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Honored Contributor
Posts: 32,486
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

1. Some of them are just pages and pages of front matter. Most of the books I pick up seem as if you have never baked anything in your life and they must go into great detail about how to grease a pan or what kind of salt to use. On and on and on. . . Also, for many of them, authors go on and on about their lives and their inspirations, etc. I don't care about their life story especially if I have never heard of them and they have a hole-in-the-wall cake shop in Timbuktu or wherever. I want to make a cake not read your life story--two paragraphs would have been sufficient. I looked at one recently that started out "I was born in. . . ". I do NOT need to be inspired. I bought the book already--so as Doc Martin would say SHUT UP! Give me six or seven more recipes any day. SO to me SHUT UP and here's no. 2:

2. The designers, who probably never have even gone in a kitchen, make the type too small and too light to read. Yes, white space is lovely, but someone is buying this book to make bread and they are more interested in finding out what the ingredients are and what temp to set the oven than gazing at your stupid design with room that could have been used for BIGGER type to let us SEE what is written.

Super Contributor
Posts: 3,125
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

I haven't bought a cookbook since I got a computer. I print out recipes I like and put them in a binder.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,143
Registered: ‎04-18-2012

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

It's easy to skip the intro if you want to, and it's there for those that like it. I certainly don't want it removed and in fact if you go to most dedicated cooking forums and talk to lovers of cookbooks it's one of the things they really appreciate.

I've read some great ones, most recently the intro in Amy Thielan's New Midwestern Table. Also Marcelle Bienvenu's cookbooks would not be the same without her personal family stories.

Don't Change Your Authenticity for Approval
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,641
Registered: ‎05-30-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

I read cookbooks weekly, new & old and seldom find anything I want to makeSmiley Sad((( Library saves me $$ and I don't feel ripped off!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

I think I had my Ina cookbooks for years before I even read the intro stuff.

I am not into all that background info. I usually buy a cookbook for the recipes not the person.

I am the same way with blogs. I scroll through all the dialogue and just go to the recipe. I don't care that it was 5 degrees and you had 8 feet of snow on the ground and needed to go to daycare to get your son's scarf and came home to make meatloaf. Just give me the freaking recipe.

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# IAMTEAMWEN
Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,038
Registered: ‎03-14-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

I kind of like the background stuff. {#emotions_dlg.blush}

However, I only buy cookbooks from the cooks I like, so generally I'm interested in their lives.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

My mother wanted one of Giada's cookbooks. I like cookbooks that have pictures of every recipe (which is why Joy of Cooking is hard for me to get into). Giada's recipes all have pictures of her or of her eating.

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QVC Shopper - 1993

# IAMTEAMWEN
Regular Contributor
Posts: 177
Registered: ‎03-14-2014

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

I, too, like pictures with each recipe. More importantly though, I need the nutritional information as I am a type II diabetic. Not many cookbooks or recipes provide this helpful information.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,007
Registered: ‎03-24-2010

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

On 10/21/2014 Kathleen said:

I haven't bought a cookbook since I got a computer. I print out recipes I like and put them in a binder.

I haven't bought a cookbook since Pinterest!

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,892
Registered: ‎02-19-2012

Re: Two BIG complaints about small stuff in lot of new cookbooks

If you do not like the intros, do not read them. Problem solved.

Some people do need the intros (even if they do not realize it).