Why do people still buy real cookbooks?
Why do people still buy real cookbooks?
Are real cookbooks worth it, or should we all go digital?
As a lover of experimenting in the kitchen, I often get asked why I still buy real cookbooks instead of digital ones.
And I guess I’m not alone. Even in our digital world, the sale of real cookbooks is going from strength to strength.
So why do people still buy real cookbooks? For me, there’s no straightforward answer. Part of it is that I like the feel of a real cookbook, of pulling one from the shelf and flicking lazily through it.
But I do have to admit one thing. It’s probably easier to organize, store and ‘search’ through a digital library.
And although there are plenty of resources to help organize digital cookbooks, there aren’t that many for real ones.
Well, apart from a website called Eat Your Books.
Eat your what?
Eat Your Books. It’s a website that lists all the cookbooks you can think of in a giant database.
And for each cookbook entry, Eat Your Books also lists the recipes. In each recipe, it gives you the ingredients you’ll need.
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Building a digital reflection of your real cookbook library
So what? Well, Eat Your Books also has a ‘bookshelf’ section. Subscribers can search the Eat Your Books listings for the cookbooks they own, and then ‘add’ those books to their digital bookshelf.
That means you can build a digital reflection of your real cookbook collection. And when you’ve done that, you can sort through your collection in any way you want.
A search engine for your real cookbook collection
For example, I often use Eat Your Books to figure out what I should do with random ingredients in my fridge.
Last week I had some spare double cream that hadn’t all gotten used when I was making a scrambled egg recipe. And I also felt like eating pasta.
So, I went into my digital bookshelf on Eat Your Books, and searched for ‘double cream and pasta’. Then the magic happened.
Eat Your Books digitally searched all my cookbooks for recipes that use double cream and pasta. It turns out I have 3 different recipes, one of which I used to make a delicious dinner.
Pretty cool. It’s much easier to get specific recipes like that rather than manually riffling through a whole cookbook collection.
So, why do people buy real cookbooks?
I hear you. If creating a digital library is so great, then why bother buying real cookbooks at all?
Except its just not that simple. I still love the real thing. And I think lots of other people do too. So what do people look for in a cookbook?
Cookbooks turn offs and turn ons
Eat Your Books also has a forum where cookbook lovers can chat. We found one with some interesting insight into why people still buy real cookbooks. Here’s what they said.
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1. Recipes you’d actually want to make
While people had differing opinions on some things when it comes to a cookbook, they did agree on this. And that’s that there should be enough recipes that you’d actually want to make. Fair enough.
2. Pictures of the finished dish are a yes (except when they’re a no)
I was pretty surprised at the split of people for this one. As a fan of food pictures in cookbooks, I expected most people to also want lots of pictures of the finished dishes.
But actually there seemed to be an even split of those who liked food pictures, and those who didn’t. Interesting (but probably as helpful to a cookbook publisher as a hole in the head).
3. No pictures of the author please
While there was a split on food photography, most people on the forum were turned off by too many pictures of the author in a cookbook.
And I can relate. One of my big cookbook turn-offs is a picture of the author on the front cover.
It happens a lot for celebrity chefs, and it just makes me think the book is relying a little too much on the star status of its author, rather than the strength of its recipes. That the just the impression I get.
4. Metric measurements are a winner
Eat Your Books has a large American audience. So as a Brit I was expecting people there to prefer cup measurements.
Happily for us, many of them like the metric measurements better. Yay for the humble gram.
So are real cookbooks here to stay?
Short answer – yes! I’m team real cookbook anyday of the week. I love riffling through them and getting inspiration. And there’s something you just can’t replicate when it comes to a digital book.
PS, if you’d like to try Eat Your Books, you’ll get a 1 month free trial with the voucher code WYL21 (which you apply when joining).
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