10 April 2007

Kept cookbooks vs. virtuous cookbooks

It is with joy that I announce the results of an independent, sloppy-as-unset yogurt, but nevertheless done-as-I'm-going-to-do-it survey of cookbooks that are kept and loved vs. cookbooks that sit as piles in used bookstores.

Excluding books that are outdated almost as soon as they come out such as guides to wines, here is a list that I've compiled without fear or favour, from a used book emporium in Sydney. The list is not of all the books, as there is a mountain of them, but this shows the flavour of the musty piles.

New Guide to Intelligent Reducing
The Miracle of Fasting
The Bristol Diet
The Magic of Tofu
The Super Soya Cookbook
Entertaining on a Budget
The Interior Ecology Cookbook
Natural Fibre Cookbook
Recipes for a Small Planet
Desserts to Lower Your Fat Thermostat
Fiber & Bran Better Health Cookbook
Nutrition for Life





As for the kept cookbooks, what do YOU keep?
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10 April 2007 at 23:02

    I have too many cookbooks to list--and I work through a half dozen regularly. But if I had to chose one, hands down it would be Rombauer and Becker's Joy of Cooking, 1964 edition, which I still consult on a regular basis.

    Alice

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  2. Blue Tyson27 April 2007 at 17:20

    When I was in the USA, my mum and dad sent me Cookery : The Australian Way, which in an older edition was my year 8 home economics textbook!

    I still use this. The spousal unit has some of her mother's, still. She is a big fan of Madhur Jaffrey and the Frugal Gourmet.

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  3. Larry29 April 2007 at 11:58

    The old edition of The Joy of Cooking was truly a wonder; I wore out several copies with my ex-wife.

    Recipes For A Small Planet, though didactical like its predecessor Diet For A Small Planet, does have some good and healthy recipes.

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  4. anna tambour29 April 2007 at 15:49

    That old Joy is one that I still have, too, and it's funny, but this sits beside two by the superb Madhur Jaffrey (I was only being obnoxious the other day reading out loud that delicious description of her grandmother's blackened with time lime pickles, as a cure for car sickness), and Diet for a Small Planet, stained from use, though I must admit, historical use. I think I keep it for nostalgia reasons, as I have to say that the words 'soy flour' give me nightmares.

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