How Many Cookbooks Do You Have?

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I have 43, just counted them. :LOL: They're on a bookshelf in the den. Most of them are keepsakes from my late mother and grandmother. One day they'll be my daughters'. I love the little dog eared pages and handwritten notes. :wub: I've found old coupons and yellowed newspaper recipes stuck among the pages. They sure are fun to browse through.
 
Although I have over 100, I should have asked, if you follow recipes to the "T" or cook to your own taste? I look at lots of recipes and use the basics, (seasonings,tech. etc.) but mostly my cookbook is in my head! For 1st time recipes I do follow and read all the way through, then I may change the style of cooking, add spices, omit spices, what ever I'm cooking . And sometimes (as "Dawg" can attest to) it's hard for me to post a recipe because I don't measure, I just add to taste! Pizza dough, for one, I never measure flour, I just add enough so it does not stick to the bowl. If I want a wetter dough, then I may have it stick to the texture I'm looking for, but I don't measure!
I do the same thing when adding seasoning, I don't measure, I add to taste.
Anyway, I'm just wondering? Who else cooks as I do? Not stuck to cookbook recipes?
 
I agree, S&P. I rarely follow a cookbook, but love to read them for suggestions. I am a miserable baker, just hate having to measure so precisely, and much prefer to cook by taste.
 
I'm the same way. It's almost impossible for me to follow a recipe exactly. I'm always adding more of this, less of that, substituting....etc., etc. I'm not much of a baker, either. :huh:
 
I don't follow most recipes. If I've asked for a recipe for something I have eaten, then I stick to it. But most of the time, I think of recipes as suggestions.
 
I agree, S&P. I rarely follow a cookbook, but love to read them for suggestions. I am a miserable baker, just hate having to measure so precisely, and much prefer to cook by taste.

I must say Dawg, when it comes to baking, and I'm not very good either! I do admit, I do follow recipes. As baking is more precise then just cooking.
 
Apparently I'm in the minority. I follow recipes. If I'm making something for the first time, I follow the recipe. I may make a tweak or two after eating it but then that becomes the recipe I follow.

If I make something SO, family, guests and I really like, I have to be able to repeat that recipe for the next time. I can always do that.
 
I write down my tweaks and make sure my recipes are repeatable. I read for the ideas of flavor combinations, essentially creating my own recipe out of the many I may read. When I decide what I am going to cook, I reference my cookbooks and what I can find online and create my own recipe.
 
I write down my tweaks and make sure my recipes are repeatable. I read for the ideas of flavor combinations, essentially creating my own recipe out of the many I may read. When I decide what I am going to cook, I reference my cookbooks and what I can find online and create my own recipe.

This is what I do, much of the time. And then while I'm cooking, I season to taste.
 
I have told this before, but I think it bears repeating for our newer members.

:(:( I had gone into Borders to get my daughter a cookbook. There was a pile of Julia's latest cookbook. Baking With Julia. More like a coffee table book. I just HAD to have it. So I paid for it and as I was leaving the store, I was browsing through it with my head down and wasn't watching where I was going. I very rudely bumped into someone. It was Julia. She was going in the store for a book signing. She offered to autograph my book for me with a personal note and my name. When I had to downsize, it was one of the books that had to go. As I was packing, I carried that book around all day. I wish I had fought harder to be able to keep it. I am still regretting letting it go. :angel:
 
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I have the collection from Supercook magazines, bound in folders from A - Z. Also just 2 other cookbooks - a Margaret Patten allrounder (basic one) and a wholefoods one.

However, my most prized "cook books" are my own collected recipes - that are in 3 'books'. The first fairly small, the 2nd larger and the last a big file box! I keep an index of the successful ones to easily refer to them when needed.
 
I had a couple of hundred cookbooks before Steve and I combined households. Now I have maybe 10. If there's no room in the designated shelf in the kitchen cabinet then too bad. I'm happy to be living a clutter free life. Like many now days, the internet is my giant cookbook.
 
I write down my tweaks and make sure my recipes are repeatable. I read for the ideas of flavor combinations, essentially creating my own recipe out of the many I may read. When I decide what I am going to cook, I reference my cookbooks and what I can find online and create my own recipe.
I'm in the "use recipes for inspiration" group. I cook using what is on hand, rarely shop for a specific recipe. I read my cookbooks. When I first started cooking, I followed recipes. Now I cook like chef Micheal Smith.
 
I probably commented on this post 2 years ago with a much lower number but I counted and I'm at 61! My husband said a few don't count though like small ones I took from my mom/grandma. So more like 50 if I count his way of only nice ones I bought. I have no plans to cull any time soon. I look forward to owning a house with a real bookshelf one day


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I've lost count over the years how many cookbooks I've owned.
I've gifted many of them to needy recipients, just starting out in the kitchen.
But I still have my very first one
PeanutsCookBook.jpeg
My Dad gave it to me for Christmas, when I was maybe eight years old.
He knew that I SOOOOOO wanted to cook, but my Mom said that I couldn't until I was "big enough to reach the stove without the stool".
The first recipe I used from it, I made my Dad Cinnamon Toast, he said it was the best that he ever had. :blush:
I still make that for myself and get a nice warm feeling all over.
 
I had that cookbook K~girl!
Isn't that a fun cookbook?
I was fortunate enough to inherit my Paternal Grandmother's recipes from some of the restaurants in Honolulu, as well as the local Electric Company, what a treasure.
Some of those places are no more, other recipes have her hand written notes on the side margins.
She also gave me her recipe box with cards written by
my great grandmother.
I felt so blessed when she gave these to me.
 
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