By SUSAN MELLISH
AntiqueWeek Correspondent

Walk into any bookstore, and it is guaranteed one entire section will be dedicated to cookbooks. Be it barbeque, baking, beef or beans, someone has written a cookbook about the topic.
Around the holidays, cookbooks are pulled down from shelves as home-based chefs tackle recipes of all kinds; be they family favorites or new challenging dishes everyone has wanted to try.
What is our fascination with putting ingredients together in a certain way to create mouth-watering delights? Well, the taste of that mouth-watering concoction has a lot to do with it. But if you ask collectors of vintage cookbooks why they seek out such tomes, they will list any number of reasons their bookshelves are rife with recipes.

Amy Alessio, a Chicago-area librarian and blogger-ista of www.vintagecookbooks.blogspot.com says she is a collector of memories.

“My cookbook collection began with Sterns’ Square Meals - my mother’s copy, where I found interesting and funny history concerning time periods and traditions around food,” Alessio said. She began picking up cookbooks at antique malls, “And they would trigger memories of my grandmothers.

Now I know why Grandma Alessio served a five course meal at Easter, and why Grandma Curtin loved puddings and fruitcake. I read cookbooks like novels.”

Memories have a great deal to do with why people collect vintage cookbooks. And like Alessio, a family heirloom cookbook is usually the catalyst behind a new collector’s interest in this field. Research done by www.AbeBooks.com found that Irma S. Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking to be the cookbook most frequently handed down through the generations.

AbeBooks asked 500 customers who owned a cookbook handed down through their family to describe the book and its appeal. Most cited the book’s sentimental value as being most important.
Research posted at AbeBooks.com shows, “In 96 percent of the cases, a grandmother, mother and mother-in-law had handed over the book to the next generation.

The books tended to have a long history within each family – 58 percent of the cookbooks were more than 50 years old.
Thirty eight percent of the current owners said they had owned the book for more than 30 years.”

As would be expected, most of these family heirlooms had seen their share of use. Many collectors say this show of wear is an added bonus. Collectors love to find hand-written notes along the edge of a page detailing how the home cook altered the recipe to her liking. A dog-eared page sporting spill stains lets collectors know this recipe was a family favorite. 

Many collectors love the graphics found in the book or on its dust jacket, and acquire cookbooks based on the graphics alone. “The images are priceless,” said Alessia. “The old Jell-O ones with the 1970s outfits are fun, as are the ones with photos of people eating elaborate meals outside.” Cookbooks can easily be dated by both the images and recipes found within. Jell-O was big in the 1970s. Cooks used Jell-O as a salad, a main course (they actually put cooked beef or tuna in Jell-O recipes) and a dessert.

Vintage cookbooks can also be great crossover collectibles. Those who collect vintage kitchen appliances love finding cookbooks put out by the company of said appliance. Kitchen Aid, Frigidaire, Osterizer and the like all offered free cookbooks to their customers so they could best learn how to use their appliance.

How one goes about collecting cookbooks all depends on one’s interest. Some collect books by famous chefs, such as Julia Child. Others collect books produced by community organizations which the money raised in book sales to support a club or local cause. “This is a huge collecting area,” said Alessio.

These books usually had small print runs and feature wonderful recipes supplied by members of the organizations. Regional cookbooks are also very popular where ethnic cooking is showcased. Cookbooks featuring the recipes of movie stars are fun finds.

Then there are those who collect the classics. One collector of vintage cookbooks has amassed a huge selection of just Betty Crocker cookbooks. Another favorite would be the endless list of Better Homes and Gardens books produced. Let’s not forget Good Housekeeping or Fannie Farmer cookbooks. Alessio has a series she always seeks out. “My favorite is the Southern Heritage/Southern Living series because it includes lots of ephemera and history from the time periods and regions as well as wonderful recipes.”

Speaking of history, the first two American cookbooks ever printed came out in the 1700s. According to AbeBooks.com, these are The Compleat Housewife by William Parks (1742) and American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (1796), with American Cookery still being in print today. Collectors who seek out these very early texts enjoy seeing recipes that were used before electricity; before refrigeration; before the microwave!

Where value is concerned, these early editions can command top dollar. According to AbeBooks.com, “Cookbooks from the 1700s to 1850s can command four-figure prices, but anyone interested in starting a collection can easily target the 1950s and 1960s - when America’s cooking culture exploded - without breaking the bank.” According to the Collector’s Guide to Cookbooks by Frank Daniels and by looking at cookbooks selling on eBay, many, many wonderful examples can be had for under $10. First editions of still-in-print classics like The Joy of Cooking, originally published in 1931, can cost upwards of $4,000, says AbeBooks.com
Besides its age, and whether a book is still in print, cookbook collectors do consider condition as a factor where value is concerned. While signs of use are charming, vintage cookbooks in pristine condition are highly prized. If it is author signed, all the better. First edition? Bonus. But there are just as many collectors who shun the perfect vintage cookbook and seek out those with wear. “I really love to find a cookbook that has been heavily used and written in,” Alessio said. “Cookbooks were made to be used. They should show signs of wear.”

Regardless of how one wants to collect or what one desires in a vintage cookbook, know this collecting venue is alive and kickin’. Actually, the genre continues to evolve. A new cookbook category is boisterously taking over bookstore shelves. Bloggers, those busy social media muses, are writing cookbooks. And people are snatching them up. The Farm Chicks, Steamy Kitchen, Hungry Girl (Google those names, you’ll see) – all have put out cookbooks showcasing the recipes that fill their blogs and have made them famous. The Pioneer Woman, (www.thepioneerwoman.com) Ree Drummond has the spotlight right now. Cookbook collectors would be wise to add a first edition of her The Pioneer Woman Cooks to their collection. Who knew blogging about cooking could translate into a bestseller?