How much do you cook from your cookbooks?

November 4, 2022·Darcie

By and large, EYB Members own a lot of cookbooks. The numbers vary, with some people having just a handful and others thousands, but it is safe to say that if you are a member who does not like or possess multiple cookbooks, you would be an outlier. How much each of us actually cook from all of the books we own is a different question. As food writer Kate Gibbs explains, people only cook an average of two recipes from the cookbooks they own.

Kate knows a thing or two about cookbooks because she hails from a long line of food writers. Her grandmother, Margaret Fulton, wrote several bestselling cookbooks in Australia. Kate's mother, Suzanne Gibbs, is a food editor who has likewise penned may books, and her sister Louise Keats is also a cookbook author. With this much familial expertise, it is no wonder that Kate gravitated to the subject.

She espouses the notion (with which I wholeheartedly agree) that even if we do not religiously use each and every one of our cookbooks to prepare meals and desserts, the books are still useful and worthy of our attention. Cookbooks can inspire and delight us. Says Kate, "It’s the same reason why we buy Vogue, even though we never plan to take off our Birkenstocks. It is why we buy home renovation magazines even though we can barely afford our rent. I’m as unlikely ever to roll my boeuf in truffles and pastry as I am to click “Add to cart” for a white leather Eames recliner … but a girl can dream."

26 comments

sayeaterNovember 4, 2022

Aspirational purchases, my favorite kind! But in all honesty I like to read a good cookbook as much as actually cook from it. Food history, cultural influence, role in family and society, etc are so intriguing to me.

FrenchfoodieNovember 4, 2022

EYB has helped me go way beyond the average of 2 recipes per book even though I own 100s. I estimate I have cooked 20 from books I love. But for many books the gap between cooking dishes from them can be years.

ellabeeNovember 4, 2022

Something I do a lot more since joining EYB is to compare recipes for the same or similar dish across several cookbooks to develop a synthesis, that becomes my recipe from then on. It often pays off to review multiple versions in technique tips alone. No question the site's encouraged me to acquire more books than I would have without it, but it's also made it easier to contemplate & plan for paring down.

JennyNovember 4, 2022

This is something we (I) have all said over and over .... cookbooks provide inspiration, teach us about different cultures and cuisines, they bring the world to us. We may not make loads of recipes from the books we have but they can spark ideas and get us excited to experiment in the kitchen. I grow a little weary of these types of articles that come out every few months or the other type of article that state we don't need as many cookbooks/equipment that as we have. We shouldn't have to defend our passions whatever they may be.

lkgroverNovember 4, 2022

I know that I have never cooked from about 10% of my cookbooks -- although I plan to someday. I just looked at 8 random cookbooks that I have used (according to the "I have cooked this" bookmarks). For each of those cookbooks, I have cooked 1-7 recipes, with an average of 3 recipes. There can also be several years between cooking recipes from a specific book -- inevitable for anyone who has a large collection.

Lsblackburn1November 4, 2022

I’m such a nerd I keep track of the books I use each year in a cookbook journal. I average about 150 recipes a year, coming from about 50 books. It always varies which ones I use!

WlowNovember 5, 2022

Although I feel like more of a cookbook reader and collector than a cook at this point (finicky family members, lack of time), I do have a handful of cooking “bibles,” each with notes on dozens of recipes. I even evacuated for a wildfire with my old broken copy of Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (the pancake and quick bread section fell out years ago and my husband uses it separately!). Haven’t transferred all my notes into EYB yet but as I rediscover recipes I enter them. I’ve also picked up newer secondhand copies of the falling-apart favorites and am gradually copying over notes to those as well. I still love reading recipes and flagging them to try but I know I’ll never get to all of them. Always a sense of future potential pleasures…

Indio32November 5, 2022

Not as much as we should but then again there's more to cookbooks than just recipes!

SheilaSNovember 5, 2022

I use my cookbooks extensively but I also indulge in aspirational purchases. Some of those books have inspired me to get into the kitchen and start cooking, even if I didn't use their recipes. I'm good with that mix.

FoodycatNovember 5, 2022

When I moved house 5 years ago I did a bit of a cull, so now the cookbooks I have are the ones that I do at least consult, even if I don't cook from them. And Harold McGee because it's really fat so it's good to use as a laptop stand to get a more flattering angle for Zoom calls.

But like @ellabee said, I do often compare recipes across a number of books.

marjotseNovember 5, 2022

I basically cook every day from a cookoook, my main reason, to justify that I have so many of them.... but I also think it is fun, going through them to select what I am going to make. Some books I use a lot, others, not so much

GenieBNovember 5, 2022

I tend to have a few favorite cookbooks that I use a lot for awhile and then find another to be “favorite.” I have a few that are more reference books, like Joy of Cooking and Food Lovers Companion. Some cookbook purchases were definitely a mistake, but I sometimes find 1 or 2 recipes that I like anyway. Sometimes, if I am looking for inspiration or remember a recipe I liked, I look through a specific cookbook. I often find recipes I want to try, and mark them with a sticky page bookmark so I can find them easily. Sometimes I just pick one up and look at the recipes with the stickies! I have 100+ cookbooks, both paper and e-books — more e-books than paper because I don’t have a lot of shelf space. I use EYB mostly when I have an ingredient that I am trying to use up and what to find recipes using it.

