As a teenager, I worked at Waldenbooks, and on September 8, 1978—I dated the bookplate—I used my employee discount on The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two. The author, Anna Thomas, traveled widely in Europe and beyond, then created vegetarian versions of favorite dishes. Opened up my little palate, I’ll guarantee you! We still adore the salad torcoloti, and I used her curry and garam masala blends as the starting point for my own, in the Spice Shop Mysteries.
Actually, the first cookbook I ever bought was probably this copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, my mother’s Christmas wish. There’s no inscription or, oddly, a publication date, but I’m guessing 1976. It lives in my kitchen now, and while I don’t use it much, it isn’t going anywhere for a long time.
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One small selection of my collection |
As for cookbooks in general - they are the reason I decided to write the Cookbook Nook Mysteries. When I stepped into a culinary bookstore and drank in the wondrous array of cookbooks at my fingertips, I fell in lust. That's the moment I knew I had to immerse myself in that world for one of my mysteries.
SHEILA: My mother was a good plain cook--meat, starch and veg, plus dessert--so I grew up knowing the basics, like how to boil water. But my mother's idea of creative cooking was to add Vermouth to whatever meat dish she was making. Her cookbook collection was kind of pitiful: it might have filled one bookshelf. I still have the copy of The Joy of Cooking that she must have gotten when she married.
That was fine, because when I was a child, I was not a courageous eater. I had to separate each of the components of my dinner and consume each of them one at a time. I hated onions and mushrooms, and I never knew what garlic was (although I was fond of artichokes and asparagus, mostly because they were fun to eat). My grandmother, who lived in Manhattan, sometimes took me and my younger sister to lunch in what must have been some nice restaurants, but I have no memories of what I ate there.
It wasn't until I discovered Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking (whose co-author Simone Beck is often forgotten) that I realized what "real" cooking could be like. It was the first cookbook I bought, as a gift to myself when I graduated from college and moved into a small apartment with a kitchen that could fit in a closet. I still say, if you have only one cookbook, get this one. The recipes may have French names, but they work. Julia had a sense of humor and would insert comments like, "this may look curdled, but don't worry--it will smooth out later." Her ingredient proportions were generous, she used herbs liberally, and when she said a dish would serve four or six people, she was right--and they were for normal people with healthy appetites.
I still have that copy, and you can tell which are my favorite recipes by how greasy the pages are. When I married, my husband adopted some of the recipes as well, and still makes them. I even bought two copies (on sale) so I'd have back-up if the first one disintegrated into shreds. I don't know if I would have fallen in love with both cooking and eating if I hadn't found Julia Child.
BTW, we named our daughter Julia. Okay, maybe not solely for The French Chef, but that first Julia was in the back of my mind. And now my daughter makes croissants for a chain of coffee shops, and is learning to bake bread in large quantities. So maybe it rubbed off.

I quickly came to hate cooking but I did like to laugh and was good at that. Eventually I turned to Peg Bracken's popular (at the time) I Hate to Cook Book, a small and hilarious volume published in 1960. There were enough 'keepers' in those pages to save me from daily mortification. Bracken was like having a friend in the kitchen: she didn't mind a trick or two and she was always ready for a joke. The I Hate to Cook Book is still going strong and was reissued for its 50th Anniversary: it even has a Facebook Page!
After nearly fifty years, I still have my original I Hate to Cook and still make a few of the recipes. Unfortunately, in the process I began to like cooking and then was forced to invest in more ambitious and heavier cookbooks like Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I never did master the art of French cooking, but thanks to the wit of Peg Bracken I learned to find the fun in the kitchen. I did not name my daughter Peg, but you will notice I am still hanging around with another Peg who can be very funny.
A few years back, I decided to include the battered little blue book in a box headed for Goodwill. But at the last minute, I realized there would never be a good reason to get rid of it. We keep our friends!
PEG: Looks like Sheila and I both learned to cook from Julia Child and Simone Beck! I got a cookbook for a wedding present (1974) called Make It Now, Bake It Later. One recipe was for a casserole that included white bread and tiny canned shrimp. Enough said!
