Your first cookbooks

[Claire]

What was the earliest cookbook you learned from, how old were you, and what years (give or take)?

My father bought my mom Better Homes and Gardens, you know, with the red checked cover, as a wedding present since neither his mother nor my mom's could cook worth a darn (my parents were married in 1954). It was the only cookbook in our house for many years, until Mom subscribed to an encyclopedia of cooking through Woman's Day (or was it Family Circle?) magazine in the 70s.

I thought of this last weekend when a friend and I were perusing a store and saw the BH&G cookbook, and she (I'm 54, she's a few years younger) exclaimed that it was the first cookbook she learned from.

So what was yours?

[Uncle Bob]

The better Homes & Garden and two old books of my Mother's...The Searchlight Cook Book, and Everybody's Cook Book...The latter was along the lines of a text book for teaching as well a many recipes, and variations.

[MexicoKaren]

Yep, that red and white checked cookbook was my first as well. I cooked my first meal out of that cookbook when I was ten years old - meatloaf!

[ellakav]

Better Homes and Gardens, of course. I still have it.
then there was "Basic Cooking Step by Step" and "The Complete Cook."

[Janet H]

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I think it was my grandmothers. It had great cake recipes!

[Chicks]

I was given The Joy of Cooking a thousand years ago as a wedding present, I still use it often.

[babetoo]

i had already learn some basics from my mom and a home ech. class, before i ever saw a cookbook. then it was betty crocker. still use it (not the same one) today. i have many many other cookbooks but that is my stand-by

[LPBeier]

I started to cook when I was 8 and at 12 my Mom gave me a paperback copy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I used that for years along with the recipes my mother showed me that weren't written down.

I still have the original one, though it is in three pieces, with no covers. I got a second one but "lost it in a divorce" and my wonderful DH saw me struggling with the paperback and bought me a new spiral bound red version a few years ago.

My collection is well over 300 books and still growing, and for most things I don't even use a recipe anymore, but I still use good old Betty for a lot of my baking, etc.

[CasperImproved]

Originally Posted by LPBeier

I started to cook when I was 8 and at 12 my Mom gave me a paperback copy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I used that for years along with the recipes my mother showed me that weren't written down.

I still have the original one, though it is in three pieces, with no covers. I got a second one but "lost it in a divorce" and my wonderful DH saw me struggling with the paperback and bought me a new spiral bound red version a few years ago.

My collection is well over 300 books and still growing, and for most things I don't even use a recipe anymore, but I still use good old Betty for a lot of my baking, etc.

That's so cool you have a collection like that.

I started at 8 yrs old with the picnic checkered binder cookbook Betty Crocker and that was a good thing as it had real pictures.

But the one I learned actual cook skills like how to draw and quarter (kidding) chickens, was "The Joy of Cooking". Notice I gave the second one a bit more reverence :-)

Since I had no teacher, I was self taught with such a good cookbook.

Bob

[bethzaring]

my first two coobooks have long since fallen apart and no longer exist; they were a 70's edition of Joy of Cooking, and one by Adele Davis, I think titled something like "Let's Cook it Right"...I was in my late teens

then a few years later I acquired and still have a Betty Crocker, and a Better Homes and Garden "All time Favorite Recipe" cookbook.

I have, but do not use, ny grandmothers plaid Betty Crocker and my mothers Good Housekeeping cookbook that she received as a wedding present.