Anyone else on here prefer using cookbooks more vs. online?

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Some of my favorite cookbooks are from churches. Both DH and I grew up Methodist, and let me tell you, those women could cook! Gourmet they're not, but if you want some good, hearty comfort food (and hotdishes, and anything with apples, noodles, Velveeta, cream of something soups, etc.) they are a great resource.

I put my eggroll and pineapple sweet and sour sauce in one of those cookbooks. It was very well received. And yes I've seen some outstanding recipes in those cookbooks.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Dawgluver]

I put my eggroll and pineapple sweet and sour sauce in one of those cookbooks. It was very well received. And yes I've seen some outstanding recipes in those cookbooks.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

My go-to Swiss apple pie (crustless) and winey apple cake (no wine involved, except for me while I'm making it) both came from church cookbooks, and they use up more apples than anything else I've found on the internet, other than applesauce and apple butter. My grandmother and great aunt, along with many of their friends, always submitted recipes. All were great cooks. All are long gone, but their recipes make a legacy.

 

[rodentraiser]

I've become addicted to videos of cooking. Mainly that's because as a cook who only ever threw a TV dinner into an oven, I knew nothing - and I do mean nothing - about cooking when I stared a couple years ago. So I need someone to show me how to do some things and it's always nice to know why something is done in a certain way too (I'm the original throw-it-all-in-a-bowl-and-stir-it-up type of person).

So videos showing me what the color of a onion sauteing in a pan looks like when it's done and even what a gentle simmer is are always very helpful to me (I used to think simmering and boiling something was the same thing).

The only problem with that is now I have some great knowledge from some very good chefs, but I still lack some of the basics. That means I can be skipping along happy as a clam and then WHOP! I fall into this big hole. This leads to funny moments like making a recipe I can't even pronounce and not knowing it needed to be stirred or something similar.

 

[GotGarlic]

Cookbooks. I have, errm, rather a lot. I enjoy reading them in bed (OK, so I'm a bit weird) and I enjoy planning meals form them

That's not weird.

 

[GotGarlic]

Some of my favorite cookbooks are from churches. Both DH and I grew up Methodist, and let me tell you, those women could cook! Gourmet they're not, but if you want some good, hearty comfort food (and hotdishes, and anything with apples, noodles, Velveeta, cream of something soups, etc.) they are a great resource.

I have a cookbook from the local Greek Orthodox Church. Tons of great recipes.

 

[GotGarlic]

The only problem with that is now I have some great knowledge from some very good chefs, but I still lack some of the basics. That means I can be skipping along happy as a clam and then WHOP! I fall into this big hole. This leads to funny moments like making a recipe I can't even pronounce and not knowing it needed to be stirred or something similar.

Rule #1 of cooking: Read the recipe through before you select it, to make sure you have all the cookware and tools needed to make it. Then read it through again before you start cooking it, to make sure you have all the ingredients and understand the steps.

 

[Dawgluver]

I have a cookbook from the local Greek Orthodox Church. Tons of great recipes.

We have a Greek church fest an hour from here every year. Absolutely adore Greek food. Will have to nab one of their cookbooks!

 

[dragnlaw]

I find that most of the food bloggers I read always acknowledge their source, saying it was adapted from. I always go to the other source to see the differences, and often even they have adapted from somewhere else!

I mostly enjoy the bloggers chitchat about how this and that... but once I've read it and then go back to it to check something and have to scroll down for 1/2 an hour to get there... then I think... 'oh shut up! just let me get the to recipe!'

So I appreciate the blogs that have a link at the top that says 'jump to recipe'

 

[Andy M.]

...and have to scroll down for 1/2 an hour to get there... then I think... 'oh shut up! just let me get the to recipe!'

So I appreciate the blogs that have a link at the top that says 'jump to recipe'

I'm with you there. Bloggers in general tend to run off at the mouth. They seem to be under the impression that if one introductory paragraph is good 100 would be better.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I'm with you there. Bloggers in general tend to run off at the mouth. They seem to be under the impression that if one introductory paragraph is good 100 would be better.

Not advertising my blog here, which I haven't put anything new on in about a year, but do I run off as well? Just want to know so I can alter my writing style if I'm too wordy.

