{ 2012 02 07 }
Cookbook overload
When my friend and neighbor Naomi Fiss came over to shoot my cookbooks for an article in Edible San Francisco close to two years ago, she had plenty of material to choose from (including this lovely shot she did of a set of Time Life cookbooks I assembled over years of buying one here and one there from thrift stores and used book dealers). Years ago my dashing husband moved a stack of four book shelves into the kitchen. We both figured that was where my cookbooks would go.
And they did. But I’m not sure what happens when I’m not in the room. Are they breeding? Cloning themselves? Signing for packages of their brethren?
So those shelves are what can only be described as full – with books stacked on top of the rows of books and books jammed in between the shelves. More books tend to be stacked on my desk, awaiting review over at Local Foods. Then there are the multiple shelves of food reference books that fill the bookcases in my study, most in double rows. And, I am ashamed to say, there is plenty of overrun filling more than one shelf in the basement.
The thing that gets me down is that I in no way keep every cookbook that comes my way. Review copies that don’t work to feature on Local Foods get sent straight to the box in the garage to be given away or traded. I exhibit self-control in purposeful acquisition, too: I once brought four boxes of cookbooks to a cookbook exchange and managed to bring exactly zero home. Once something has entered the collection, however, deciding to get rid of it becomes complicated. Is the standard whether I ever use it? Whether I think I might use it? Whether it is important or interesting in the food writing world? If a friend wrote it? If it was a gift?
As a friend put it recently when talking about her substantial collection of novels: I could just decide to get rid of all of them, but to pick and choose seems impossible. That’s why I no longer have any wine books. I got rid of all of them in one fell swoop.
To be realistic I am not going to be getting rid of all my cookbooks and yet I do want to pick and choose to reduce their mass.
I tried coming up with a system based on the one I use for clothes: Do I wear it? Does it fit? Does it look good? I need a triple-yes to keep something. But what are the equivalent questions for cookbooks?
Darling readers, can you help? Can anyone offer up a rubric to use to cull a book collection? It need not be cookbook-specific – in fact, I’d love to be able to apply it to other areas of our family’s bibliophilia, so general is good.
Posted by Molly Watson on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012, at 12:24 pm, and filed under cookbooks.
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{ 12 }
Comments
itchbay | 07-Feb-12 at 12:50 pm | Permalink
I have no idea, but I’d love to know. Mine are spreading out around the house as well. I prefer “vintage” cookbooks, and those with regional or cultural connections, especially those with stories about how the recipes came into being.
Balsamic Reductions | 07-Feb-12 at 12:53 pm | Permalink
I actually found great relief from this problem when I realized how awesome the space I had in my dining room was. I moved a large collection of my cookbooks to shelves there and they look great and have a lot more space.
Megan | 07-Feb-12 at 1:53 pm | Permalink
Well, I’m totally the wrong person to give advice on getting rid of cookbooks because just glancing at your Time Life collection made me feel a little covetous, and the cookbooks I already own are have outgrown their ample quarters in the kitchen and have begun occupying valuable closet space in other parts of the house.
Actually, the closet thing helps a little, over time. The books I don’t use that often end up in the closet by default. Eventually I realize that there are some I really haven’t missed, and those are free to go. I try to be diligent about getting rid of aspirational books, too. Yes, I should read Ulysses, but I’m never going to. I’d like to be the kind of person who enjoys spending summer afternoons turning fruit into jam, but I’m not.
With books in general, if I’ll read it/use it again or it has sentimental value, or I just love having it, it’s a keeper. See? This is why I have too many cookbooks.
Kate | 07-Feb-12 at 2:33 pm | Permalink
Some starter questions: Have you cooked or been interested in cooking any recipe from it in the past year? Have any recipes from it made it into your semi-regular rotation? Is it something you grab when you’re looking for inspiration or a basic formula?
I also need to cull the six heavy boxes I just moved to the new house. I’ll help you if you help me.
na | 07-Feb-12 at 5:15 pm | Permalink
1. Is it a book I use often?
2. Does the book agree with my cooking/eating philosophy?
3. Does the book teach me more than just recipes?
If the answer is yes to all three, keep it. I would personally also keep a book if the answer was yes to the first two
All the best in getting rid of cookbooks!
Shannnon | 07-Feb-12 at 5:17 pm | Permalink
Just returned from the thrift store with 3 more vintage cookbooks so I can be of little help. What I do know is that soon if not already there will be a need and desire by young cooks and foodies to acquire some of the traditional standards and a need to feel connected to the history of the wonderful world of food and the art of preparation and execution to making memorable meals! I also can never neglect a vintage piece of quality cookware. I’m in so much trouble!
scarlett | 08-Feb-12 at 1:21 am | Permalink
i’d use the three questions:
1 have i ever actually or has it ever inspired me to cook something from the cook book in question?
2 is it a standard, traditional book?
3 are this the sort of meal ideas i’d like to serve to guests?
xo
scarlett
Molly Watson | 08-Feb-12 at 11:21 am | Permalink
Such good suggestions! A friend sent the following system to me over email that almost makes a game out of the whole thing, so I thought I’d pass it along:
Step one: Take three random cookbooks off the shelf.
Step two: Choose your least favorite of the three and set it aside.
Step three: Repeat until done.
Step four: Take the stack of rejects and go through steps 1-3 again. This will ensure that you can rescue some books and math-wise it means that in the end you’re only getting rid of 1 in 9 books instead of 1 in 3.
She also suggested that I box up anything I’m on the fence about, stick it in the garage, and see if I ever go down to fish anything out. Based on the other things that are boxed up in the garage, my guess is I never will.
Cynthia Wig | 08-Feb-12 at 12:58 pm | Permalink
Hi Molly! Thanks so much for all of your lovely work. We’ve employed and enjoyed your ricotta chard gnocchi recipe on a number of occasions!
What a great system that your friend follows! I very rarely re-read fiction, so my cookbooks are inheriting more real estate where the novels used to be. That is the extent of my own system to date.
Maybe it would be easier to part with some cookbooks if you know that they will be in a good collection and also possibly in a place where you can revisit them again? Local Mission Eatery in San Francisco has a cookbook library. Although I am not a card-carrying member, I do love the idea:
www.localmissioneatery.com/library
Good luck with the cull!
Judi | 08-Feb-12 at 2:37 pm | Permalink
My mentality is: if I used it (even once) or occasionally flip through it for inspiration, it stays. If not, it goes.
I would donate them or give them as spur-of-the-moment gifts to your foodie friends.
Monica | 08-Feb-12 at 4:54 pm | Permalink
Time consuming, but will make you feel better about getting rid of some: flip through and set a minimum number of attractive recipes required to keep. If there are less, you can choose to copy them down before you get rid of it. I have done this with library cookbooks to decide if I would buy them.
Mimsie | 09-Feb-12 at 10:11 am | Permalink
I purged mine a few years ago, with no regrets. Many of mine had been saved just because there was ONE recipe I liked/used. So I copied favorite recipes out of those. I saved those few that belonged to my mother, so I could get a little weepy over the food stains on the banana cake page. I only have about a dozen now. Remember, you can always replace the ones you discard by going on ebay. I did, in fact, replace one. These days, don’t most of us get our recipes off the internet anyway?
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