If you think your cookbook collection is impressive — think again. Fritz Blank’s library of 10,000 cookbooks and other related materials has moved to the University of Pennsylvania.
It’s an amazing collection of items ranging from old handwritten receipes to signed menus.
Looking over a number of the posts that I’ve made, you could easily draw the conclusion that I enjoy food. A lot. It’s true, and I am an unabashed foodie in training, and consequently my cookbook shelf gets heavier and heavier.
One of the more recent purchases was Pie Pie Pie by John Carroll. It’s a great little book that focuses narrowly in on the wonders of pie. I love pie*. In all forms and varieties. You can’t go wrong with a tender flakey pastry crust and luscious fruit filling, and Carroll surveys a great selection of these, both classic and newer twists on the pie. My only quibbles would be it would have been nice to see some savory pies, and more photos of the less familar pies. Other than that … if you love pie, or just getting into pie, it is worth having a look at Pie Pie Pie.
* I was listening to the Good Food podcast which had an interview with Al Elia, who celebrates Piemas, which is a meal of only pies (and pie-related foods). How did I not invent this? Sheer genius.
As I have posted numerous times about food and drink, it may come as no surprise that I enjoy that part of life. And being a designer here at AbeBooks, I also appreciate the visual. So when the two collide it’s a marvelous thing…
There is a wonderful Flickr pool of vintage cookbooks. It really is a treat to see all the designs and recipes of days gone by. The style both in terms of the food, the preparation, the ingredients, and the designs all evoke that retro feel.
Now will future chefs and collectors look upon our contemporary glossy, food-porn styled books and molecular gastronomy with that same amusement? Very likely.
FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, I think this has to be everyone’s favourite part of the song as it’s where we can really belt it out!  What’s the only thing your true love will love more than gold rings?
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
It’s a special GOLD souvenir edition (wait for it) in a FIVE-RING binder! This edition commemorates the sale of 10 million BHG’s cookbooks.
I open a couple of Canadian papers this morning and - lo and behold - instantly spot a couple of book articles. The Globe and Mail travel section has a piece on New York’s bookstores while the Vancouver Sun looks at the best cookbooks around. The Sun article also features Natalie Maclean’s Red and White and Drunk All Over. She was interviewed at AbeBooks.com earlier this year and her book is definitely worth a read if you want to learn more about wine without being bowled over by jargon.
If you’re not sure because you’ve never tried them, now you can! Yesterday’s edition of our local newspaper in Victoria tipped me off to a new recipe collection, the Green Eggs & Ham Cookbook. I recalled my childhood excitement over the silliness of Dr Seuss and such a meal but then I became intrigued - what do green eggs and ham taste like? Would I, could I in a house? I guess I’ll have to get the book and try out the recipe to know for sure!
And lo and behold, while looking up the Green Eggs & Ham Cookbook, I discovered that there is also a recently released Mary Poppins recipe book, Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story. This book cleverly presents recipes as a story of a week where Mary Poppins goes beyond a spoonful of sugar and teaches the Banks children how to cook. Â
These two books have piqued my interest to see what other childrens’ books have become inspiration for cookery books!Â
Author Michael Ruhlman has a new(ish) blog where he talks about food, chefs and that whole world.
According to Publishers Weekly, some shops are having problems keeping up with the demand for You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz.Â
Somehow over the last couple of months I’ve managed to purchase seven new cookbooks. I am not really sure how it happened. Perhaps it was the changing seasons made me think of comfort foods and bread baking… nothing really beats home baked bread on cold autumn days (and four of the new books are baking books).
It all started out with trying to find the excellent (and almost required reading for baking students) The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz which lead to his wife’s companion book The Village Baker’s Wife. As copies of both of these books keep rising in price as they age, now seemed like a good time to pick them up before becoming out of reach. So, why did I make the effort and spend the money on books, rather than just turning to the internet for collecting recipes? Shouldn’t I just treat the collective knowledge of millions of users as my recipe box?
Probably, despite working on computers for hours on end, working at a “dot-com” company, and living a wired life — when it comes to cooking, I remain old school. I tend to trust a (good) cookbook in terms of quality of the instructions and end product. I have faith that the recipe underwent testing and has a history behind it. This is certainly true of both the Ortiz’s books, they have spent over 20 years baking breads and pastries, and this knowledge pours out of each page as they explain techniques and ingredients (26 pages on crossiants!).
I look forward to diving into both of the books more and learning as much as I can, spending hours in the kitchen covered in flour. If you are a baker or know one, these are a most welcome addition to the shelf.