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Hi! I've stumbled upon EYB several times over the years. So when I found my box of cookbooks moldering in our basement, I figured I should come here. But now that I've made an account I'm not sure it works like I thought it did. I had the idea I could enter some info to prove I owned a book, then have access to its contents online here. But apparently this site just indexes my books? Meaning I could search for a recipe and this would tell me which of my cookbooks have matches? These books STINK, no way I can keep them. 

Am I right? Thanks!

Hi ElizMc - I'm afraid you do have the wrong idea. We cannot reproduce the recipes from cookbooks as that would be a breach of copyright of the publisher and author. There is no way you can prove you own the book - any photo could be from a bookstore or library. The purpose of EYB is to help people with cookbook collections easily find recipes in their own collection.

If you no longer own any usable cookbooks you can still use EYB for our online recipes collection. Because they are from cookbooks, magazines, and the best online sources, they are much better way to find a good quality recipe than Googling. You can add complete blogs/websites/newspapaer columns to your Bookshelf - check out the sites we have indexed here.

Ok I have the same idea/problem. I was looking for an app and found this website.  I look thru my books often. Then I see a recipe I would like to try. I was told you can create a list here pertaining to that. But I don't see where or how.  Also I want to keep recipes that I have made and found to be successful. So if I wish to cook that again I can look it up here without knowing in which of my books it was (there's hundreds). Thank you

Hi Travelchick - You can use Bookmarks to achieve what you want. You would go through your cookbooks and bookmark recipes you like the look of with the bookmark "I want to cook this". Then when you look at recipe search results you can see at a glance which recipes have already interested you - the chef's hat before the recipe title will be orange. You can also see just the recipes with that bookmark by applying the "Show only Recipes..."  bookmark filter in the right column. You can create your own bookmarks as well that are specific to your own needs and interests e.g. Thanksgiving desserts, vegan soups, etc.

For recipes you have already made you can apply the bookmarks "I've cooked this", which turns the chef's hat green, and Favorite Recipes. And again you can create your own specific bookmarks e.g. "Dad's favorite" or "Avoid this". We encourage members to also add Ratings, Notes and photos for recipes they have made - this knowledge sharing really helps all members get the most from the site.

If you would like to learn more about using bookmarks for your books and recipes, please check out this Help section. You can also try Tutorial #4, accessed from the green Need Help? button at bottom right (not available on phones).

Originally Posted by: ElizMc

Hi! I've stumbled upon EYB several times over the years. So when I found my box of cookbooks moldering in our basement, I figured I should come here. But now that I've made an account I'm not sure it works like I thought it did. I had the idea I could enter some info to prove I owned a book, then have access to its contents online here. But apparently this site just indexes my books? Meaning I could search for a recipe and this would tell me which of my cookbooks have matches? These books STINK, no way I can keep them.

I had books in my basement that stunk as well. I sprayed febreeze on a paper towel and closed them up in a plastic bag for a while. It can also be done with a dryer sheet. It works pretty good. If you like the cookbooks, try this first before you get rid of them.

In addition to all these other stratagems, how about scanning or photographing the stinky pages with the likeliest recipes.

And if the price is right, you may just want to replace some of the cookbooks.