild Figs & Fennel and French Kitchen Lessons, but I haven't read either of them yet so I can't recommend them.

Once I'm interested in a title, I check to see if I can find it at a good price on eBay. Since most of them are reader copies for me and not going into my permanent library, I don't mind if they aren't in perfect condition.

You are really smart to check them in library form first.

I love books in general, but when I want a recipe, I usually search blogs. You can usually tell which are T&T and good. And they're free. :)

For books:

Purchase method: I like hardbound or spiral (both is awesome but very rare). I know all the reasons to eschew Amazon, but it's easy, guaranteed, easy returns, reliable payment system, useful reviews, etc. I rarely am comfortable paging through a cookbook while standing.

All time favorite cookbooks? Another vote for the ring bound Betty. My first cookbook, a gift from my parents when I was nine, and full of good and reliable recipes.

Favorite new cookbooks? For reading: Does This Taste Funny by Stephen and Evie Colbert--lots of interesting South Carolina recipes, home cooking Americana dishes I know nothing about. For reading and inspiration: Matty Matheson Soups Salads and Sandwiches. The soups, especially. I don't want to work that hard making soup, but they're intriguing. For potential actual making of recipes: Savory Baking by Erin Jeanne McDowell. I haven't had a chance to get into it yet, but I liked looking through it enough to give a copy as a present.

Favorite reading cookbooks? Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America. Also have made a few of the recipes. Ottolenghi and Jerusalem (or just looking at the pictures). Aromas of Aleppo, ditto.

Favorite making recipes out of cookbooks? Black Family Reunion Cookbook by the National Council of Negro Women (a supersize version of Rho's community cookbooks). Most of the recipes are 3x5 card sized, and sometimes five different versions of the same dish. Many are greatness. And my own community cookbooks for the best Passover recipes. Joy. Dated, for sure, and weird, and each edition different, but go-to if one doesn't have the internet or someone's mom for that little hint one needs. Joan Nathan. Ottolenghi and Jerusalem. Betty Crocker. Local Breads by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman.

I have become so used to looking up a recipe online these days that I rarely look at my recipe books and haven’t bought one for years. I do have my old favourites and would be upset if I ever lost my Encyclopaedia of European Cooking by Paul Hamlyn which I’ve had for 50 years and it has travelled to Europe and back with me. It only has a few black and white useless photos yet I love to read its recipes.

Overall I tend to read ebooks/ kindle books and I like cooking inspired stories be they mysteries, autobiographies or biographies.

However, recently I did buy a real paperback book, the first in ages … The Upstairs Delicatessen on Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating, & Eating while Reading by Dwight Garner. I thought it was me in a nutshell and I am enjoying it a lot.

We have a book problem here and cookbooks are part of it. You know what happens if you going grocery shopping when you’re hungry - same thing when I am in a bookstore. Now with DD dragging me to used book sales where cookbooks can be had for $1 to $4, the problem is getting worse.

I usually use cookbooks to learn about a cuisine, region, style. Meaning I read them like books, putting Post-Its on recipes that look interesting, and later I may go back and make that recipe or be inspired by a story or picture or technique and make something else. So I like cookbooks with narrative, food writing, chef memoirs, regional explorations, just as much or more than the collections of recipes.

Favorites, some that pop to mind

- “Larousse Gastronomique”, invaluable if you’re trying to learn ”classique” French and generally European cooking from the ground up

- “Plenty“ and Otto Lenghi’s other books, I seldom make the recipes as written because who has all those ingredients? but they inspire trying things

- David Chang’s memoir/cookbook, it was a fun read and made me wish I’d gone down a different path in life, also I got a couple techniques that I use all the time

- Peterson’s cookbook on fish, my usual reference when wondering how to cook . . . fish

- There are a couple “standard”cookbooks on Chinese cuisine in my bookcase that are splattered with decades of cooking spills, dog-eared, broken spines - all good signs

- “When French Women Cook”, part stories and part recipes

- Anthony Bourdain has a Les Halles cookbook that I like, for making bistro greatest hits type dishes

- “The Bread Builders” is a book I read a lot when I was into making bread, the first time. Not a cookbook but more a bunch of essays about bread and bread bakers. Also made me, at the time, feel like I’d wasted my life.

