Cookbooks

I do love looking through bookshelves when I am a guest at someone’s house, but it occurred to me while thinking about this post that I don’t often look at shelves of cookbooks. This must be because the cookbooks are often in the kitchen and if I’m visiting I don’t usually snoop around in there.

This post thanks to Kate, Penny and Cathy.

My cookbook collection is not very large.

The one I use most is The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander (it’s the big orange spine on the right; never had a bad dish from this book).

I do like reading cookbooks when the author writes about the cuisine the book is based on, like Richard Olney’s Simple French Food, South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden, and The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker.

I love cookbooks that are a little different, like Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown and the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.

I seem to have a few French cookbooks. I read a few of these when I was an apprentice chef, to learn a lot of techniques. The Practical Professional Cooking book in the bottom middle of the shelf is the book I used at chef school (we apprentices called it “The PPC”, I wonder what they use nowadays).

I usually use most of these books for ideas or as reference tools. I also have a large collection of recipes stored as Google documents which I look at on my iPad if I need to refer to measurements. I also have quite  few folders and exercise books of recipes. I tend to follow a recipe once or twice and then I improvise.

My cookbook collection is deceptive, I think. It gives the impression that I cook a lot. Some of the books are well used and spattered with spills. I have to admit, these days I’m often lacking in motivation to cook during the week, and tend to only cook very simple things for me and M. I sometimes cook more complicated things on weekends, to share with family.