Cook books, do you use them?

[Barbara]

I'm curious about those of you with so many cookbooks where you keep them? I have a book shelf in my kitchen which is not nearly enough space. I like to have them easy to get to, but not enough room in my kitchen.

[auntdot]

Am a cookbook-aholic. We have so many we have no place to put them.

I like to read them. Do we need anymore, not really. And can get most recipes on the web.

And usually don't cook from a book anyway.

So now buy more books about food than those with recipes.

Yes, and like Jenny was hooked on buying antique, OK, old cookbooks.

Am gettint better about buying books because of all of the ones that have to go into boxes in the cellar.

Sigh.

[Ask-A-Butcher]

I have several hundred.....some old some new, some stored in the kitchen and some just stored away somewhere!

Do I use them? Hard to define "use", but I do read them, I get inspiration from them and some I use for reference.

[nutfry]

I need a recipe for most things (a personal quirk that my boyfriend finds amusing), but I've only bought a few cookbooks. The rest are the ones I've inherited, gifts from family, and a three-ring binder I use for family recipes and things I've found online that we liked.

[Michael in FtW]

I've got about 50 or so ... never really counted them. Some I use for the recipes, some for inspiration, some for techniques. And, I admit that I too read them like novels. With the increase of recipes available online - my buying urges have declined - but I probably do have 4-5GB of recipes in files on my hard drive.

[Katie E]

Originally Posted by Barbara

I'm curious about those of you with so many cookbooks where you keep them? I have a book shelf in my kitchen which is not nearly enough space. I like to have them easy to get to, but not enough room in my kitchen.

In our breakfast room, adjacent to our kitchen, I have two full walls that I've turned into space for my cookbooks. One is a half wall that is about 7 feet across and has 4 large shelves. The other space is floor-to-ceiling shelves about 4 feet across. Those spaces are where I store the "cookbooks." All my cooking reference-type books are in a bookcase in my office. Those fill three shelves about 3-feet across each.

So far I am able to find space and there's still some room on another wall in the breakfast room that I can use if I need it.

[MilKii]

Originally Posted by Katie E

I buy them all the time and probably have 1,000+. And, yes, I use them...all the time. We rarely eat the same thing twice, except for twice a year when I take a month and prepare all our favorites for the month. Love our cookbooks.

A thousand books? Jeez... you can create a library with that many books..

[BreezyCooking]

I've been a BIG-TIME cookbook collector for many years now. Easily have a couple thousand volumes - some historic & many first editions.

I have a narrow floor-to-ceiling bookcase in my kitchen/dining/great room area where I keep volumes of the coffee-table type for guests to enjoy, & keep every-day type books (Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart One & Two, etc., etc.) on my tile counter. The rest of the collection is kept with our other books (husband & I also collect mysteries, gardening books, livestock/farming books, biographies, sky's the limit, yadayadayada) in other rooms of the house.

I read cookbooks like one would read a novel, & with the number I now have, I will most likely die before I get to them all - lol!!

However, I do have a fun way of using them. I plan our menus & grocery shopping by the week, & I try to, once a week, arbitrarily pull a book off the shelf & let it open to a page & make a recipe from that page (so long as it's one I like - lol!!) It's a lot of fun & has gotten me to try lots of different recipes that I might not have if I waited until I got around to reading the book thru - lol!!

[Maverick2272]

350? 1000? Good Lord, and ya'll don't think that is a lot?????????????

I have about 5 I think.... and I don't even have enough room in my kitchen for them as it is, let alone for hundreds. I am totally floored...

[darlenemt08]

I have less than 100, including cooking magazines. My cookbooks are stored in storage containers under my bed and my 'Taste of Home magazines' & old 'Taste of Home Quick Cooking' magazines are currently setting on a bookshelf for now. I don't have room to put all of my cookbooks & magazines where I can get to them easier. About every 2 yrs., I go through my stuff and decide what I've used and didn't use. Then I give away whatever I don't use or no longer want. I keep certain cooking magazines...Pillsbury & etc. that you buy at the checkout counter. I keep most of my cakes & cookies magazines and a few others. My favorite cookbooks are the 3 that are from the factory where my sister works. The company has put together 3 employee cookbooks and I've enjoyed them all, especially the first one. I tend to like the factory cookbooks, church cookbooks, & etc. the most but I also like my 'Taste of Home' magazines too.

I also use the internet a lot though. When I'm in a hurry to look for something, I search the internet. I can put in the ingredients in certain sites and come up with a variety of recipes. The internet is great when I can't seem to find what I want in my cookbooks.

Darlene