This morning I read Jabblog's post about about cookery books and the collection or otherwise thereof.
I was married to a lady who was a superb cook and hostess (and mother for that matter). After we were married my wife announced that she would do the cooking and the ironing and I would do the housework. I asked if that was negotiable and the reply was in the negative. Having said that I can't say that I did all the housework all the time. However, I was not allowed into the kitchen to cook.
So when we separated I had to rely on what knowledge I had gathered and cookery books. I was fortunate in that my Mother believed in her children being taught all the elementary aspects of running a house including cooking. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and a dinner party for 12 (the maximum my table can take) held no fear whatsoever and as people kept accepting invitations I assume that they were reasonably happy with the results.
As for cookery books, like any other subject in which I became engrossed, I collected many. Very many. Far too many. Indeed a few years ago I had a massive cull of my bookshelves and, despite a few recent purchases including "Bosh" I only have 21 now (just counted!). Having said that most of the time when I want to try something new now I search the internet for ideas and rely on my books for old favourites. In addition I have a folder with favourite recipes and tips in it and I also keep quite a lot of recipes on my computer.
The Hamlyn Books were my originals and I still refer to them. By far the most important at one time when I was doing a lot of dinner parties was "50 Great Curries of India". I learned a lot about curries but they can take days to make and I rarely make them from scratch now. I've kept the book though because my late son gave it to me because, I think, he was friendly with the author's son.
Whilst writing this post I thought I'd see just how popular cookery books are these days. The answer according to Google is that a great many are written and published. and bought - many probably as presents. Many end up in Charity Shops and apparently some are used.
I read all your cookbooks on that shelf, and I think the one titled "Good and Easy Cookbook" is the one that I would like the most! Oh, and "Classic Mary Berry", I just love her! If I got all my cookbooks together in one spot, I should take a photo too! My most used one is "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook". It just simply tells you how to cook with lots of good but easy recipes. It just occurred to me recently when I cracked an egg, I have been doing that since I was 6 years old. So, I know how to crack an egg!
ReplyDeleteHello Kay. Enjoying your Sunday I hope. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook sounds intriguing and I'm wondering quite what a 'Fannie Farmer' is. Ah. Is that her name: Fannie Farmer? How silly I am.
DeleteI like the cheese situated next to the wine - most appropriate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice. Obviously a subconscious marrying of two of my loves.
DeleteIt always makes me chuckle to see "my" books in someone else's collection.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure, Jayne, that most of my books were fairly popular in the day when I used them most and Mary Berry always has good recipes.
DeleteYou have a nice collection there.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1970s, recipe files were a must have by the women I knew. I still have a recipe card given to me for lemon something. My file is long gone. Cookbooks, I have 3. Two of them, food stained and sticky (memories there) have been in use since I was a teenager. Others, I gave away or donated. It has been years since I used a cookbook.
Thanks, Maywyn. I don't do very much dinner entertaining these days but I do havew a lot of visitors so it's always good to be able to find ideas when my brain seizes up.
DeleteI have a Betty Crocker cookbook from my Home economics class that I took in College. I don't have too many cookbooks but I do have an old recipe box with lots of old recipe cards that I still use. I often just look online nowadays if I am wondering what to make. But I do have some old favorites and the pages or cards are nicely stained to show they are well-used!
ReplyDeleteEllen, I've actually heard of Betty Crocker although I'm not sure that her books are available here in the UK. I like the staining on your cards. I've got a few of my worksheets that have indications of the ingredients on them.
DeleteI have some old cookbooks, but really, I do most of my recipe searches on line. The only problem is if you find one you really like, it might be a bit of a struggle to locate the exact one you used. I like to experiment, but Tim really is just happiest if I stick mainly to the tried and true.
ReplyDeleteDebby, tried and tested becomes more the way the older one gets I find. I've discovered that having a lot of visitors this year has brought out the books again.
DeleteWe have at least three we use semi regularly. Two are of many in the series Australian Women's Weekly Cookery Books and one which belonged to my grandmother, Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union cookbook. They are used to make chow mein, Christmas and boiled fruit cakes, scones and maybe a couple of recipes I've forgotten about. In other words, very basic things.
ReplyDeleteYes, Andrew, I still have a three of the 'Australian Women's Weekly' Cookery Books: Deserts, sweet old-fashioned favourites and, surprisingly, Step by Step Japanese Cooking. Thank you for reminding me. I've just got them out and shall do some Japanese cooking for a change.
DeleteIt's not so much the cook books but the cooking that gets done. You've had much satisfaction from your cooking.
ReplyDeleteI have, indeed, Red.
