Cookbooks vs recipe websites

When did our cook books disappear? My Mum died three years and I inherited the job of going through her collections of books, jewellery, clothes and the wonderful 1950 vintage of decor that used to adorn her walls, table tops, even held pride of place on top of the clothes drier and washing machines. Not to mention the beautiful bevy of glamorous Victorian dolls that languished all over her fancy satin pink quilt on her bed. Did I mention cookery books? Well they amounted to about one thousand, which she had accumulated since she married in 1949. Even Women’s Weekly’s had been put aside for their recipes.

Every country cookbook, bought from all associations from all over Queensland, ranging from CWA to local schools, RSL and many more too numerous to mention, made up this remarkable collection of fantastic memorabilia. Small bits of paper, handwritten by Aunts, friends, hastily written escapee slips of assorted variety of papers, gathered at Tupperware parties and family get-togethers fell out like confetti as these wonderful old friends opened up and shared their secret very special recipes with me.

Needless to say I inherited her obsession with recipes, always promising to put together a cookbook like no other, full of no fail favourites, easy to prepare, slow to cook and as little as possible effort on the day. But first, I had to sort through this wonderful pile of assorted books which filled the spare room of our home. First I compiled about six piles of different piles of very different subjects that made up this fantastic collection. Housework, meals and outside commitments came to a slow halt as that pile of seductive books captured my heart and demanded my complete attention.

My progress was halted with regular sightings of an old favourite that would leap out at me. The Chocolate Recess Cake, that had not been equalled in my life’s future travels, the Chicken Chinese dish that was eaten with great relish at my backyard wedding reception. Rissoles and onion gravy that was loved by my now long dead father, bought flashes of many happy meals had around the family kitchen table with my siblings; I remembered with great fondness those wonderful Brown Biscuits with nuts and raisins that nearly won me the heart of my first suitor. Shame he found out that I didn’t make them.

Suddenly my mind was flooded with memories. It bought home how food equated with the many wonderful events that went to make up my whole past life. Craft books dating back to the old English Women’s Weekly, New Ideas and collection of sewing hints, pattern books and tips and hints on how to extend the life of your garments, took me off to another part of my part life when clothes you wore started with a trip to the pattern counter in Brisbane City, or the occasional send away for patterns, ones that I might add, were sized to fit the appropriate sized females. Very few females now actually fit the size that is written on the pattern.

My own personal survey on cook books verses internet access for recipes, bought the frightening results that most of us Over 60 Baby Boomers now look up recipes on the computer; the other non computer literate cooks, have the advantage of not having to fight a temperamental piece of technology, printing your chosen recipe out on a machine that always threatens to run out of ink when you really need it A proportion of fervent cooks have had to change their meal choices owing to changing health of either partner. Diabetes and heart conditions that make our weekly food purchases and the method in which we prepare meals quite different to when we cooked for pure taste and the pleasure of our beloved comfort food.

Computers win this battle because of their ability to provide us with instant food nutritional values, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates, fibre, energy and sugar content, in the blink of an eye. At the end of my trip down memory lane, I have to admit to closeting away some irresistible, culinary masterpieces that may make their way into that cookbook that is just waiting to be written. For those of us who still like to have our open cookbook beside us in the kitchen, find it easier to physically turn the pages and plan our meals when having our morning cuppa, it is a deceptively comforting feeling, of holding the changes of time back, just a little.

Do you still use old family recipe books? Or do you use the internet to get recipes? Tell us in the comments below…