Calling all cookbook lovers

I have been living in Europe for about 40 years too, after moving from my native Canada. I miss the edition of the Joy of Cooking I grew up with, with the cute illustrations depicting how to skin a squirrel. I did buy a reprint of the 70s edition with drawings that are not as cute but gave it away because I got fed up with non metric measurements. I regret that because the new edition that I still own is missing some of my favourite recipes.

I love cookbooks! I have 40ish at the moment, but have had many more. I try to pare down every so often. I especially like old cookbooks. My oldest is The Hunter Sifter Cook Book published in 1884. Most of these old recipes don't give exact measurements, oven temperatures, or times.
" Fig Biscuits
Wash and scald 1 pound of figs, then mix in enough graham flour to make a stiff dough. Cut into biscuits and bake in a quick oven."

Had to know what you were doing back then, lol.

I created my own cookbook by adding interesting recipes from the internet.

I have a lot of cookbooks. Nowhere near 50, but quite a few. I usually don't cook directly from recipes; I'll look up a few and get a general idea and then get cookin'. Some of my cookbooks I've had over 30 years for sure. I was a vegetarian for about 30 years, and I for sure used Mollie Katzen's books as references. I would make a version of her Shepherd's Pie for thanksgiving for YEARS. It's kind of dated, and it is for sure very heavy on the butter. I've also got a copy of Laurel's Kitchen. I remember growing up, my mom had a copy of Diet For a Small Planet and Recipes For a Small Planet. I picked up a used copy many years ago, but seldom look at it.

There's a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. It has no publication date listed, but it is the 1956 edition. It's still a good basic reference book. My mom had one growing up; I am sure I found this one in the used bookstore or Goodwill. Yes, it has a small section on squirrel. I should tell that to the Eastern Gray Squirrel (an invasive species where I live) who raids my suet feeder that I'm just fattening it up....

I also have a copy of The American Woman's Cook Book 1956 edition. I don't know where I picked it up, but it also is a decent reference. The Culinary Arts Institute published the first edition in 1943. It also has a section on squirrel. Are you listening mister rodent? Squirrel actually is pretty tasty, but they are fairly difficult to skin.

I probably have a dozen more ranging from Asian pasta to natural foods to wild-crafted foods to Southwest cuisine. I also have a notebook of my own collected recipes and even some I've written down of my own creation.

My favorite probably are still the Katzen books - Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

Not long ago, someone bought me what isn't really a cookbook, but might be thought of as one in a broad sense. It's called "On Food and Cooking; The Science and Lore of the Kitchen." It covers an awful lot of material, but none of it in depth. Want to learn the science behind caramelization and the Maillard reaction? This book covers it. Looking for how to store potatoes? Look no farther. Interested in learning how emulsification works? There's even microscopy images of mayonnaise formation with different amounts of oil and egg. Looking for information about the formation and dangers of nitrosamines in meat? It's covered. Want information about squirrels? Wrong book. It's interesting to thumb through, but it's kind of huge.

Maybe I should peruse the library and used bookstores to see if there's something else I want to add to the shelf.

I don't use cookbooks much anymore, and then mostly either for (1) general ideas about flavor profiles and combinations, (2) the way to make something (like a lot of baked goods) that contain what I think of as "structural ingredients" - things that need to be in certain proportions to produce the end product reasonably.

I have a couple of 3-foot-ish (1m ish) shelves of cookbooks. The ones I use most these days (still rare):

Cookwise by Shirley Corriher (it's food science with recipes - good ones: the Southern buttermilk biscuits are amazing)

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (when I want ideas for something fancy-ish that non-veg people may like, such as for a potluck)

Mrs. Restino's Country kitchen: The complete wood stove cookbook by Susan Restino (I don't have a woodstove, but I like her pizza dough recipe as a starting point to riff on, and there are some other good basics in there, in a "make it kinda like this but you can substitute that if you don't have this" form that matches how I cook)

Family Meals and Hospitality", by Lewis/Peckham/Hovey, 1960 edition. (It was my high school Home Economics class book, has all kinds of basics, substitutions, general instructions and such in it.) I put a thread in Debate sometime back to share the overview nutrition and weight loss advice from this book, which was kind of fun and in some ways unexpected: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10625791/mainstream-eating-guidance-1960/p1 )

I have various cookbooks about cuisines that aren't what I was born to (Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, African, etc.), some about canning and preserving books (used to do that), couple of chocolate cookbooks, the 1970s Small Planet cookbooks from when I first became vegetarian, Greene on Greens by Bert Greene (which I got as a gift but is a decent book for someone needing ideas for cooking veggies), and some other offbeat stuff (liqueur making, tamales, desserts, Nero Wolfe cookbook (!), Theory and Practice of Good Cooking by James Beard, probably at least one book about cooking wild game (late husband was a hunter) . . . .

It's too many, but right now it seems like more trouble to get rid of some than just to keep them.

Thanks @yirara. That's the kind of feedback I was looking for. I thought I remember someone mentioning them here in the last month - it might have been you.

I'm not sure what an "American" taste is though. I wonder if I have one. I don't use mayonnaise or ketchup. I don't eat fast food. I like sauerkraut and kimchi. I like rutabaga. I like "stinky" cheese.