Start your own cookbook club

Does the following scenario sound familiar? Your new cookbook has arrived, and you eagerly crack open the cover to begin perusing the recipes. You want to try several of the dishes but the time investment (not to mention the cost) is daunting. One solution to this conundrum: start (or join) a cookbook club, and you can begin by using this primer from indexed blog Serious Eats.

Tara Austen Weaver lists the benefits to being in a cookbook club, which include the obvious (trying many new dishes without a significant investment), as well as meeting new people and expanding your cooking boundaries. Says Weaver, “Cookbook Club has taken me many places I might not have gone on my own. A recent foray into Vietnamese bánh mì set me off on a pickle-making bender, stocking my fridge with lemongrass-infused snow peas and jars of sweet and crunchy brined carrot and daikon.” 

In addition to describing her own experience as a cookbook club member, Weaver also provides instructions on starting your own group. She starts with advice on how to choose dates and cookbooks, and how to use tools like Google spreadsheets to organize dishes for each member. Also included are helpful dos and don’ts based on her experience.

EYB provides another resource to help your cookbook club stay organized and share information. You can share Notes on the recipes from the books you are cooking in the club. That way all members of your club can see what everyone else has been cooking from the book between meetings, as well as build up a resource of tips for group members. (If you aren’t already an EYB Member, you can join at no cost.)

If you have any experience being part of a cookbook club, please feel free to share your story below, or in the EYB Members’ Forum.