I bought it in 1987 at a little tea shop on Clapham Common in London and gave it to my mum for her birthday the following January. It has an inscription in the front.
That book became a favourite of Mum’s, particularly for the recipe for scones. “It’s the best one I’ve ever used,” she told me.
The evidence is plain to see: page 49 – the scone page – is bookmarked. But the bookmark is unnecessary – it’s clear to see that it has been well-thumbed by floury hands and even has small remnants of pastry stuck to it. Elsewhere in the book, notes on loose pieces of paper offer variations on ingredients or cooking times.
My mum died in 2021 and having this book means a lot to me. I’m nowhere near the cook my mum was, but if I ever want to rustle up some scones or a ginger cake – another of Mum’s favourites from the book – it’s good to know I’m following the same recipe, reading from the same page.
That’s the beauty of recipe books – they can be passed down the generations. They leave a footprint. I also use a Be-Ro book used by my mum which is much the worse for wear, with loose pages and crusty corners.
With this in mind I was saddened to read how printed cookbooks are being discarded by younger generations in favour of online recipes.
A study by dairy firm Galbani found that 88 per cent of young Brits thought of recipe books as outdated. Almost 40 per cent of 20-somethings don’t own a cookbook and believe that all the recipes you could ever need can be found online.
That may be the case – there will be few recipes in the world not covered online – but I can’t understand why anyone would prefer using websites on tablets or phones to using a cookbook. It’s certainly not a user-friendly method. Online ‘pages’ don’t stay open unless you keep refreshing them, phone ‘pages’ are hard to read, and if you spill something on a book it isn’t damaging as it would be with an electronic device. It’s not like propping a book open on your worktop.
Having rto check recipes on a phone or online is really tricky. Picture: Yui Mok/PA
Call them old-fashioned, but cookbooks – whether passed down through family or not – can’t be beaten. Crucially, you can’t leave your mark on a device. I love my shelf of dog-eared cookbooks dating back years. They include a book full of handwritten recipes, given to me by my mum as a wedding present.
It’s not only cookbooks, it’s the same with any instruction manual, it’s so much easier in the flesh. I was chatting to a friend last week about Haynes manuals, which he had used all his life to fix cars. “It’s so much better to tinker with a printed page beside you,” he said, “Even if it is covered with oily fingerprints.”
My first boyfriend was rarely seen without his head in a Haynes manual. I have memories of nights spent in his parents’ garage, holding an inspection torch while he fiddled about under a bonnet, the manual propped up beside him. I can’t imagine how he could have done it using a phone.
After 60 years of publishing its famous manuals, Haynes announced in December 2020 that it would not print any new ones – all new repair content would be online only. However, the company continues to print and publish its huge back catalogue.
I suspect that modern cars are so complicated now that owners don’t – or daren’t – tinker anymore. Buy anyone who wanted to attempt their own repairs would be limited to YouTube.
Be it cook books or car manuals, there’s no substitute. I admit phones are useful for converting measurements or looking up obscure ingredients, but other than that…I may be a dinosaur but whatever anyone says nothing beats the printed page.
