Cook book addicts !!

I used to have a big collection of recipe books. I scaled it right back to 5. I now have a Pinterest board of recipes and cakes etc.

Much easier and cleaner to use than a cook book.

The books I have kept are my late Mom's cookbook my late Father gave her when they married (I kid you not) It's a 1000 page Good Housekeeping cookbook. I can't nor wont get rid of it.

It is so full of memories, aroma's, page markings etc and so on I couldn't bear to get rid. It is battered by the years. It all filled with the charm, love and happy memories

My other books are 1s I have had bought me by family I have kept

We've got all the Simon Hopkinson books, such a good read not just for the recipes. After watching him on television we decided to give him a go and were hooked. We do seem to collect others as well. My son uses Yotam Ottolenghi recipes, which are stunning.
My mum used to use a Be-Ro paperback recipe book (I have a feeling it came free with her new cooker!), but she was a good plain cook. I looked at my herbs and spices the other day and remembered she just used salt and pepper and Oxo (if we were being posh).

Does anyone else remember Katherine Whitehorn's 'Cooking in a Bedsitter' which was brilliant for me in my bedsitter days in London? The results of some of her recipes were really appreciated by my then boyfriends! I've actually still got it on my kitchen bookshelf.

I still have my late mothers Bero cook book together with the New World recipe book that came with our brand new 'pride of place' gas cooker.
I have yet to find a recipe that will surpass Bero's
Congress Tarts. They are always in great demand on our local WI cake stalls.

LOVE cookery books!!
From my Mum's much thumbed Good Housekeepng book (with recipes in her hand wrting on the spare pages) to the new one by Nadia I have them all. Well maybe not ALL but a heck of a lot! Don't get on with Nigella or Jamie Oliver. I have 2 cupboards full of them & Delicious magazines.
Howvever I have recently decided to cancel subscription to Delicious & not buy anymore books as I note my first choice when researching a new recipe is my PC.
Cannot bear to throw or give any away yet though. There are not many cuisines I do not have a recipe book to cover.
My family will have to think a bit more now about presents.
I even got one of my own original recipes published in Lakeland cookery book a few years back- so chuffed!

I have cupboards full of cookery books, but the one I always go to for baking is a Stork margarine one my mum got from sending off Stork wrappers. I've had this since starting cookery lessons at secondary school, aged 11. It's nearly 50 years old now.

I've culled my recipe books as I have a much smaller kitchen these days but there are a few survivors which are:
Mary Berry's Fast Cakes - replaced an older edition which was literally falling to pieces
M&S Cooking for Two early 80s (bit battered)
McDougall's Better Baking (loose pages taped) which I must have bought around 30 years ago
Be-Ro Flour Home Recipes (£1.25!)
Classic FM Crafty Cooking by the lovely late Michael Barry
I must admit I don't look at them very often now but can't bear to part with them because of the memories.
I'm feeling hungry.

Mastering the Art of French Cookery - by Julia Child - sounds pretentious but her Queen of Sheba chocolate cake recipe and duck a l'Orange were real crowd pleasers. Used to watch her programmes on American TV - she was an absolute scream. The cake is now the 'family cake recipe' for birthday celebrations. Have now 2 copies as the original one in tatters. One of her other books does have the ultimate coleslaw recipe which I have never bettered.

I started years ago with a Stork Margarine advert giving a recipe for Christmas Cake which I scaled up for a 3-tier wedding cake and put into a word processor. Since then it has grown to a 48 page collection of tried and tested recipes from many different sources. Whenever I want to find something new I just Google , try it and if it's any good add it to the collection including any tips worked out in the process. I did offer to do a series for the BBC "Grump in the Kitchen" which they chose to decline. My philosophy is to keep it simple and learn from others as I go along. Message me with your email address if you want the document in MS-word 2003 format.

When I went off to college in the mid 70s at the age of 18, all I could cook were shortbread biscuits & rock buns! My mother never encouraged us to help in the kitchen & we made these treats on a weekly basis. I took Marguerite Patten's Step by Step cooking with me & all my cooking started with that book. I too had the Dairy Cook books & Grandma's Cheese Pudding remains a huge favourite. I like to own & look at cookery books - 2 Greedy Italians, Hairy Bikers, Antonio Carluccio, Jamie Oliver ( can't stand him but love his recipes), the 2 Indian chaps- but, like so many others, tend to use the internet these days, although I do have a fair pile of recipes torn from magazines.

Luv luv luv James Martin for his unpretentious recipes. Also go to Atul Kochar for deletable curries but can't abide Nigella Lawson at any price.

