Free Digital Cookbooks

Cookbooks are one of my most favorite things. While I always prefer the old fashioned kind (ha!) that I can hold in my hands and turn the pages for real, I don’t turn down a free digital cookbook download if it looks like a good one.

I’ve collected quite a few on my computer and I thought that I would share some of my favorites with all of you.

Favorite Food at Home by Rachel Allen — Rachel is a TV chef in Ireland who cooks with home-grown ingredients. This cookbook download is limited to the first 10,000 downloads using coupon code KGLD-0319-2010-RACB . It contains twenty recipes selected by the brand Kerrygold. Her Porter Cake looks like something I might want to try for St. Patrick’s Day. (Found at Deal Seeking Mom)

Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Hotline Recipes Cookbook — I know it’s past Thanksgiving (or really early for it, depending on your perspective), but this is one of my most favorite cookbook downloads. It’s still available through Sirius/XM, but who knows how long they will keep it up? It features all sorts of great recipes from top chef’s such as Rick Bayless, Anita Lo, Nigella Lawson and more.

Taste of Home magazine — Okay, so not a cookbook, but you can view the current issue of Taste of Home digitally here. You can also save for offline viewing and print, if you wish.

Another one I have enjoyed was The Old Schoolhouse Digital Holiday Supplement. It is mainly directed at homeschooling families, but I’m sure it would appeal to many parents.

There are some free Kindle e-cookbooks available too. I don’t actually own a full-size Kindle, but I do have the free Kindle app on my iPhone. I haven’t reviewed all of these yet, but have downloaded them. Most (if not all) are older cookbooks that have expired copyrights. But in the same way as I enjoy the Project Gutenberg cookbooks (listed below), I enjoy the historical aspect of these books. Here’s a few that caught my eye (there are more available at Amazon.com):

• Made-Over Dishes (Kindle Edition) by S. T. (Sarah Tyson Heston) Rorer
• Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book (Kindle Edition) by Maria Parloa
• Favorite Dishes : a Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book (Kindle Edition) by Carrie V. Shuman
• Vaughan’s Vegetable Cook Book (4th edition) How to Cook and Use Rarer Vegetables and Herbs (Kindle Edition) by Anonymous
• School and Home Cooking (Kindle Edition) by Carlotta Cherryholmes Greer

Did you know that you can access lots of older cookbooks that have been converted to ebook format? Project Gutenberg has a whole section of books that are now in the public domain on various cookery subjects. They can be offered for free because their copyright has expired in the United States. I personally find many of these old gems fascinating; it’s wonderful how we can enjoy them on modern conveniences such as our PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable devices.