- There is a book on food science, by McGee I think (“Kitchen Science”?), that is really interesting even though despite reading that and watching every “Good Eats” episode I don’t really understand much about why A does X in cooking.

This is my favourite cookbook ...

I've long since stopped buying cookbooks.Very few contain more than one or two useful recipes. And I don't like long waffly stories. Same reason I hate blog recipes. Just give me a practical recipe that gives me something new and foolproof. If I find one (rare) I'll print/cut it out and put it in my trusty lever arch.

My entire collection. Note age of most.

Pre-internet I purchased very few recipe books. A couple church, Betty Crocker's because it's a staple IMPO, a couple Cooking Light and that's really it. Now I would never buy one. As said above it's so easy to put ingredients into the search engine and find exactly what you are looking for. It' much easier than finding the recipe in a book you liked, especially when it's from a church cookbook and there's no or an odd table of contents!!! The younger generation in my life is very aggressive looking at magazines, ferreting out a chef's recopies but they prop their phones up so even though they are more adventurous seeking out new foods to cook they are not buying anyone's book. The getting it from a library first is a great idea!

i’m struggling to answer the question but am really looking forward to receiving Les Halles tomorrow. Thanks jyl!

I don't let myself bring home cookbooks very often anymore. A year or so ago, I culled down my overflowing collection. A lot of "starter" books that I've since learned on and stopped needing to refer to them. A lot of extras- because no, I do not actually need 10 bread machine books. Or whatever. Most of the read a lot, recipe few sorts of books. Some niche books. Some of them are in good enough shape to donate. Some are not, and I have to still be willing to let them go to compost.

I still have a lot of cookbooks. Several core books. Grandmas Settlement, moms Joy, most of my textbooks from school. A stack of preserving books, another of various baking. Several niche books. A bunch of ethnic specific tomes. Many years worth of those little holiday cookbooks found in the racks at the check out aisles at the store. Mostly halloween and gift jar ones. Some food history. A box full of random pages and pieces. Family written things.

For a while I was on a food cozy mystery kick, and went through a series or few from the library. Some of the recipies in those were interesting. Some were a pass, heh.

I still skim the shelves at the thrift store. Or browse the random garage sale. Hit up the library sales when I can. But since I've let go of a big ole bunch with good reasons, it's been hard to justify picking up more.

If I need a tried and true recipe, I look to Fanny Farmer in paperback. Otherwise I purchased ones with pretty photos to stage a bookshelf in my kitchen. Never tried ANY of the recipes. And....they make GREAT gifts If I need something spur of the moment.

I used to do the borrow/evaluate/buy routine, mostly for baking books, since I love to bake. Recently, it occurred to me that I make only one or two recipes from each big, heavy book. The books were not "sparking joy." So I copied those recipes and donated most of the books to our library book sale. I feel cleansed.

I've collected more cookbooks than I care to count. I looked at the bookshelf this morning and counted more than a hundred hard bound. A woman I worked with long ago scoured second hand stores for old cook book sets and when she had a complete set, she would give the set away. I was blessed to receive a 12 volume "Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, circa 1966". The 12th volume is an index which directs me to which volume and page I can find a specific recipe. That is one of my favorites.

Then, there are the spiral bound books (mostly from churches, and a few put together by our extended families). I have 3 iterations of Better Homes New Cook Books (1 glue bound, 2 old ring binder style). And I can't forget the small digest type sometimes found at the grocery store (probably not anymore).

Most of the books were given to me, but I've purchased my fair share of new or second hand as well. I haven't purchased a cookbook for quite a few years now. As others have mentioned, everything is online, just waiting for me.

