How many cookbooks do you own? How many do you use?

[Julie in CA]

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie. Part of it is my job making desserts for a restaurant, part of it is because we have a large-ish family and entertain extended family a lot. I enjoy reading them, and have a lot of them on my shelves. Today I decided to purge the ones I don't really like. It turns out that I have about 15 to get rid of, and about 30 that I am "married to". :)

 

How many cookbooks do *you* have?

How many do you actually ever use?

 

ETA: ARGH!! After all of that, I failed to check the "allow multiple answers" box. Is there any way to fix my dysfunctional poll?!

Edited October 14, 2008 by Julie in CA

[Carrie12345]

There wasn't an option for my usage, anyway.:D

 

I probably have about 8 cookbooks. I rarely use any of them, but not *never. I hate cooking and I sometimes think starving is a reasonable option.

 

When I'm really in a rut, I might crack open a cookbook and look for ideas. I'm more likely to look online. Almost all of my holiday recipes are family favorites in my file box.

[Ria]

I'm in the "30 or more" category, lol. And I use them. I make a 2-week menu and look through my cookbooks for ideas. I rarely cook the same thing twice in 3 months or so. I have specialty cookbooks (ethnic foods, bread, meats), lots of Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen cookbooks, and almost all of the Williams Sonoma Kitchen Library and What's Cooking series. I have fairly eclectic tastes and the cookbooks reflect that, lol!

 

Edited to add: Oh, shoot! I just counted. I have 110. Really. But I use them, honest!!

 

Ria

Edited October 14, 2008 by Ria

[Julie in CA]

I'm in the "30 or more" category, lol. And I use them. I make a 2-week menu and look through my cookbooks for ideas. I rarely cook the same thing twice in 3 months or so. I have specialty cookbooks (ethnic foods, bread, meats), lots of Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen cookbooks, and almost all of the Williams Sonoma Kitchen Library and What's Cooking series. I have fairly eclectic tastes and the cookbooks reflect that, lol!

 

Edited to add: Oh, shoot! I just counted. I have 110. Really. But I use them, honest!!

 

Ria

 

Lol! Ria, your one post just made my whole messed-up poll worthwhile! I'm glad to know that I'm not only *not alone*, but also have been surpassed in the cookbook junkie category. I have lots of Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen cookbooks, I have several Top Secret Recipes cookbooks, several Freezer Cooking cookbooks, a whole bunch of baking/pastry cookbooks, and a lot of misc.

110. Wow! Puts my measly 30 to shame! :D

[Happy]

I have a bunch (20 or more), but I routinely use 3-4 of them.

 

My favs are:

 

America's Test Kitchen Family classics

Southern Living

Best Ever French

Patricia Wells' Trattoria

Jamie Oliver's first cookbook (I forget the name)

 

I have a handful of wonderful church cookbooks, plus some regional emphasis ones. I use those a lot.

 

My absolute favorite is the one my five SILs and I put together of family specialities and favorites. Great food, these people can cook!

[Aggie]

I have 1 and I don't know why. I never use it. Ever. I don't like to cook at all.

 

 

My dd loves to cook and bake. She may start her own cookbook collection someday, but she is a pro with allrecipes.com already. :)

[Laurel]

I have about 50 or so. I don't usually cook with a cookbook, so they don't get used necessarily very often. I have read most of them and gotten ideas, and I use them for research, into a specific cuisine or dietary restriction, etc.

 

My mother has hundreds of cookbooks. Actually, I am fairly certain she has more than 1,000. She recently moved out of my childhood home, and we packed up boxes upon boxes of cookbooks. And she had already moved 1-200 to her new house. We went through and got rid of as many as she could bear - that was about 30 - that's it! She also has 20+ years worth of back issues to lots of different cooking magazines.

 

So no, I don't think 30 cookbooks is too many at all. :tongue_smilie:

[KS_]

I probably have about 20, but there are only a couple that I routinely use for certain things (I have the Cake Bible, which I like. . .well, I guess that's the only one I do really use regularly - lol). I'm much more likely to search online for a recipe instead of going through each cookbook individually. My "favorite" recipes are printed out and in a binder that I keep on the counter, and I use that for my meal planning.

