light & gather

I have been reading cookbooks for about a year. In my experience, there are four types of cookbooks. And if you have been reading long enough, you are usually able to tell which one you have picked up.

The Starter Cookbook

They tell you how much of what you need to make what is printed in the picture or described in the opening of a recipe. And for these types of cookbooks, that is all there is. They get by on personality, brand recognition, or aesthetics. This is where the pictures do most of the heavy lifting. They sell you on the idea of food, not so much the story behind it.

These cookbooks are exciting and fun to look through. The images are beautiful enough to make you want to cook. They are simple enough that you do not need to know the difference between a soup spoon and a tablespoon. Which is perfect if you are not into cooking. You get the experience of making something that looks impressive without the intensity of high-level cooking.

If you are new to cooking, I highly suggest you start here.

The Cultural Cookbook

The second type of cookbook is one of my favorites. It is the type of cookbook that is geared toward the food of a certain cultural group. If you are looking for a reason to make something, you will always find it in one of these cookbooks.

One recipe can be made many ways by many people who all have different stories. For instance, I found three different recipes for chow chow across three books. They were all from different cultures and ethnic groups.

I also want to make a note that when I say “cultural,” I do not just mean ethnic or racial identity. I would also include communities, regions, periods in time, and influential figures. So think about the South and how many cuisines exist under the larger umbrella of Southern cooking. Another example would be a cookbook about the food made during the Great Depression. Or a collection of recipes acquired by Anthony Bourdain along his travels.

These cookbooks are the most fascinating to me. Not only do you learn how to cook something totally unique and new to you, but you also learn about people all over the world. Not just what they eat, but what they value and how they live. The more of these you can read, the better.

The Essential Cookbook

These types of cookbooks teach you how to build a kitchen you can actually use. Not only that, but you will also learn how to create staples in your regular meal rotation.

They cover everything from practical kitchen tools to what makes a pantry staple and how to use it. They teach portion sizes if you are on a budget, and how to cook meals that are simple enough to make every day but versatile enough that you do not get bored.

The Conscious Cookbook

For this category, I would include any book that discusses gardening, foraging, and the sustainable cultivation of food. This category is about more than just following a recipe.

These cookbooks teach the how and why of food. Where it comes from and what it takes to get to your kitchen. They make you more aware of the culinary ecosystem as something that exists as part of the earth before it reaches the grocery store. These books are insightful and can be culturally driven, but they might take more intention to be considered essential. That is why I gave this type of cookbook its own category.

And if I could get away with calling Braiding Sweetgrass a cookbook, I would.

When you are picking out a cookbook, you do not have to follow these categories. This is simply how I choose to organize them based on what I have noticed and how I pick my cookbooks.

And please keep in mind that a book does not have to fit into one category. Sometimes the best books are all four.