I had collected lots of recipe books, some with only one or two recipes that I liked to use. I was tired of these books taking up room in my kitchen so I bought a large photo album with see through pockets. I then went through all the recipe books and cut out the recipes I definitely wanted and placed them in the album.
If the recipe books were in good condition, I copied the recipes out on file cards and passed the books onto the charity shop. I sorted the recipes into sections for meat, poultry, fish, breads, sweets etc. Now I have only one book to look through and it is wipe-clean.
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Congratulations! I did this a few years back, and then collected a whole new set of books, missing many that I had given away, and struggling to replace old favorites while adding more modern collections like microwave and crockpot recipes. Had to move the entire collection to a bookshelf just outside the kitchen door.
Then I found the web!! Can get all recipes I want from there. Have also created a printable set of recipes that I use frequently (probably don't really need them to cook, but get requests from friends and family.
That big fat notebook full of recipes (from 45 years ago when I was a young bride to the time when I gave away all the seldom cook books about 15 years ago) is like a wonderful scrapbook, so it sits next to wedding pictures, the photo albums of each child, and the yearbooks from highschool that I somehow managed to keep. The recipes are as treasured as other old memories.
There is something about them that satisfies me. When my mom died, my Dad asked what I personal things I wanted to keep and I immediately asked for her 1936 Joy of Cooking and her old Fannie Farmer book, which she received as wedding gifts. Funny thing was that he said yes, but he needed to keep them to learn how to cook for himself.
Of couse now that I have retired and my family has all gone elsewhere, I look at the shelf and want my space back. Cooking for one does not require many cook books!!!
that is a excellent idea,i will have to do that as we are moving again in dec,so i can get rid of most of them,and give to salvos with other things we have ben given and dont use,thank you for sharing,glenda from queensland,australia
GREAT idea. Thanks. Now, could you find time for me to do it? lol? I still have photos that need inserting, and those cook books almost motivate me to keep working towards the day. If they are out of sight, they'll be out of my mind. lolololol...Afterall
You bring up a very good point about cookbooks....usually we only make one or two recipes out of a whole cookbook. A cookbook has been written with someone else's favorites or what they figure are the best recipes but not necessarily our family's favorites. I find most of my favorite recipes online now and I print recipes on both sides of a piece of paper, insert in a clear sheet protector and in a binder it goes. I have one for beef, salads, soups, desserts, poultry, etc. As I try a recipe, if it's good it's kept and I add notations to the page in pencil....like any changes I made or what changes I might like to make in the future. It's so much nicer having "cookbooks" that are truly mine ....recipes that I know sound good to me and ones that I've tried and my family approves of! As for all the cookbooks that I collected over 30 years of marriage....well some I've weeded through already and I've got more to do.
I don't think anyone needs tons of cookbooks....unless you just like them and think of them as a collection.
I also have a recipe box with many of our tried and true recipes on cards. Some are from family members and dear friends, written in their own hand.
Really with the internet you can find any recipe you want these days so probably no need to take up space storing bunches of cookbooks!
Excellent idea!! I've got alot of cookbooks. I've never went thru and torn any pages out before. Really I'd never thought about it. In my younger years, when my penmanship was readable, lol, I used to handwrite all my keepable recipes.
when my grandmother passed away i was asked what i wanted, being that i was her oldest grandchild of the 2 she had, my sister and I. I wanted her cookbooks. One was a collection of recipes from the wives of the men my grandfather worked with and one was full of recipes from the women in my community. The first 2 things I learned to cook when I was younger came out of the first book I mentioned and the third came out of the other so I wanted the books. I now have started a collection of "community and club" type collaboration cookbooks, the fundraiser type. I was taught never to destroy a book, no matter the condition so I could never do this but what I have done is copy the recipe pages and put them in a binder. That way I have my personal cookbook and the others that mean so much to me. My mass published cookbooks went out many years ago.
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