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Hi I am Nelson.  

I found this site by reading the latest edition of Milk Street Magazine.  With over 70 cookbooks (and counting much to the chagrin of my wife) this tool is indispensable as I cannot recall where a recipe is without putting a "post it note" on the page.  Most of the time I just google a recipe but EYB takes me back to the cookbooks I cherish. 

I first began dabbling in the kitchen at the age of 13.   A few years ago I fulfilled a lifelong fantasy of working in a professional kitchen for free inspired by Bill Buford's book "Heat".  I worked at a Portuguese restaurant here in my town and I must say I loved every minute of it and I learned quite a lot.   While I grew up in a Portuguese family in Newark, NJ surrounded by great Portuguese food at home (my dad cooked most of the meals) I thought I knew it all about Portuguese food.  I was so wrong...the experience of working in that kitchen taught me so much.  I wrote about the experience in several pieces and posted on the Facebook group I administer "Cooking Portuguese Food" which currently has over 15,000 members.

I started the Facebook group "Cooking Portuguese Food” for people who wanted to cook Portuguese food but weren’t fluent in Portuguese to read online recipes in Portuguese.  I am fluent (read, write and speak) in Portuguese but many Portuguese descendants that migrated all over the world are not.  So I created the page to help them cook the food their elder’s made but the recipe and technique was long forgotten.   Members typically ask does anyone have a recipe for (fill in the blank) and people respond with recipes in English and provide feedback, tips and assistance with making that dish.  It’s like having grandma in the room with you looking over your shoulder.  But the group has also become a celebration of Portuguese food with people from all over the world contributing personal recipes.  In this way I hope to continue the wonderful (but many times overlooked) culinary traditions of my culture since the group is open to all.

I am not a professional chef and although I wish I had pursued that earlier in life I don’t look back on it too much because  I cook every day for myself and my family.  In addition we always host holidays and parties so it’s like having an exclusive restaurant for my family and friends.

Hi! Im Rachelle.  I love cookbooks and I love collecting recipes.  This is a very fun concept!  I love it!  Looking forward to using this.

It is  so awesome to see new people finding this site too. I just can't imagine without this site now.  Made it so much more enjoyable and stress-free to cook knowing I can easily find recipes. 

I'm Ben. I'm a software developer/web developer. I also love cooking.

A few days ago, I had a great idea for a website, which was to provide an online database of people's recipe books so that they could look up recipes based on ingredients. Turns out that apparently you've already done that. And done it better than I could have ever done it myself. Oh well...

Loving this site, definitely everything I need, and no need for me to code anything!

Hi Ben - be very glad we saved you the huge amount of work and even larger amount of money that building a site like Eat Your Books required! There is a reason we are the only website in the world that offers this service.

I'm known as mjes i.e. my initials. I'm also known as Martha or M.J. I'm a retired IT professional who has moved to a rural area outside Seattle. Here, I have little to focus on besides cooking - taking classes, taking my family to cheese making classes, talking my son into using Italian 00 flour for pizza so his wife gets her New York style ... My shopping principle is "If I haven't seen it before, I have to have it". When I get home, I have to figure out what it is and how to use it - this is an especially fun principle in Korean and Japanese supermarkets especially when there is no English transliteration. As a result, I am a bit obsessive about accurate searching of the recipes on ingredient. Sometimes I even find a cool ingredient before it becomes widely known and get to chuckle when the food magazines discover it.

My education focused on South Asia and many of my friends have spent a significant amount of time in Asia or retired to Asia. Therefore, my food knowledge reflects a West Coast-Asia-Pacific Rim focus rather than an East Coast-European focus. So, yes, unfortunately, I may come off as a bit of a bull in a china shop in Asian recipes - feel free to call me on it until I learn the conventions in this forum. Honestly, I am a gentle soul.

Welcome on board mjes.. look forward to hearing of "new" discoveries as your EYB journey & exploration continues...