KRISTA: Mary Jane, that's such a cute story. I never heard of that cookbook! My first cookbooks were from a collection that my mom bought at the grocery store. They came out one at a time, and she bought one every month. She had all of Julia Child's books, but they didn't have many pictures, which was very important to me as a kid. I read cookbooks by photo, not by recipe. I looked for those old cookbooks in my mom's house the other day but I fear they're long gone so I don't even know who published them.
LUCY: Your stories are so much fun ladies! Sheila, my mother cooked like yours, only not well. She didn't like desserts either--her idea of a company dessert recipe was red grapes in sour cream! Cooking for 6 after working all day was a chore, and kids underfoot did not help. So I didn't learn much about cooking growing up. But I did inherit her copy of The Joy of Cooking, and I would still have it if a puppy hadn't eaten the cover off. And then some Florida roaches began to nibble the pages, and that book became history. I still love the cookbook, though, and use it as a starting point for lots of recipes. Thanks, Mom!
CLEO: Like some of you out there, I come from a tradition of a little bit of this, a pinch of that--and a whole lot of garlic! My mom and her sister (who lived with us) were born in Italy and learned to cook from the women in their family. They had 3 x 5 cards with their handwritten notes, clipped items from newspapers, and tried out recipes printed on food packaging, but there were no cookbooks that I can recall.
Dad grew his own vegetables and made his own wine. His parents were dirt poor and his mom (my grandmother) baked bread every morning for the family in an outdoor oven (again, no cookbooks). My own first memory of written recipes came from beautiful, glossy recipe cards that Mom received through the mail—probably a bonus with a magazine subscription. I remember my eyes growing wide at the incredibly beautiful cakes, cookies, pies, and other foods in that stack of cards. Somewhere in that moment, the seeds were sown to try my own hand at food photography and recipe writing. Written or unwritten, it's clear the wish for all our recipes remains the same—that we eat with joy!
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And you, readers?
Do you remember your first cookbook?
Is it still in your collection?
My Dad was the Cook in the family. His pot roast and steaks were to die for. My Mom burnt everything. So I picked up a few things from my Dad and inherited a Good Housekeeping Cookbook from my Grandmother...thank you for the chance to win ...
ReplyDeleteMarilyn ewatvess@yahoo.com
My mother used her extensive library of Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks. The BH&G New Cook Book (the classic red plaid one) is the first book I bought myself, and still the one I turn to when I need information. I have 3 copies of it -- a reprint of the 1953 edition, the 1965 edition my mother used, and the 2007 Celebrating the Promise Pink Plaid edition I bought myself. I find it interesting how the recipes and information in each edition are slightly different, and each one has slightly different things in it. My mother also gave me copies of the other BH&G books she used when I got married, so I can make my favorite dishes without calling her for all the recipes. Beyond those reference books, my favorite is an English cookbook that has done all the work converting classic American dishes for ingredients available in my new home country of Australia -- it's so nice to have the work done for me in regards to ingredients I can find to make deep-South and Tex-Mex favorites easily.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad other people collect multiples! I swear the early editions of Joy of Cooking and Fanny Farmer had recipes for cooking squirrel and maybe possum, but those kind of disappeared over time.
DeleteSheila, I'm pretty sure my Joy of Cooking has a recipe for cooking squirrel! I wonder what they taste like--chicken?
DeleteLynn, I've got two copies of that red & white BHG cookbook, two -- my mother's copy from 1948 and one I bought in the early 1980s. That American-to-Australian conversion cookbook sounds like a real find!
DeleteI love to collect cookbooks. Some I even use. Our family like Cleo's kept our recipes on recipe cards. I have been scanning them and putting together a cookbook for my kids and grandkids with pictures of which family member recipe it is and a little story about the recipe and person for a keepsake for them. Enjoyed this post
ReplyDeleteDeb - What a beautiful keepsake you're creating for your children! Love that! (Needless to say, I still treasure the handwritten cards from my mother and aunt.)
DeleteMy mother has an amazing cookbook that she carries with her when she comes to visit me. My grandmother, who I cook like, never used a book.
ReplyDeleteI love that she bring it with her, Tonya! That's so sweet.
