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]

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.

 

[Claire]

You know, I grew up on Better Homes and Gardens, but one very rare thing both my husbands (I had a couple year starter marriage, something that in retrospect I recommend to everyone) had in common, and I do mean there is very little that they have in common (heck, I have no clue as to what happened to the first, I've been with my husband for 28 years!) was that both their mothers used the Betty Crocker cookbook. I still refer back to Betty on occaision, but don't own a Better Homes and Gardens one, in spite of having hundreds of cook books. When our first (inherited when we married) Betty Crocker fell apart, I bought a new one and compared recipes that we regularly used, and put in the old ones if they were different. What people will do for love.

 

[Jeff G.]

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!

Same here. The ol' red and white checked book is still one of the best.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Another vote here for the good old red-&-white checkered 3-ring binder "Better Homes and Gardens" cookbook. When I married back in 1975, I was gifted with not only that basic, but also it's nearly identical competitor put out by Pillsbury. Also, a little paperback put out by Betty Crocker entitled "Cooking For Two", which I used until it fell apart. My mother, however, being a superior cook & way before her time, saw fit to gift me with "Madame Chu's Chinese Cooking School" (along with a wok), instead of one of the "basics". That continues to be my favorite Chinese cookbook.

I still have all 4 of the above in my now uber-vast cookbook collection. I consider them old friends.

 

[LPBeier]

Hmm, maybe I better get that B H & G for my collection!

 

[JuanGuady]

I am sad to admit this but Southern Living!

 

[luvs]

Hmm, maybe I better get that B H & G for my collection!

i would, laurie! they have so many basics. i miss my Parent's 1970's 1. it was great. i tore most of the pages where the binder rings were. my brother got me 1 this past Christmas.

 

[GrillingFool]

It was some children's cookbook from the Scholastic Library or whatever the company was that sold books to schoolchildren.

First item I cooked all by myself at age 10 or so:

BEANS AND FRANKS!

That cookbook finally fell apart, despite Mom's faithful taping. She was probably happy, because the meals weren't terribly adult oriented, LOL

edit to add:
The cookbooks i remember best from my Mom's kitchen is the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking. You bought one every month from the grocery store... she got them all. James Beard, Craig Clairborne and others wrote commentaries; it's a great set.
And I did inherit it... currently it is my evening reading, LOL

 

[Arky]

Forty seven years ago, for a cub scout project and merit badge, I cooked my first meal: Fried pork chops, peas, apple sauce and mashed potatoes. Ten years after that I bought my first cookbook. My wife had her collection which I could use, but for myself I bought "Wok Cookery." Between the charcoal grill in my front yard on the island Guam, the stove top wok, and the kind and patient Samoan lady who lived next door, I was on my way!

 

[bigdaddy3k]

Funny, I cannot remember using one to learn. I was cooking for years before I ever bought a cookbook. My mother and sisters use them like The Bible

(And Moses came down from the range and declaired "If its not in the book, don't make it. And if you don't have all the ingredients, don't make it. Thus I have spake!" {thundercrashes})

They used to stare in disbelief when I would find I was missing an ingredient and then sub another. In the face of numerous holiday compliments they will still not sample what I brought until someone else does first.

Fav book...

The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors: Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother

 

[BreezyCooking]

It was some children's cookbook from the Scholastic Library or whatever the company was that sold books to schoolchildren.

First item I cooked all by myself at age 10 or so:

BEANS AND FRANKS!

That cookbook finally fell apart, despite Mom's faithful taping. She was probably happy, because the meals weren't terribly adult oriented, LOL

How could I have forgotten the good old "Scholastic Book Club"! My parents, being reading/literature fanatics, definitely encouraged me to purchase whatever interested me, & of course I purchased the "cookbook". It primarily contained non-cook items, & the few cooked items were definitely prefaced with "needs mom's supervision" - lol!! But it was fun & I enjoyed it a lot at that age.