Originally Posted by: mjes

I'm known as mjes i.e. my initials. I'm also known as Martha or M.J. I'm a retired IT professional who has moved to a rural area outside Seattle. Here, I have little to focus on besides cooking - taking classes, taking my family to cheese making classes, talking my son into using Italian 00 flour for pizza so his wife gets her New York style ... My shopping principle is "If I haven't seen it before, I have to have it". When I get home, I have to figure out what it is and how to use it - this is an especially fun principle in Korean and Japanese supermarkets especially when there is no English transliteration. As a result, I am a bit obsessive about accurate searching of the recipes on ingredient. Sometimes I even find a cool ingredient before it becomes widely known and get to chuckle when the food magazines discover it.

My education focused on South Asia and many of my friends have spent a significant amount of time in Asia or retired to Asia. Therefore, my food knowledge reflects a West Coast-Asia-Pacific Rim focus rather than an East Coast-European focus. So, yes, unfortunately, I may come off as a bit of a bull in a china shop in Asian recipes - feel free to call me on it until I learn the conventions in this forum. Honestly, I am a gentle soul.

Originally Posted by: Paula_W

Hello. New to the site. Like many lately, I found it due to Milk Street. I am surprised that it has existed for s long without me learning of it before. I was literally about to make another (feeble) attempt at creating an excel index of my recipes. I can't tell you how glad I was to find this instead And I've already found out how helpful, friendly and hands-on Jane, one of the founders, is. She helped me change my username. I didn't realize how public the username would be (e.g. On forums) when I signed up. I did not want to use my full last name just for some privacy. She even made a suggestion when it turned out my first two ideas were already in use. Thanks again Jane.

Welcome on board Paula .. and love your idea of "I just cooked...".. as you've no doubt seen "notes" feature on the home page and they're a great resource and kind of like your "I just cooked...." principle..I too was one of the "I'll just make an access database.." before stumbling on EYB six or was it seven years ago ...

Hello, I'm Jane, I'm from Yorkshire, England.  I thought my cookbook collection was vast, but I already realise that it's small fry, compared to many on here.  I signed up to the website a year or so ago, but didn't subscribe fully, as I was pushed for time.  But a late (mistakenly strong) coffee last night and a search for recipes to use some pork belly brought me back here, I signed up properly, and ended up adding around 80 books from memory! As well as recent books, I have a collection of 40s, 50s and 60s food books.  I've already been delighted to find how many decades-old books are here, and I look forward to making much better use of mine - and not selling them! 

Welcome, Jane! 

Today is the World Day of the Book, as it happens, and your comment brought to mind the number of cookbooks from the past fifty years that are being re-stored and restored to use thanks to Eat Your Books and its members.  It's heartening on many levels.  Thanks, Fiona and Jane, and all the indexers, both pros and members.

Long live books!

Hi, my name is Mar, I am from Madrid, Spain. I knew of this site some time ago, but I subscribed recently. I have not counted how many cookbooks and magazines I have, but waaay too many. Some aren´t indexed because they are old or rare or because they are in German or Spanish, but many others are and I hope this great site will help me make a better use of them and enjoy my cooking even more. Thank you to the creators and indexers. I hope too to find some time to contribute as well someday.

Hello. My name is Jenny. I used to work as a line cook at fine dining restaurants in New York City and Milwaukee. Now I am a new mom with a 9-month-old son in Wisconsin. I used to cook and bake on my days off. Since I have more time at home, I am really excited about trying the recipes in all my cookbooks and magazines. I love planning meals for the week. I can properly devote time to make pickles, jams and jellies. With eatyourbooks.com, I have an online index for my cookbooks. Yay!

14 years ago, I moved to this new house and in the process got rid of several hundred cookbooks but kept the majority of my collection.  Since then, I have continued accumulating and probably have over 1000.    I'm retired and live in the mountains of Tennessee and now trying to get used to cooking for one.