How Many Cookbooks Do You Have?

[llvllagical_llkook]

Wow. Seeing 50, 100, 9000 cookbooks amazes me. I never knew that there were 9000 cookbooks . I have 14 cookbooks and too many little leaflets from various supermarkets or newspapers that I'm not going to count. For those who have many cookbooks, do you use 1 or 2 in particular or do you use different ones for various occasions?

[CrémeBrulée]

It’s good to know I’m not alone



I recently counted my food books and the tally was 92 books that can strictly be called cookbooks, plus about 30 more that deal with cookery and cuisine in some way, including 2 ingredient encyclopedias, several foodie travel books and biographies, food history and foodie mysteries. Some include recipes. I also have hundreds of recipe booklets and newspaper clippings with recipes, most that were given to me by my mother and grandmother. Plus I have thousands of recipes on my computer. I have even used some of them

I am expecting the numbers to rise once the autumn book sales begin. I have started buying 2-3 cookbooks on sale every year. I am trying to fill the gaps in my collection by buying only books on cuisines I don’t have, but unfortunately the Brazilian, Caribbean, African, Vietnamese, etc. books that I most want never seem go on sale, only the Western and Chinese cookbooks and the coffee table chef books.


I recently started a challenge to cook something from every cookbook I own. To keep myself motivated I started a blog where I journal about the process and review the books and recipes. This will hopefully get me to start culling the books I don’t want or need (well-meaning friends and relatives keep giving me cookbooks I have no use for). I want to keep the collection under 150 books until I move into an apartment with more storage space.

[David Cottrell]

A Russian Cook Book Question

I have a recipe from and a place to buy a 1923 Russian Cook simply called The Russian Cook Book or probably better The Borzoi Cook Book. It was compiled and translated by Princiss Alesandre Gagorine. For sale by antiquebooks for $40.00, said to be in good condition.

Question - is the book any good? The borsch recipe that was posted on line is good and very authentic. I'm wondering, anybody seen this book? Is it worth $40.00? There are plenty of places to put $40.00 these days. Hope someone has info. D

[MsAnya]

I have at least 50 but honestly I'm not sure. I'm addicted to the darn things. That's not counting the tons of recipes I have saved on my computer, in my recipe box on allrecipes, and the ones I've printed out and have in notebooks around the house.

[KathyJ]

Originally Posted by llvllagical_llkook

Wow. Seeing 50, 100, 9000 cookbooks amazes me. I never knew that there were 9000 cookbooks . I have 14 cookbooks and too many little leaflets from various supermarkets or newspapers that I'm not going to count. For those who have many cookbooks, do you use 1 or 2 in particular or do you use different ones for various occasions?

Unfortunately, when I actually DO cook, I usually only use a few.
However, my online cookbook club is having a virtual dinner party over the next six weeks with a different course each week. We have to review a cookbook and then choose that week's course out of the cookbook and try it. This has helped get me out of my armchair browsing mode and into actually cooking!
I do have quite a few that I want to try recipes out of though, mostly Junior League cookbooks as that's been my latest collection obsession. and lately I've been wanting to try soups. With the weather finally cooling down, soup just sounds so good.

[Chefellas]

I have around a hundred not counting Gourmet magazines dating back to 1979 plus 5-6 folders with cout out and handwritten recipes.

[strawberry]

Betty Crocker Red Cookbook - my good basic all around cookbook
Baking with Julia - my baking bible
Better Homes & Garden Crepe Cookbook
Hershey's Chocolate Lover's Cookbook - Yummmmmm
Jacque Pepin's Cooking w/ Claudine (1 & 2)
FC Favorite Ways w/ Chicken
Candy, from the Good Cook Series - my candy bible
A stack of Light N Tasty magazines
The Internet

I used to have more before I moved across country, but I pared down for the move.

[bullseye]

I just had to put up more bookshelves just for cookbooks. Is there a Cookbooks Anonymous? (Actually, I had to get them out of the other bookshelves--they were crowding out the others!) Maybe Bookhoarders Anonymous?

[sooln2]

Good grief! The last time that I counted them, I had over 3,000 cookbooks. Yes, I am a cookbook-aholic!

[SueBear]

At last count, I was at maybe nine or 10 but I have a recipe card holder that I've been adding recipes to and I'm also building a recipe data base on my computer as I find them on the Internet. Out of the cook books that I do have, only a few of them get used more than the others. Many times when I do make things I have recipes that are already mentally saved in my head and I didn't bother writing them down. I was taught to cook at a young age from my Great Grandmother from Sicily so I have a lot of Italian and Tuscan influence that has carried over into my dishes. What I would like to learn more of is the Mediterranean style. If anyone has any suggestions for a beginner, I'm open for listening/reading.