cookbooks or pinterest?

I am pruning my collection of cookbooks and cooking magazines. I had over 10 years of Martha Stewart magazines, plus Bon Apetit, Cooks Illustrated and piles of cookbooks I haven’t opened in years. Why do I keep buying them? What good are all those stacks? With so many recipes online, on blogs and food sites—it is hard to justify such a large collection of cookbooks. YES I love to turn the page. And ogle. But it all takes up so much space and I love to simplify, to prune what I don’t need or use.

Perhaps it is my recent use of Pinterest that has compelled me to diminish my stacks. Pinterest is a great place to file recipes-to-try, perhaps the most sensible solution to date. I love to file by photos: tried and tested recipes as well as need-to-try recipes. It is a perfect place to ‘file’ favorite cocktails, uses for mason jars and DIY homesteading (how to make cheese, bitters, preserves).

I simply don’t need large piles of books, or stacks of magazines gathering dust. I would rather have a few choice books, consolidated Pinterest boards and specific learning goals. So I am getting rid of magazines, and decidedly focusing on 1 cookbook at a time. If I focus on one book, I can delve into Catalan or Moroccan cuisine, learn to ferment sausage and make my own cheese. Right now I am cooking out of Plenty. I didn’t choose it to learn a new cuisine or cooking methodologies—but the recipes still expand my repertoire.* I especially love Plenty’s focus on singular vegetables.

Plenty has already pushed my relationship with eggplant to new heights: pricked and blackened so you can scoop out the flesh, a key ingredient in sublime croquettes, with its unending affection for cilantro and stand-in as a creamy addition to lentils. And that is just eggplant. I have fried leeks and paired it with pickled red peppers, made garlic pie and ventured to make vermicelli (not a noodle I normally reach for). I probably won’t make every recipe in the book, but maybe over half…

If you were to choose one cookbook to learn from, which one would you choose and why?

*I bought the book and was not solicited to review it—I went weak in the knees when I saw the cover and couldn’t help myself.

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Lara said (24 May 2012 at 4:53 pm):

My absolute favourite cookbook is Rebar Modern Food Cookbook. It is a vegetarian cookbook from Rebar Restaurant in Victoria, BC, Canada. It is vegetarian food that makes you forget about needing meat, rather than a meat dish converted to vegetarian as many are. While I’m not strictly vegetarian, I do try to eat more and more meatless dishes. I could cull all my other cookbooks, but never this one. (the restaurant is also amazing and bakery too!)
I also have a mac and an iPhone and use Paprika as a recipe app. I love that you can download recipes straight onto it or add your own, and edit them all as you go along.

Stacie said (24 May 2012 at 9:42 pm):

“Mourad: New Moroccan”–by the chef/owner at Aziza in San Francisco. There is no detail, no task too small for Mourad. Everything is as fresh as can be, down to grinding the herbs or spices the day of. I have my own preserved lemons sitting in a darkened kitchen cabinet, waiting for the end of this month, when they will finally be ready and allow me next steps into more of his beautiful, amazing recipes. This is a cuisine so foreign, so unusual to me, I delight in every page as I learn the history of this amazing chef.

Mali Piottin said (24 May 2012 at 9:48 pm):

Nourishing Tradition, by Sally Fallon.
Because it’s written by someone who understands the relationship between real foods and health.
Not particularly refined or inventive, but a no-nonsense approach to rediscovering the power and beauty of traditional foods.
It’s prefaced by the genial Mary Enig, PhD, the Goddess of Healthy Fats.
My copy is tattered and covered with stains but I would grab it in a second if there ever was a kitchen fire in my home.

Teresa said (25 May 2012 at 7:26 am):

My favorite “cookbook” is Talk of Tomatoes. Seriously.
! I love the updates, creative ideas, healthy and fresh ingredients, and beautiful pictures. I can easily search for my favorite recipes. Your blog is so fun to read and always uplifts me into a more happy, carefree mood! If I’m going to cook well, your my “go to” source. Thank you!!

Amy said (25 May 2012 at 7:46 am):

Pinterest!!!! I’ve scavenged lots of good recipes and ideas from there. It’s like a giant catalog for yum eats. Ina Garten for basics. And I love the Test Kitchen cookbooks cause they tell me why something does/doesn’t work and that makes me smarter when I’m experimenting on my own. It also helps me teach my daughter how to be a better cook/baker. At 13 her big dream is to have her own cupcake shop (I know-so overdone. But, I’ll not burst her bubble!) and she’s making up her own recipes already. Are you going to the Cantinetta Ceviche class dinner on Monday? http://www.facebook.com/events/356720151044227/

bellini said (28 May 2012 at 6:20 am):

I am with Lara and the Rebar cookbook is exceptional. I do not have Plenty in my collection but many of his recipes can be found on-line as well. As for Pinterest there are so many delicious photos on there we could be cooking for the rest of our lives..which isn’t such a bad thing.

Janelle (author) said (29 May 2012 at 9:38 am):

Amy: thanks for the input! Sounds like you are really using Pinterest well (aka accessing its potential). Didn’t make the Cantinetta dinner—where did you hear about it??

Janelle (author) said (29 May 2012 at 9:39 am):

Mali: what a HUGE compliment to Sally Fallon!! Sounds like a very interesting/winning book. I will have to pick your brain on it next time I see you;)

Kate said (3 June 2012 at 4:31 pm):

I’ve culled my cookbook collection quite a bit and still have several that I page through for inspiration here and there. Recently, my favorite one has been a breakfast cookbook by Marion Cunningham. Everything I’ve made from it has been perfect. I love good breakfasts. Plenty looks like a terrific book.