I have culled favorite recipes from my books and digitized them, categorized and saved on a hard drive. Easy enough to find when I need them.

Now, I would just like to get rid of the books. About 10 years ago I sold some collections (ethnic, desserts, etc.). I've given very few away. None of the younger generation is interested.

I think I'll see if anybody on our local ND might be interested in free cookbooks. If I find a taker, I suspect they'll resell the books. I don't care. If that doesn't lighten my load, I'll see if Good Will might let me offload them there.

Oh boy, don’t get me started! I finally realized I don’t need any more cookbooks, even if very tempted. So far it’s worked. However, our daughter will occasionally gift me with one (Half Baked Harvest being most recent). If I could only keep some it would be my Silver Palate and Ina Garten collection, along with my very first cookbook from Betty Crocker (her New Picture Cookbook). That would still amount to 20 books…13 from Ina, 6 Silver Palate, 1 Betty Crocker, but far less than the load I have now. Those and the internet are plenty. I also have lots of old issues of Fine Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated magazines I can’t part with…yet.

On a side note, I actually framed some old back covers from CI. Some of those illustrations were pretty nice…front and back covers.

Mine at the moment.

Thank you all for your responces. I too use the internet for many recipes. In fact Ive got a huge stack (6 inches high and always growing). I have three ring binders for collecting the tried and true, but I find cookbooks much more inspiring as Im a sucker for the pretty pictures. (Also for pretty wine bottles). CI Cooks Country and Meat and Kenji's Food Lab and The Wok are great, but are huge and can be overwhelming, and too complicated. I know everyone loves Ina Garten, but I have had so many failures with her. Im not sure why. Matty Matheson for my tastes is too fancy. He takes soup and sandwiches to the next level. I'd rather keep things more basic. My favorites these days are Nagi Maehashi, Tieghan Gerard, and I attempt Molly Stevens and Pati Jinich when feeling bold, but I usually scale them down quite a bit ingredients wise. Also, being a west coast gal, Im partial to the west coast cuisine. Thanks again.

I’m sure i have every title listed here and many more, plus every issue of Cook’s Illustrated since its inception. Ive also borrowed dozens from the library and have several pocket folders filled with clipped paper recipes.

The worst of it is that lately I have become tired of cooking. Alas, despite all my books and good equipment and a freezer and pantry full of good things, not to mention that hub and i still love to eat, I have lost my mojo. Maybe it’s early onset spring fever.

Kenji's books are enjoyable to use and read.

Some recipes are more complicated than you may want to do on a particular day. He says himself that any recipe is best used as a guide or starting point, not as something that has to be slavishly followed. "Make it your own".

We tend to prefer simple preparations these days that produce tasty results. When we feel like something that takes more effort than we feel like expending, it's easier to go out.

I also have about forty VERY old Cooks Illustrated magazines. Long ago, I tore out all the "gift subscription" cards, as they make excellent page markers for other cookbooks. Not what the authors had in mind. Har-Har.

My favorite is my Joy, and I can’t replace it because it has all my notes, and I added page headings because it didn’t any. Not only does it have recipes, it is a reference with information about the food, what it is, where it comes from, how to select, store, tips on prepping, etc. And every edition seems to be different, with different typefaces. I donated one because it was so hard to read, and another because it just, I don’t know, it just didn’t work.

I use my mom’s 1967 Mastering the Art. It has recipes for making frozen and canned peas taste better! Servantless American cook, that’s me!

I have a community cookbook from a moms-of-young-kids organization I was in. Many recipes are fast and easy and kid-friendly, but not in a dumbed-down way. I still use it and my kids are on their own.

DH does most of the cooking now, and he uses pretty much only AI now! He used to google recipes but so many of them came with a backstory and he is not one for that! Then he does what he wants anyway. When I did all the cooking for the family, I had a subscription to a menu-planning service that included a week of dinner menus (entree, sides) ingredient list for the week, and recipes for the entree. I loved it. I still have them, in two big binders. But because they are organized by week, and I subscribed when it was still kind of young, there is no index so I can’t just look up something I recall.

