Famous Death Row Last Meals
Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer, And Dangerous
I'm not gonna lie -- I'm rough on my books. There's a school of thought treating the physical manifestation of the written word as a sacred object, and I fully respect that. However I, for one, shove an old copy of "How to Cook a Wolf" into the bottom of my bag with the notion that at some point it'll sustain me on an overextended subway ride. I read "The Devil in the Kitchen" in the bathtub, A.J. Liebling over a lunchtime reuben, and good gosh a-mighty are my cookbooks covered in schmutz.
But hey, it's thematic goo; "Molto Italiano" is spattered in tomato sauce, "Pie" -- seen above -- is all a-smear in lard, "Charleston Receipts" in Otranto Club Punch and "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" slicked with a fine mist of rendered rind bacon. To my mind, these books are being honored, used, proven. Should these books at some point have a subsequent owner, they'll know what's been tested, made and made again.
Still, am I dishonoring the object or the authors when I'm getting the books all mucky? I posed the question to Matthew Lee (whose book "The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking" I've doused in all manner of pickling brine), and he noted that he and his co-author, his brother Ted have debated pre-mucking-up copies of their book to nix the blank canvas factor. The recipes therein are warm of heart and humble of origin, so it's not out of character, but would, say, a gellan-gumming of Grant Achatz's "Alinea" be a crime against the rather expensive and exceptionally lovely object?
Do you keep your cookbooks in pristine condition, or do you just accept page stains as collateral damage?
12 Common Workout Myths Debunked
Chili's Waitress Fired Over Facebook Post Insulting 'Stupid Cops'
How Kidnapping Suspect Passes Time Behind Bars
Forbidden America: Cold War-Era Map Shows No-Go Zones For Soviet Tourists
Tenants: Stench of Death Makes St. Louis Complex 'Unlivable'
Courtney Stodden Has A Sex Tape
Man Takes Dump In Background Of Instructional Workout Video
Billboard Music Awards: Worst Dressed (or Most Daring?) From Past Red Carpets
Powerball Jackpot Winning Ticket Purchased In Florida
Taylor Swift Q and A: What Does She Splurge on in Las Vegas?
Ricardo Cerezo, Facing Eviction, Finds $4.85 Million Lottery Ticket
Police Investigate Student Shooting Death
HSBC Plans 14,000 More Job Cuts
MIT's cheetah robot runs faster, more efficiently, can carry its own power supply (video)
Radio Host Makes Shocking Claim About Shooting Hillary Clinton
Forever 21 Worker Fired After She Tells Her Traumatic Story
These American Companies Refused To Sign The Bangladesh Safety Accord
River Lost 150 Pounds: 'There Is Hope. Grab Onto It'
LOOK: Dolphins Make Rare Underwater Find
Marine Reunited With Four-Legged Friend
Teen Who Died During Her First Solo Drive May Have Been Texting
PHOTO: Looking Good! Chaz Bono Loses 65 Pounds
PREGNANT!
Kim Kardashian WOWS In Formfitting White Dress
Former OJ Attorney Gives Shocking Testimony
McDonald's Store Owners Fear Fast Food Chain Becoming Too Slow
Guess Which State Boasts The Most Million-Dollar Homes?
Student Shot Dead During Botched Home Invasion
And Your New 'American Idol' Is ...
Victim's Sister To Arias: 'Our Minds Are Permanently Stained'
Hero Hitchhiker Arrested For Allegedly Beating Man To Death
New Leads In Case Of Missing British Girl
3-30-2009 @10:20PM Christy said... I think that the wear and tear on cookbooks should be taken as compliment. Not only do mine bear the schmutz of splatters and sticky fingers, I also write my opinions of the recipes, tips for future reference, changes to quantity or ingredient substitutions in the margins.
Reply
3-30-2009 @6:09PM susteph said... no dishonor! i am a gardener, also, and when i brought a dirt-smeared book on plant propagation in to a book signing, the author was tickled.
Reply
3-30-2009 @6:28PM App said... The way I look at it, the more stained the book, the better it is.
Reply
3-30-2009 @7:06PM Millie said... My favorite cookbook is one that my Mom gave me that she learned to cook with about 30 years ago. Every single page in it is smeared/torn/taped/stained/etc. Funny, the recipes in there that I specifically remember growing up eating are the ones that have the most wear and tear. It gives the book character!
