Cook book buying addiction?!

Nodette

Oh my! I just love cookbooks and particularly enjoy the old ones from, say, 1930s or so. Boot sales and charity shops are my downfall. I've never counted my cookery books before, so I decided to do that just now.

Bearing in mind that I recently culled my cookery books....I find I have 190 cookbooks (not counting recipe books that come with appliances) PLUS I have a set of 'look 'n' cook' magazines in special binders (3 binders), 4 binders full of 'country kitchen' magazines, a couple of magazine files full of Good Food magazines and two box files full of pages pulled out of other magazines.....and I'm also collecting on the computer a vast array of cheap recipes from MSE!! Yikes!

I do actually use quite a number of them, except when I'm in a panic - because then I haven't a clue which book to look in, so I go on the internet.

If DH ever asked me to cook at least one item from each book (which, thankfully, he hasn't) I would try to find out which recipes turned up in several and cook that!!

Gosh, now I see how many books I have I feel a bit guilty having leftover sausage casserole tonight...

lally666young

I tend to adapt the recipies for flavour, and for picky and dietary needs. But I love my books, that 70s one I got today made me howl. Nice clothes man!! But no I am a sucker for them. I do put the brakes on at about £6. As anymore I wont use them.

culpepper

My late MIL had loads, we have inherited a fair few but there were so many that we gave an awful lot to charity shops.
If I am looking at one in a Charity shop, I leaf through it and see how many recipes I would realistically use and if it is less than 5 or if all the ingredients are 'special', I put it back on the shelf.

Taadaa

Ive stopped buying them because there are so many free recipes on the internet these days. I've copied my fav recipes into a handwritten book and sold some of them on amazon.

madvixen

I'm not addicted to the physical ones as much as the internet based ones. I spent 3hrs one night last week copying Italian recipes off the internet. I have them all saved on my laptop and organised into cakes, beef, pate etc

I do however have all of my Dad's old cookbooks which takes two cupboards in the kitchen!

morganlefay

There was a thread on here a while back and several of us counted our books and I can say that you aren't alone OP and there are a LOT of us who have MANY cookbooks and love them. I have some I just read in bed, but others I cook maybe just one recipe out of. So now I have a cunning plan: I am going to go through them (could take years) type out the recipes I actually use and eventually give away/sell the books when I've sucked all the goodness out of them - as it were. Of course that wouldn't apply to my 'reading in bed' ones. I wonder when I'll begin this exercise ?

ladylouise62

I counted last year and came to 108. Unfortunately I found another cache My thoughts are that if I bought a monthly magazine I would be stumping up 4 quid, and I'd be throwing it away, so spending the same (or less) on a book that I can read again and again isn't so bad.

....I am hoping to cull the collection though, or I won't have enough room to do any cooking!!!!

jeanniebeanie_2

Another addict here!:wave: I wish I had the discipline to copy out the best recipes and get rid of some, but I love the pictures- in fact I never buy cookbooks without glorious pics. I have no intention of counting them- I would feel too bad!

I blame DH. He is addicted to charity shop book shopping, so I end up browsing the cookbooks while I wait for him and inevitably leave with one (some).

I do occasionally re-cycle some back to CSs and have given a few to family, but on the odd occasion I have an evening home alone then I love a cup of coffee (glass wine), feet up, pjs on and surrounding myself with my cookbooks.

Oh dear, I really should get out more!

rosie383

I know some of you are saying that you couldn't cull your books, but the ones I get rid of are literally ones that I have picked up at car boots and are full of recipes that I just wouldn't do. I have some which have followed me around through many, many house moves over the years, are falling to bits, but I refer to at least every few weeks. My Good Housekeeping cookbook, that a friend bought me when I was setting out from home for the first time by myself about 25 yrs ago, is my favourite.

lostinrates

Me too. I do not know how many i have, as have never had them all out of storage at the same time, they are mainly now in boxes around the house atm, till we have some bookshelves in the wreck.....maybe, maybe we will get some in time for winter? A couple of hundred i guess. I have about half a dozen books on fondue cooking alone! I have a heap of a dozen or so ontop of our defunt boiler and a couple of piles of them in the bedroom, and they are also stacked all aroud the skirting on the landing.....and boxes and boxes full begging to be unpacked and read and loved!

I love physical books, though might look up recipes on the internet too. I like to read how different cooks and chefs approach the same or similar recipes before choosing my way. I also spend a lot of the time on a quite restricted diet. 'reading' a meal works to satiate my appetite as i imagine the flavours and textures. I know for some it works The other way and reading makes them hungrier.

I find books rather than internet recipes, better for introduction to a new cuisine, or a new way of eating or cooking..so for a culture whose food i want to learn more about, or for dietary lifestyles.

I do not cull. I have some books i have picked up years ago and only am using mow, i have others which i do not cook from but love to read.

I particularly love community cook books that are submitted by i suppose the community OS women, some real food, some shortcuts, often regional specialities how their real mamma made them. There are some particular american ones i would love but cannot trace for myself .