Will Blogs Replace Cookbooks?

[funniegrrl]

Interesting article today in Salon.com about recipes on the internet vs. cookbooks: http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_dr.../27/cookbooks/

Note: If you are not a Salon paid subscriber, you'll probably have to watch a brief ad to get to the content.

[sneezles]

While I don't think blogs will replace cookbooks (I really only trust blogs by people I've come to know here ), I have limited my own purchase of cookbooks in the past few years due to the accessibility of recipes on the web. The only Annuals I purchase are from CL. I will only buy cookbooks that are unusual or very specific like John Folse's Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine. Of course, it could be I've finally come to the point where I've no more room to store the books...

[ljt2r]

I don't think BLOGS will replace cookbooks, but I do know that I rarely bother buying FoodTV chef cookbooks bc I can get all of the recipes online. Same with annuals by Gourmet, CL, or BA. Blogs are fun and interesting (I just discovered one by a Canadian of Indian (or maybe Kuwaiti? Not clear) descent, "Hooked on Heat" that I find particularly interesting) but as Sneezles says, it's not like you know anything about the person posting the recipes. I will try a lot of these recipes from this blog I just found, but only bc authentic Indian recipes are not as easy to come by on the web (or maybe they are but I am still in the process of finding them). My personality is that of an obsessive collector, so I will still buy cookbooks.

[MISSINDI]

I did an interview a few weeks ago with a reporter from a Boston newspaper who posed the same question. I said I don't think blogs will replace cookbooks. While I pop in on a handful of blogs to check in on what they're up to, I still love to curl up with a cookbook and read, see the pictures, get splatters on the pages while I cook. Just a different feel for me. I think with a blog, you can sometimes get a better personal feel. For the ones I visit, I pop in to see what they're up to, because I've gotten to know them through their site, my site, participating in events, etc. Different than a cookbook. They both have their place, each bringing different things to the table.

[cumulus]

I don't think blogs will replace cookbooks either. First, so many of the blogs cook from cookbooks in the first place! There aren't many that exclusively promote their own recipes. Second, I don't always want commentary going in to a recipe, which typically happens on a blog. It creates pre-conceived notions about recipes, and one may enjoy something less based on their words. I guess the same idea kind of applies to cookbooks (Nigella has tons of commentary for example) but it's recipe-not other stuff-specific.

That being said- I can see digital version of cookbooks stealing the show in the near future!

[Kayaksoup]

I buy cookbooks for the pictures. I read blogs for the recipes.

[MissFood]

Crazy talk! No way they're replacing cookbooks in my kitchen. I cook from cookbooks far more than online recipes. I'm not sure why. I do know that I love reading cookbooks, and love sitting down with a big stack on Saturday morning (I rarely cook during the week, but more on that another time...) to plan the weekend's meals. (Perhaps that's just my guilt and need to justify my mushrooming collection!)

I'll also point out that I have bought cookbooks BECAUSE OF things I've read online (e.g., Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Baking, Cold Weather Cooking, Patricia Wells' Trattoria, and one of Bayless's books, but I can't remember which one...I do know that I cooked from it this past weekend!). So at least for me, the online food blog/board craze has spurred my cookbook buying.

[mrswaz]

I love my cookbooks. I couldn't possibly see just getting recipes from the internet. I read blogs for inspiration, and while I do occasionally cook from them, I tend to look more for general reviews. And when one cookbook is praised over and over, I am more likely to add that specific cookbook to my collection.

And like others mentioned, I love to curl up on the couch with a cookbook and a mug of chai. You certainly can't get the same feeling from a blog.

[re121258]

While I don't think blogs will replace cookbooks, I do find I buy less cookbooks than I used to. I seem to rely more and more on online recipe sites, especially those associated with cooking/food magazines. If I don't have time to plan the menu for the week, I often search the internet sites during the day at work to figure out what I want to make for dinner that night. That way if I need an ingredient I can stop on the way home from the train.

Though, I have to admit, I'm still a sucker at the grocery store checkout for a food magazine with a great looking dish on the cover.