anya_sfNovember 5, 2022

For me, Ina's cookbooks are obviously an exception since I've made 100% of the recipes (except the new book, of course). Otherwise, I have my "go-to" books, my occasional books, and the ones I've never cooked from but are aspirational and/or interesting. EYB has certainly helped me cook more from my books. I considered challenging myself to make at least 1 recipe from every book I own (doable, since I have fewer than 400 books), but my husband politely asked me not to.

fairyduffNovember 5, 2022

EYB has helped me use my collection of books so much more, simply because of the ingredients search function.

dmco6863November 5, 2022

I also have a few cookbooks purely because of their beautiful cover to display in my kitchen and rotate them depending on mood. They're mostly the kind that have unobtainable ingredients and impossible techniques (but they look nice).

EmilyRNovember 5, 2022

A home without books is just boring and bare and a kitchen (or entire library room) without cookbooks is likewise boring and rather soulless. I'm saddened that I won't likely accomplish recipes from all of my books through my lifetime, but it sure is a noble goal. Just thinking of the people who I've made food for, shared meals with, and the cultures I've been whisked away to through food brings me immense joy. Cookbooks are affordable luxuries that enable us to plan, dream, and create.

FuzzyChefNovember 6, 2022

Accurate, I'd say, based on my collection. Some math: I have 450 cookbooks; if I cooked 2 recipes from each, and made one new recipe a day, that would keep me going for nearly 3 years. By which time I'd have acquired more cookbooks

nadine.guarreraNovember 6, 2022

I probably only cook from a tiny percentage of my books. However, when I am experimenting with a new recipe, I do read probably 20-30 recipes to research different methodologies, ingredient variation, author commentary to find that nugget of advice that will take my recipe to the next level.

averythingcooksNovember 6, 2022

I definitely cook from my books constantly. On the eve of my retirement (and mid pandemic) I set myself a challenge to make at least 1 new thing from every book on my shelf during the coming year. I turned my roughly 180 titles into an alphabetical table in Word (that took time but now as the numbers fluctuate it is easy to delete / add titles) and I keep track of every new recipe made. The self imposed challenge has evolved from that simple goal and I continue to track everything new recipe made since June 29, 2020. Some books do still sit at 0 (as of today, 23 titles of 186), and some are over 10 and it is all accounted for. EYB keeps me honest as I comment on every one AND it helps me find new ideas, uses for ingredients that are lingering or are new to us, and different versions of dishes we like. Yes....I am lucky to have the time to do this but we eat really well with great variety, try new ingredients often, waste far less food and my space for books in our small house is justified (never really the point but still...) as I really do USE them.

pepperfoolNovember 8, 2022

I've been baking considerably more and while cookbooks were usually just inspirations, I turn to Baking Cookbooks for Precision and reproducible results... Stella Parks, Deb Perlman, Julia Child,

TeresaReneeNovember 10, 2022

I actively try to cook more recipes from the cookbooks I already own. EYB has been very helpful for this! I have favourite cookbooks that get more usage than others.

I haven’t bought myself or requested a cookbook in ages (maybe 20 years?) because people keep giving me new, unsolicited cookbooks that I feel obligated to cook from. Does anyone else treat cookbooks as extremely long to do lists? That’s how they feel to me.

Anea25November 11, 2022

I have only started collecting cookbooks two years ago (lockdown benefit).
I have always loved cooking/baking but I would always look on pinterest or in magazines which meant that I tended to do the same things/styles on repeat.
I discovered Yotam Ottolenghi through his Masterclass, loved the recipes there which lead to my 1st purchase of the collection.
I probably have acquired about 20 books since then and tried about 250 recipes. What helps me is to take the time to write down a list of all the recipes I want to try when I get a new book. It's been a lot of fun!

RellaNovember 11, 2022

I have found that in the last year I've mostly, seriously cooked from my Vegetarian Cookbooks, so I dedicated a closet to them; segregating the Indian Cook Books in their own spot. Even though I am not a vegetarian, nor Indian, these are the books I gravitate to. They are filled with clips for every recipe I want to cook. (I should live so long.)

mama_cNovember 11, 2022

Thanks for this great piece; I enjoyed reading the comments as well. I too enjoy my cookbooks regardless of whether or not I actually directly use the recipes. They give me inspiration, advice, and visual pleasure. When I have a particular meal or regional cuisine in mind, I pull down 8 or 10 books, browse through a bit, then close them, and cook!

JaneNovember 13, 2022

In reply to an earlier comment

Another way is to add the EYB Bookmark "I want to cook this" when going through a new cookbook. Then when searching for recipes you can apply that filter and see recipes you have already tagged as being of interest.

dianevNovember 14, 2022

I appreciated this post. I've always felt guilty that I didn't cook from my cookbooks more. Thinking of them as aspirational and inspirational makes a lot of sense. Even though I have not cooked from all of my 150+ books, I have read them all, studied the photographs and pored over the headnotes. I've often read a cookbook and gone on to cook something completely different, so they serve as motivators as well as entertainment.