I have a weakness for cookbooks and at one time, would sit in the evening and read them like a book - making notes.

I really have too many and should pare down, they are taking up space in my cupboards. And, quit buying them. Does this go back to my childhood when we had exactly one cookbook in the house? Not illustrated, I'm not sure I've even used anything from it since trying to teach myself to cook many decades ago. (in a hall closet along with some other mementos) My mother really didn't care to cook, never did. That (and resulting lack of nutrition) became a problem in her later years when she was alone!

I think I have all of Ina Gartens and do use those. Many others from fav chefs - seldom used. I think the last two I bought I've used not at all. I make pies. Often. I watched a food network show one day where the canadian restaurateur was making the most amazing looking pies and had written a book 'You Wanna Piece of Me'. Of course I had to send for it, have not used it.

Another sitting not yet used is the 'Vegetable Butcher' that is not so much recipes but how to clean and prep every vegetable ever grown in any country. I'm not always intuitive about things I'm not familiar with, know how or even where to buy them. My knife skills could use some real improvement. I do have good knives, maybe if I found a class to take I could get better use from the book. Chop, dice, peel 101 anyone? 😊

I do realize now that I have a lot of cookbooks, but I have looked up a lot of them online. I've been comparing recipes for Bourride online and in some cookbooks, and finding wild differences.

Some I use the most include one from Ina Garten, Marcella Hazan (the class), Julia Child, Biba Caggiano, Richard Olney, Mark Bittman (veg centric) and a community cookbook. I also have some American classics (BC, FF, Joy). While I have a number of Asian cookbooks I've yet to find a go to.... I've a large stack of old Cook Illustrated but I often find the recipes a bit fussy.

Online, I often find things at Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Saveur, the Kitchn, Leite's Culinaria etc where I will find a recipe (sometimes excerpted from a cookbook) I will bookmark and download/print. One of my go to veg dishes is from the old ChowHound. This trend is probably while we are seeing cookbooks evolve as well.

I have a smallish assortment of cookbooks, many of them bought in the bargain bin at the bookstore. The ones I use most often are Betty Crocker and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Deborah Madison). I'm not a vegetarian but this thing is chock-full of vegetable, grain, and legume recipes.

I do look for recipes on-line but usually look in my cookbooks first to see if those have what I'm looking for. On-line recipes can be very hit or miss IME. I really used to like Epicurious, but that site isn't the same as what it used to be.

What I miss if Fine Cooking. I LOVED that magazine. I still have a stack of old copies that I haven't gotten through yet. I would thumb through the current issue in the grocery, and if it had more a than a couple recipes I thought I might try then I'd buy it. I like their tutorials on different ingredients and how-to's for the recipes. I have gotten so many *excellent* recipes from Fine Cooking over the years.

I also have my own recipe binder where I put clipped recipes, handwritten recipe cards, etc. Re-organizing it is something I really have to get around to doing.

“What I miss if Fine Cooking. I LOVED that magazine.”

Agree! I started subscribing in 2003 and have kept every issue. I still occasionally pull a few out to look through. I also miss their website and cooking forum.

I also used to enjoy Bon Appetit until William Garry (editor-in-chief) died. It went downhill once he was gone.

I have a lot of old cookbooks by The Frugal Gourmet that I still use, and I pretty much like everything that I've made from his books.

My favorite baking books include Baking With Julia, and Cooking With Gourmet Grains from the Orowheat Bakery - I used that book when I was baking desserts at Island Restaurant in San Francisco in the mid 1970s.

I got the America's Test Kitchen cookbook a couple of years ago, and I use that when I see a recipe from them on TV that I want to make, but I use Joy of Cooking more frequently.

