A story about the recipe books in my kitchen shelf

sudha65 · Apr 28, 2014

This morning I decided to clear the shelf in the kitchen where I keep all my recipe books. As I pulled them out one by one and saw them covered in dust, I had to hear catty comments from the family about my moaning all the time about what to cook when I have so many recipes books and recipe cuttings from magazines/newspapers right here in the kitchen.

I told them that maybe they should think that collecting recipes was my hobby. And that all those recipe books did not mean I was passionate about cooking !!! Also it will be easier for them to accept the same "boring" (anything you make a second time is considered boring !!!) fare that comes to the dining table everyday, in spite of all the colourful mouth-watering pictures in the books I own.

As I pulled out the books one by one and dusted them, I remembered the entry of each book into my life....it was a nostalgic couple of hours that I spent in the kitchen this morning.

I have 3 , no 4 notebooks ..numbered 1, 2, 3 etc. (slightly tattered) full of handwritten recipes...books In which I used to copy recipes from magazines mostly Womens Era, Savvy, Femina etc...These books were filled up when I was in the hostel and had no access to a kitchen, and so in anticipation of cooking wonderful dishes when I went home to visit I would copy them out...painstakingly. The hostel I stayed in was a working women's hostel and had many girls working in a local bank staying there. They had a library in the bank from which they used to bring the magazines. I would borrow them and if I encountered any recipes that excited me then they would go into the notebook. I have a lot of coffee recipes (ice cream, cake, toffee etc), though I don't drink or like the flavour of coffee myself, since my Dad is a die-hard coffee drinker. I later discovered that he mostly liked coffee as coffee....but just seeing those recipes bring a smile to my face. I did remember to take those books home and tried out some of the recipes too. Those were fun days....

There is another book, a notebook again....which has some very precious recipes..these are recipes that I wrote down for all the basic stuff like saru, kootu, palidhya etc from my Mom when I got married. In the same book I also have recipes for the same dishes from my mother-in-law. Only then I realised that the same dish can taste so different when made by different people and that no two recipes are alike. I continued to copy recipes into this book as and when I found them. Some were scribbled hurriedly and taken down when I watched a cookery show on TV. Others were copied from magazines from the library, And some were recipes taken from friends, of the dishes that they made that I liked.

And of course I have recipe books....very few of them bought by me. My very good friend gave me a recipe book, and I ended up collecting a few more. When I leaf through the books I find that I have made notations in pencil in some of the pages, of those recipes I have actually tried. In some I have noted the ingredients I have left out or changed the proportion of or substituted, in some I have noted down the occasion I made it and the response to the dish. I now wish I had written it down for every dish that I had tried.....

And I have a whole bunch of recipe clippings, photocopies, from magazines and the newspaper. Some I have tried, but most are just there because one in the whole bunch looked interesting.

Now I have in all neatly arranged in my shelf and looking pretty. I hope to create some of those mouth-watering-looking dishes sometime in my life, but till then I shall go on collecting recipes.

How many of you collect recipes and recipe books like me ?

ammulur · Apr 28, 2014

I do sudha.... I have few recipe books and hand written books to...... but i don't cook more often but i like to cook.

Anvitha · Apr 28, 2014

I too collect and buy s many cooking books but when it comes to cooking i end up on inter sites o find the recipe and try. easy to carry the mobile ipad right to the kitchen and findout.

yesterday also same thing happened as my younger son kept the chocolate recipe book somewhere and i found the recipe from internet and finished.
It has come out very well but that's different again.

so many diabetic recipes quick snack kind of pocket book also i buy from crossword etc when we go for our children book shopping.

urmilaraj · Apr 28, 2014

I do collect like you. BUt once in a while when i do try few successes gave me encouragement to try more...

Manjureddy · Apr 28, 2014

Hi,
collecting recipes is an interesting pastime. During the early days of my marriage i used to scibble down notes and tips from ladies magazines and from ladies known to be good cooks. But never saved them.

But whenever i visit bookshops, even now, i love to browse through the glossy imported cookbooks and drool over the heavenly pictures Youtube cooking demo videos are big favs.too.

I dont have a single cookbook or recipe notebook in my kitchen. Just my trusted I -Pad !

umasivasankar · Apr 28, 2014

i too collected recipes from magazines ,tv shows n from my neighbours n freinds.i have recipe note which carry good recipes that i learned from cookery classes.i torned some of the chef recipes from the magazines n pin it.i do some of the favourite recipes in occasion r when my relatives r friends come, to show my talent in cookingwaitingsmiley.