Do you think you have enough now?
No, but I don't have room for many more. Actually, haven't bought many in the last year -- the illness kind of comes and goes, as it does with most collections.
How do you categorize them?
Not as well as I should. The hardbacks are mostly on the big bookshelf, and the soft backs, pamphlets, and ring binders are on the white shelves. The hardbacks are sort of grouped by type -- all the Italian together, all the French, all the Chinese, all the pressure cooker, BBQ, etc. Some are by author -- note all the
Joy of Cooking volumes, starting with a 1st Printing of the 1936 Edition (the yellow one). Collections, such as all the
Southern Living books or
Farm Journal or
Williams-Sonoma books are together. Finding a specific recipe can be torture!
When did you begin to collect cookbooks?
We had a few after we got married in 1968. My mother died in 1970 and we grabbed all of her cookbooks, including her 3"X5" file and her handwritten notebooks, before my sisters got there (they weren't interested, anyway -- one is sort of nuts and the other is a PhD in Astrophysics). After that we just bought one now and then, but in recent years it sort of went crazy. I blame eBay.
Which one is your favorite?
Many favorites! From a collector's viewpoint, my favorite is the near-mint copy of the 1894 1st Edition of
The Epicurean (middle section of the big bookcase, bottom shelf, far right). It's very rare, and generally considered to be one of the most important American cookbooks ever published. My 1936
Joy is also a gem. When it comes to favorites for cooking, it's harder to say. I tend more to liking authors -- Julia Child, James Beard, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Lorna Sass, and others -- and some of the collections. Too many good ones to single out.
My oldest cookbook was my aunt's ... The American Family Cookbook (1952) ... made of ol' manilla paper ... I rarely open it anymore ... very fragile.
Not sure if I have that one (I looked but I'll have to ask my wife). I do have others by Lily Wallace, including a fairly rare copy of
The Woman's World Cookbook.
I also like 'reproduction' cookbooks ... for example (and I've already mentioned this in one of my other posts): City Tavern Cookbook - 200 Years of Classic Recipes from America's First Gourmet Restaurant, by Walter Staib I find old recipes both fun & charming. As I have learned ... folks certainly used a lot less sugar 150 years ago!
The oldies are great to look through, and I often enjoy making the old recipes.
My most 'odd' find (only because Hubby wants to take up hunting because wild game is getting a little pricey at Village Meat Market) has been Ted & Sheman Nugent's Kill It & Grill It - A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish. Ted Nugent ... as in the ol' rock star from the 60s/70s. Hey, I don't make this stuff up ... LOL!
I have a couple of copies of
The Gun Club Cook Book your husband might enjoy. I think my strangest, however, is a 1946 volume called
One-Arm Cookery, which instructs you to have a beer in one hand and an ashtray by the stove while you're cooking!
Again ... what a collection!
Thanks. It's a lot of fun, and like most collectors, I enjoy sharING my collection with others who are interested in the subject, or who at least pretend to be.
