So, Bob(rjk) had a thing for cookbooks. He intended to run an etsy store for them, but only sold a few of them.
I sold a bunch of them at a garage sale (someone bought all I had there - all 24 boxes!)
I’ve got about three shelves worth at home.
I was thinking of offering them here, because I won’t get any money for them from 1/2 Price and hey, there are people here who like to cook! They wouldn’t be completely free, but I’d only ask for shipping. And if you’re in DFW, I’ll deliver them for free.
If there’s interest, I’ll compile a list of books, but otherwise I’ll just ship them to 1/2 price with the rest of the books I don’t want anymore.
Church books and other old cookbooks (say, pre-1970) can be weird. Fascinating from the sociological viewpoint, but often calling for canned soup.
In the Strand Bookshop today I picked up an obscure 1968 hardcover volume called The Food of America, chapterized as “New England cooking; Tidewater (mid-Atlantic coast) cooking; Creole cooking; Italian cooking; Jewish cooking; Oriental (!) cooking,” etc. Charming line drawings. Only seven bucks. Lots of canned soup in the recipes. I put it back.
But if you’re sending out lists, include me in. I collect cookbooks.
I’d be interested if we had any room for new cookbooks. My aunt collected them and we got them when she died, and I give my wife one from Half Price Books for all major holidays.
I agree, because I happen to take the damn things to bed at night and read ‘em like sensational novels.
From a practical standpoint, eh. I laid some wisdom on Little Banjo a few months ago (he’s 23 now, and has become a pretty good cook for his age)…”My boy, there is no reason you need to own even one cookbook.”
Yesterday I took out some beef flanken, which had been on sale at Whole Foods, and which I had never before prepared (I’ve done normal Goyish short ribs, English-cut, but not the cross-cut version). I hauled out my Jewish cookbooks…Arthur Schwartz, Joan Nathan, Mimi Sheraton, etc…and found absolutely ZERO ideas for flanken. After five minutes on the web a had a perfect recipe for braised Jewish flanken. And it was delicious over spaezel.
Like so many things these days, cookbooks are a special pleasure for old people.
Is that by any chance part of ‘The Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery’? My mother had all the volumes back in the 70’s. I’ve bought one or two from thrift stores just for nostalgic reasons.
The web is great when you have a bunch of ingredients and are trying to find out what to do with them. But we prepare our menus for the week before we go shopping, and looking through cookbooks gives us ideas for things we’d never think to look at. We have a cookbook including recipes from countries along the Danube, and it has a style of cooking I’d never have considered.
Kind of like books. Amazon is great when you more or less know what you want. A library or bookstore is great for finding things you had no idea you wanted.
All Along the Danube!. I have it, too! Recipes specific to Bavaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and a few I missed along the way. And a lot of information on how each cuisine influenced the others.
The Ukulele Lady uses The NY Times cooking app like a huge cookbook. She hasn’t suggested a new dinner idea from anywhere else for months.
Thanks, y’all, for showing interest! I am working right now to compile a list of the books with categorization like:
Community cookbooks (church communities and otherwise)
Regional foods
Ingredient themed cookbooks (I have one cookbook just for blackberries! And at least two for garlic…)
Celebrity cookbooks (not many of them)
Cookbooks for a particular piece of cookware!
When I get the list done, I’ll post it to a new thread
