Your First Cookbook

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jkath

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What was it?

My first decent one I bought and cooked out of was Martha Stewart's Christmas (I think around '88) I still make the sugar cookies - they're my favorites for shapes.

However, my very first one is called "The Cookie Book", purchased in 1973. The inside cover has my not-so-legible second-grade signature. It has a different cookie recipe for each month, and I chose it from the Scholastic Book Club at school. I believe it was a whopping 40 cents.
 
My first cookbook was of course my very own, a compilation of recipes from my student days while studying Domestic Science. Subsequently I purchased "Cakes and Pastries," a good housekeeping step-by-step cookery book which was published in 1984. It has a lot of nice recipes with colour photos and a section called 'Useful Information and Basic Recipes.' Very helpful cookbook indeed.
 
Dare I admit? It was a ... Winnie The Pooh cookbook I bought for myself when I was a teenager!:blush:
 
My MIL gave me my first cookbook, 1972(I believe) paperback edition of Betty Crocker. I learned to cook from that book and it had such wonderful classic recipes that you don't find in today's BC books. It finally fell apart and I never could find another copy. Then my MIL passed away this summer and I inherited her copy. What memories-----hers was held together by rubberbands. Research has revealed that this cookbook in good condition is worth over $100+ and considered rare.
 
My first cookbook was "The American Woman's Cook Book" written by someone from the Culinary Arts Institute. I chose that one because my mother had one that I loved. I had used hers from the time I started cooking at about 10 years of age and when I married I couldn't part with it, so bought one of my own. I still use it from time to time.
 
My first cookbook was The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits (Cookies) that my mum bought me for my birthday, I must have been about 13.

The book she gave me when I left home was "The Central Cookbook". It was a kind of a rite of passage, it was written by a Tasmanian teacher and used to be the text book used in all schools in Tasmania, and every single one of my friends had a copy given to them by their mothers when I left home. I still use it regularly.
 
When I left for college, I brought a "little black book" of my mom's recipes. She wrote them in a style of "Cooking for Dummies", to be foolproof and self-explanatory. That was my "basic training". The first cookbook I bought was "Burda" magazine cookbook in German. Even though my German was rudimentary, pictures were so inviting I coud not resist!
 
I was given a gift basket at my wedding shower in 1988 that included Better Homes and Gardens red and white checked cover cookbook. I still have it and use it.
 
I had a box full of favorite recipes that I had gathered from the time I was 5; still have many of them. The first real cookbook was a '77 or '78 hardbound Betty Crocker; it is held together with rubber bands too, expatgirl!!! No way will I do without it!!! BTW, check on Albris if you ever need to find an old cookbook. I have another book place that is very good also if you ever need it.
 
My first cookbook was the Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls cookbook. I got it for my 7th birthday and it came to be one on my favorite birthday gifts as a child. I remember flipping through the pages dreaming of the dishes I would make. But my mom didn't like us puttering in the kitchen. So I kept dreaming and it inspired a love for all things cooking. I still have that tattered cookbook and every once in a while I grab it and make one of those dishes I used to envision making.
 
My first cookbook was a Betty Crocker cookbook for kids, which I got for Christmas when I was 8 years old. The first recipe I made out of it was Egg in a Hole.

In college I bought myself The Kitchen Survival Guide which was a wonderful help living on my own for the first time, setting up kitchen and cooking on a budget. As a college graduation present, my mom bought me a red-and-white-checkered Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, as her mom had done for her.
 
My first book was from my Grandmother - It was "The Joy of Cooking" - Still have it but sadly it is lacking the cover and held together with rubber bands!!!
 
Reanie525i said:
My first book was from my Grandmother - It was "The Joy of Cooking" - Still have it but sadly it is lacking the cover and held together with rubber bands!!!
Have you considered takingit to a bookbindery and getting it re-bound? That, or getting a new copy if it doesn't have sentimental value and/or notes within.
 
The first cookbook I used was DM's Settlement Cook Book that she received as a wedding gift in 1942. The first cookbook I owned was McCall's Cook Book that DW and I received as a wedding gift in 1965.
 
Ayrton said:
Have you considered takingit to a bookbindery and getting it re-bound? That, or getting a new copy if it doesn't have sentimental value and/or notes within.


It is special as my Grandmother, mother, and I have made the book the way it is through lots of use - It binds us together through time ..... even without binding or cover......-:)
 
Shunka said:
I had a box full of favorite recipes that I had gathered from the time I was 5; still have many of them. The first real cookbook was a '77 or '78 hardbound Betty Crocker; it is held together with rubber bands too, expatgirl!!! No way will I do without it!!! BTW, check on Albris if you ever need to find an old cookbook. I have another book place that is very good also if you ever need it.
Thanks, Skunka------I know that I checked Alibris (wonderful site by the way) before I inherited "The Bible" from my MIL and at the time they had no copies of that particular publishing (it's the one with the pie sections on the cover and various foods appearing in the pie sections to be more exact). So,yes, I'm always interested in other book sites. Thanks!!!!:chef:
 
Great thread JKath! Love reading your stories. Just another idea for old cookbooks. I've have bought some great old cookbooks at great prices on Ebay.
 
PytnPlace said:
Great thread JKath! Love reading your stories. Just another idea for old cookbooks. I've have bought some great old cookbooks at great prices on Ebay.

So have I! I love the series that James McNair has (gorgeous photos!!) and have purchased most on ebay/amazon.
 
My very first cookbook is 32 pages long, with a slightly tattered red cover, now held together with tape. It is "Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice" from the Westinghouse Home Economics Institute, price 50 cents. Acquired during a field trip with my Girl Scout troop, circa 1955. I was in 4th grade.

(The other thing I remember from that field trip is hearing Elvis Presley's songs for the very first time. Someone had a portable radio, and on the bus going home, we all sang "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog" with great enthusiasm.)

The recipes are carefully annotated with scrawling pencil writing. Almost forgot I still had this book until I read this thread.

My first grown-up cookbook was "The Joy of Cooking." Received it at my wedding shower. Gave it pretty constant use for many years.

Great memories! Thanks, JKath!
 
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