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| No | 86% | 751 votes | Total: 873 votes | |
| Yes | 14% | 122 votes |
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Add to FavoritesPRINTED COOKBOOKS..PRESENT OR PAST?
I almost wish there had been a "Sort Of" category. Like everyone who goes online, I Google and check favorite recipe sites (including Helium) for new recipes or recipes to use up that spare can of pumpkin or the exotic peanut sauce a friend gave me for my birthday. In fact, I'm trying to store all of my own recipes on computer.
But give up my print cookbooks and never buy another? No way! I know I'm not the only person who loves food enough that, even when I don't use them, I just like to page through cookbooks and read about all of the wonderful goodies I "might" cook someday.
There also are tried and true cookbooks...a five book series of meat, vegetables, desserts, salads and casseroles, and there are all of my Suzanne Somers cookbooks. The diet didn't work for me, but the recipes are superb. There are the church and organizational and family cookbooks where I can relocate and bring back memories of meals enjoyed at my mom's, my aunts, my best friends. I even find one or two of my own recipes that I haven't tried for a long while.
Last year I did a great "share out" of cookbooks I didn't use. My effort spurred everyone else, and now I have 15 or 20 cookbooks from others to read, try and decide which to keep.
I also have old cookbooks, some of which I actually use. Most of the modern reproductions of truly old cookbooks are not very useable, but I love them. I have one early 20th century farmer-type cookbook (a Searchlight) that I won at an auction. Some recipes are as useable as those in my modern version. What's better, the old one came packed with newspaper clippings of more recipes, superstitions, tidbits of the time when it was used. It's more fascinating to read than any novel!
I have other plain-cook cookbooks, quite a number of the truly wonderful Taste of Home cookbooks. I have a two-volume cooking encyclopedia that was the first cookbook set I personally purchased. I basically taught myself to cook with the information and recipes in those books, and they are truly worn. No covers, a few pages missing. I still use them for a number of recipes that became favorites with my family.
I have exotic food cookbooks, including a treasure trove of wonderful Szechwan dishes. (Yes, I found some peanut sauce recipes in there as well as online.)
I have several mystery author cookbooks, including the Nero Wolfe cookbook by Rex Stout. Like most modern cooks, I only do gourmet recipes now and then...when I'm having the right guests, not the meat and potatoes people. But again, these are great fun to read.
So, no, I don't think print cookbooks are a thing of the past although I do love the ability to go online and scope out even more recipes. For me, at least, online recipes just add wealth to the availability of new food ideas.
Learn more about this author, Margaret Shauers.
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Yes
You have to love those printed cookbooks. Many of us grew up skimming the pages with our mothers, always seeking the perfect meal to surprise the family with. Those were good times, memories of the past. The world has changed since then and we have changed with it. I will admit that I took many of those old recipes and stashed them away in my old cookbook. The special things that mom created from something she read in a book, something she tweaked.
You won't find meals like that anymore.
Folks today are all about time efficiency. With busy households and everyone going off their separate way with outside activities, hanging around the kitchen is not what it used to be. This does not mean that we can't find quality time to share and enjoy a meal together. It simply means that getting there takes less time.
The internet has opened up a whole new world for today's creative cooking men and women. I have found a new joy in sitting at the computer with my granddaughters, searching the web for something special. Be it a birthday cake recipe or a meal for the evening or special event. The web does offer a hundred different varieties of just about anything one might be searching for, but as an added bonus, something the printed cookbook cannot offer, is a whole world for multiple ways of making things. If you cannot have salt or lactose or sugar, there is most likely another solution, another way of making that recipe. Oh, and the added photographs. They give you a good idea on what your creation should look like. Presentation of a meal is an important step in how the receiver will respond to what they are about to eat. A dish can make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
Watch any one of the hundred cooking shows on the Food Network and you will have a prime example of how good a nice food presentation can make you feel. Rachael Ray whips up a quick thirty minute meal that looks divine. For the family sit down dinner, you might want to look to Paula Deen or Emeril. Not very intense preparation, but it results in a scrumptious meal at the end. I will admit that not all of my dishes turn out looking as good as the pros do, but they aren't far off and my family appreciates my effort.
As for the printed cookbooks, my granddaughters and I have created our own family recipe binder that contains many of the dishes we have searched out on the web. With our creative juices we have even personalized the pages so that each person's favorite meal or dessert is noted. On occasion, we have included a small picture of the family member eating their favorite dish. (We usually do this with birthday cakes or pies)
We mount each printed recipe onto cardstock (if it is smaller than 8.5 x 11) then slip it into a sheet protector page to keep it from getting wet or dirty when we use it. We simply find the meal we want, take the protected page out of the binder and take it to the kitchen for us to use. When done, we replace it back in the binder, wiping it off if necessary. The binder is organized as most any cookbook might be and if we have improved on a recipe, we note it on that particular page. Most anything can always be made better.
Our current family tradition is different from how mine was as a little girl but it is every bit as wonderful and memorable. Our book will be passed down to my granddaughters when they are older and they will have something to share with their children.
Learn more about this author, Debbie Gillotti.
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