Comments on: Culling Down Cookbooks

By: jan in nagasaki

jan in nagasaki — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:58:00 +0000

hi eric… I heard about you over at super eggplant….

I am a vegetarian , but I also collect cookbooks that tell a story.. of a country or a family… the unfortunate purchases that turn out to be “fake meat” vegetarian cook books and the books with “instant” ingredients I can’t buy in Japan got tossed out recently.

I am most interested in books that work with simple ingredients that I can buy locally and use ingredients that are all in season at the same time.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:18:00 +0000

Deborah Madison agrees! Here’s what she wrote (for some reason it didn’t post when she tried):

“I have exactly the same problem—rigid shelves, an ever growing (though evermore slowly) collection of cookbooks. Since I’m not going to build a new room or a new house, this is what I do. I keep about a dozen books in the kitchen that I find I’m using more than others, then I keep a few hundred more books in my office as reference.

But those I don’t refer to all that often but still want to keep migrate to an outside storage unit. Those that I really don’t think I’ll ever use often enough to warrant the space I donate to my local library or the college cooking school.

This fluid system works pretty well for me – leaving plenty of room for my ceramics -except that occasionally I can’t find a book I want!”

Thank you Deborah, you are the maestra!

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:22:00 +0000

I’m totally with you on the Chez Panisse books. It’s always–surprise!–garlic, olive oil, and salt-packed anchovies! Maybe a lemon. I made a tart dough from one of them recently and it was so poorly written that I actually had to THROW AWAY what I had made, which made me want to THROW AWAY the damn book.

By: Karena

Karena — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:14:00 +0000

Two years ago, I culled over 50 cookbooks from my collection and sold them to a local bookstore. Most were gifts from well-meaning (but kitchen-challenged) friends who would buy me a cookbook based on its pretty pictures. I find that the cookbooks I use most often are written by the same small group of people: James Peterson for technique, Deborah Madison for produce, and the “Saveur Cooks…” series for American, French, and Italian classics. I have a love-hate relationship with the Chez Panisse series. On the one hand, they’re beautifully illustrated and read like essays. On the other hand, I can almost predict that the recipe will contain olive oil, garlic, and salt-packed anchovies, and I need more inspiration than that Provencal trio.

By: Ehrrin

Ehrrin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:46:00 +0000

I love cook books, and cooking magazines, and cooking websites, and cooking blogs…

I have started checking them out of the library, though, so I’m not completely overrun, and I do use the web a lot. But, when I have a lazy afternoon, my favorite thing is to page through cook books, and find a recipe I’ve never tried.

But, also, I’m a bit of a hoarder (who really longs to be a minimalist!), anyhow.

By: Ed Ward

Ed Ward — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Strongly disagree. I either browse (“I need a new Italian recipe”) or search for inspiration in the index (“Okay, I’ve got some nice broccoli…”). That said, there are some I almost never even pick up, and I suspect a cull in my future, too.

By: Maggie K

Maggie K — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:44:00 +0000

cookbooks feel like relics to me. I have the web for inspiration when i feel restless and dont know what to cook. Actual cookbooks feel like they’re not very practical for searching or browsing. They are now relegated to that “beautiful but mostly useless” category of household items.