What cookbooks would you 'save' ?

Steel_2

Wow! Swan and Thrifylady - where do you store them all????

I got rid of about 75% of my cookbooks recently when I realised I just didn't look in them or really read them from one year to the next.

The ones I have left:

HFW's River Cottage Cook Book
Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros
Reader's Digest Farmhouse Cookery
Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
One Pot Italian by Massimo Capra
Nigella's Domestic Goddess
Nigella's Feast
Green and Black's Chocolate book
Antonio Carluccio's Italia
Good Housekeeping Cookery Book (50th Anniversary)
The Country House Cookbook by Christian Hesketh et al
The Bread Machine Book by Marje Lambert

The two in red are the ones I consistently reach for though, which makes me think I should do some more thinning.

Plus I'm building my collection of those little pamphlet cookbook's you find in various holiday resorts in the racks like Favourite Cornish recipes, Favourite Somerset Recipes etc.

I flicked through Jocasta Innes 2003 pauper's book in the library the other day and didn't find the recipes very pauper-ish. There were tons of meat recipes which were beyond my budget. I found Delia's Frugal Foods better.

Edited to add: Nearly forgot! How to feed your family for £5 a day by the wonderful Bernadine Lawrence. I have notes in every margin. Never part with my copy.

freyasmum

vikingkev wrote: »

PS we both work in Catering so we think that 60 is quite a small number to have for a combined 35 years experiance !!

I'd be inclined to agree, seeing as I've managed to amass over 100 by myself... and I don't have 35 years experience

thriftlady_2

Though you might like a look at my cookbook collection

Gigervamp

thriftlady wrote: »

Though you might like a look at my cookbook collection

Thriftlady, when did you sneak into my house and photograph my cook book collection? :rotfl:

You even have the same copy of the Good Housekeeping book that I have. It was my mum and dad's and although I love all my books, if there was a fire, I'd have to save that one as it holds a lot of memories for me.

thriftlady_2

Gigervamp wrote: »

You even have the same copy of the Good Housekeeping book that I have. It was my mum and dad's and although I love all my books, if there was a fire, I'd have to save that one as it holds a lot of memories for me.

That particular GHK book was a lucky Oxfam find, but my mum has a copy given her on her 21st birthday. I used to spend hours looking at the cake pictures when I was little. Her copy is really battered now.

bellaquidsin

I did have a massive 'cull' of cookery books a few years ago when my kitchen was revamped but I kept a lot more than 10 and have a cupboard full.

All this thread has done for me is to make me want MORE cookbooks. The must have of the moment is the HFW book with the hen on the front. My New Year's Resolution will be to trawl the charity shops for it. I got Delia's Complete Cookery Course this way. They said it couldn't be done. Took time but I did it.

I still have my tried and tested favourite recipes though and most of them are in my head along with my adaptations of 41 years of cooking.

I think I could whittle my collection down to 10 if I really had too, but then, why get red of old friends?

Bella.

Gigervamp

thriftlady wrote: »

That particular GHK book was a lucky Oxfam find, but my mum has a copy given her on her 21st birthday. I used to spend hours looking at the cake pictures when I was little. Her copy is really battered now.

Those colour cake pictures are very vibrant!

seraphina

Can't believe no-one's mentioned (well, I don't think they have!) the Woman's Weekly series - the Australian version. They have some great little books - I swear by their "Cheesecakes, Pavlovas and Trifles" one!

Got more than I can count and I've cooked at least one recipe from each of them (that's the criteria for them to remain in the house!) but I would keep my Nigella, Jamie and Delias before all else, then my Leith's Guides.

lilian1977

I have all the Jamie books (bar Cook With Jamie as I thought it was a bit basic but now I yearn for it and hope to get it for Xmas!) and I would never part with any of them as they're like food !!!!!! to me However I rarely actually use them, the only one I really use is Jamie's Italy which is the epitome of food !!!!!!!

I've got a great Tapas book from The Works that I use quite a lot, otherwise I just use the BBC Good Food website.

BexInLondon

I've started trying to collate all the recipes I use often, be they cut-outs from magazines, waitrose cooking cards, laborious copying from books or my own concotions. I'm keeping it all in an A4 writing book and jotting down little notes like when I first tried something, and who I fed it to, along with any amendments to recipes. In my imaginings this book will be something my grandchildren will fight over when I die I don't have any kids yet and the book is only an eighth full so a bit of work to do on both fronts before getting to that point!