My cookbooks and Associated Recipe Collections
A walk around my cookbooks and associated recipe collections. They are many and varied and can be found in almost every room in the house.
Hooray for Dom of Belleau Kitchen. He’s given us all a nice easy Random Recipe challenge this month and it’s a fun one too. We get to have a peek at bloggers’ cookbook collections. That is my kind of fun!
Life has been particularly busy this month and with all the bakes I made for my birthday, I have quite a number of posts to write. So I was particularly delighted to find we didn’t need to cook anything this month. No recipes you cry? No indeed, it’s time to find out exactly where we pick our random recipes from.
My Cookbooks
My cookbooks are scattered throughout the house. I’m a librarian by training and I would love to neatly order them in one place. But that’s just not how it is. Over the years I’ve acquired many many books, but because of space issues I’ve tried to have a one in, one out policy. Since starting the blog however, this policy has gone out of the window, unlike the books.
Recently, we’ve had some new shelves put in to house the overload. And guess what? They are already full so I’m not sure what happens next!
Many of my older cookbooks are in the kitchen. They have been with me a long time and some are really good friends.
Our newest shelves, just above our computer. Most, but not all, of my baking books are on the bottom shelf. CT has claimed most of top shelf.
It should come as no surprise that I had a chocolate cookbook collection. Most, but not all of them, reside on a rickety bamboo shelf thingy that I bought about 20 years ago. It resides in our sitting room. If you’d like to see some reviews of these, head over to:
My newest cookbook, Biscuit by Miranda Gore Browne. It was a birthday present from CT and it sits on my bedside table. He chose well.
A History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell. It looks to be a really interesting book and is currently awaiting a review post. This one is also sitting on my bedside table.
A few of my food magazines lying around the place that I’ve managed to squeeze into a box.
A few more of my cookbooks. I’ve thieved some of CT’s shelf space on the upstairs landing.
Books about the politics of food – real food & sustainable farming.
Is That It?
Well sort of. I haven’t dared photograph the piles of magazines nor all the cuttings and scraps lying around the place. It’s high time I got to grips with them and should really file them neatly away. Anyway, here ends the tour of my cookbooks. I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at some of them.
Since first writing this post, I’ve moved house and acquired many more. But there’s a whole cookbook review category here on Tin and Thyme, so if you’re interested in reading some of the cookbook reviews I’ve done or am yet to do, get clicking.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you have any of the same cookbooks as me, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Love seeing all your books and where they live! I too have totally run out of bookshelf space. But I’m not stopping buying the books any time soon, or the magazines….
Wow you have lots of books. I’m using this challenge as justification to allow my book collection to keep expanding! Not sure the OH agrees with me though…
Well it’s good to keep finding new excuses – one of them might just work!
It”s knowing where to expand to next. A great collection Choclette 🙂
Yes indeed. I’m hoping for a new house 😉
Good lord!! You have a heck of a lot of cookbooks!!! I’ve got soo many to go to get anywhere near your collection!
*tuts* Rookie me!!!
He he Kat, I thought I had rather a lot until I started seeing some of the others!
What a collection! So many interesting-looking titles there, and I will be interested to see what you think of the Sitwell book. I got some great ones for my birthday too…
I’ve just posted the Hundred Recipes. I’m really enjoying it – lots of interesting stories and facts and a great book for dipping in and out of. In fact very short chapters that I can manage to read before falling into an exhausted sleep at night.
Dom is a genius with this month’s RR. I love being a nosey parker and comparing my cookbook collection. I’ve spied short and sweet in almost every entry I’ve seen so far! My books are all over the place which will be a nightmare to photograph. Hmm.. perhaps a quick tidying up is in order! Great collection of books and exactly as I would imagine it 🙂
Yes this has been a great RR Ros, I’m a nosey parker too and have really been enjoying taking a peek at various collections. haven’t seen yours yet though. Since you mentioned it, I’ve been noticing Short & Sweet everywhere too.
Your collection is just how I imagined it to be…interesting…spread about the house, organised and diverse…loved seeing it all. x
Thank you Sue, you always say the nicest of things – at least when you’ve not got your wicked queen hat on!
