Time Life Cookbook series

Hi,

I have Time-Life cookbooks in my library, though not the complete set. I see them often at used book stores and rummage sales. I never buy them, because I am not quite sure what I have and what I am missing.

This evening my memory was jogged on this issue. I found this website Leggman's Time Life Library, a compendium of Time Life books information:

Cookery Around the World, which consists of 24 volumes

Foods of the World, which consists of 31 volumes.

Recipes from Foods of the World, which consists of 16 wire bound books. A friend commented these are essential if you intend to cook recipes from the series.

The Good Cook Techniques and Recipes, which consists of 28 volumes. It includes the rare book on offal called Variety Meats.

Time Life Illustrated Library of Cooking, which consists of 10 volumes. It also has a volume on variety meats.

Scroll through the list you will find minor 2-4 book series on food topics as well as a series branded with Williams and Sonoma.

I always thought I may be missing a few books. Now I am certain I am missing much more, though do I really need it? When one series was Cookery Around the World with another Foods of the World, I sense one was marketed to European markets and the other to American. I wouldn't be surprised to learn there was serious overlap between the two.

It would be interesting to learn from someone familiar with the various series, which ones are worth pursuing and possibly not.

I have a Better Homes and Gardens Encyclopedia of Cooking from the late 1960's. I have always liked the articles and found the recipes reliable. As I became more aware of the people authoring the sections, like James Beard, I began to value it even more. A few years ago, Saveur listed the series in their annual 100 list.

Regards,

While this doesn't help you in the slightest, Cathy2, I can't resist the opportunity to brag that I proudly own a copy of The Cooking of Scandinavia by Dale Brown (part of the Foods of the World series). The Cooking of Scandinavia, of course, contains the Max von Sydow-illustrated guide to a proper Swedish "Skål" that's been (pretentiously) spread and documented by these guys.

The book was given to me as a gift 15 years ago. I can't vouch for the book's content but it's surely worth its cost simply for those three pictures of Max von Sydow.

I have the complete set of The Good Cook series. It is a masterpiece. The series was edited by Richard Olney. While there are some books I don't use that much (e.g. classic desserts), this is usually the first place I look when I have a question about how to cook something, use an ingredient, etc. Despite being about 30 years old, very little of it is dated. The first 1/2 to 2/3 of each book is an illustrated guide of techniques. The second part of each book is a collection of recipes from around the world based on the topic of each book.

I have about 10 of the Foods of the World series and most of the Recipe booklets that accompany these. I don't use these books that often. I have no experience with Cookery Around the World - never heard of it before.

Hi Cathy2

The Foods of the World series was 27 volumes, each included a beautiful hard bound book with color images and great stories about food and people from different regions and a spiral bound recipe booklet (one for each region, not just 16). The recipe booklets had all the recipes from the hard bound ones PLUS a variety of additional recipes. The set also included a separate menu guide/recipe index and a volume on Wine (with its recipe book). A subscriber also received printed cardboard inserts to put in the recipe books as spine labels.

I think, don't quote me, the supplements were not part of the original subscription.

Personally, I love them. They introduced many Americans to exotic foods and ingredients but as an historian, I really love the stories about foodways around the world. Many books reflect regional cuisines and foodways that have disappeared. And I still root through (pun intended) them when I need inspiration or have an ingredient I want to prepare in a new way. I consider them a useful part of my cookbook collection and enjoy rediscovering "exotic" food stories.

Diannie

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. Now that I found an index of what books are involved, I will slowly assemble the Good Cook and Foods of the World sets.

The list this website provided will reduce replicating what I already have unless it is something I want duplicates.

Regards,

During the 70s and 80s, my Grandmother worked for Pioneer Press, which at the time was owned by Time-Life.
So we ended up with lots of Time-Life books as gifts. Odds are most of the Good Cook series can be found amongs my relations. I know I have two of them (I think it's Outdoor Cooking, and Beef and Veal).

One of them (I don't remember which), for being published in 1979 is surprisingly diverse in its ethnic offerings: it's still the source for my base kefta kabob recipe, it has Vietnamese pork meatballs, and lots more.

I just checked, and Google Books has not scanned it, sadly.

My parents bought the whole Good Cook series, and I still borrow volumes as needed when I visit mom. I have over the decades collected 16 books from the Foods of the World series, some with their wire-bound companions, one even still in the slipcover. I didn't realize I was still so far from having a complete collection. Give me a goal for future second-hand book sales.

I love the Time-Life books and relied on them long before book stores were filled with ethnic food offerings. While I think it was Sphere magazine (through the '60s) that first really got me into cooking exotica, it was the Time-Life series that really introduced the idea of connecting culture with food, and I enjoyed the articles as much as the recipes.

I recommend the Wild Rice recipe in the American book. My late father-in-law is given credit for the recipe but my wife says the her mother was actually the one responsible. I have made the wild rice for dozens of Thanksgiving dinners and it is pretty darn good.

My middle daughter won't eat because she thinks cooked wild rice looks like cockroach legs. This is the person that ate sheep eyeballs when she lived in China.

My favorite is "The Cooking of Provincial France" the first one in the Foods of the World series. Why? Love MFK Fisher. Like Cathy I always forget which ones I have. I've discovered the little spiral bound cook books disappear quick. The only "complete one" I have - with its special box holder - is the Indian book.

I have only one Time-Life Cooking in America, it spans regional American specialties and has a very thoughtful forward by James Beard. I bought this in college before Saveur and the Sterns made such hyper-regional stories easy to come by . . . and it struck me as endearing and much needed. I still want to try the Clam Bake that is listed in it!

Hmmmm . . . maybe we could have a Time-Life potluck and people bring their favorite dishes?

bjt

bjt wrote:
Hmmmm . . . maybe we could have a Time-Life potluck and people bring their favorite dishes?

bjt

I love that idea!