Do you remember your first cookery book?

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Do you remember your first cookery book?

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1madtyke
Nov 20, 2008, 9:58 pm

My first cookery book was a college text book which I got when I first stated my training as a chef. The bookwas Practical Cookery by Ceserani & Kinton and was pretty much the standard text book in England at the time. I dont have that copy as it took quite a hammering in the kitchens I worked in but have a later edition (still to be addedd to my library). Do you remember your first?

2LA12Hernandez
Nov 20, 2008, 11:20 pm

When I was 8, my mom ordered the "Fun to Cook Book" from Carnation for me. We made everything in that book and then I moved up to "adult" cook books.
As each of my sons turned 8 they learned to cook from the same book. Now I'm just waiting for grandkids.

3Neverwithoutabook
Nov 20, 2008, 11:48 pm

My first cookbook was the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook given to me for Christmas by my then boyfriend. I still have the cookbook although much battered and well-used. Every year I think I should update with a new one, but the old one is like a dear old friend and I'd hate to get rid of it.

4wester
Editado: Nov 21, 2008, 6:07 am

It was a childrens cookbook, I think I got it when I was about 10. I don't remember the title, but I remember it featured chicken with pineapple, and "mushrooms" made from eggs and tomatoes. It was white and hardcover.

edit: I think it was called vandaag kook ik, "today I cook".

5MrsLee
Nov 21, 2008, 12:03 pm

My first was a beginner's cookbook which I got through 4-H. I was so excited to make some of the things for my family. Then my grandmother gave me three fancy cookbooks when I graduated from high school (Asian cuisine, fish and another I can't remember, shame on me). They were lovely and inspiring, but kind of beyond me at the time. I also got a Joy of Cooking. The cookbook I have used the most though, I received for my wedding, Sunset's Easy Basics for Good Cooking. That really taught me how to cook.

6MarthaJeanne
Nov 21, 2008, 12:27 pm

I have a copy of Fannie Farmer that I made notes in in college. Next was a health food cookbook from before that was a big thing. It was second hand given by the mother of a girl I babysat for. Then I moved out the US and bought Joy of Cooking. I have more recent editions of both Joy and Fannie, but still use the old ones. What will I do when they fanally give out? I really don't like the newer ones.

7pollysmith
Nov 22, 2008, 9:25 am

My mother gave me her Betty Crocker cookbook when I left home. It was filled with lots a notes and tips she had jotted in the margins.

8kerrlm
Nov 22, 2008, 10:30 am

Wow, do I ever! Home Ec class as a freshman required Better Homes and gardens cookbook. I remember running home with it. My mom and I pored over it. She did not have one cookbook, only scraps of paper with "receipts" on them. Cooking then was meat, potatoes and lots of canned vegetables. Now home ec is no longer taught in most schools.

9suslyn
Editado: Nov 22, 2008, 12:42 pm

A Peanut's cookbook, oh 5"x5" or so, cartoons and all. Has the best I've ever tasted lemon squares in it. Not sure if it was Mine, mine. Could have been my sister's or even mom's. We weren't really big on individual property, but it was the first one that spoke to me personally :) It still lives at mom's.

A lot more interesting than mom's then-fav Recipes for a small planet and others of that ilk!

10missylc
Editado: Nov 22, 2008, 12:57 pm

I started using two around the same time when I was little -- my mom started letting me peruse her well-worn copy Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls and then there was another one I remember ordering from Troll Books around the same time. It was a thin paperback with cartoon illustrations. One recipe that sticks out was a sandwich with different ingredients made into a face on top (slices of pimento-stuffed olives for eyes, etc.). Wish I could remember the name of that one.

11stephmo
Nov 23, 2008, 5:36 pm

I had a Fannie Farmer cookbook too! Well, not the health version, the 70s version my mother had that became "mine" when I developed this obsession with learning to make Lemon Meringue pie. Why? I have no idea, as I've never been much of a dessert maker since. I just remember being 9 and really wanting to know how to make a lemon meringue pie.

I thought thickening anything with cornstarch was akin to magic. :)

12lilithcat
Nov 23, 2008, 6:17 pm

Indeed I do, though I can't recall the name. It was designed for children, and had lots of black-and-white photos. I vaguely recall that the cover was red and white. My favorite thing to make from it was baking powder biscuits. My parents actually got a stove with two ovens so I could bake in one of them.

The odd thing is that it's my sister who's the professional chef, and she didn't do much cooking as a kid.

