The Time-Life Series of International Cook Books

I pulled out the Time-Life Spain book, btw, which confirmed what I said.

The Time-Life series is what originally got me into cooking. I own the whole series and still use it.

Believe it or not, New Mexico is a major paprika growing area, and ships it around the world.

A few years ago, I even grew a variety myself (Joe Parker, I believe). Then I dried and powdered it. I should try growing it again and perhaps smoking it. Yeah, I know. How do I keep it lit?

[Jenise]

That Time-Life series was terrific. I have about six of them and refer to them often--my mother subscribed, but never got the whole kaboodle, and I don't know why. I think they were initially issued on a book-of-the-month basis. Maybe she got and returned some of the ones she'd thought she'd never use, even though that's not how I remember her. She'd have hung onto them as reference material, if not for herself then for me. She was like that, and I was an encyclopaedic kid who loved being in the kitchen. If you have them all, how many were here altogether?

Something like 27. They were monthly. The first was the Cooking of Provincial France.

[Jenise]

27? Wow. I thought maybe my six were half the lot, but apparently nowhere close. Damn!

It's where I first learned how to make an Indian curry. I think I still may have that volume somewhere... Nice books, beautiful photography, very educational.

Jenise, these regularly show up in used book shops. I frequent way too many of them.....

If you'd like me to keep an eye out for any particular volumes, let me know. I'd be happy to.

Someone still reprints these books -- the binding is different but the contents are as in the original:

http://www.digmodern.com/product/0626051

$175 for the 27 books.

Each hardcover volume was accompanied by a spiral-bound softcover recipe book that had more recipes than the hardcover.

Hey Stuart: what kind of engineering books do you like to read?

[Jenise]

Bob, actually, the original was a large hard-bound coffee table size book plus a companion smaller spiral bound recipe book. All of the recipes in the coffee table book were in the smaller recipe book, but the smaller recipe book had more recipes than the hard bound book. What it looks like your link is selling is the spiral bound recipe books only, as they were originally issued. Which is a good thing--before I realized that difference, dumb me, long ago I dumped some of the spiral bound books. Wouldn't mind replacing them.

I also remember Time-Life printing a large volume that had selections from all the regions.

Sorry for being so cryptic. There are actually two series of books:

COOKING OF PROVINCIAL FRANCE, by M.F.K. Fisher & Michael Field, 1968 and lists Julia Child as consultant. This series is categorized geographically, i.e. books are titled by the regions and countries. ITALY, GERMANY, CHINA, LATIN AMERICA etc. are represented. In addition to recipes, there is a lot of writing about the specific country and some photographs are included. A small, spiral-bound book containing the recipes (and no text) is designed to be used as the kitchen cookbook and accompanies the larger book.

This is usually considered the "Foods of the World" series, and consists as you write, of two books. Usually easy to find the big ones, but the little books are much scarcer and that's why I linked to the source for the reprints.

The Richard Olney series is by main ingredient, i.e. VEGETABLES, LAMB, PASTA, etc. These are mainly recipes and some books are categorized by cooking technique or specific ingredient. In the case of VEGETABLES it categorizes by type (pods & seeds, leaves, tubers, etc). There is no accompanying booklet for kitchen use. This is usually called the "Good Cook" series.

My note concerned the small spiral bound booklet of recipes only.

It would be great if both series were re-issued completely.

Regards, Bob

PS: I doubled checked my memory -- tough sometimes to remember to do so -- and found this note:

I worked for Time-Life Books for a while in the '80s as a telemarketer (I've gotten well, since, thanks), and ended up with the entire "Good Cook" collection, which I treasure. They are excellent books both as recipe sources and as a place to learn basic techniques. I've been dying for years to make the glazed honeycomb tripe recipe that is the cover shot of "Variety Meats".

"Foods of the World" I have a few of, and am always on the lookout for more. The tough thing with them is that each volume was two books: the large format color hardbound book with the background information and a handful of recipes, and a smaller, spiral-bound recipe book. It's easy to find the large format books, but the little recipe books don't seem to pop up as often in the used bookstores.


http://www.chowhound.com/topics/315675

For $1 million, I might part with mine. Actually, Time-Life should reprint them.

I still have the full series also - Hardcover and softcover. They issued some supplements as well that had some additional recipes and corrections to a few recipes they apparently got wrong in the originals. They're a great resource and I still use them occasionally.

A good place to look for volumes you are missing is eBay. Most anything will turn up there eventually!