DeleteI used to buy cook books and, more often, magazines full of recipes. I still love the gorgeous photography and the time spent dreaming but I know myself well enough to know I don't take cookbooks seriously. I cook from memory or sometimes google to find a new recipe.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it says something about the books I bought but when I was culling cook books I was stunned at how out of date they can become. Food shouldn't date, right?
Kylie, I've never thought about food dating but I think that fashions change and what is available to buy changes. There are ingredients in our shops today that were unimaginable when I was young because the ingredients are grown on the other side of the world and, thanks refrigeration and billions of airmiles, make there way onto our supermarket shelves almost fresh.
DeleteBoth my wife and I like to cook and our output is pretty decent and varied, with a good deal of Asian food included in the mix. As for cookbooks we have two shelves of them and only recently have started to refer to them more frequently. For too long we relied on the internet. It’s actually a good feeling to flip through the pages and to judge from the spattered pages what we cooked before. Old favourites are becoming new again. As for housework in general, we split the chores, but if I am honest, she does more than I do.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I wholeheartedly agree that there is something satisfying about flipping through the pages perhaps to discover long lost treats.
DeleteMy favourites are the Rick Stein books. Not only are they good for the actual recipes, but they are great travel books too. I have most of them, and read them regularly.
ReplyDeleteCro, thanks for reminding me. I have a couple of old Rick Stein books in the loft. I never recall using them for recipes but they were great just to wander through.
DeleteI recently picked up Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking for 50p at a church sale and it is a reading book with recipes rather than a recipe book. The recipes are written as short essays and not as recipes. I wrote about it at the time on my blog. It was a great find. My other favourite to read is Keith Floyd's Floyd on France. I have Marguerite Patten's book on basic cookery for looking up things and my Mother's Mrs Beeton along with Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course which my mother gave me. I also have a Czech and Slovak cookery book because the food is quite similar to English cooking and I have followed recipes in it.
ReplyDeleteRachel, a friend who is a Francophile and with whom I spent a lot of time in France gave me a copy of Floyd on France but I treat it as a book to be read rather that used. Having said that it's in the loft so not being read. Your other books look interesting.
DeleteJust passing....
ReplyDelete"I learned a lot about curries but they can take days to make and I rarely make them from scratch now".
No! No! No!
I have a curry pot...it's quite old, it's the curry pot used solely for myself...
I top it up from time to time, with left over chicken, pork, beef...etc..etc...
Not forgetting chopped onion...a few spices, making it likable to my taste..HOT..!
Once you've made the basic sauce...the Masala...onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic
and spices...
Add the meat...Cook slowly for at least an hour...any additions of meat in the
future...can be heated through for half an hour...Job done...! Enjoy..! :O).
PS. Here's a Blog l've followed for quite a few years now.....
DeleteYou may find it interesting....Julie from New Zealand....
https://mythreadbearlife.blogspot.com/
Willie, I know that some cultures (and this was the case in parts of the UK in days gone by) have a potof curry or stew ar whatever which 'lives' for a long long time.None of my curries have been like that.
DeleteOoh, GB... one thing I love more than cooking is reading cookbooks (I inherited that from my mother). As a matter of fact, she and I have a standing date with Julia Child's original cookbook - I bought us each a copy of it, I mailed my mom hers (she lives, as you know, several states away from me) and we have "phone dates" where we both open her cookbook to the next recipe, and we read it to each other (we take turns), and then we discuss our opinions of the recipe, and what we think we might do differently, or what would go well with it... it's a wonderful mother/daughter long distance visit!
ReplyDeleteI also have a rather alarming collection of cookbooks, but what I use most of all is an old manila folder chock-full of hand-written recipes by myself, my mother, and various and sundry people who were kind enough to scribble down the recipe for something they made that I adored.
People like cookbooks so much that they are becoming increasingly "readable", full of anecdotes and history and information aside from the actual food items... especially when they are tied to a movie or television series, as the "Downton Abbey Cocktails" book and cookbooks are. I believe there are also "Outlander" cookbooks, with Scottish nibbles, and such, as well as "Game of Thrones" - of course many of the cookbooks published under that aegis are often trying to cash in on the name, and sometimes mileage may vary as to the actual quality of the recipes, or their origin... I suppose one is fairly safe when writing a cookbook for Game of Thrones, since it's a fictitious world entirely. Can't be wrong, eh?
Great post, GB! Very thought provoking!
Good heavens, Marcheline, I had no idea that there were cookbooks generated from film and so on series. My cook books are mostly either well knows specialist publishers or celebrity chef led publications.