[Book Crazy]

I own two cooks, both of which I use fairly often

 

Madhur Jaffery's Indian Recipes

 

Delia Smith's Complete Cook Book

[susie in tx]

The poll wouldn't let me choose two options.

 

I have at least 30 cookbooks. When my dh's dad's wife died, I got all of her cookbooks. What I didn't realize at the time was that one of the cookbooks was my fil's. In it was his famous canned trout recipe. :) I found this just the other day and I was almost brought to tears. Then again, most anything can bring me to tears these days. ;)

 

Anyway, I use only a few of them at any one time, but I use all of them at various points. I tend to like a particular one for a while and then move on to another "favorite" later on. I also use the internet and belong to a menu mailer. I keep ALL the recipes. I love to read recipes. And I love cookbooks, especially regional ones.

[bumbledeb]

I do have a lot of cook books and use at least 5-10 regularly.

 

I love my Nigella Lawson collection and my Jamie Oliver collection.

 

I also like Mary Berry and Delia Smith.

[gandpsmommy]

Lol! Ria, your one post just made my whole messed-up poll worthwhile! I'm glad to know that I'm not only *not alone*, but also have been surpassed in the cookbook junkie category. I have lots of Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen cookbooks, I have several Top Secret Recipes cookbooks, several Freezer Cooking cookbooks, a whole bunch of baking/pastry cookbooks, and a lot of misc.

110. Wow! Puts my measly 30 to shame! :D

 

If either of you ever wants to give any away, I'd love to have them! I'd really like to learn more than my very basic repetorie of dishes, especially some good ethnic dishes. I'm a really good baker, but I need a lot of help in the cooking department. I'm starting to learn, but I still need a lot of instruction.

[Parrothead]

I own about 30. I use about half of them on a regular basis.

[Ria]

If either of you ever wants to give any away, I'd love to have them! I'd really like to learn more than my very basic repetorie of dishes, especially some good ethnic dishes. I'm a really good baker, but I need a lot of help in the cooking department. I'm starting to learn, but I still need a lot of instruction.

 

Get thee to the library, girl! :) That's how I "test drive" cookbooks before deciding to buy them.

 

Ria

[Tammyla]

I used to have a bunch, but downsized to my favorite five and a binder of recipes. Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, Fannie Farmer Cookbook, B&G, Whole Foods For the Whole Family, and Fix it and Forget it Lightly.

 

I do love checking them out from the library.

[sagira]

Many people I know have more cookbooks than I do. That said, I have around 20 and use 4 consistently. The others I use once in a while, but if I don't use something at all I like to get rid of it. I try to use as many as I can.

[Hoggirl]

278 cookbooks!!!! Do I win a prize or something? :D

 

I knew I had "a lot," but I had never counted them. :o:o:o

[Julie in CA]

278 cookbooks!!!! Do I win a prize or something? :D

 

I knew I had "a lot," but I had never counted them. :o:o:o

 

:D :lol: :001_huh: Wow, Cynthia! YES, you win!!

[Robin in Tx]

I'm a cookbook junkie, too! I collect them. I rarely use them, but I sure do collect them! LOL

[mcconnellboys]

It wouldn't let me vote twice. I use about 3, but I *have* about 20.....

[keptwoman]

 

I own about 30. I use about half of them on a regular basis.

Me too.

[Rosie_0801]

I believe there is a recipe collecting gene. Obviously I have no scientific studies to back that up, but I believe it nonetheless.

I'm fussy about what cookbooks I'll buy, but I've got a couple of dozen and use most of them with some regularity. There's a few that will get used when I'm no longer running around after toddlers, I hope. Making bagels just isn't high on my list of priorities at the moment...

:)

Rosie

[LaMere Academy]

I can't vote for both questions. You have to set it up for multiple responses.

 

Anyway I have more than 40 cookbooks and use about 10 or more on a fairly regular basis.

[Julie in CA]

I can't vote for both questions. You have to set it up for multiple responses.

