Organising Cookery Books

Overwhelmed by cookery books? Here’s how to get to the right amount for you.

People collect things for different reasons and sometimes these collections can get out of control. When your collection is feeling a bit overwhelming, first of all take a look back at your reasons for starting that collection.

With cookery books, maybe it’s because you love love love to cook and you love the inspiration that you get from the books. Or maybe it’s because you feel that you *ought* to love to cook and you buy the books to help you along that journey. Or maybe it’s that other people feel that you ought to be able to cook, and so buy you the books as “motivation”. So first check in with yourself about the reasons behind the collection and see if you can work out a vision for it and at the same time, define the space that you are going to keep the books in.

Then go through the books, one by one. Have you ever used it? How many recipes in it have you used? Is it covered in notes? If you only use one or two recipes from the book, then my suggestion is to take notes of those particular recipes and then let the book go. Some people take a photo or scan of the page, I personally prefer to write it into a word document so that I can make any adjustments to the recipe.

Once you’ve decided which are your favourites, put them in the space you have decided on. If they don’t all fit, then there are some more decisions to be made. If you are struggling, line them up in order of use and favouritism, then put them up on the shelf until the space is used. There may be some difficult decisions to be made, but remember that you can always copy out particular favourites and hold true to your vision!

Are you a big cookery book person? Mr TC loves his books and uses them for inspiration. I have a small folder of recipes that I regularly use…