How I’m Conquering My Digital Cookbook & Mixology Stash

Since I took stock of my cookbooks the previous weekend, I thought I’d do the same for my digital mess on Saturday.

So, I scoured my laptop and external hard drive for all of the titles I’ve accumulated over the past few years. I found more than I expected, that’s for sure. A whopping 42 [+1]!

To keep things organized, I dropped every file into my ibooks app. And, I divided them into categories like Classics, Cocktails, and Preserving.  [Does anyone have a separate terrabyte drive for ebooks? Mine is so full of movies that I think I’m going to grab a system-friendly drive like this so that I can keep my ebooks on the shelf with my physical books!] This organization should make the books easier to access in the future.

As I worked, I realized, the only digital titles I’ve made extensive use of are three favourites: Art of The Pie, The Bar Book, and The Food Lab.

But, I’ve developed a strategy for how to make the most of what I’ve got, here, going forward. I’ll go through the cookbooks alphabetically, one per week, or thereabouts, and choose one recipe to try. The adults will get a weekly cocktail, too. If, in addition, I can choose one recipe per week from one of my physical cookbooks, we should be busy for several cats’ lives.

Here’s the list of my e-book collection!

If you have a favourite recipe, give me a holler!
I’d love to start with a winner!

My Digital Cookbook & Mixology Stash

1. Art of The Pie, McDermott
   NO EXCUSES! Perfect crusts! And, berry pies, not soups!
2. Asian Pickles, Solomon
3. The Bar Book, Morgenthaler
   Hells yes.
4. Cooking for Jeffrey, Garten
   I <3 Jeffrey! So, why haven’t I cooked from this yet? I mean, maybe, he’ll magically appear at the dining table in one of his sweaters!
5. Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, Keller & McGee
6. Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain Celebrations, Walker
7. Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, Kaplan & Fauchald
   Can’t wait!
8. Feast: Food that Celebrates Life, Lawson
9. Fermeneted Vegetables, Shockey & Shockey
10. Fish & Shellfish, Stein
    To boldly row past Cheddar Bay….
11. How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Lawson
12. Jerusalem, Ottolenghi
13. Liquid Intelligence, Arnold
14. Momofoku, Chang
    If you haven’t seen Ugly Delicious on Netflix, who are you, anyway?
15. My Paris Kitchen, Lebovitz
16. Nigella Bites, Lawson
    FYI: 16-20, and the other Lawson titles were ALL GIFTS. Somebody thinks I need to be prepared to Freaky-Friday with Nigella.
17. Nigella Christmas, Lawson
18. Nigella Express, Lawson
19. How to Eat, Lawson
20. Nigellissima, Lawson
21. Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi & Tanimi
22. Pickled, Carrolata
23. Plenty, Ottolenghi
    I want to eat the cover. 
24. Plenty More, Ottolenghi
25. Salt, Falt, Acid, Heat, Nosrat
26. Sous Vide at Home, Fetterman & Halm
27. Spice: Flavours of the Eastern Mediterranean, Sortun
28. Tartine Book 3, Robertson
29. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Garten
30. The Canon Cocktail Book, Boudreau
    For someone who was once called a “loose can(n)on of human knowledge,” this one might be a little too explosive. 
31. The Complete Nose to Tail, Henderson
    Got this for the fish. Will I stay for the pig parts?
32. The Cooking Gene, Twitty
    CANNOT WAIT!
33. The Druken Botanist, Stewart
34. The Essential Bar Book, Fiedler
35. The Food Lab, Lopez-Alt
    This book is the shit. The egg section alone…..
36. The French Laundry Cookbook, Keller
37. The Oh She Glows Cookbook, Liddon
    A gift, because, apparently, I don’t glow enough? 
38. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, Perelman
    Also a gift, because I don’t “smite” enough? 
39. The Sous Vide Kitchen, Wylie
40. Thug Kitchen 101: Fast as F*ck, Thug Kitchen
41. Thug Kitchen, Thug Kitchen
42. What She Ate, Shapiro [Essays]
    Can’t f*ing wait for this one, either!
43. Bonus: I just found a pdf of The Savoy Cocktail Book at Collectif1809. Cocktail enthusiasts should really check out their amazing collection of digitized vintage and OOP bartending books.

Do let me know your favourite recipes from the books listed above!