These days I collect individual recipes online, print them out, and store them in plastic sheet covers in a couple of binder notebooks instead of buying cookbooks. I prefer to customize recipes to the way I like them rather than stick to what someone else likes. Most of the time I do not use recipes at all, unless I am baking something that requires accuracy.

Years ago I used to clip recipes from magazines. Now I rarely read magazines. I keep the clipped recipes (plus ones printed from the internet but not tried yet) in plastic labeled pocket folders (cakes,appetizers,etc). My daughter mentioned our library has digital magazines including Allrecipes, Taste of Home, cooks Illustrated-uh oh!

Last week I bought a Taste of Home cookbook at a yard sale for $1 It has 1000 recipes. I have alot of cookbooks, but don’t look at them as often as I’d like.

No one has mentioned Allrecipes.com Great site with lots of recipes with reviews and pictures. I have hundreds of saved recipes in a free online recipe box there. You can make as many categories as you’d like. So easy to go back and find any you have saved.

I've got a few - ok, quite a few - cookbooks - but I also use the internet a lot and came across Nagi Maehashi(Australian, who has built a website with 1.5 million followers based essentially on comfort food from a variety of cuisines) - she produced her first actual cookbook a year or so ago and it became an immediate best seller here, based entirely on her internet presence. She had no tv presence before that, but she's now been a guest on various cooking shows and has a second book out. Recipetineats, for anyone interested. And yes, I have her books and use her recipes all the time.

It's a terrible addiction! I have a ton of books. I keep telling myself that I don't needto buy the book as I'll find the recipes on-line but I love browsing a book. Favourites depend on the time od year, the food I fancy at the time..... the favourite in use at the moment, as Hubby and I really need to shed a few..... ahem..... a lot of kilos, so it's diet time. Slimming Eats made in the air fryer by Siobhan Wightman is by far the most interesting slimming book I've ever seen. The food has flavour and texture - nnoth things often missing from so many diet recipes. Last night was a cheesy veggie pie topped with filo pastry coming in at 346 Kcals for a hefty portion. The previous night warm bacon, halloumi, sweet potato and chickpea salad. Really delicious.

Gooster, I didn't know what the difference was so thank you for bringing up the subject. I guess everywhere has it's fishy soups. Here we have Cotriade. I like it as it's more whole veggie than other soups, if that makes any sense.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotriade#:~:text=La%20cotriade%20ou%20cotriade%20bretonne,crustac%C3%A9s%20et%20fruits%20de%20mer.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourride_%C3%A0_la_s%C3%A9toise#:~:text=La%20principale%20diff%C3%A9rence%20entre%20ces,sert%20avec%20de%20la%20rouille.

My favorite that I have used since first published in 1972 is Vegetarian Epicure. Before that it was 1951 Betty Crockers cookbook that was my mom's. She gave to me when I moved out after college. Both are beginning to fall apart. I have quite a few other ones but I don't use them very often. If I want a certain recipe I look it up on the web.

I have put food on the table for over 55 years and I have just about all I need right in my head. I do see something online once in a while or search something online but I got rid of all my cookbooks with the exception of just a couple that were kept for sentimental reasons.

I quit with books almost entirely after the computer came into my life.

We shed most of our books a couple of years ago to make life lighter and I have not one regret over it.

I worked at Borders for years and I brought home so many wonderfully beautiful books and there were some stunning cookbooks. But, they are gone and I am fine with that.

Sometimes I hear of someone planning to issue or publish another cook book and it makes me wonder why. What a small market that must be!

I have a dear friend who loves cook books and actually reads them! She is also a legendary cook.

I love cookbooks and read them like I would read a novel. I like the way a book feels in many hands and I still read a lot, although not as voraciously as I did when I was younger. I have way too many cookbooks and keep thinking I should sort through and get rid of some. I've given some to my granddaughters and still have the Betty Crocker cookbook my grandma gave me as a present in 1974, as well as her well loved Modern Family Cookbook by Meta Givens. I have Cook's Illustrated books and gluten free books and holiday books and Mother's Amish Cooking book and the LaRousse Gastronomique.

