Vegan MoFo: Cookbook Whores of the World, Unite!

Hello, my name is Sylvan, and I'm a compulsive cookbook collector.

Hey, some people collect stamps; some people collect spoons; hell, some people juggle geese.  I'm certainly not as crazed as some people I've met with hundreds of cookbooks; I have, I believe at present, around fifty, most of which are vegetarian or vegan.  They take up an entire four-foot shelf in my apartment and if I have my way they'll be spilling over to another shelf soon. 

I try to buy used cookbooks whenever I can, but there are some authors I have to rush out and buy as soon as their newest titles hit the stores.  I love reading cookbooks from cover to cover, marking interesting recipes with post-it flags, and drinking in the writer's perspective on food and cooking through the tone of her written voice.  The best cookbooks are a slice of personality as well as an instruction manual; they convey more than just a how-to.  They teach me something about food, or a kind of cuisine, or they at least make me laugh.

Problem is I don't use my cookbooks like I should.  There are a handful that I've worn practically to shreds, whose pages are spattered with cake batter and falling out of the binding.  Some are littered with handwritten notes (in pencil) telling future-me whether or not the recipe worked, what modifications I made, what I'd change next time. 

I also have a weakness for vintage cookbooks with hideous food and sexist overtones; what can I say? They make me laugh.  My favorite of these is called How to Keep Him (After You've Caught Him).  The front cover shows a cartoon man in a suit who has been lassoed by his wife, who now plies him with roast

chicken.  When I compare that to the images of modern veg cookbook authors like Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Sarah Kramer, I am reminded that nowadays, women don't have to be chained to the stove to please a clueless man; everyone can learn to cook, and we have more options than ever before (a double-edged sword given the rampant health problems that stem from fast food factory-farming culture).  The nice thing about scary old cookbooks is that they're usually cheap; I find them on the clearance racks at Half Price and at library sales for a dollar or two.  I also love the little booklets put out by food companies full of weird recipes using their products.  "Creative Cooking with Velveeta" is my current favorite.

I even have a vintage vegetarian cookbook--if you thought all those canned chip beef and tomato aspic recipes were bad, you should see what passes for food in a 70s veg cookbook.  

What I've been trying to do lately is compile a sort of handwritten database of all the recipes I want to try from my books, organized by cuisine or type of dish with the recipe name, book title, and page number.  I'm hoping it'll encourage me to try new things and do more with my collection than just look at the pretty pictures.  Once a recipe is tried and tested, I add it to my official Book of Feasts, aka the big blue binder of doom with fun fonts and page protectors.

(It's safe to assume I haven't cooked from the vintage books.  They're fun to read, but most of their recipes are pretty repulsive.  Maybe later this month I'll post some recipes from that Vegetarian one--it's hilarious.)

Here are some lists, because I love lists:

Cookbooks I Could Not Do Without

1. Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
2. Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, ibid.
3. Veganomicon, ibid.
4. Quick-Fix Vegetarian by Robin Robertson
5. Vegan Express by Nava Atlas
6. My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky

My Favorite Food Reference Books

1. I'm Just Here for More Food by Alton Brown
2. On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
3. Laxmi's Vegetarian Kitchen by Laxmi Hiremath
4. The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer et al.

Cookbooks I Can't Wait to Buy (or have already purchased but not yet used)

1. Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm
2. Urban Vegan by Dynise Balcavage
3. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
4. The Indian Vegan Kitchen: More Than 150 Quick and Healthy Homestyle Recipes by Madhu Gadia
5. Good Eats: the Early Years by Alton Brown
6. The Flavor Bible by Karen Page
7. The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet
   by Alicia Silverstone 

My Weirdo Vintage Cookbook Collection (small but growing)

1. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
2. Great American Brand-Name Recipes
3. The Southern Living Cookbook
4. The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals
5. Wonderful Ways to Prepare Vegetarian Dishes
6. Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook
7. Betty Crocker's New Good and Easy Cookbook
8. Creative Cooking with Velveeta (booklet)
9. How to Keep Him (After You've Caught Him)
10. Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies
11. Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Bread

So...what cookbooks do you turn to time and again?

Comments

[mollyjade]

I just got Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food," and I'm loving it. It makes my geeky food-loving heart happy.

[jeni treehugger]

I would love to be a cook book whore but I'm not quite there yet. I am, however, working on it!

[caro]

I love Jennifer Raymond's" The Peaceful Palate", which is my threadbare, tattered and torn cookbook but when i first started cooking veggie it was" Tassajara Cooking" Edward Espe Brown. I like to get in bed and take all my cookbooks with me (and the cat)

[Geeky white girl Joan]

I have an obscene amount of cookbooks too. I can't even pick favorites because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings!

[sheree]

I love cookbooks too. There is usually one in the powder room for all to enjoy! I used to think I must be weird for reading cookbook, but figured of course it isn't. Guys sit around reading automotive books all the time. ;o)

[AutumnRain]

I thought I was the only one who read a cookbook from cover to cover just for the fun of it. I have way to many cookbooks to pick a favorite. By the way, I love lists too, and your blog!

[Laurel]

Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

[Brandi]

Vegan Express is a must, I also enjoy The Students Go Vegan Cookbook because the recipes are quick and delish.
I'm not sure I've ever tried reading a cook book cover to cover so I will give that an effort some time. I tend to try a new recipe each week though so I sift through them to see what catches my eye.
The first Vegan cookbook I owned was Vegan Planet and it's still my favorite though I think.

[Sara Beth]

I like the silly New Farm Vegetarian Coobook. Simple recipes with fun pictures and drawings. Or is that the weird 70s veg cookbook you speak of? I'd love to hear more about that one.

[karmalily]

I love Vegan Soul Food Kitchen and Veganomicon. I also love Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, though I don't eat raw nearly as much as I'd like to.

[Thistle313]

Hmmm... The one I use the most is James Beard's American Cookery. But my favorite vegetarian cookbooks remain Anna Thomas' Vegetarian Epicure and Vegetarian Epicure Book Two

[NC]

<< I love reading cookbooks from cover to cover, marking interesting recipes with post-it flags, and drinking in the writer's perspective on food and cooking through the tone of her written voice. >>

Then you're going to LOVE "How to Eat" by Nigella Lawson. "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" is also a fabulous read.