do you use your older cookbooks, or your more recent ones, more?

dawkins

Agh - I'm such a cookbook junkie! I, too, have had fits of giving them away to charity shops but always end up regretting it later.

I definitely agree with the division into categories: I have some beauties that sit upstairs on the bookshelf, all shiny pictures and no finger marks, others which I turn to for specifics - Indian food, Japanese, etc - and then my every day choices, which get to live permanently on one corner of the worktop and get covered in crumbs.

The ones that get the most day-to-day use in my house at the moment are the Moosewood Low Fat Favourites, Moosewood Daily Special (soups and salads), plus Bread Matters and Laurel's Kitchen baking book. I tend to go through fits and starts of taste and have books migrating up and downstairs as the mood takes me, but the first two definitely get the most use. They have veggie and fish recipes, which is what we eat, so they suit me perfectly. I also enjoy the lazy US measurements - I'm so used to scooping up cups of this and that now that when I have to actually weigh something I get quite peeved.

I have a copy of the Paupers Cookbook, inspired by my mum's copy which we basically ate our way through when I was a kid, but although I do some of the recipes, as I don't eat meat I don't use half of 'em. It did persuade me to try herring roe though - I just had to keep reminding myself of the adage about eating something 8 times to develop a taste for it, and how cheap it was.

I use a lot of online recipes nowadays too - the waitrose site has some corkers - but always need to remember to wipe the butter/eggs/potato peelings etc off of my bf's laptop before I return it to the front room. You won't tell, will you.

thriftlady_2

dawkins wrote: »

It did persuade me to try herring roe though - I just had to keep reminding myself of the adage about eating something 8 times to develop a taste for it, and how cheap it was.

Ooh I love that recipe! with garlic, butter and peas, served with triangles of toast. Yum -kids hated it though:rolleyes:

ragz_2

My best friend bought me the new versions of Mrs Beeton's cookbooks for xmas last year and I love them, but my favourite is a really old cookbook I found in a charity shop, no idea what's called as the cover has since fallen off but I find new cook books annoying. Too many ingredients and too much fuss. Also they often tell you the calorie content of dishes, which I could do without knowing!

dawkins

thriftlady wrote: »

Ooh I love that recipe! with garlic, butter and peas, served with triangles of toast. Yum -kids hated it though:rolleyes:

I loved the taste of it - it was just something about the texture... Like I said, I think I just need to make and eat it a few more times: keep checking the fish counter in Waitrose for more of the stuff.