DeletePS: Do drop by my blog, I am updating on the DIY Bathroom Renovation project, which I know everyone is absolutely riveted by (cough)... as proven by my comments section (crickets) - HA!
ReplyDeletePopped over.
DeleteThe problem I have with most cookery books, is that I enjoy looking through them but usually try just a few of the recipes they contain. Most of my favourite recipes have been found online or are taken from magazines.
ReplyDeleteI had a thorough clear out a few years ago now, and I haven't regretted it. X
Jules, I certainly haven't regretted my clearout....except for a book of soup recipes which might well have given me some new soup ideas. Back in those days I didn't have soup every day for lunch.
DeleteMy favourite, and a keeper, is the Good Housekeeping's Cookery Book. It was a 21st birthday gift from Auntie Ethel in 1968. It still has the little gift card in it marking the best Choc-Au-Rhum recipe which has no cooking required. Lesley
ReplyDeleteLesley, I remember the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. I'm not sure where mine came from. Possibly a gift but more likely a charity shop. There are a lot of them still circulating today.
DeleteYou have 21 more cookery books than me. My wife has about 1,000 more.
ReplyDeleteTasker, it's 9.35pm and that's the best smile I've had all day!
DeleteI don't dare add up how many cook books are sitting on my shelves - plus I also have recipes in a folder and on the computer. My husband and I used to enjoy just reading through cookbooks, and occasionally making something different. Most of the time these days I stick to my old tried and true recipes!
ReplyDeleteMargaret, looking back I'd have rather enjoyed having that opportunity to be involved in the family cooking decisions.
DeletePerhaps showing my age, my go-to cook books are Delia Smith's set of three tied to her BBC TV cookery series from many years ago now. I too have that Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook - a parental gift on leaving home to go to Uni.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting, Will. I had the first of the series but I see that it was one of the casualties. As was the original Delia Smith cook book I had. I still make all my Christmas Cakes using the recipe from that book.
DeleteI'd love to still have my mother's old Edmonds cookbook from the 1970s but not sure where it's disappeared to, it was one of the best. But I did teach both my boys to know how to cook basic dinners and now one of them is a great cook.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear your mother's Edmonds has disappeared. Good to hear that you taught your boys how to cook. I think that's very important especially in these days of easy fast food which isn't always very nutritious.
DeleteHello Graham, your post reminded me of one I did about my own cook books years ago:
ReplyDeletehttps://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.com/2015/06/about-cooking-and-cook-books.html
And guess what - that one was inspired by you, too!
Not much has changed for me since then; I have been given two more cook bookds as presents (one is called The North Yorkshire Cook Book of Second Helpings), and I definitely cook more than I used to back then, now that O.K. and I spend almost weekend together.
As for your collection of books, I was going to say the same as Kay: Good and Easy would be my choice.
Oh, Meike! I had completely forgotten about my 2015 post here. Looking at some of the books I had then (and I had a lot more when I did the cull) I'm a bit sad I let some of them go.
DeleteGraham, I did a cull eleven years ago when I moved from California to New Mexico and I'm forever sorry I let some of my books go, among those are some old cook books (we call them cook books here, not cookery books!).
ReplyDeleteJill, I try very hard not to be sorry about things I've done but it can be hard when things with emotional connection are involved.
DeleteI agree that it is best not to dwell on past mistakes and certainly healthier not to keep revisiting them. PS...sometimes hard to do!
DeleteJill, I agree with your PS!
DeleteI have never collected cookery book, but even then I parted with about half of them when I moved into this little unit. I notice there are only two I use but I have a folder of old favourite recipes and use Aunty Google a lot.
ReplyDeleteDarn, I'm half asleep again.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both, Pauline! I'm wondering if I'll ever be fully awake again!
DeleteI have two or three favourite "basic" old cookery books that I keep returning to. The oldest of them is the one my mum gave me when I moved away from home (1975). The newest is from 2000 and includes microwave alternatives for some dishes. I've long since given up even reading recipes in magazines etc, because they always seem to include ingredients I never even heard of (and certainly not found in my own cupboards)...
ReplyDeleteMonica, I think that when I'm on my own I neither need nor use cookery books but I do still use them when I cook for other people.
DeleteWe also have far too many cookbooks and as soon as I get rid of one another one takes its place. I try to rely on internet searches less because there are SO many untried recipes in our books. However, when in a hurry and with a specific list of ingredients it is far easier to put these into a search line and see what comes up. I checked out all of your cookery book titles, Graham, and surprisingly none are in our collection, which is not surprising given where we each live. here in the US, Betty Crocker is a favorite cookbook and I still have my very first one.
ReplyDelete