Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Cheaper and Better

Recently a reader named Kate left a comment as follows: "Some time (maybe years) back you posted about a cookbook you used that (If I remember correctly) gave recipes for copycat commercial ingredients. I'm afraid my 73 year old brain is not remembering it well. I've looked at your key words to see if I could find the name of it to no avail. Do you remember it or is my old brain short circuiting? Thank you."

Whew. This was a stumper. I searched and searched through the blog archives and couldn't find anything involving copycat recipes. I replied, "Since I'm on the admin side of the blog, I can do more sophisticated searches. I have well over 4,000 blog posts, so often it's difficult to remember what I've posted over the years. However after searching for many different keywords, I simply cannot find anything about a copycat recipe book. I vaguely remember owning one a long time ago, but I ended up giving it away because I was unfamiliar with (and therefore not enamored with) most of the restaurants and recipes they used. Sorry I can't be more helpful!"

And then – and this is why I love my blog readers – reader Jillee stepped in with the solution: "Kate & Patrice, could the book have been 'Cheaper & Better: Homemade Alternatives to Storebought Goods'? Patrice, you referred to this book in a previous post and I ordered it from a used book seller. Very useful book to have. ... Forgot to give the author’s name. 'Cheaper & Better' is by Nancy Birnes."

Thank you, Jillee! Yes, this book is incredibly helpful. I've used its advice for making everything from Irish cream to Formula 409. This is definitely a book to purchase for frugal alternatives to store-bought products, including many recipes. Highly recommended.

7 comments:

  1. Youza! The book is selling for $39 on Amazon today.

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    1. they do have used copies on Amazon though in both paperback and hardback which a a lot less expensive. .87 and 1.10 are the lowest I saw. Thinking of getting a copy myself.

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    2. I bought it used back when Patrice originally mentioned it...it definitely didn't cost that much!

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    3. Just a word of caution of buying used from 3rd party sellers on amazon; many are thrift stores and they often lie about the condition of items and most refuse returns and won't send replacements. I bought a lot of books and DVDs like that in the past and received so many items in poor condition that I stopped buying from any thrift store related sellers on there, plus shipping can take several weeks as amazon doesn't ship it. Now there are some book stores on there that are reputable but charge higher prices. Thriftbooks is a good place for used books and has free shipping if you spend over $15, they have always replaced anything that showed up in worse condition than described. Ebay and abebooks are good too if you go with sellers with good feedback.

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  2. Sounds like a book that should be in every kitchen, wonder if my adult grandchildren would use it? Thanks for all your post s, information and wonderful pictures.

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  3. thank you- since I use kindle I have it now to read for free. very expensive to buy in the UK.

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  4. That's the one. Thank you sooooo much.

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