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.