Oh I see you have the new Biscuit cookbook. I just read about it in the newspaper. Is it any good?
Hi Debs. I’ve really been enjoying the book, there are lots of interesting sounding recipes and tips and techniques. I’ve only made the blackcurrant and white chocolate biscuits so far – see my previous post.
My cookbooks are out of control! At least your librarian mind is still grouping them together, but mine are tucked into all sorts of nooks and crannys. 🙂
I long ago stopped reading food magazines – there just wasn’t enough space for all the paper! 🙂
Ha ha, Celia. I bet you can lay your hands on any of your books with out having them desperately organised. It’s very hard not to just keep collecting. I’m with you on the magazine. I haven’t bought one for years, but the odd one or two seem to find their way into my house despite this ‘-)
I like your scattered approach but I see some logic there too. (I didn’t dare take a pic of my disorganised pile of scraps and cuttings either). I’m very pleased you’ve abandoned your one in one out policy. I worked in libraries for a few years in the 1980s but since I gave it up I’ve adopted a more emotional approach to the ordering of books. It’s harder to find things, but I feel better about it.
Well I hadn’t guessed that you’d worked in libraries too Phil. There is some logic in my placement – shelf size, how often I use books and when I got them all comes into it. But I won’t be happy until they are properly organised!
Hee hee. Do you know exactly where all of them are ar do you have to go from place to place when looking for a particular book?
Sadly, I know where they all are Lou- most of the time!
I have really enjoyed this month’s RR challenge because I’ve gotten to check out so many different collections of cookbooks (and how they’re organized and stored). I must admit, I do keep almost all of my cookbooks in one spot and tucked away – there’s the neat-freak part of me that just won’t shut up until I put them away again 😉 But you also have way more cookbooks than I and clicking each picture to get ideas…
It’s a fun challenge JW. I used to be a neat freak and it’s still there lurking inside me waiting for the right opportunity – one day!
I love this challenge too because I love peeking at others’ bookshelves – esp the cookbooks. I have felt a bit shy of joining in because my books are a mess but maybe I should. I am jealous of your extra shelves. I need some too. But they do fill up so quickly. So many great cookbooks out there
Johanna, oh do do a post. It’s so interesting seeing what others do with their books AND what books they’ve got.
THANK goodness there is someone like me in this RR challenge! I won’t feel so embarrassed about showing my scattered books and magazines now! LOVELY to peek inside chocolate HQ! Karen
Ha ha, had to clear up all those chocolate wrappers before I could take any photos Karen. Looking forward to seeing some of your books and where you keep them 🙂
I love your collection of books and agree that it’s impossible to have enough space to keep all cook books together. I would love my own little cook book library , maybe once the children have left home that could be a future plan!
Well Laura, there’s nothing quite like forward planning 😉
You have lots of books! They don’t just have recipes written in them , cookery books also carry memories. I had my first cookery book at 15 and I am still making many cake’s recipes from that book.
Great post!
Thanks Alida, you are so right. Cookbooks are a lot more than just a bunch of recipes. I still have some of my early books too.
that’s quite a collection C!… I love that you had to have new shelves built to house some of it… that is dedication… I have so much enjoyed peeking into peoples homes and seen their collections, it has been quite an eye-opener and a revelation too and so interesting to see the kind of books people have (once all the Nigella’s are filtered away) such as your books on the politics of food… really lovely… and thanks so much for entering x
Yes, it’s amazing how many seem to have snuck up on me without me realising just what was going on! I seem to be sadly lacking on the Nigella front with only one of hers to show off. Great challenge again Dom, thank you.
I’m enjoying the challenge too….It’s been really good fun. Wow what a lot of books you’ve got…that’s what I call a cookery book stash. So many that I haven’t seen before…I’d love to have a good read of them.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Debby. I think I’d have an awful lot more if I’d kept all of them! I’ve had a few cookery book tours so far and am looking forward to more 🙂
I’m really enjoying this month’s theme! Thank you for showing us around your brilliant collection of cookbooks!
Thanks Kate, it’s another inspired idea by the brilliant Dom 😉