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• No pictures of the finished dishes


• Ingredients like "store-bought marinara sauce" or "your favorite salad dressing"


• A promise that the recipes are quick/simple/use hardly any ingredients.  I don't want the easiest food; I want the most delicious food!


• Vegan cookbooks that rely on meat/dairy substitutes


• Ethnic food cookbooks dumbed down for a Western audience (ex. substituting bay leaves for curry leaves)

Funny, while I think illustrations of techniques and pictures of the finished product are useful, I don't like cookbooks that are so profusely illustrated that they look like picture books.

My sister once gave me a very picture-heavy cookbook and I exchanged it for a cookbook with no Illustrations. 

I tend to avoid American cookbooks - unless, like many of the more modern ones, they also include metric measurements as well as cup measurements.

I also avoid books by authors who specialize in baking/sweet dishes, as I don't have a sweet tooth and don't make many cakes or desserts - and if I do, my current cookbook collection has plenty of recipes.

I find in recent years I have been buying more specialist cookbooks - specific cuisines (Middle-Eastern, South Indian, Sichuan etc etc), one-pot or pan recipes, vegetable recipes ... and one that I can't recommend highly enough: 'On The Side' by Ed Smith (recipes for side dishes, obviously). I now avoid 'general' cookery books (e.g. The New York Times Cookery Book, an edition of which I have, and use), as I have so many that I can't learn anything new about cooking standard dishes from newly-published ones!

I generally decide against TV cookery programme tie-in cookbooks these days too - TV cookery is now mainly showy, dumbed-down stuff, and the tie-in cookbooks tend to reflect that.

I continue to buy in most of these categories, tho with far less frequency now that something inside of me is crying "Enough!"

I don't buy much in unfamiliar (to me) cuisines - I leave them to the restaurateurs. 

Tie-ins of any kind I consider on a case-by-case basis - is there something in this book that goes beyond mere gimmickry?

What I concentrate on now (I hope) are those cookbooks that go beyond mere collections of recipes - those that teach you about ingredients or utensils or techniques.

Tight counter space.

bittrette - my Oxo digital scales are 1" high and go sideways into a drawer when not in use. No counter space required.

I use my Oxo scale a minimum of 2X a day (weighing dog food for Corgi over-eaters).  Additionally used for cooking, packaging 6 oz. packages of prepared meat for freezing (yeah, the dogs), and baking.  The 6"x8" black thing does sit on the counter...on its side, slotted beside the toaster. 

What's its footprint when it's standing on its side? And what holds it on its side?

It is 7" wide so it tucks down the front of a deep drawer where I store pans. Because it is only 1" it can slide in anywhere you store things upright - trays, sheet pans, chopping boards, etc. Or as rivergait says, slotted beside another appliance like a toaster. It doesn't have to be out flat on a counter.

Thanx. The answers to these questions are crucial if I'm to give weighing a chance :)

This is a great thread and brings many of my pet peeves out when it comes to cookbooks.

1) restaurant cookbooks.  I'm not going to make 5 components to put on one dish.

2) Many pictures of the author.  Eating Out Loud has some great recipes, but how many pictures do we need of the author, her bubbly and child!

3) Light Fonts.  Love the Gourmet Cookbook, but no wonder they went out of business with decisions like choosing to put the titles in yellow.

4) Pictures that don't match the recipe.

5) Any cookbook that I have to buy more than 2 new spices.

6) Simple recipes for things like quesadillas and sandwiches.  

Light fonts like yellow on white - what would possess anyone to make these choices? Doesn't it occur to the graphic designer (whatever such a person is called), that these books are meant for reading - whether to cook from them or just fantasize?

Interesting observation I've made about myself.....

I've been waiting for a while for the french cookbook À Table by Rebekah Peppler. My local bookshop had a copy so had every intention of buying it. Flicking through on the way to the tills I just couldn't get on with the lay-out and as for the super ultra glossy photography .... sorry nope..... had to put it back.

The ebook version seems to do away with all that and had a much more pleasing aesthetic so bought it as an ebook. Have been reassessing a number of cookbooks that I've wanted but rejected and have bought them as ebooks. 

Not something I've ever really thought about till now but the look and feel of a book is just as important as the recipes and the stories that go with them. 

"Pictures that don't match the recipe."

That's a problem that's likely to grow as long as cookbook publishers rely on Shutterstock  for their illustrations, and as long as cookbook buyers won't consider cookbooks without color photos of all the dishes (I'm not referring to pictures of raw materials or techniques.)

All that food photography can be expensive. Still, while the pictures are pretty, what's their practical value unless they show you what you'll end up with if you follow the recipe?

bittrette - and of course if ALL EYB members post their own photos when they cook a recipe, then we can get a good idea here of how the recipe will turn out (as cooked by a home cook rather than gussied up by a food stylist). So it won't matter whether the book has photos or not (at least for EYB members). Plus members adding Notes and ratings give perspectives on cooking the recipe you cannot get from the cookbook.

Not even as far as buying, I find that I don't flick through a book which has someone's face I don't know on the cover. I'm sure they have a niche and some people know them, but they potentially missed out on my purchase just because their face is on the book cover. I thought about this once...If I was ever to write a cookbook, I would never have my face on it... I'd have a nice photo of one of the dishes in the book, or simply a really well designed cover. 

Am I alone? :) 

It seems many food network and tv type cooks put their faces.  Also some in the gossip prints.  There are some exceptions though.  For example Paul Prudhomme and maybe his presence was unique, they did that.  

I also do not care for faces on cookbook covers.  

I buy a lot of cookbooks, mostly used. I only buy new ones as a special treat for myself, if they are an absolute must-read for me, like Nigel Slater's new Cook's Book, a new Ina Garten, Canal House. I avoid anything that seems too cute or trendy, and any writer/cook who seems to know less than I do. I am wary of second books after an unknown writer/cook has had a smashingly successful first book, as I always think they'll have poured all their best into the first book, when they were unknown, and now they are just looking for more sales. There are, of course, exceptions to every bit of this.

I prefer metric measurements, and will often order a book directly from England to be sure to get the British edition rather than the "cups" measurements.

Most important is really good writing that feels personal, the writer's true voice and feelings, which is what I love about Nigel Slater, Ella Risbridger, Laurie Colwin, Robert Farrar Capon. I am also apt to buy writers' second, third, and subsequent books if I find, from the first book, that their palate matches mine (James Beard, Rosalea Murphy, Maida Heatter, James Villas, Lee Bailey, Rima Collin).

"Most important is really good writing that feels personal, the writer's true voice"

That's more important than learning to cook good food? When I go to a food blog, I look first for the Jump to Recipe button. After I've examined the recipe, I look at the rest of the post for any practical advice.