Reply
3-30-2009 @7:40PM Barry said... Mine get stained all the time and I write in them.
That way if a recipe was good but just too something (e.g. "too salty"), I just make a note for the next time I make it I also give them grades (A through F with all the minuses and pluses) and any comments from whomever I shared the food with.
Reply
3-30-2009 @8:05PM rainey Smith said... Having collateral damage is just fine with me -- it will direct future generations to all the best recipes. BUT (big "but") having a database that will pull up recipes from every single source whether I can remember if that great sauce recipe came from a magazine or a book and then which of scores of books is even better.
If I like a recipe, the first thing I do is create a DB entry that has the info to get me right back to the source and then as soon as I can I type the whole recipe in. Recipes from magazines are super easy -- most of them are published online by the publisher or epicurious. They can be imported.
But even if i have to retype a long recipe, it's very much worth it to always be able to retrieve it, to be able to pair a meat technique from one book with the sauce or side dish from another, to be able to copy it and share it & never worry if I've got a typo in an amount I wouldn't necessarily recognize, to take a printout to the grocery store as a shopping list and to print out as many copies of all the family favs as sibs and near and dear may want to have.
It's for sure the DB doesn't have the romance of the book/s but the advantages are mighty and compensating.
Reply
3-30-2009 @9:01PM Gretchen said... I singed my copy of Julia Child's, How to Cook. I was flambeeing at the time. I believe that Julia would be proud.
Reply
3-30-2009 @10:20PM Catherine said... There is a direct correlation between the amount of stains in a cookbook and how good the recipes are. Things fly in my kitchen when I cook - so a cookbook that is often used just gets caught in the melee. I also use my computer for recipes - I try to be neater in that case - but sometimes...
Catherine @ Life In the Micro
www.inthemicro.blogspot.com
Reply
3-30-2009 @10:42PM Kat Kinsman said... Gretchen, I have not even the tiniest doubt that Julia would be proud!
Reply
3-31-2009 @3:12AM ange said... I do try to keep them in pristine condition, but lately, I've made myself a compilation in a three-ring binder. The printed/copied sheets are placed into page protectors that you can then take out of the binder as needed and use, then put back. Keeps all your favs in one spot without trying to remember from which cookbook it originated. Works well for me.
Reply
3-31-2009 @9:21AM alisa said... I definitely agree the sign of a good cookbook is the amount of smudgy fingerprints on the pages. I like the idea of writing in the book to denote a change to a recipe - i haven't done that yet.
I seem to get stuff on my laptop keys as well when i'm trying recipes i find online. Messy is more fun !
theripetomato.wordpress.com
Reply
3-31-2009 @5:14PM vagabondblogger said... If a cookbook doesn't have schmutz on it, or isn't falling apart, then it's not been used. And, I for one, do write changes to the recipes with arrows, bubbles, what have you. I live in Cairo, Egypt and have photocopies and scanned copies of favorite recipes. Most of them have smudges, which just reminds me of how much I (or the family) like that recipe / cookbook.
Reply
3-31-2009 @12:50PM Neeg said... years ago my future wife used my Craig's NYT cookbook and left it on the electric range while cooking.Smoking. Still use it with round marks on the cover, most all my books are stained, marked and written on. 30 years and still married, LOL E
Reply
4-03-2009 @12:01AM Shari said... I love splatters. It shows love.
Reply
4-08-2009 @8:02PM Rachel said... I do have some beautiful books with gorgeous pictures - but they just don't make it into the kitchen, living instead on the coffee table.
My favourites are covered with sauce spatters or are almost translucent from oil drops. When I'm dead and gone my grandchildren will have no trouble working out which books were my favourite.
The torn scraps of paper with notes taken while on the phone to my grandmother and my own scribbled notes as I cook and experiment are the ones most used though!
My favourite cookbooks are the reference kind - the basic foundations on which to build a lifetime of tasting and experimenting. I've written a bit more about my favourites over at http://beyondbeeton.com/weight/4-cookbooks-and-recipe-collections-i-couldnt-do-without and I'd love to know which books other people covet!
Reply