Managing My Cookbook Collection: Tips and Tricks

[Meowmie]

I love cookbooks. I have always picked them up wherever I travel. Unique cookbooks, Church and community cookbooks, as well as the latest best sellers.

I read them like books, and except for things like cakes where proportions need to be exact I rarely use them except as inspiration. I now have over 400 cookbooks and booklets. I'm trying to go through them, one by one, and decide which ones to get rid of, but it's hard.

When I do need a recipe it's a chore to find which recipe I want to use and from what cookbook. I'm tempted to just throw most of them out, they don't even sell at yard sales, everyone uses the internet.

Has anyone else faced this problem, and do you have a solution, some way of maybe indexing all the good recipes so I know what book to even look in? The task seems daunting and I'm not sure where to start. If possible I'd really like to keep most of the cookbooks I just need to make them more usable.

 

[Sabiya]

Ahhhh I thought I was the only one! Hello fellow cookbook hoarder! I think I have it worse than you, I buy cookbooks for foreign recipes (French cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Middle Eastern cuisine, etc.) but I don't even use them except to read. I've had these cookbooks for over 2 years and have yet to use a single recipe! I'm so embarrassed.

 

[ACSAPA]

I used to have way too many cookbooks until I discovered Pinterest. Now I just digitally hoard recipes online instead of collecting physical cookbooks.

 

[Meowmie]

Not trying to one up you, Sabiya, but I also have cookbooks of other cuisines, and I've had them for over 30 years. I used one recipe, for beirocks, from one cookbook, and have used quite a few of the recipes from the Chinese cookbook, but other than that they just sit there. I might browse through them for an idea but have never made the actual recipes. I'm glad I'm not alone!

I do have to say that I have not bought a single cookbook in the last 5 years or so, EXCEPT the collection of "Good Eats" by Alton Brown, but those are not ordinary cookbooks by any means.

 

[Teddy]

I love cookbooks. I have always picked them up wherever I travel. Unique cookbooks, Church and community cookbooks, as well as the latest best sellers.

I read them like books, and except for things like cakes where proportions need to be exact I rarely use them except as inspiration. I now have over 400 cookbooks and booklets. I'm trying to go through them, one by one, and decide which ones to get rid of, but it's hard.

When I do need a recipe it's a chore to find which recipe I want to use and from what cookbook. I'm tempted to just throw most of them out, they don't even sell at yard sales, everyone uses the internet.

Has anyone else faced this problem, and do you have a solution, some way of maybe indexing all the good recipes so I know what book to even look in? The task seems daunting and I'm not sure where to start. If possible I'd really like to keep most of the cookbooks I just need to make them more usable.

I love cookbooks. I have always picked them up wherever I travel. Unique cookbooks, Church and community cookbooks, as well as the latest best sellers.

I read them like books, and except for things like cakes where proportions need to be exact I rarely use them except as inspiration. I now have over 400 cookbooks and booklets. I'm trying to go through them, one by one, and decide which ones to get rid of, but it's hard.

When I do need a recipe it's a chore to find which recipe I want to use and from what cookbook. I'm tempted to just throw most of them out, they don't even sell at yard sales, everyone uses the internet.

Has anyone else faced this problem, and do you have a solution, some way of maybe indexing all the good recipes so I know what book to even look in? The task seems daunting and I'm not sure where to start. If possible I'd really like to keep most of the cookbooks I just need to make them more usable.

I have lots of cook books also,but when I find a recipe I use I copy it and put itin a plastic sleeve,date it and note what book I got it from. Then I put it in a 3ring biner.

 

[tangela]

I really do love cookbooks (cause I like flipping through the pages and reading them) but with tablets and phones and computers nowadays I find it really hard to keep physical cookbooks around. 99% of my recipes comes from pinterest and I can always find a link back to the actual recipe, so the need for me to use recipe books has become less and less. Though I have to say, flipping and reading through the recipe books in bookstores is a ton of fun

I would only ever buy physical cookbooks if I was traveling and it was like a specialized local cookbook or something, you know? Otherwise I would REALLY REALLY have to like all of the recipes in the book if I wanted to get a cookbook.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

When I was still single I used to invest already buying cooking books and baking books every month from my salary. It is because that I really have that fashion for cooking and baking. I had many of them be it in the form of books, magazines or even free pamphlets give away I don't hesitate getting it for myself. Now that I am married already I am already benefiting from what I had invested before. Even we already had what we called the digital cookbooks that we can google and search in the internet I still preferred using my old and new cookbooks at home.

 

[Trellum]

I have a lot cooking magazines (special editions I plan to take them across the Atlantic to my new home Just because they hold sentimental importance, and also because the recipes there can't be found anywhere else online. It's mostly desserts!

 

[Winterybella]

I don't think I could say I have a lot of cookbooks. I have some but I would hardly say a lot. In this age of technology, I find I am quick to run to net for recipes so my interest in cookbooks has waned.

 

[CherylTorrie]

Hi Meowmie, I too am a cookbook hoarder. Do you think there is a support group we should join? I have moved my cookbook collection at least 10 times since I was 18 years old and went to college in Florida. They have been in at least 6 different states and been the burden of movers through out the country. I love my cookbooks and like you I hardly ever use them for anything but inspiration. But they hold memories, they have notes, they are worn at the edges and they wouldn't sell for $1.00 at a garage sale. I have actually started giving mine away to my son and daughter in law and my nieces and nephews. They are the only ones that I trust to understand how special they are. You may want to think of those close to you and start passing them on. It's truly the only way that doesn't make you sad....