How often do you use a cookbook to cook as opposed to reading or browsing ...?

Answer 1

never... my wife says i always cook the same thing.. pasta, or curry, or chilli... tonight its veg curry, onions tomatoes garlic with courgettes and mishrooms with red peppers... and fresh cream, the curry is also home made, 1tsp of tandoori powder, 1.5tsp of madrass, some cumin and coriander...

in fact its cooling now just waiting for no1 daughter to come home from seeing pirates3.... who needs a cookbook...

Answer 2

Well I read more cookbooks than I use to cook with, but I get great ideas from reading cookbooks. You learn a new sauce or technique to cook something different than they way you have in the past. Or you learn how to work with something you never experienced before like raw chestnuts or how to make your own smoked salmon etc... I love the Zunni cafe cookbook by Judy Rogers you have to make the famous roast chicken and bread salad. I put my twists on their recipes, the great thing about a recipe is if its a good one it will be time less. I also have a rule too not buy any new cookbooks unless I can get three new recipes from them, other wise I would have way too many cookbooks

Answer 3

I seldom open one of the several cooking books you would find in the den, not the kitchen. I enjoy cooking from scratch, experimenting and tasting as I go. I have a multitude of spices so no two recipes are the same. Well, I do have a few choice ones on cards but I only open one of those Joys of Cooking or Good Housekeeping cookbooks if I am unsure of how to cook something.

Answer 4

Cookbooks are great foundations for cooking and baking. I prefer the older versions...a lot of your tried-and-true recipes are in them. Recipes from your grandma/great-grandma days where taste was the predominate factor. I use my cookbooks all the time to get ideas and try new recipes. I even scour flea markets and yard sales for them. Once I find a recipe that I like, if I think there is something that I can do to make it better, I will then work on improving it on my own.

Answer 5

I use a cook book like a great library book! I take it to bed with me and read it till the early hours!
If I am miserable I pick up a cook book and also if I am sad!. I must be a sad old lady! but you see if you have read hundreds of them so things really do stick!
I never use a recipe any longer becuse they are all in my head! Hell at the grand old age of 67 there should be an awful lot in there!
But seriosly in my youth I would use a recipe once and then oh boy! I would have to change it. I looked at recipes only as guide lines they are there to be improved and bettered, and believe me there isn't one that I haven't had a little go at!
So be inventive because anything goes! Enjoy your cooking and if it doesn't work out right just get a Take away!!!!!
Best of Luck!!!!!

Answer 6

I have a supply of tried and tested recipes that probably orginated from books but are now ingrained on the memory! I do use books for new recipes, for inspiration with what to do with the ingredients I have and for the sheer pleasure of trying something new - I love cooking and have so many cookery books, we have a moratorium on buying any more - somehow, they still sneak in! Every so often we will declare a week - maybe Italian, or Spanish, or whatever, and will then have totally new recipes at each meal from the region we have chosen - by doing this we get to test things before we try them out on friends, and widen our reportoire.
Some books, however, are just a sheer joy to read, even if you never try the recipes - try out just holding the hard back version of Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diairies - it's a beautiful book - with a great feel to it and wonderful photos - and great recipes too!

Answer 7

Maybe once a week. I know most things by heart after cooking for 49 years. I use a cookbook for new and different meals and deserts. I love fancy deserts. I clip recipes from magazines and own about 12 cookbooks. I have a bag full of clippings that I actually use. Most for deserts.

Answer 8

I read cook books when i buy them, and if i want to do something new i might get three or four out and look at various ways people do broadly the same thing and from this i get a feeling of what needs to be done and then I go and make my own food. I also keep a loose leaf book in my kitchen draw for things I do and like or reminders to try something slightly different next time I do something like lower oven or less sugar or try a pinch of salt type comments.

I also have a few pro cook books which are great references for things you know you want to do but cant recal and dont want to guess the the quanitities.

Answer 9

For me personally, it's probably 50-50. I normally don't use cookbooks or recipes to cook, just for baking. I will look through a cookbook for ideas, but I don't think I've ever followed a recipe to the T for anything but baking.

Answer 10

I use a cookbook at least 3 nights a week. I browse them all the time.

Answer 11

Not that often ?, been cooking a long time now and know a lot of recipes, so its mostly experimenting now !.

I do read a lot of cookbooks and watch cooking programs too and get a lot of inspiration from them !.