Beware The Books

If you’re a new student starting in September, or starting to cook in September, you should consider carefully before buying a recipe book.

The chances are, you want your food to be these four things:  cheap, quick, easy, tasty.

A book labelled student food will probably be considering these things, but the food is often junky and odd.  My student food book turned out to be terrible.  I wouldn’t buy a student food book unless you are sure the food is to your taste exactly.

Other food books often turn out to be bad value for money (themselves, not the food).  You should take a look at the number of recipes inside (ignoring the ones you wouldn’t eat) and weigh that up against the price.  I’m a big fan of Nigella, but her books are quite expensive.  I wouldn’t recommend a book whose cuisine you don’t already enjoy.  Also, you could ask for a good but expensive book as a present, maybe “for good exam results”.

Recipes on the Internet are free, unless you want to print them off.  You will have free Internet access at your University, or will consider it a necessity anyway.  Many blogs, like this one, can offer you advice and experiences, and there are many sites offering recipes.

What I would recommend is a magazine with a variety of recipes for different budgets, situations and cultures.  Some good ones are EasyCook from the BBC and EasyFood, a publication from Ireland; both have price per portion for every recipe published.  The BBC’s Good Food magazine is also good, but a little more complex in recipes and only has a selection of recipes costed.  Others vary by what kind of style you prefer, certainly I consider EasyCook the most student-friendly.
The big advantage with magazines is that while you could get a subscription (or gift subscription), you can buy them when you want them and miss out issues when you don’t want them.