Most people do not have the ridiculous number of cookbooks that I do, but most people would benefit from having at least a few. Here’s why.

• Most cookbooks are not just recipes. They are about methods of cooking, culinary history, varieties of cuisines, and author’s anecdotes. Understanding these things gives you a much deeper understanding of cooking than you get from copying a recipe from a website.
• You can write in them, making notes to yourself about what worked and what didn’t work about a recipe. You can add or cross out ingredients so the next time you will remember what you did or how to make it even better.
• If you select the really good ones, they become like friends who help you along in the kitchen.

And that last item is what this piece is really about. How do you select a cookbook out of the hundreds – probably thousands – that are available. I can help with that.

First, look for cookbooks that go just slightly beyond your current cooking ability. You want something that will help you expand your cooking skills but not frustrate you with complications you aren’t ready for. Do that by skimming instructions of at least five recipes in the book. If there are one or two things that are unfamiliar to you, it’s probably a good fit. If there are four or five, you may not be ready for that book.

Second, is it a book of recipes that you would really like to cook? Page through several of the sections in the book, particularly those with the recipes you most like to prepare. You should be able to find at least a half dozen recipes that you want to try. If you only find one or two, try looking for those recipes online – don’t buy the whole book for them.

Third, take a look at the ingredients lists. Experimenting with new foods can be interesting delicious, and fun. But if there are many things that you have never heard of, stop to ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have time to spend shopping at a number of stores to get the items you need?
• Do you want to invest the money in what might be very expensive new foods?
• And can you even find these things in the place you live? And if not, are you willing to try to track them down online?

Finally, and really the most important, don’t buy cookbooks because of the beautiful photography. If you are a beginner cook and you’re considering a basic cookbook that has illustrated steps for the recipes, it would be a good thing to have one or two. But other than that, it can be a waste of money.

The food that you make will never, ever look like the photographs in the book. The recipes in the book may have been prepared several (or many) times to get the perfect version, and after that there are food stylists and professional photographers who get to work on them to make them look even more perfect. They can be fun to look at, but this food porn can also be discouraging for even the average cook when you realize that yours doesn’t look much like theirs.  

In addition, these books tend to be more expensive and have fewer recipes. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a book with beautiful photographs, but only if the book meets the criteria mentioned above.

Some of my favorites were published decades ago and they don’t have a single photograph, not even a drawing. But they help me make some really good food!

Bon appétit, happy cookbook shopping, and have a la bellitude autumn!