Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have loved to cook since I was a child. I don't love to cook when I am hitting the house after a long day at work, hungry children asking, "What's for dinner?" But when I can actually prepare a meal on which we will dine, I love it...scanning cook books for recipes, preparing the shopping list, picking out the freshest ingredients at the store. And then the rhythm of the meal preparation- washing, chopping, simmering, roasting- like a musical score, crescendoed by the increasingly defined aromas blending together as they cook, ending with platters and bowls brought out to the table to the smiling faces of family and friends.
Nowadays I am more likely to go online for a recipe than pull out a cookbook, but when there is an old recipe that I want to prepare, especially one that is in my notebook of hand written and old newspaper recipes, the process is all the better. When cooking from a saved newspaper cooking section I see old advertisements for various markets. An index card neatly typed out has handwritten notes in the margin. Or I find a fading fingerprint smudge of a spice on the page of a frequently prepared recipe in a cookbook, left during a years-ago preparation of the dish. Sometimes I can remember the meal that we had when I made that smudge- who was there, where we were in our lives.
The memories evoked by cooking from old cookbooks, recipes hastily torn from newspapers, written on index cards or on scraps of paper can't be replaced by the efficiency of a database or google search. I hope that future generations don't lose this, as these memories feed the soul as much as the meal nourishes the body.
If this has brought back memories for you, please share!
I still have (and use) my grandmother's Joy of Cooking, handed down from my mom.
There are many recipes on which my grandma has penciled notes.
Some of them are merely useful, but some of them are downright funny.
"Terrible!"
"Tastes like battery acid!"
You get the idea.
I mostly go online too, but still refer to various favorite cookbooks.
My Silver Palate cookbook always opens to the pesto page, and it is stained with olive oil from 20 years ago.
Magnolia Bloom....Thanks for starting this topic and discussion...My husband and I used to sell vintage and "used" cookbooks on ebay along with some newer ones too...Our customers were in 'seventh heaven" when we offered a cookbook that brought back lots of memories for them....It was exciting for us too. Some of the older cookbooks had clipped newspaper recipes inside of them or handwritten recipes from "way back when."....I am so glad that I still have my Mother's favorite cookbooks...complete with all of the stains and dog-eared pages etc....I still prefer cookbooks most of all versus looking recipes up on the Internet....Thanks again for starting this topic.
I still use recipes written in my grandmothers hand, I think of her every time I make the dishes written by her.
I also have recipes annotated in my fathers brisk, medical shorthand, he has been gone for 30 years, every time I make these recipes it takes me back to the kitchen of my childhood.
I do not use recipes. It is one of the most expensive ways to cook as you are always running out to the supermarket to pick up some exotic and expensive ingredients.
I wish that parents and older relatives would spend less time writing recipes out and spend the time teaching their younger people how to prepare the recipes that they like. So often, basic recipes have terms that the young folks have no clue as to what to do.
I do not use recipes. It is one of the most expensive ways to cook as you are always running out to the supermarket to pick up some exotic and expensive ingredients.
I wish that parents and older relatives would spend less time writing recipes out and spend the time teaching their younger people how to prepare the recipes that they like. So often, basic recipes have terms that the young folks have no clue as to what to do.
I'm sorry, but you are incorrect.
Basic everyday recipes do not include "exotic" ingredients, and if no one teaches young people proper cooking terms and ingredients, who is going to be the next generation of chefs, or even talented home cooks?
I started DD early in the kitchen, she is going to the Culinary Institute of America in august to become a chef, and I only used "exotic" (which do NOT=expensive, btw) when I began teaching her ethnic cuisines.
I'm sorry, but you are incorrect.
Basic everyday recipes do not include "exotic" ingredients, and if no one teaches young people proper cooking terms and ingredients, who is going to be the next generation of chefs, or even talented home cooks?
Absolutely. what is exciting is when your kids start developing variations on what you always thought of as basic, and turns them into something unique and delicious. If you watch the Food Channel much that is exactly what most of the shows seem to be about.......turning something like mac and cheese or a country fried steak or a tuna sandwich into something more than you thought it could ever be. And that takes a knowledge of basic recipes.............
I do use the internet for quick recipe search ups and tend to use my cookbooks now more for enjoyable reading than looking up a recipe.
Great thread.
Beretta- On a number of occasions, when looking for a recipe to prepare for my family, sometimes I just get lost in reading through my cookbooks and then we all go out to eat One of your recipes has found a place in my primary cookbook last year.
CArizona- Years ago at an estate auction we purchased an old cookbook with handwritten recipes tucked between the pages. I always wondered how a family could have let that go and felt it was my responsibility to keep it safe. Weird, I know.
Thanks to all that have posted. Good to know that I am not alone.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,029,371 times
Reputation: 28903
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnolia Bloom
Years ago at an estate auction we purchased an old cookbook with handwritten recipes tucked between the pages. I always wondered how a family could have let that go and felt it was my responsibility to keep it safe. Weird, I know.
Not weird at all. I would feel the exact same way...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One of your recipes has found a place in my primary cookbook last year. 
