A Cookbook Junkie

I was a cookbook junkie for a couple of decades. The last few years, I’ve kept my addiction in check. I try and take it one meal at a time, which has worked … so far. Of course, I continue collecting online recipes and recipes from friends like a fiend. 

There is something magical about a well written cookbook, especially one with photos. I can read and look at the pictures and almost feel the warmth of the kitchen and smell the dish coming together. You know how it is on a cold snowy day, when you come in from outside and feel the warmth of the house and then smell the heady aromas of a stew simmering on the stove? That is what a good cookbook does for me. 

The oldest regular cookbook in the collection is actually Cathy’s – “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook”, from 1973. It gets chuckles from some of my cooking friends. Held together with duct tape these days, we both still occasionally use it. I love Betty’s stroganoff recipe and make it a couple of times every winter (sometimes using venison instead of beef). Cathy uses it for her killer-good scalloped potatoes, making just a couple of tweaks so they are the best scalloped potatoes in the world. 

My most used cookbook is probably “Joy of Cooking”. It is my go-to for regular repeatable dishes and is also the place I look first for a recipe of something I have never made before. It’s amazingly versatile. 

In between, there is a bit of everything. Books about cooking in other countries, including India, the old Soviet Union, France and Germany (where I get my Hasenpfeffer of Bugs Bunny fame recipe). There are a few “celebrity chef” focused books including Patrick O’Connell from The Inn at Little Washington, Nora Pouillon of Restaurant Nora,  Anthony Bourdain, the actor Vincent Price, and Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet). I have several topic focused books including bread, fish, game, salsa, wild rice (yes, I have a small cookbook dedicated to wild rice) vegetarian, and Vegan food. If you want a funny book, I highly recommend “Thug Kitchen: Eat like you give a f^ck”.  It is vegan, has good recipes all would enjoy, and is hilarious. Caution – the language would put a sailor to shame.

The collection includes a couple of historical cookbooks I have picked up along the way, mostly because they show what people were thinking back in the day. One, “Burke’s Complete Cocktail and Tasty bite Recipes”, was published in 1936 at the height of prohibition, although you wouldn’t know it from all of the drink recipes given. Much of the entertainment advice and many of the food and drink recipes in the book still ring true today. 

I own an embarrassing number of cocktail recipe books. While writing this blog, I was surprised to see how many I actually own. One of them is only about the Negroni. I bought it for Cathy one Christmas ;-). This does not include the several books on wine I own that are kept separately. 

I also own a series of notebooks of recipes I have collected over the years from friends, magazines, and newspapers. Some of my most treasured regular recipes are there, including spatzele, Erbseneintopf (German split pea soup), pork tenderloin with a chimichurri sauce, and fish with salsa verde, to name a few. There are many more, but you get the idea. 

Time passes and we all change what we do and how we do it. I haven’t bought a cookbook in five or six years. Now, I mostly collect recipes online and store them using Notes uploaded to iCloud. Currently, I have 379 recipes there. They come from friends, multiple online sources, and a couple of cooking newsletters I subscribe to. If I’m looking for a new recipe these days, I’m most likely to look online first. If I find one I like and enjoy the results, I keep a copy. I’ve also taken photos of some of my favorite recipes from cookbooks or my notebooks and store them online. It makes it easier to cook for friends while traveling. 

 Many cooks are intuitive and after making something once, never need to use the recipe again. My friend Dave is like that and he cooks delicious meals. I am not one of those people. Even when I am riffing, I will glance at the original recipe and go from there. I think I have too much engineer in me, and that sometimes restricts my creative processes. That is OK though. I have my cookbooks and online recipes. Neither are going away and if you make it to Rohan Farm, I promise you a delicious meal and suitable beverage to go with it.

Addendum:

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with a recovering addict? Put it in the comments, or send it to me at: mnhall@gmail.com

It turns out I’ve blogged more about cooking than I realized. Here are a few recipes and stories from those cookbooks and files:

• If a skipjack captain gives you a seafood recipe, you d@mned well better pay attention  Here’s a story about Captain Stanley and his recipe for soft shell crabs: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/soft-shell-crabs/
• The weather turned cold. This is the perfect time to make a 3 Day Beef Daube and I’m on a mission. Daube is a French word that translates to stew: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/making-a-three-day-beef-daube/
• The oldest recipe in my collection is for Erbseneintopf – a German Split Pea Soup. It came from the Stars and Stripes newspaper in Germany in ‘82: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2022/02/02/erbseneintopf/
• When we lived in Germany, Ochsenschwanzsuppe (Oxtail soup) was a classic you rarely see here. It’s an OMG wonderful dish I’ve made a couple of times now: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2023/11/27/ochsenschwanzsuppe/
• This story is about Snooks, and his famous Lasagna. When I tasted Snooks’ Lasagna as a kid, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven:  https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/snooks-and-his-lasagna/ )
• Indian Chicken Curry – Cumin comfort food: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/cooking-curry-cumin-comfort-food/
• Mom’s Potato salad – Pickles or no Pickles: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/potato-salad-pickles-or-no-pickles/
• The Holidays and Mom’s Scalloped oysters: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/moms-scalloped-oysters/ 
• Dad’s Cranberries. Thanksgiving, that truly American holiday, is approaching and started me to thinking about Dad and his Cranberry Sauce. It’s filled with bourbon, cranberries, shallots, orange zest and memories: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2023/11/14/cranberries-a-la-dad/
• It was visceral.  One moment I was taking a bite of a tuna salad sandwich made using Julia Child’s recipe. The next instant I was a little boy sitting with Grandma Grubaugh at her kitchen table:  https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2023/02/07/tuna-salad-with-julia-and-grandma-grubaugh/
• Grandma Grubaugh and her delicious date nut bread: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/04/grandmas-date-nut-bread/
• Chili recipes certainly invite debate and argument. Here’s Nightcrawler’s recipe:  https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/03/nightcrawlers-chili/
• We recently bought a new gas grill. What would be the first meal to come off the grill – Steaks? Brats? Burgers? Chicken?  It turned out to be a Pizza Margherita: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/03/pizza-on-the-grill/
• The phrase “Tasty Tongue Tacos” rolls off the tongue quite nicely (pun intended). These tacos are the second thing I have to thank the Coronavirus for: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/tasty-tongue-tacos/
• Making Horseradish Sauce with friends: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/making-horseradish-sauce/