[Kay Henderson]

Very interesting essay. I agree with the author: "In the age of the Internet, the value of "Joy" -- or books like it -- lies not with what they include, but in what they exclude. For the cook who wants to make a familiar dish, or who is faced with a new ingredient, the current problem is not a lack of recipes, but a surfeit of them."

As for me, I buy cookbooks rarely now, but that is because, in the 12 running feet I have allotted to them, I must get rid of something to buy a new book. I use recipes I find on the Internet (especially here!) and in magazines and newspapers, and those of friends, but I use my cookbooks as well, and continue to enjoy reading them for what I can learn and just for fun.

Kay

[erinlovesmarc]

I don't think so...they said the internet would eliminate paper...it has to some extent but not to the degree that they thought it would...same with blogs...

[Lorena]

Never!!! It has not replaced newspapers either! You could never compare the sensation of reading a book, a magazine, a newspaper with reading throught Internet....

[veschke]

"A good cookbook is more than a collection of recipes."

Exactly.

I love paper. :-) I don't read any cooking blogs at all, and I use Epicurious and cookinglight.com almost exclusively to fetch recipes that I already know, but can't find my copy of. I'm a planner, though; people who cook more spur of the moment probably have a lot more use for the internet as a source of ideas?

[dcollier]

I agree with MissFood. I've bought MORE cookbooks since visiting this BB. I could never give up my cookbooks. Like many of you, I read them like novels.

Denise

[juliew]

Well, I don't even read any food related blogs, so for me no. I love my cookbooks and although I have curtailed my purchases recently (I try to keep only those I find inspiring in some way), I can't see giving them up either. I will use the internet to search for something specific. If I just want to read, I use the cookbooks. And sometimes I even cook out of them .

[stacy7272]

A slightly different view, I think that most of us here have grown up with paper and have loving associations with paper but that just isn't true for the younger folks. They haven't curled up with a good book on the couch like we have - they snuggled into their computer to read. And with products getting smaller and smaller this is much easier to do. I don't think the internet will replace paper products for anyone 30 and above but the younger folks don't have the strong ties to these things like us because they've grown up with and developed the strong ties to the newer technology.

DH works for a newspaper that is trying very hard to get most of its stuff online - it's much cheaper that way. It's easier for everyone involved - you can get up to date stuff NOW, not the next morning.

While I don't think BLOGS will replace cookbooks, I think the internet in general will make them much less popular. I think our grandkids will come over to our places and marvel at our cookbooks and think of them as old fashioned.

[alinnell]

I sure love reading some food related blogs and I've printed more than my share of recipes from them and from online cookbooks. You should see my "collection" just from Cooking Light! Right now, they're all filed in my old Cooking Light cookbook, but eventually they'll be page protected and put in a binder with all my other collected recipes.

[granolagirl]

I don't think so. I see blogs as being supplementary to cookbooks.

[chipotle]

I read a lot of blogs but less than five are cooking blogs (mainly bread baking and vegan). I do use the internet more frequently for recipe searches than I do with my cookbook collection but I don't think cookbooks are going to become obsolete. I never run out of cookbooks to buy and I love checking out new cookbooks from the library.

I also think most of the food blogs out there need cookbooks to keep going with recipes to try. No more cookbooks, no more food blogs.

[ADM]

Books are here to stay!

Isn't it interesting how often bloggers quote the name of the cookbook they have used to get the recipe they are reviewing?

Bloggers themselves could become extinct, since there are thousands of sites on the internet with recipes available for download. You can Google for any recipe, or ingredient, or even ask: "Pronounce Tonkatsu", for example. The CLBB has 20-30 bloggers, maybe more by now -- How many do you read regularly for recipes, instead of never looking for a recipe in a cookbook?

We need cookbooks - we need bloggers - we need the internet. It will never become a question of "either-or".

[annagins]

I also think most of the food blogs out there need cookbooks to keep going with recipes to try. No more cookbooks, no more food blogs.

That's a good point! Most bloggers don't write about original recipes, they just post cookbook recipes and recount their experiences, changes, etc. Most bloggers I know love cookbooks and spend quite a bit of money on them. Blogging, if anything, promotes cookbooks.....at least good ones.