ChickSpeak

With the internet’s convenience dominating the focus in today’s world, the charm of traditional cookbooks that past generations relied on may soon become forgotten.

The internet allows for one to instantaneously learn how to cook anything from a complex chicken cordon bleu to a simple smoothie. Though some may find the help of the internet to be extremely useful, it is often unorganized and overwhelming.

This is especially true for those who are unstable with the internet, as it is common for an online search to result in over a thousand different recipes to make apple pie. This sets up the dilemma of which to choose, and for what reason to base that decision on.

This then leads us to another benefit of online sources. Some such as recipezaar.com allow registered users to leave reviews and comments on the recipes. This can help future readers to consider others’ advice to tweak a recipe or to pass up on it all together.

It can also be beneficial to use an online cookbook when working with a limited kitchen. For example, if your recipe calls for eggs (to act as a binder) and you don’t have any, you can simply look up on cdkitchen.com to find that a half cup of applesauce can be substituted for one egg.

One particular online recipe resource, HungryGirl (one of our favorites here at ChickSpeak), promotes the purchase of their cookbooks by only offering a select amount of their recipes online. This savvy move allows readers to get a free taste of the book before jumping into the purchase.

Though it may be hard to believe, there was a world before the internet. In the pre-internet world cookbooks were consulted for nearly every meal. Across the world, and for numerous generations, the cookbook has been a standard in kitchens.

In fact, they often have sentimental appeal because of the family secrets within them. Although swapping recipes with your neighbors may no longer be the common thing to do, the cookbook should definitely not be pushed out of our culture.

It is so much a part of culture that an entire cabinet or pantry space is usually devoted to cookbooks in the kitchen, the central point of a home. A cookbook collection can say a lot about its owner.

Perhaps their French cuisine books stemmed from their study of French in college, which encouraged them to further explore the cultural fragment of cooking. Or others may have stuck with certain recipes based on their specific dietary needs such as diabetes or celiac disease.

Flipping through a cookbook usually inspires chefs to dream big. While the recipes are sometimes intimidating, it is common for modified versions to be offered as well. Cookbooks are just like any genre of literature, and you can even find a favorite author, such as Rachael Ray or Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Like the taste of the Madeleine to Proust, many people build strong connections to certain events with food. Swapping recipes was a common social activity of mothers of past generations.

It allowed people to share their talent for a specific niche and in return to learn, or try to learn, others’ specialties. In neighborhoods it was normal for families to know which mother made the best chocolate chip cookies and which mother made the best brownies.

Many families have recipes that have been passed down through the generations, which sometimes undergo a bit of alteration over the years. On a personal note, my grandmother used to make a delicious spice cake with cream cheese icing for birthdays.

After complementing her countless times on its perfection, my mother and I finally sought out her recipe. However, now that I am growing up in an age where fat is avoided but sweetness is still desired, I choose to substitute whole wheat flour for the white flour she had used. Food and cooking is a large part of culture that will always exist.

However, with the rush for convenience, the novelty of cookbooks may grow to become a fixation of the past.

Fortunately, regardless of the current economic state, there are some thoughts that cookbook sales will rise. This is due to people being forced to eat at home more, rather than eating out at a restaurant.

Though this is true, some people may still choose to eat at fast food restaurants and ignore the damage they are harming their body with. Buying a new cookbook, or just cleaning the dust off one stuffed into your kitchen cabinet, is a great solution to cutting back on food costs. Not only will you be saving money by cooking in your kitchen, but you’ll be reviving a great pastime.

Though it may be more convenient to type into Google “pasta salad recipe,” forming a dependency on the internet abandons the charm and vintage feel of a good cookbook. So be sporadic and try a random recipe you flip to in a cookbook, you may turn out to be a better cook than you thought!

Kelly Seeger is a sophomore at Franklin & Marshall College pursuing a possible double-major in Arabic and Government. She is addicted to bargain shopping and loves being creative with cooking recipes. Photo by Rachel Noel. Rachel can be reached at noelra@appstate.edu.