13TLCrawford
Nov 24, 2008, 9:01 am

After my divorce my little sister gave me a copy of Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen. I don’t know why she did this. I was already very familiar with kitchens; in our family the men cook as much or more than the women. Since then, and with wife number two, our collection has grown. We passed Help! on to my stepdaughter.

14Moomin_Mama
Nov 24, 2008, 9:23 am

When I was little my mum had a folder full of hand-written recipes and those she'd torn out of magazines and booklets - I fell in love with the folder but it was lost years ago. But it was that folder which is responsible for my love of cooking. My mum was never a great cook and the recipes reflected this, and to this day I love simple recipes and don't make enough effort to seek out unusual ingredients, although I'm a lot more adventurous than mum was!

Now in my 30s I've tried loads of stuff but only ever seem to remake the simpler dishes - I'm a great believer in getting a lot of taste for mimimum effort and will only stick to a more complicated dish if the results are absolutely amazing. And yes, those recipes I've loved over the years are now stashed in a folder of my own, either typed, handwritten, or torn from magazines. Maybe one day it will inspire a love of food in one of my children, neices and nephews.

15suslyn
Nov 24, 2008, 11:40 am

#14 My mom has one too. It inspires a lot of awe :) I prefer her two big & long boxes of handwritten 3x5s -- I want her to stay here with me forever (on earth), but I'd really love to have that when she goes if it's before me. Might have to battle that one out with my sis thought :)

16suslyn
Nov 24, 2008, 11:40 am

#14 My mom has one too. It inspires a lot of awe :) I prefer her two big & long boxes of handwritten 3x5s -- I want her to stay here with me forever (on earth), but I'd really love to have that when she goes if it's before me. Might have to battle that one out with my sis though :) edited for typos

17karenmarie
Nov 24, 2008, 11:46 am

My first cookbook, all my own, was Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. It's still floating around my mother's somewhere, but I bought one for my daughter several years ago. She doesn't use it, but watches me cook and helps me. We're going to make her a cookbook of all the recipes I use.

18Moomin_Mama
Nov 24, 2008, 1:52 pm

>16 suslyn::

My mum's wasn't awe-inspiring as such, just lovely and tactile, plus with her ever-so-simple tastes (she was an appalling cook but she's improved with age), it was a ready made cookbook for kids.

I'm guessing your mum is quite a cook.

19DromJohn
Nov 25, 2008, 12:01 pm

Joy of Cooking probably the first week or two after I took a leave of absence from college in 1976.

20ctay122
Nov 25, 2008, 12:58 pm

Mine was the Silver Palate Cookbook. I don't have it any longer, I'm sure I sold it at a yard sale years and years ago.
Now I have close to 500 and I can't part with any of them!

21sarahemmm
Dic 8, 2008, 6:07 am

My mother had the Radiation Cookery Book and a couple of Elizabeth David's books. She was at home full time and cooked from scratch every day, including lunch for us children and baked bread twice a week. I think the first complete meal I made was Welsh Rarebit for supper, for me, my parents and my friend Johnathan, at age 9. I cooked the first family Sunday lunch at 12 (roast, veg, gravy, baked pie and a milk pudding). Until I went to uni, I always referred to Mum's Radiation book, but I got a copy of Katharine Whitehorn's Cooking in a Bedsitter. Such a great book - I used it for years, until I made the mistake of lending to someone and never got it back.

22ejj1955
Dic 21, 2008, 4:59 pm

I think it was my mother's Joy of Cooking; I now have three copies of this book. But the first things I learned to make were sweets, of course, especially the lemon meringue pie from the side of the lemon pudding box--I got really good at it. In home ec they taught us white sauce for tuna noodle casserole and I still make it, mostly for creamed onions at holidays.

23mcglothlen
Dic 28, 2008, 9:20 am

My first was A Campbell Cookbook: Cooking with Soup.

This is copied and pasted from the review I wrote for its entry here: "This was the first cookbook I ever owned. I'm not convinced that I have the edition date right but I doubt that matters. I have a little list in front of everything I cooked from it. I'm thinking I was 11 when I started cooking from it. I was so grownup.

I haven't tasted anything from it since my early teens. The recipes look pretty bilious to me now."

To be completely honest, the broccoli/cheese casserole still sits comfortably in my memory. I'd probably eat it, secretly, with pleasure. Don't tell anybody...

24tkraft
Ene 8, 2009, 9:30 pm

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book was one of my first cookbooks. The pictures were weird and fascinating, and there were some really good cookies in it. I was extremely excited when they re-released it a few years ago since the original copy that my mom had was 30+ years old.

