Do You Like to Buy Cookbooks? Consider This List About How to Avoid Making Mistakes

cookbook

I’m not a cook myself, but I’m interested in the five senses, and I often choose library books very impulsively, so I recently picked up a little book by Julian Barnes, The Pedant in the Kitchen.

In it, he writes a funny list about how to avoid making mistakes when buying cookbooks. Even though I myself don’t have an issue with being tempted to buy cookbooks, I thought this was an amusing and helpful reminder of how we make mistakes in our purchases.

He suggests:

  1. Never buy a cookbook because of its pictures. Nothing will look as good when you cook it.
  2. Never buy cookbooks with tricky layouts.
  3. Avoid cookbooks that are too general or too narrow. For instance, skip books like Great Dishes of the World or Waffle Wonderment.
  4. Never buy a cookbook written by the chef of a restaurant where you’ve just eaten. Barnes notes, “Remember, that’s why you went to the restaurant in the first place—to eat their cooking, not your own feebler version of it.”
  5. Never buy a cookbook focused on using a piece of equipment if you don’t own that equipment.
  6. Resist anthologies of regional recipes bought as a souvenir.
  7. Resist books of famous historical recipes, especially in facsimile editions. (Gretchen: Always avoid facsimile editions! I’ve learned that the hard way.)
  8. Never replace a beloved old favorite with the new, updated, edition; you’ll always use your original.
  9. Never buy a cookbook for a charity fundraiser. Give the cover price directly to the charity; they’ll get more money, and you won’t have to cull out the cookbook later.
  10. Remember that many cookbook writers have only one good cookbook in them.

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