I picked up a couple of cookbooks at the thrift store yesterday:

[kestrel91316]

Deaf Smith Country Cookbook - it's sort of a 70s granola and carob classic, so I had to have it.

Craig Claiborne's New New York Times Cookbook - a rather hefty tome, but a real treasure full of any recipe you might want to try. Who knew there were American cookbooks with Pho Bo way back then??

Total price paid: $5.

[ginnyinWI]

1. did you ever notice how many microwave cookbooks they've got

at places like Goodwill? Man--it's like nobody wants to cook anything in a microwave. Heat things up, yes. Melt things, yes. There isn't anything I routinely cook using a microwave.

[kestrel91316]

4. Yeah, lol. I remember how people would try to bake bread and

cook roasts in them, and the hoops you had to jump through to get stuff browned. Blech.

[Warpy]

6. Funniest thing I ever saw

was somebody trying to bake brioche in one.

It's a good thing the kitchen had a skylight that could be opened. It really was not pretty.

[supernova]

9. I used to do brownies in the microwave

:rofl:

They worked out pretty well, tasted OK, but were uneven due to uneven rising, and they had a holy texture somewhere between pudding and cake.

:rofl:

I decided then that whatever the microwave was, it wasn't for serious cookery.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. Roasts in a combination microwave/convection oven

I have a combination microwave/convection oven that does a really nice job on roasts, using the combo cook method. It does both types of cooking simultaneously. The convection browns it nicely and the microwave cooks it quickly.

It's old now--more than 15 years--and the microwave is pretty weak by today's standards. Since I have a newer, better microwave and hardly ever cook roasts, I almost never use that one any more. I recall that it took some experimenting to determine the right translations of time and temperature from regular recipes to get it right in the combo oven, but having done that, it was great.

[Tab]

12. Well, ovens do that too...

(heat things up and melt things)

But I know what you mean. First, they're terrible for meats. Reheating some cooked stuff is okay.

Bacon comes out reasonably well, but you have to use a paper plate and lots of paper towels.

They are pretty good for instant popcorn and certain "microwave" foods. But let's forget that, because you're talking about "cooking" not "nuking microwave foods".

So, bacon. Not bad for baked potatoes either. Um... what else?

Softening up hardened breads. Disinfecting sponges.

Not much.

Remember, these all came out when microwaves became popular. Most of those people probably weren't doing any serious cooking anyway. There's not a lot I can think of that it'd be good for on a serious basis, and one problem is that if you have an actual dish container (forget metal - won't work) much of the energy just goes into making the dish hot before you even get to the food.

They are good for babies and cats, and I recently saw a TV show that investigated the phenonemon of kids putting jawbreakers in them, and then biting into them and getting third-degree burns as the jawbreaker exploded and the molten center went all over.

Don't know if anyone ever bit into babies or cats that were microwaved.

[Retrograde]

16. Rice comes out ok

My mother used to make rice in her microwave. It took about 15 minutes, slightly less time than my rice cooker requires. Heating enough water for one cup of tea - but you have to be careful not to let it boil over. Otherwise, I don't cook with it per se, mainly melt cheese and heat up frozen foods.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

2. Good find!

I love cruising the thrift stores & 'antique' malls & estate sales, etc. for old cookbooks. I have hundreds (to DH's dismay). I'm still looking for a first edition of Mastering The Art....

[Stinky The Clown]

3. What's the date on the NYT?

Some of those Claiborne cookbooks are historical snapshots of the culinary n'est plus ultra

[kestrel91316]

5. This one is from the late 70s, I think. It's at home and I have no internet

at home now since the neighbor with the wifi moved, lol. I'll try to remember to check when I am reading it tonight.

[kestrel91316]

14. Stinky, it's a 1979 edition.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. I had to establish residency in Ohio in 1969,

so that we could get married (the female had to be the resident, and I was going to school in Maine, so .........) My future husband enrolled me in the Cookbook-Of-The-Month Club, using his address so that we could provide proof that I was, in fact, domiciled in Ohio - after I got my Ohio driver's license. It worked, and we got married.

The less said about that the better.

One of the five free books he got when he signed me up for the Club was that Claiborne NY Times cookbook. Along with Larousse Gastonomique, and three others I no longer recall (but probably have a shelf here).

I had never cooked, and the Claiborne book became my guide. My first dinner was his recipe for Coquille san Jacques, and it turned out wonderfully. After that, I was launched as a genuine foodie, and all these years later, I still have a very soft spot in my heart for that cookbook, if not for the man who ordered it for me.................

[grasswire]

7. I've had that Claiborne book forever.

It's handy now and then, and totally reliable.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I love to find those little cookbooks that are compiled by schools and churches

with recipes that are contributed by community members. Not all the recipes will be winners, but you can sometimes find some real originals that have been tested and adapted by people who have come up with some tasty family favorites and crowd pleasers.

[susanna]

11. I, too, am a community/church cookbook junkie.

Fabulous insights to a region or group of people through foods. Really neat! :-)

[Retrograde]

15. those are great snapshots

especially those with a heavy ethnic focus. Some of the recipes are clunkers -like the fascination with non-dairy toppings - and the instructions can be a bit vague ("cook until done"), but there are some great recipes the older women got from their grandparents, largely untouched by time and modern shortcuts.

[ginnyinWI]

13. I was cruising Goodwill today and

since we were talking old cookbooks I took a look, and found a neat one: http://www.amazon.com/Mayo-Clinic-Williams-Sonoma-Cookbook-Solutions/dp/0848725832/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240440076&sr=8-2

That's the Amazon link for a 2002 version of The Mayo Clinic Williams Sonoma Cookbook, except that one is a paperback from 2002 and mine is a hardcover from 1998. Originally $29.95,it cost me $2.99 which is high for a Goodwill book, but it's a big book with great pictures and some nice looking dishes.

Thanks for the idea!