The Persistence of Yellow: Book of Recipes for Life (2024)

FAQs

What is the purpose of a recipe book? ›

cookbook, collection of recipes, instructions, and information about the preparation and serving of foods. At its best, a cookbook is also a chronicle and treasury of the fine art of cooking, an art whose masterpieces—created only to be consumed—would otherwise be lost.

The first recorded cookbook is said to be four clay tablets from 1700 BC in Ancient Mesopotamia, but by the 1300s, cookbooks were a norm for kings and nobles. In 1390, Forme of Cury (The Rules of Cookery) was published for–but not by–King Richard II.

Cookbooks are nonfiction books that educate the audience about cooking techniques, dishes, and ingredients. They typically contain collections of recipes with step-by-step instructions that guide the reader through preparing a particular food.

Cookbooks don't just teach and expand the culinary knowledge of the reader. They're not just instruction manuals. They let you in on someone's life or a country's ways and means sans actual travel. More importantly, cookbooks are central to food heritage and national cultural history.

A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.

People buy them for the recipes, but they also buy them for the artwork, photos, and personal stories. According to a survey by the International Association of Culinary Professionals: Most people buy two or three cookbooks each year, and 12% of buyers buy four or more.

The first recorded cookbook that is still in print today is Of Culinary Matters (originally, De Re Coquinaria), written by Apicius, in fourth century AD Rome. It contains more than 500 recipes, including many with Indian spices.

The world's oldest surviving cookbook isn't a book at all—it's a set of ancient Babylonian tablets from around 1700 BCE, which doesn't so much have recipes as explanations of certain dishes, such as a 'clear broth' that begins with steps like “meat is used” and “prepare water,” as Atlas Obscura reported from the Yale ...

Read the Recipe, Start to Finish

You'll see how many servings the recipe should make. Next come the ingredients, which should be listed in the same order that you're going to use them in the recipe. The ingredients will be presented a little differently depending whether you should prepare them before they're measured.

There is no difference between a recipe book and a cook book. Both terms refer to a collection of recipes, which are instructions for preparing food. The terms can be used interchangeably.

What is the difference between a recipe and a cookbook? ›

A cookbook is a collection of recipes, cooking processes, and other technical and artistic details about cooking. A recipe book focuses only on the list of recipes rather than talking about cooking in general.

Old family recipes are important because, like photographs, they can transport us back in time to our loved ones' homes where many happy memories were made. Recipe books frequently get a lot of wear and tear.

Traditional cookbooks appeal to the local, grass roots American market, and they often reflect the regional cuisine, as well as the character and ethnicity of a community. They include easy-to-follow recipes with common ingredients. Traditional cookbooks appeal to the masses and can be sold to most anyone.

Donate Cookbooks to Passionate Home cooks!

Make sure your cookbooks are in good condition before donating them — it's simply good manners. And if you don't find where to donate your cookbooks, offer them for free on your social media or with a classified ad in the newspaper.

Older cookbooks tend to cover the basics

In fact, if you search the word "sugar" in the archived text, there are over 1,000 results. While vintage cookbooks may not always take health and wellness into consideration, Backdoor Survival notes that vintage cookbooks are a great way to learn how to cook from scratch.

American Cookery, the very first American cookbook, was written by Amelia Simmons (more on this mysterious woman later). In it, she promised local food and a kind of socioculinary equality.

Archeological evidence of cooking fires from at least 300,000 years ago exists, but some estimate that humans started cooking up to 2 million years ago. The expansion of agriculture, commerce, trade, and transportation between civilizations in different regions offered cooks many new ingredients.