Chief Longwind of the North

 

[LPBeier]

For some reason I am not fond of cooking videos. I want the recipe sitting in front of me so I can read as I want.

What I don't like about food bloggers (and I read about half of the replies here so if this is already covered I apologize) is they like to post a gazillion pictures of the same thing of whatever they are featuring. And then, they don't include a picture with the recipe! I understand some people don't want to waste the ink on a picture; however, most foodie templates can offer the ability to turn off the picture.

I have so many cookbooks my hubby has cut me off - so now I get them through my kindle. They are cheaper and I can have the recipe right beside me as I cook!

 

[rodentraiser]

Rule #1 of cooking: Read the recipe through before you select it, to make sure you have all the cookware and tools needed to make it. Then read it through again before you start cooking it, to make sure you have all the ingredients and understand the steps.

I have to read it through to just make sure I'm going to like it! After a couple of these recipes, I've found out I don't like a combination of soy sauce and honey in any recipe, no matter how good the food looks like in the picture. So yeah, I do read those recipes!

 

[Smokeydoke]

I have even found "reputable' cooking sites posting recipes they gathered from other sources that are not of the quality one would expect.

Can I ask what that site is? Or is it super secret?

 

[Smokeydoke]

I like both but I use my cookbooks more than I use online recipes.

BUT I do go to online sites that review cookbooks. That other site (we don't speak about) that goes through a cookbook a month and it's very useful, especially if that cookbook is long and expensive. They're more likely to give brutal reviews moreso than Pinterest or food blogs.

I've had a lot of fails on AllRecipes (and wins too, about 50/50) and it doesn't help that if you write a negative review, they edit it. I would assume the internet success rate is the same. And people are much less likely to be critical on someone's blog than on a review site.

 

[Andy M.]

Can I ask what that site is? Or is it super secret?

Not a secret and not limited to one site. Just take a look at the credits for the recipe.

 

[medtran49]

Gourmet, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking and Bon Appétit magazines are all owned by Condé Nast Publishing. Epicurious is the website for Gourmet and Food & Wine. Bon Appétit has it's own site. Not sure about where Fine Cooking ended up.

Epicurious also has BA receipes on it. I've gotten them from there multiple times when I don't want to spend time looking for the mag that had the recipe I wanted.

 

[GotGarlic]

I have to read it through to just make sure I'm going to like it!

Ha ha! I thought that went without saying.

Many people read the ingredients but don't read the method till they start making it. I thought that's what you meant when you were surprised in the middle of preparing something that you were supposed to stir it.

 

[GotGarlic]

BUT I do go to online sites that review cookbooks. That other site (we don't speak about) that goes through a cookbook a month and it's very useful, especially if that cookbook is long and expensive.

What site is that? There are none that "we don't speak about" that I'm aware of.

 

[Addie]

We have a Greek church fest an hour from here every year. Absolutely adore Greek food. Will have to nab one of their cookbooks!

Dawg, I have a friend in Tacoma that doesn't own any major hardcover cookbooks. But since she was a little girl, she started to collect those church cookbooks. Then when her grandmother died she inherited them also. She has a huge selection of them. The last time I talked to her, she told me her daughter said for her to write a will leaving those church cookbooks only to her. The rest of her kids can fight over the remains of the house.

The last time I was in her home and she pulled out her collection, we both were going through them. Penciled notes on the side, spots of food on other pages, You really got a sense of the authors right there with you.

She never goes to the internet. No need to.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

There is a recipe for braised beef short ribs on both Epicurious and Bon Appetit that is identical...

Gourmet, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking and Bon Appétit magazines are all owned by Condé Nast Publishing. Epicurious is the website for Gourmet and Food & Wine...

RP, as Andy said, Epicurious is the website for Condé Nast published recipes, collected from Bon Appetit and the now-defunct Gourmet magazines. Food & Wine is published by Sunset Publications, along with a number of other food-related and lifestyle magazines. The myrecipes.com website is the aggregate site for recipes published from any of the Sunset mastheads. Finally, Fine Cooking is published by The Taunton Press.

So many magazines and recipe websites. So little time...