7 Reasons To Buy Old Cookbooks

I keep my eye out for old cookbooks once I visit thrift stores or garage sales. they're a part of the books we keep it up to a hand for reference material and for other reasons too. And by “old,” I mean cookbooks from the first 1980s or earlier.

1. Cooking without a microwave

Microwaves/Ovens didn’t become home items until the mid-1970s, as per the IEEE Global History Network. If the ability ever goes out for any amount of your time, the microwave won't be an option. We'll be cooking on the grill, over a fireplace, on a solar oven, handmade stove or a rocket stove. inspect this yummy rice and beans recipe here!

While I do know what recipes I can figure out of my food storage, my husband and youngsters might get to figure things out if something happens to me. Or, if we get tired of the meals out of storage, we will find new recipes for variety. Older cookbooks rarely, if ever, have you ever used the microwave as a part of the recipe. This makes it easier to convert the recipe to a different cooking method.

2. Fewer convenience ingredients

How many recipes did you use that contain canned beans or baking mixes as ingredients? What happens when the Bisquick runs out and you simply have dry beans? Older cookbooks have you ever use the ingredients that you would probably have in your food storage because there weren’t as many convenience products to purchase within the stores, which also means less processed foods, with their additives and GMO ingredients. 

3. More real ingredients for healthier eating

This ties to fewer ingredients, but older cookbooks usually use more “real food” ingredients. But the basics are – flour, sugar, salt, beans, seasonings, butter, etc. They won’t involve Hershey’s syrup or pre-mixed seasonings. This will be helpful not just for cooking from the food pantry but also if you want to maneuver more towards a true food diet.

For instance, the older cookbook usually has many versions of a basic fruit cobbler, while the new one only features one version that uses the quick-cooking polenta mix or cornmeal. Look at a number of these easy homemade recipes that are easy to form and taste such a lot better than store-bought! There are also many new cookbooks like The Dressing Table, and it’s super amazing and contains many tasty recipes.

4. More variations for recipes

One thing that I noticed is that more recipes are with cornmeal in older cookbooks, like corn waffles and fried mush. There are recipes for salad dressings and sauces. If you want to form anything from scratch, you'll usually find a recipe for it in an older cookbook. Older cookbooks, have more use of basic ingredients and have more variations on the recipes with fewer ingredients. (Think of depression-era recipes). The older cookbook I even have has recipes for rabbit and spiced tongue. Whenever I can, I buy old cookbooks!

5. They’re inexpensive

A new cookbook with beautiful photos can easily cost around $20 or more. Especially when purchased at a bookstore. Old cookbooks can cost around fifty cents, or less, in second-hand bookstores, yard sales, thrift stores, and similar places. You'll easily buy several for fewer than ten bucks.