Cookbook Confusion-Digital Recipes or Book Format
I am confused. For years I have been teaching people how to create heirloom cookbooks with family favorite recipes. The classes have focused on printed books but the more I think about the subject and read what others are writing, it seems more of the conversation should be moving to electronic.
Last week Jim Buchta, of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a very compelling article that really had me thinking outside my box. Jump-start your favorite recipes. Who needs cookbooks or magazines when you have a computer? www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/119333649.html
He broke it down on why to go digital. The pros he said were you would have all your recipes on your laptop. No more stacks of magazines or books but the key for me was the ability to search with words your documents. I do not keep magazines. I clip out the recipes I want to use and put them in a notebook and search them the old fashion way by hand first when I am doing a menu plan. My cookbooks are all in the bookcase that is solely saved for cookbooks. I am thinking about cleaning out some books I was given over the years that I will never use to make space for the new books that I keep on getting and are not filed correctly.
His cons were that they were not as much fun or practical since you could not take it to the bathtub to read. I do not think I have ever taken a cookbook to the tub but I might have. He said that electronic recipes do not develop any character I am not sure about since you can have a video of Grandma cooking or baking. Few cookbooks have a digital counterpart and many magazines and newspapers have easy to search recipes.
He does state that he is not going to get rid of his cookbooks and it sounds like he has collected some very old and interesting ones. He is going to shift his recipes to his computer.
I think I am a half step a head of him in the thought that heirloom cookbooks need to be printed to be featured with the other cookbooks one owns and kept special. I think if you are lucky enough to have the elders in your family around to have them video how-to- cook some of those family favorite recipes and then have flap in your printed book where you can insert the video on a DVD. More and more websites are adding videos and I think we will be seeing more inserted into family cookbooks.
Now for everyday recipes, I think the jury is still out on what format to store your recipes. So I still stay confused.
Last week Jim Buchta, of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a very compelling article that really had me thinking outside my box. Jump-start your favorite recipes. Who needs cookbooks or magazines when you have a computer? www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/119333649.html
He broke it down on why to go digital. The pros he said were you would have all your recipes on your laptop. No more stacks of magazines or books but the key for me was the ability to search with words your documents. I do not keep magazines. I clip out the recipes I want to use and put them in a notebook and search them the old fashion way by hand first when I am doing a menu plan. My cookbooks are all in the bookcase that is solely saved for cookbooks. I am thinking about cleaning out some books I was given over the years that I will never use to make space for the new books that I keep on getting and are not filed correctly.
His cons were that they were not as much fun or practical since you could not take it to the bathtub to read. I do not think I have ever taken a cookbook to the tub but I might have. He said that electronic recipes do not develop any character I am not sure about since you can have a video of Grandma cooking or baking. Few cookbooks have a digital counterpart and many magazines and newspapers have easy to search recipes.
He does state that he is not going to get rid of his cookbooks and it sounds like he has collected some very old and interesting ones. He is going to shift his recipes to his computer.
I think I am a half step a head of him in the thought that heirloom cookbooks need to be printed to be featured with the other cookbooks one owns and kept special. I think if you are lucky enough to have the elders in your family around to have them video how-to- cook some of those family favorite recipes and then have flap in your printed book where you can insert the video on a DVD. More and more websites are adding videos and I think we will be seeing more inserted into family cookbooks.
Now for everyday recipes, I think the jury is still out on what format to store your recipes. So I still stay confused.
Posted by Hella at 4/21/2011 8:36 AM 
Categories: Cookbooks are more than just recipes, cookbook writing made eaiser, cookbook creation, cookbook writing
Tags: cookbooks family recipes family favorite recipes family heirlooms
Categories: Cookbooks are more than just recipes, cookbook writing made eaiser, cookbook creation, cookbook writing
Tags: cookbooks family recipes family favorite recipes family heirlooms
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