Caring for your cookbook collection

May 6, 2020 by
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Whether your collection is large or small, taking care of your cookbooks is an important part of keeping them. While a few grease splatters may add to the charm, in the long haul it pays to keep your books in good shape so you can enjoy them for decades. How to take care of your books is a daunting question: first there is the decision of where to store them (kitchens can be full of heat and humidity, two things books don’t appreciate), how to store them, and how to clean them. Biblio.com is a good resource to learn about how to care for your books as they have an entire section of their site dedicated to this topic.

Biblio offers advice on cleaning and repairing damaged hardcover and paperback volumes, plus information on book binding. One of the most interesting sections deals with how to identify, prevent, and remove mold and mildew from books. This is especially important for the treasures you pick up from used bookstores, thrift stops, and antique stores, because they can suffer from improper storage before you ever get to put them in your collection.

I read the section on how to store books useful as well. I know that for aesthetic and space reasons, people often store books lying down (I have been guilty of this in the past). According to Biblio, this can damage the spine, and they recommend that most types of books be stored vertically. They also warn you not to cram books too tightly together on a shelf because that can also put pressure on the spine. An empty envelope should fit easily between the books, but books shouldn’t be allowed to lean on each other either, because that can cause a different type of damage.

Category: Antipasto

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5 Comments

  • Indio32  on  May 7, 2020

    What a fantastic resource…. definitely a ‘cookbook love’ project going to be happening for this weekends Bank Holiday!

  • MarciK  on  May 7, 2020

    Are there book repair or archival places that can do something to protect brittle pages in a vintage cookbook?

    Also a tip, don’t stuff your cookbooks with newspaper recipe clippings like my dear grandma. It will damage the binding if it gets overstuffed.

  • manycookbooks  on  May 8, 2020

    I can say from experience that having really STURDY shelves/bookcases are an absolute necessity. Many of the older cookbooks are large tomes and many of the newer ones have many heavy, glossy photo pages. Perhaps for that reason, cookbooks seem to be heavier than most other books, for example, novels or books on gardening. I have had various bookcases over the years, but the sturdiest ones I have (and still have) are “Billy” bookcases from Ikea. They take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. My bookcases house my current collection of approximately 6,500 cookbooks. A lot of previous bookshelves just sagged under the weight, which was not good for the bookcase nor for the cookbooks!

  • RobinF  on  May 10, 2020

    If at all possible the best way to preserve your precious cookbooks are in a cabinet with glass doors. At least that is my way. Keeps them dust proof and perfectly clean but you can still see the titles easily.

  • KarenGlad  on  May 11, 2020

    Speaking of sagging bookshelves and you don’t have an Ikea close by ….look for bookcases at an office supply store that are meant for commercial versus home use. You pay a little more but the shelves are sturdier and can actually hold some weight.

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