25AMQS
Ene 17, 2009, 12:20 am

I have a lovely little one called The Pooh Cookbook that I received when I was about 3 or 4. I never considered, until I read someone's comment here on LT, what an unfortunate title it has. I also had an international children's cookbook called Meals of Many Lands, which my daughter has now. I remember making a stroganoff from that book that was so awful we called it stroganot, and also Danish Cream, which was so delicious we still make it, 30 years later. I also had another one called The Lip Smackin' Joke Crackin' Cookbook. Sounds dreadful now... could explain why my family no longer possesses it.

The first adult cookbooks I had were The New Basics and The Colorado Cache.

26JoonieM
Ene 17, 2009, 12:13 pm

#23 I think my copy of A Campbell Cookbook fell apart from overuse. I bought Mushroom soup by the case! Partially put my husband thru school on the Tomato Soup version of Porcupine Meatballs -- a pound of ground meat would go forever . . . thanks for the memories!

27WalnutSpinney
Ene 24, 2009, 3:29 pm

#9 That sounds like the same book I have: Peanuts Cook Book. It was my first cookbook and I ordered it from a Scholastic's Weekly Reader booklist.

I still make those lemon squares. They're called Lucy's Luscious Lemon Squares and are DH's favorite.

28LA12Hernandez
Feb 14, 2009, 1:47 am

I have the Peanuts Cook Book and I love those lemon squares. I really need to make some. Thanks for the reminder.

29karen1109
Feb 14, 2009, 10:42 am

My first cook book was actually a baking book, "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts." I received it as a Christmas gift from a long-time family friend. I was probably about 11 at the time and I must have been expressing an interest in learning how to bake and she, very thoughtfully, gave me the perfect present. I remember being thrilled with the gift. The first recipe I made was the black and white pound cake, which came out really good, but then I didn't bake again for a long time. Our kitchen wasn't very well equipped for baking and my mom wasn't, unfortunately, very nurturing about this fledging interest of mine. So my need to bake ended up being suppressed for years - but I always kept that book. Now it's years later, and I've been baking with a passion for quite a few years now and I even upgraded that original gift to the hard-cover version.

30kerrlm
Feb 15, 2009, 11:33 pm

Karen, I hope you have a first edition. It is probably very valuable. Maida was daughter of Gabriel Heater, a famous newscaster. Maida was a much respected culinary writer. You are lucky to own this book.

31kd9
Feb 16, 2009, 4:39 pm

Like many of you, the first cookbook that I remember reading was Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls including that revolting recipe for Candle Salad using a banana and pineapple. The first recipe I remember making on my own was Swedish Meatballs, probably from one of my mother's cookbooks. My mother was a great, adventurous cook for company. She had a charter subscription for Gourmet. I still remember her flailing around in the kitchen putting the spun sugar on the Crocembouche dessert pyramid. But our everyday meals were quite plain -- a lot of tuna noodle casserole made with Campbell's soup.

The first cookbook I bought on my own was McCall's Cook Book which was the only cook book available at my college bookstore at the time. It's not the greatest general cookbook, but remains an old favorite.

32janemarieprice
Feb 17, 2009, 10:22 am

My first cooking was mostly recipes from my mom's cookbook in her head. But the first cookbook I got was River Road Recipes and it is still one of my favorites.

33shyflea
Editado: Feb 22, 2009, 9:40 am

The Better Homes & Garden Cookbook, 1953 edition, original from my Mom after she passed away in '91.

Next ones were the huge binders for cooking, baking (all recipes adjusted for high altitude cooking in Denver), and wine I received when I started Culinary School in '05.

Over the last 4 years I have come to collect almost a 1000, but the first ones are still my favorites and sentimental, as I go back in time when I use them.

34aynar
Abr 9, 2009, 3:15 pm

I think mine was Sweet Things (Usborne First Cookbooks); almost definitely a present from Mam. Or Santa.

35Hope97
Feb 29, 2012, 3:10 pm

When I was little I always loved my mum's 500 hundred recipes book so when I was lold enough to start learning how to cook she bought me a 500 recipes book of my own which I now love so much!

36kerrlm
Mar 1, 2012, 9:08 am

I certainly can remember! In high school home-ec Better Homes and Gardens was the required text. I took it home every night because my Mom didn`t have a cookbook--only snips of recipes. This-combined with 4-H recipes, made me very popular with my Dad and siblings. The good food flowed.