How Many Cookbooks Do You Have?

[SierraCook]

I have almost seventy cookbooks, but the one that means the most to me was my great great aunts'. It is a West Bend Cooking Magic cookbook from 1955. She was a great cook. Dinner typically consisted of ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, lima beans, biscuits, etc. She made the best peach cobbler for dessert.

 

[Juliev]

I bet i have close to it Sierra, or probably even more.. I don't know how many, exactly.

 

[aruzinsky]

I have 125 cookbooks, most of which are very old and inherited from my parents. I purchased maybe 30 of these.

 

[kitchenelf]

I have around 400. My MIL has close to 3,000. They are EVERYWHERE in her house. LOL I mean EVERYWHERE - under the coffee table, on top of the coffee table, stacked beside the coffee table, on top of anything that will hold them in the kitchen, on top of spare chairs in the kitchen, over the washer and dryer, stacked in every corner of her house, stacked on Grandma's dresser to the point of falling over , under every bed in the house, I could go on.....

 

[Taboo]

Rainee-266! You've got me beat! I have never met anyone else(other than my sisters) who collect food books and cookbooks! I have in the neighborhood of 150-200 including the ones I can't pass up in the supermarket checkout! Also several copypaper boxes of cooking magazines. I recently was given some vintage('50's) Gourmet mags. I just love them. i too have several folders of cut outs plus the internet!

My favorite are my first edition Better Homes, a church cookbook from Bethabra Moravian Church in North Carolina, and the Settlement Cookbook also a first edition. What are some of your favorites?

I also love books about food, food history, bios of cooks/food writers. Have any of you read Kitchen Confidential or Tender at the Bone?

 

[mudbug]

Kitchen Confidential is hilarious. Also recently finished Jacques Pepin's autobiography, but it's upstairs and I'm too lazy to go check the title.

You guys are making me soooooooo relieved at the number of cookbooks I have. Mere amateur here. Military history/history is another story.

 

[Taboo]

Kitchen Condf was funny and if you have ever worked in the Restaurant business you find most of it rings true, just change the names! Is it true Jauques P. worked at an iHop when he first came to the states?

 

[mudbug]

Kitchen Condf was funny and if you have ever worked in the Restaurant business you find most of it rings true, just change the names! Is it true Jauques P. worked at an iHop when he first came to the states?

yes indeedy, he worked there many years. strange but true.

 

[Raine]

The 266 is in books and I probably missed a few, thats not counting the ones from the Internet, newspaper, friends or recipe cards.

 

[Audeo]

I have around 400. My MIL has close to 3,000. They are EVERYWHERE in her house. LOL I mean EVERYWHERE.....

Elf, please DO advise when the MIL is having her ultimate garage sale, hum????

 

[auntdot]

Too many and yet, not enough.

Too many because we purchased a slew of cookbooks we will never use a recipe from.

Not enough, because we still find cookbooks that offer an approach to food, or recipes, that we find irresistable.

However, we have become more selective in our purchases.

The house is getting full of books, and many are cookbooks.

And we cannot bear to rid ourselves of one.

In terms of numbers, over 200 and counting.

 

[kitchenelf]

Audeo - my SIL has stated on more than one occasion they EVERY last one of them will go to her daughter. :?

But my MIL gets me a handful every time I go over there - she knows I love them just as much as her!!

 

[Audeo]

You're a lucky lass, Elf.

 

[Psiguyy]

I just have a handful when compared to a lot of you. I find the web to be a handy source of recipes. Consequently, I haven't bought a cookbook in more than 5 years.

 

[Buck]

Too many and yet, not enough.

Too many because we purchased a slew of cookbooks we will never use a recipe from.

Not enough, because we still find cookbooks that offer an approach to food, or recipes, that we find irresistable.

However, we have become more selective in our purchases.

The house is getting full of books, and many are cookbooks.

And we cannot bear to rid ourselves of one.

In terms of numbers, over 200 and counting.

We live in an old three-story house that has books of every kind in all rooms. But, I think cookbooks tip the scale. We have nearly 600 and counting. Kind of like Lay's potato chips. Betcha can't eat just one!

Although, I will give my wife credit. She's figured out how to use recipes out of most of them on a daily basis. Still, more come into the house. Help, help, they're everywhere! They're coming to get me! AAAAARRRGHHH!

Buck

 

[Michelemarie]

Who needs a cookbook when on this forum? I have waaay too many and am actually planning on cleaning them out, again, by Wednesday when Amvets comes. I find myself searching DC and the internet more than using cookbooks.

 

[amber]

I probably have two dozen cookbooks, and over the years I've used them here and there, tweaked some recipes from them, but found that mostly I have alot of handwritten recipes by myself, my family, and other recipes from here that I use alot more than my books. Nevertheless, it's always great to have old/new cookbooks to save or give away to friends/family.

I think the most prized recipes are those from family and friends that you keep passing on, and each person adds their own flare to it.

 

[kitchenelf]

WOW - this post is definately a blast from the past - a lot of MIA's here.

 

[bullseye]

Too lazy for an exact count, but there are about 6 yards of cookbooks on shelves @ roughly 35 per yard, plus the ones that are out for some reason or another--call it 250 or so. Seems like a lot, but they get lost in the other 7 or 8,000 books that make books the primary decorating motif, here, and make the idea of moving a painful thought! Last time I moved, 13 years ago, there were over 100 large cartons of books (ooof--to the second floor!), and I haven't stopped collecting since. I just can't seem to pass by a book shop . . .

 

[kitchenelf]

I just can't seem to pass by a book shop . . .

It's a terrible sickness I know - If I am browsing through a cookbook in a used bookstore and I find a piece of paper in it or an envelope with a letter I feel like I need to buy it and "take care of it" for the owner. Blinders might help but I think I could smell all that paper!!!!!