DeleteI'm like Cleo. My family didn't really use cookbooks. My great grandmother and nana did everything by taste. My great grandmother didn't believe in writing down recipes and my aunt and I have been trying to recreate some of her dishes for twenty years with only some success. Cmkeck311@aol.com
ReplyDeleteMy grandmothers were like Cleo's, too. And my grandfather made his own wine. I never saw either of them look at a cookbook--they would make homemade ravioli, fabulous sauces but never desserts--always Italian pastries from the bakery. My other grandmother showed me how to make some things but she never measured--it was a "handful" of flour or a "pinch" of salt!
DeleteChristine and Peg - It's interesting how cooking customs change through the years--and even the attitudes about cooking your own meals or growing your own vegetables. It's very popular (even hip) now to have a garden of herbs and veg. In my childhood, it was the mark of a family hedging its bets against bad times. My dad's family came through the Great Depression with great skills in the grow-your-own department, and I miss Dad's big, beautiful tomatoes every summer!
DeleteMy first cookbook was my grandmothers's and she gave it to me because she never used it. Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, with the red and white checkerboard cover, pages on meal planning and how to properly set a table. There isn't a date but guessing from the picnic picture of a red and white plaid thermos and the mom in a shirtwaist dress I'm guessing late 50's early 60's. And I still use it for some things. Even though I just pull it out open it to the page and never look at it again. After all My busia taught me to cook, a little bit of this a little bit of that and stir till it looks right.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful, Suzanne. Even if she didn't use it, it must remind you of her each time you look at it.
DeleteI received a treasure of a cookbook when I was engaged and i use it and cherish it. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteMy cookbook collection is small but precious. A beautiful and old cookbook from a friend which is my favorite. I use newer ones for my family and weekends. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteCleo, great photo! Was your mother a war bride?
ReplyDeleteLeslie - Thank you, I love that photo of my dad and his mother, my grandmother Grazia (Grace) Cerasoli Alfonsi. My dad (Tony) met my mom (Rose) at a dance in the Pittsburgh (PA) area in the 1950s. My mother came through Ellis Island with her family when she was still very young.
DeleteMy (Yankee) grandmother never learned to cook at all, beyond fudge and meatloaf, and I'm not sure she owned a cookbook--although when she was working for Lipton in New York she hung out with various foodies like Craig Claiborne. The Irish side? At least one of my Irish great-aunts was a cook for a family in Connecticut, and I have her short notes. Most striking is that every recipe seems to include sugar, even the savory ones. I've gone to the other extreme--I went to see Julia Child do a cooking demonstration in San Francisco (and I still have the recipe handout!), and I was in a small restaurant in Berkeley when James Beard walked in. He was an unmistakable figure, and immediately recognizable (but I'd "discovered" the restaurant before him!). My mother had his cookbook on barbecue grilling, and I recently picked up a used copy. Great pictures!
ReplyDeleteI love the Better Homes And Garden cookbook. My parents gave me a copy when I moved to Mississippi. I have my mom's older version also. It had recipes that I used that are not in the later versions. I don't cook much anymore as it is just me.
ReplyDeletemarlene(dot)ezell(at)gmail(dot)com
My first cookbook was a book of cookie recipes. I don't have it anymore but I used to make a no bake chocolate rum ball recipe from it.
ReplyDeletesgiden at verizon(.)net
One of my all-time favorite cookie cookbooks was one I bought in 1972, and I still use it. It even has its price sticker on it: I paid $2.95. Great sugar cookie recipe.
DeleteThat does sound delicious, Sandy! I love rum balls.
DeleteMy first cookbook was a huge brown book. I wish I still had it. It was used as a prop for a play and wasn't returned. It had everything - recipes, conversion charts, substitution suggestions. My other cookbook was Mother's in the Kitchen from La Leche League. Still miss the other. cheers@marjimmanor.com
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure as I don't cook a lot. My favorite cookbook, however, is one my mom made for me with family recipes. Thanks for the opportunity to win! mcastor07@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThat's always such a thoughtful gift. I know many people who cherish their collections of family recipes.
DeleteSuch a wonderful gift, Melissa! I did one for Victoria but then I borrowed it back from her and still have it. Oops.
DeleteMy first cook book was a steno pad of all of my mother's recipes. She gave it to me as a gift when I went off to college...I loved having all of her comfort food recipes. mommatoodle at msn dot com
ReplyDeleteThat is fabulous, Pam. What a mom!
