How Many Cookbooks Do You Have/Had?

Have about 20 now. They are mostly Church supper ones as they have the best recipes. Have a box of clippings I should scan and keep on disks. I gave away about 30 Southern Living Annual Recipe books. Still use a lot of recipes but mostly know them by heart now.
I don't cook a lot now except for Holidays. We like to make homemade dressing and pick up sides, desserts etc from Lubys or other places. Patti LaBelle puts out a great buttermilk pie, sweet potato pie and banana pudding that we love.
 
I have about 10 books, most I bought from a charity shop. But I have a book with recipes that I started when I was very young. I would write up the recipes I liked, wrote about herbs, measurements and cooking times and also did some drawings of meat and other info that seemed relevant. Still have it although it's falling apart. 😟
 

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I'm down to about 10. During my giant book purge about 15 years ago I donated nearly all my books to the public library and Salvation Army.

It's probably time for another purge.
 
I used to have at least a dozen cookbooks, and Canadian Living magazines with recipes only. Donated almost all of them. I cook "off the cuff" and through memory. The only cookbooks I will keep are the Japanese ones, as flavouring has to be exact. Oh, I will keep my Mennonite cookbook forever, as it has quaint old remedies in it. It's fashioned like a small binder, and the covers are bound with red floral cloth.
 
I have whittled them down to about a hundred that I rarely open and two that I actually use.

I keep most of them because of sentimental or antique value. If someone comes along that shows any interest in them I will happily send them on their way but I can't bear to send them to the charity shops.

The two that I actually use are the paperback versions of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook and Laurel's Kitchen.

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Too many but like Starsong, I gave many away. My very first cookbook I purchased was by ‘good housekeeping’ where I found my first great gingerbread recipe. This book was perfect for creating classic items.
I think I bought it in 1981
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My all time favourite cookbook by far is by harrowsmith. It’s plain good old fashion cooking at its finest.
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Then of course there have been many phases I’ve been through . This being one of them
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My biggest collection though was due to being diagnosed with celiac disease in 1992. Back then there wasn’t anything worth purchasing and even if you could find it, the flavour left much to be desired so I learned how to make my own breads, pizzas, pancakes, muffins, cakes etc and became good enough to start a successful gf baking business which was so fun. Plus I became a full time chef for two opera singers.
 
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I had quite a few others in the past, but currently only have 6: one is from Truman Capote's aunt, one is desserts from a Southern restaurant, one called Southern Foodie, and three anniversary editions from Southern Living.
I also have a notebook to write down favorite recipes I've collected along the way.
 
I have scads. Dave used to bring me a local cookbook (like from a church group) whenever he went out of town, which was often. Finally I asked him to stop. A couple years ago I got rid of more than half of them. When Dave was working, he'd schmooze his customers with dinner at a famous restaurant and give them cookbooks signed by the celebrity chef. And take home one for himself. So we've got stacks of those. Plus, I've got all my recipes on the computer, and my favorites of those printed out in a two recipe boxes. Yikes!
 
I have to ask to those that have a stockpile of them what is your guess as to how many are there that you never tried one recipe? Confession time.
 
fmdog44 said:
I have to ask to those that have a stockpile of them what is your guess as to how many are there that you never tried one recipe? Confession time.
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I haven't made the specific recipes in about half of my cookbooks and only make one or two of the recipes in the remaining cookbooks once or twice a year.

I enjoy cookbooks that read like novels or autobiographies of the authors.

Here are a few of my favorites.

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fmdog44 said:
I had a couple for cooking outdoors. Most of the stuff I currently still have are old clippings from newspapers. Remember those?
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I have around five cookbooks, use them sometimes for reference but rarely follow a recipe step by step.
 
I have 7 and forgot I even had them until I saw this thread..so that's how much I use them. When I want steps on how to prepare something I google it but more often I make my own recipes up as I go.
 
I have two dozen or so. But that's not counting the five 3-ring binders full of recipes I've collected over the decades! The latter I'm trying to winnow down into something manageable ;)

I did pare the books down a couple of times, but the count is creeping up again, LOL. However, the libraries have put a stop to used book sales for the time being, so I can't donate them yet. But one of these days.......!

I always do hold onto a few that are "keepers" for me:
  • Time-Life Foods of Vienna - the BEST Rigo Jancsi recipe ever! But a pain in the b*** to make, LOL
  • Fannie Farmer: although I only use 2 recipes in it - crepes and the baked caramel custard. So funny how Gen X, Y, Z and Millennials are wowed by the baked custard. But if you think about it, there aren't any restaurants that make it any longer. FF's recipe makes the very delicate, tender French style custard. Out here (coastal CA) the stiffer, cheesecake-like flan is commonplace, so the 'younger generation' has almost never seen the kind of delicate custard that my mom used to make. It can't be unmolded, it's so fragile.
  • Best of Sunset magazine cookbook
  • Gourmet Chinese Regional Cookbook
  • The Other Half of the Egg: half the book has egg white-only recipes; the other half has egg-yolk only recipes!
I have a fair # of recipes written up on my desktop. They're recipes I've adapted to our liking, or simply invented.
 
I keep six cookbooks, several keepsakes and old from my grandparent, the others mostly current, love
to browse them, if even I don't cook or bake the recipes.
 
I just cleaned out a drawer in the kitchen that was full of my mom's old cookbooks, some date back to the 1930s. There are over 100 plus 24 issues of
Food and Family magazine by Kraft Foods and numerous clippings and recipe pamphlets. I advertised them on Marketplace, FB Online Garage sale and Craig's List. None over $5 and those are for the older and larger ones; most are in the $1 to $2 range. Not one nibble.

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I once belonged to a cookbook of the month club. One book I have is simply Steak and another one, Potatoes. Now I look for recipes with anti-inflamatory and memory enhancing foods that are also great tasting. There is a chicken salad with celery, walnuts and pineapple that fits the bill and is power packed. I need these to counteract some of the junk food I eat.
 

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