I've been cooking since I was small enough to stand on a chair to help Grandma, and I'll be 70 next month, and I still have the first cookbook I ever owned, the Betty Crocker Children's cookbook, LOL. I just like them.

Annie

Last night as I was cooking Passover Seder, I was fantasizing about writing a letter to Ina Garten asking her to write a Jewish cookbook. I truly love Ina's recipes. I know it wouldn't be a big seller, but she's made enough money already, could be at the tail end of her career, and could do it as a labor love.

Perhaps she'll say yes. She and I are very close -- in my dreams. I often have comforting dreams at night where she and I are close friends, hanging out, and enjoying dessert together.

I have a small section of cookbooks on my bookshelves. To be honest I find I'm much more likely to use online recipes which I can look up on my iPad. I then tend to copy the recipes I like into a Google Doc and easily access on my iPad or on my phone when I'm at the grocery store trying to recall ingredients. It's sad. I do like cookbooks, but I find them a bit physically awkward to cook with such that I'm able to keep them open and not get food all over the pages.

Pricklypearcactus, A couple of decades ago, as I was getting more online recipes, I typed up all the tear sheets from magazines. Quaint, huh? Now I use Mealboard, which is a full on meal planning app, but which has an easy recipe section which doesn't require a lot of field filling. It can be accessed from all devices and the web, so I think it's like your docs. I can also put in recipes that CF people post as pictures, though they're harder to read than straight text, since they go in the space where the picture of the food goes. I bet you could also put those in your Docs, maybe even better quality, and if so, you could also make pictures of recipes in your books that you want to make, and put them in Docs as well.

That said, there is something special about beloved old cookbooks with the food stains on all the best recipes...

I do not use cookbooks for recipes. Or very very rarely have I done so. The cookbooks I have are entertaining to read. I am someone who HATES those recipe sites where the author has to ramble on and on about the recipe before sharing it. BUT, I like certain cookbooks that do so, go figure. I got them for the pleasure of reading, not instruction or inspiration in the kitchen.

For example, anyone remember the Two Fat Ladies? I have several of their cookbooks, both the joint efforts and their individual ones. The recipes are AWFUL. Nothing in any of them I would consider eating really. But, they are fun to read. Jennifer Paterson had a little paperback edition of all her columns in the Spectator which included her recipes. I bought it for a dollar. It was so fun to read, very funny. She and Clarissa Dickson Wright, the other Fat Lady, had very interesting lives.

Another example, Nigella Lawson. I enjoy reading her cookbooks. They are MASSIVE, with so many recipes they cannot all be good. I always enjoy her cooking shows, though I would say we have differing ideas when it comes to certain food related things. But she is a talented writer and entertaining as well. I have several of her books, bought cheaply second hand. I like her Christmas one the best, it makes me feel cozy.

Other than these, I have a few cookbooks that I bought as fundraisers, mostly from my truck drivers who are selling it for their churches. Nothing in those very exciting if I am honest, though they recipes are solid and good, but the dishes in them are not something an experienced southern home cook would need a recipe for. And I have a couple that were gifts. A couple barefoot contessa ones from my mom, I have a taste of home one that was sent to me for free because i entered a recipe in a contest and while it did not win, they did put it in their book, and sent me a copy as a gift, and thats it. I do not think I have even opened the BC ones. I used to watch her show a lot, a lot of what's in her books was probably on the show.

“I was fantasizing about writing a letter to Ina Garten asking her to write a Jewish cookbook.”

You should, Kendrah! For years now I’ve thought she should write a “Holidays“ cookbook, although it would likely include several recipes from her other books.

I have an entire shelf of binders. Filled with recipes I've printed out, or yanked out of magazines (Saveur and Cooking Light, mostly). I was able to add my mother's printed out recipes to them. Those. And The Joy of Cooking. Everyone should have the cooking bible.