 

 

 

Yep, I know. I clicked "submit" right before I remembered to check that box.:blush:

 

I edited my post, but there's no way to edit a poll, I guess. :confused:

[Plaid Dad]

We have 16 cookbooks but only use 5-7 of them regularly. My dw also gets a lot of recipes from Epicurious and other cooking sites.

[Amy loves Bud]

I have about 30. I did have many more but recently purged them. My sister used to be the food editor for her city's newspaper and got a ton of free cook books that she would pass along to me. Many of them were pretty "meh" and went out with the purge.

 

I love my Moosewood, New Basics, Fields of Greens, and Cooking with Texas Highways.

[Mamagistra]

Cooking with Texas Highways.

 

Mmm...Raccoon de la rue...armadillo pancakes...crunchy squirrel fritters!

 

:lol::lol:

[CAMom]

This is something odd about me...;)

 

I have a thing for cookbooks and cooking magazines. I love to flip through them. I love to read them!

 

But...I hate to cook so I don't use them. I just pull them off the shelf (I have even had cooking magazine subscriptions) and read them.:lol:

[Renthead Mommy]

I have 4 cookbooks. Joy of Cooking and the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook (the red and white one) are my "reference" cookbooks. How long, how many pounds, what temp type things more than anything else. I also have a cookie cookbook that has been around since before I was born but has always been used in my family.

 

However the book I use the most is the one I made. I had a bunch of books dumped at my house over the years by various people (my Mother! among others). By the time we were coming overseas I had already started a 3 ring binder cookbook of all the 'cook for a day eat for a month' type recipes I had gotten. When I realized how many cookbooks I had just taking up space for one or two pages out of the whole book, I started thining! I went page by page on them, marking them with post its. If there was only a page or two from the whole book, I'd copy the page and add it to the binder. If there were more, I'd rip the pages out. If a good portion of the book was marked, I'd keep the whole book (didn't happen!).

 

It made me realize I was holding on to books for 2, 3 and 4 recipes out of the entire thing! Now it's all together, in page protectors, divided into sections. As I find stuff (other people, allrecipes.com, mags.) I just add it to the section.

 

It's the one thing I feel like is completely orgainized in my life!

[KidsHappen]

I rarely cook. The one I do use ( The Betty Crocker red & white checked one) is mostly for baked goods. I do bake a lot. As in almost everyday. I need my carbs. :)

 

The other is used by my dh. It is a McCalls three volume jobber. Each recipe come with pictures and detailed instructions but they are not easy recipes. My hubby likes to cook and is very good at it. It is a good thing too otherwise I would live solely on baked goods. :tongue_smilie:

[LNC]

Ria and others with lots of well loved and used cookbooks! Do you have a generous grocery budget?

 

I'm in a cooking rut, and I think it's bc of the increased food prices. When I try to use my beloved cookbooks, I have an anxiety attack when I look at the ingredients list. We have been in a variety of bean dishes and soups, brown rice w/ salads rut bc I get the most nutritional bang for my buck with that... What to do??

[Amy loves Bud]

Mmm...Raccoon de la rue...armadillo pancakes...crunchy squirrel fritters!

 

:lol::lol:

 

Gittin' ready for the recession. ;)

[mellifera]

I voted I had more than 30 cookbooks. I use about 4 or 5 of these regularly. For a while my in-laws were getting me cookbooks because they knew I liked to collect them. I mostly like reading them.:)

[gardening momma]

I just counted...I have 36, approximately. This includes several small booklet-type recipe books, like the ones from Pampered Chef, and some that I had a mail subscription to.

 

I use 3-4 of my cookbooks. There are some that I have never used, I'm sure.

[gardening momma]

I love my Moosewood, New Basics, Fields of Greens, and Cooking with Texas Highways.

 

Mmm...Raccoon de la rue...armadillo pancakes...crunchy squirrel fritters!

I have one I picked up on vacation somewhere. It's called "Indian Cookin" (no apostrophe). It's American Indian recipes. Most of them would be OK to use. There's a couple I'd avoid, though.

 

Locust

Ground Hog

Opossum

Frogs

Racoon

Yellow Jacket Soup

Meat Skin Soup