I used to be o have a vast collection of cookery books but when my ex and I split I just kept my favourites and left him with most of them, including Jamie Oliver, Keith Floyd and Nigel Slater books.
I still have
Readers Digest Cookery Year
Readers Digest Guide to Creative Cooking both well used over the years
Delia's complete Illustrated Cookery Course
Ditto her Summer, Winter and Christmas books. I have to say though That I've found her cooking times too long.
Jocelyn Dimbleby's various little books all have something delicious.
The Milk Marketing Board Dairy Cookbook
Marguerite Patten's Feeding the Nation, just out of curiosity when she was regularly featured on Chris Evans afternoon show.
Levi Roots Carribean Cooking
John Tovey Country Weekends. When I used to entertain!
Nigella, How to Eat
Bill Grainger Holiday, hardly used
Betty's cookery School, recreates the recipes from Betty's Tea Shop in Harrogate
The Archers Cookbook both of these are really good.
The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley. Gut busting and horribly tempting recipes if you just want to get fat and have a heart attack!

I rarely use any if them these days as the Internet has everything and that's where I go for Mary Berry, but just once in a while it's good to dip into an old favourite.

I almost forgot the best Asian cookbook ever.
The All Asian Cookbook by Jackie Passmore. Very labour intensive but with fabulous results. I remember stringing up a raw duck from a beam over the bath to dry out before doing the Peking duck with pancakes! Just buy it ready made from M & S nowadays.

My Godmother sent me a book token as an engagement present and I used the Christmas Cake recipe to make my 3tier wedding cake . It was summer when I made it for October wedding , I was on a roll and made a Christmas cake too .I used the same recipe every Christmas since and made DD 3 s wedding cake too , but this time I iced it as my Mum always wondered if we got the right cake back from the bakery after they iced it for my wedding lol

Left out the fact that it was a Margerite Patton cook book !

PS how could I forget Cooking for Paupers by Jocasta Innes
Passed on to my son for uni.

Yes ,I remember cooking in a bed-sitter. I have loads of cookery books but try not to 'do' food now . But you people have inspired me. Off to pick blackberries tomorrow to make jam. I have cleaned the oven so will bake a cake this pm.
What recent books can you recommend?

I love cookery books. And I love just reading the recipes. I normally buy mine on charity shops. I have a whole bookcase of them!

Yes! I too still use the old Marguerite Patten Step by Step Cookery book I acquired maybe 50 ears ago??!! There was a period when Homes & Gardens cookery section was by Katie Stewart. I cut out a lot of these recipes and still use them but I can't seem to find any books by her. I guess she retired and/or went out of fashion. Katie! Are you there?

Did you know, most women here in Italy laugh at the idea of cooking from a book (at least those of my generation).. They just stick to what they learnt from their mothers - and do excellently - but do not try to experiment, and would be offended if you "experimented" something new on them. I was put off
learning how to make pasta when I overheard one Italian woman say to another "never used shop-bought eggs in my life to make pasta!" I do live in a fairly rural area.

Ruby 41. Yes, I do remember Cooking in a Bedsitter and still have it. It was a good start.

sarahellenwhitney Yes! My mother too used the New World cookery book that came with the oven. I don't know if she learned from that but nobody could beat her roast potatoes or her chips! (made with lard, of course!)

No longer own a single one.

Oh, I love my cookery books! I tend to look at them for inspiration, cooking times, etc, but then tweak them to my own thing.
My very first book was a Marguerite Patten book my brother bought me for Christmas about 40 years ago, which has 'blue print' recipes and also some menus to follow for e.g., dinner with friends. I still look at it occasionally. I've so many, but particular favourites are by Delia, Mary Berry and Nigel Slater. I like my be-ro book, too. I remember both my Grandma and Mum having very battered copies of those, that got lost in the mists of time, but I saw an advert on a be-ro flour pack a few years ago so got one for me. It brought back fond memories of Grandma and Mums homebaking!
I tried culling my collection, but couldn't! They're not doing any harm so they can stay where they are. Now that new Nigel Slater Christmas book sounds interesting....

My absolute favourite cookery book is Delia Smith
One is Fun.
I bought it when I was on my own and discovered the joy of cooking real meals for myself. The best thing about it is that there are no silly ingredient measures i.e: half an egg. All the recipes can be doubled, trebled, etc easily to enable you to cook for more people. Although no longer on my own, I still use it. In fact I saw a copy in a Charity shop not long ago and bought it as a back up as my original copy is starting to look the worse for wear.

Was it her Everyday Cookbook? I still have and regularly use mine also from the 70s! My only regret is that I saw a copy in much better condition than mine in a CS a few years ago and I didn't buy it.