#cookthisbook

Weekly Blog Post 10/26/2021

Until recently, I was almost disgusted with the idea of recipe books, a bit strong of a word, but had a particular perception of them; you get the idea. I grew up in an age where if I wanted to know how to cook something, I could google that shit. I spent a solid chunk of time flipping through the pages of all recipe books that my mom dug out for me. And even then, I was still cautiously doing so because I didn't want to feel like I was relying on a recipe more than the culinary skills I had learned. But having started to collect modern recipe books and reading them, I began to see the value again and why a resurgence in them was happening. 

Flipping through those old recipe books was a bit nostalgic. It's not like I remembered any of the recipes specifically, but it was just reminiscent of a different time. It was amazing to see the evolution of recipe collecting, especially when I got to my mom's recipe box, stuffed with recipes from a great range of time and unknown sources. Some were neatly written on cards that matched the box, some sloppily scribbled on notecards, some typed via a typewriter, some printed on a word doc in comic sans, some from my sister, and many more types. It was insane the range of the recipes and them being shared. You have to be a fantastic friend to personally write out a well-regarded recipe of your own to share with them. I experienced this last year with a family friend. We gifted them a crockpot, ingredients, and two recipe cards (that I made up in illustrator) as a present. It was interesting trying to synthesize what was necessary onto a slightly oversized notecard-sized piece of paper.