DeleteMy first cookbooks were the Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls and the Peanuts Cookbook -- I started early. I still use the French Toast recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook!
ReplyDeleteCelia - That Peanuts Cookbook sounds adorable. And I love that you still make the Betty French Toast!
DeleteMy first cookbook was Better Homes and Gardens first cookbook in the red and white gingham cover. I received this as a wedding present. I still refer to it occasionally. My biggest regret is not learning to make homemade white flour tortillas. My mom made the best! She tried to teach me, but mine never came out like hers. Never could make them round. I will just stick to homemade rolls, that I can do. I loved reading your stories! I remember watching Julia Child on her cooking show, it was fun! Thanks for a chance to win! crossxjo @hotmail. com
ReplyDeleteI collect cookbooks but I don't cook very often I have some Paula deen some rachael ray some pioneer woman some from churches I've picked up I live them all thank you for the chance to win debbiesherwood50@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWatching Julia Child on TV inspired me to make croissants when I was in college. I think the first cookbook I bought was also during college. At this point I was living at home and commuting to college in New Orleans. I bought Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans at the student book store. I also have the 1968 version of the red and white check BHG New Cook Book. That was probably a college-era purchase too. After I got married in 1972 I bought the New McCall's Cook Book. Still have all these plus numerous others from regional women's clubs, Southern Living, and lord knows what else. In fact I purged the collection last year.
ReplyDeletePat D
patdupuy@yahoo.com
Do you still have the New Orleans cookbook, Pat? I'll bet that one was a good read, too.
DeleteAbsolutely! I use the King Ranch chicken casserole recipe in it. It is a good read, along with other regional cookbooks from Texas and Louisiana.
DeleteI have the Recipes & Reminiscences of New Orleans as well. It's the only cookbook I could ever find a recipe for Daube & Spaghetti that came close to my Grandmother's. Unfortunately she took that, her gumbo, and grapefruit straw recipe to the grave with her. I still regret not asking her for those recipes or paying attention when I had the chance. The recipe in the cookbook is not exactly her recipe, but it's pretty close.
DeleteMy first cookbook is the Betty Crocker book Leslie showed above. I loved the run-binder because it allowed me to add my own recipes. I learned a lot from that book, but later I would pick up specialty cookbooks...breads, pastas, barbecue, and a big book by Julia Child.
ReplyDeletekat8762(at)aol(dot)com
I grew up with cooks. Our dog ended up over-weight with a heart murmur from the left-overs from The Art of French Cooking. Those cream sauces were too much for her. She was the first pet I ever heard of to be put on diet pet food!
ReplyDeleteFor Christmas towards the end of college my parents gave me my own copy with this note:"For your more affluent days".
Leslie, I had both of your first cookbooks and wish I'd kept them.
I think my really first one was Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls Cookbook.
Oh, Libby -- I'm kinda laughing about your chubby puppy! And I LOVE your parents' inscription!
DeleteThat's quite the legacy, Libby! The princess dachshunds are urging me to try it here as I still have both the Julia Child "masterings".
DeleteAs I think about it, why on earth did we give the food to the dog?! Why didn't we eat it?
DeleteI was in a foster home and my foster mother passed so i had to do the cooking at the age of 10 also for 7 other kids and my dad. We lived on a farm and had chores and a paper route to do so cooking i had done very little this was my 2nd home and i had gotten there 3 years before. I took one of her old cook books she had gotten from Australia and that made no sense. So i did meat balls ,burgers things like that and i had no idea that i had to cook vegis also so i just made 1 hot meal and then added canned vegis with no choice. It was scary years later he remarried and we were still there and she was from Hawaii and her cooking was mainly of curry and I didn't like that at all. When I was to be married I got a Betty Crocker cook book for a shower and worked with that for years. I loved Julia Child and also liked that my daughter really liked to cook when she got in her teens but she made such a mess! ptclayton2@aol.com
ReplyDeleteClearly you learned to be resourceful early.
DeleteI'm sure we all love the movie Julie and Julia -- Madame Child was a messy cook, too! (And maybe favorite foodie movies should be the topic for a future First Monday conversation!)
What an amazing history, Peggy! It couldn't have been easy but I loved your resilience.