Introduction
This is a listing of sites that legally offer free Cooking, Food & Wine books , for reading and listening (audio).
All of these sites listed have content that is legal for them to distribute. If you find that any site listed is offering content that can not be legally transferred, please let me know in the comments below.
This list is not comprehensive and if you know of any other sites please post in the comments below or at our forums [2].
A comprehensive alphabetical listing of free books for reading or listening can be found on these pages:
There will be other books on Cooking, Food & Wine at the sites listed there, but they are not categorized at the sites. There are also links to other genre pages at those sites.
Libraries are also an excellent source for reading and listening materials for children. To find out more information on your local library, the links here may help: Library Information [5]
There are 15 other book pages here at Gizmo's covering other various popular book genres and offering links to free online books listed here: Book Genre Pages [6]
This page's listings can be accessed as follows:
Cooking, Food & Wine
2020k (CFW) [7] Large collection, nicely divided into sub-categories, available for download in a variety of formats.
AssociatedContent [8] has several cookbooks available for download in pdf. Most are short and specific (muffin recipes etc.), but the Chocolate recipe book is over 600 pages and the Blue Ribbon recipes are over 400 pages.
Bartleby [9] has the famous 1918 Fannie Farmer The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book available for online viewing.
BooksShouldBeFree [10] has 7 unique free cookbooks. Although this is an audiobook site, there are links to text copies at gutenberg.
Bored.com (Cooking) [11] has 70 cookbooks available for online viewing. Searchable by title. Some interesting entries.
Bookyards (CFW) [12] 23 interesting cookbooks available in pdf download
ChestofBooks (Cooking) [13] Around 100 books available for online viewing.
CookingWithUs [14]
has a large and diverse collection of cookbooks available in PDF (zipped). Also, a few cookbooks available in Kindle [15].
CreativeHomemaking [16] has a number of free cookbooks available for download in pdf. Some interesting entries here, including "How to Make a Gingerbread House".
DigitalBookIndex [17] links to a large collection of cookbooks and general cooking information. Viewing and download options vary as these are links to various sites.
eBookCellar [18] has nine free cookbooks available for download in PDF (zipped). For some reason, you have to go through a few pages to get to the download, but there is no signup etc.
e-booksdirectory [19]has several interesting free cookbooks available for download in pdf (click on sub-categories on page).
e-cookbooks.net [20] has 14 smaller cookbooks available for free download in pdf.
Freeebooks.info (CFW) [21] 18 books available for download in varying formats
FreeeBooksCanada [22] has a large listing of free cookbooks available for download in pdf. Very interesting collection worth checking out.
FreeOnlineBookstore [23] has a good number of links to free books their cooking and food category, which is also divided into 4 subcategories. Since most link off site, the options for downloading/viewing vary.
FreeQuickRecipes [24] 3 cookbooks available for download in pdf and a large amount of recipes for online viewing as well as other information on kitchen and diet
GetFreeBooks (Cooking) [25] This has grown to a large and interesting listing of cookbooks and bartending books.
Globusz (cooking) [26] 6 cookbooks available for online viewing or download
GoogleBooks [27] has a large number of free cookbooks under its "Cooking" category available for download in pdf. There are about 400 listings all together under that category and about half are full cookbooks.
Gutenberg (Cookery) [28] Large collection of cookbooks and other informative food books available for download in several formats.
HealthRecipes [29] A good number of cookbooks available for download in pdf. Scroll down the page as there are pay books at the top.
InternetArchive [30] has over 1300 free ebooks under its "Cookery" heading. many are from the 1800s and while age has not much bearing on recipes, the books have an older view on a woman's place.
ManyBooks (Cooking) [31] 145 cookbooks available for download in a variety of formats
MeatBook [32] has an online cookbook image of the Ground Meat Cookbook available for online viewing.
MemoWare (Food and Nutrition) [33] 272 works, including cookbooks and nutritional information available for download in varying formats
Nancy'sKitchen [34] has a nice size collection of small cookbooks available for free download in pdf.
obooko [35] offers 2 free cooking books by self publishing authors for download. Free registration is required.
OpeneBooksLibrary [36]has 10 free cookbooks available. About half are from Gutenberg and have the usual wide variety of viewing and download options. The other half are unique to this site and are available in PDF .
QuickFound [37] has links to many and varied free online cookbooks for viewing and for download in pdf. Definitely worth checking out.
Vitalita [38] The Vitalita Culinary Group is offering two free vegan cookbooks for download in text. A Taste of Vitality and Desserts of Vitality include pictures of the finished dishes.
Witguides (Cooking&Recipes) [39] 32 cookbooks available for download in pdf (zipped)
Cooking, Food & Wine (Audio)
LibriVox [40] has 21 free audio books available for download in MP3 (64kb/128kb) or ogg vorbis. All are human read.
I assumed there would not be many audio books on Cooking as it would be hard to follow audio recipes and I could only find this one site. If you know of others, please post in the comments below.
Recipe Sites
I was not originally going to list recipe sites, but a few visitors listed recipe sites in the comments and I thought I would start this section. Only sites suggested by visitors will be listed here.
BBC Food [41] has a database of over 10,000 recipes that can be searched by recipe title, chef or program. Also has feature of entering up to 3 ingredients for compatible recipes. Suggested by Torresmagnifico.
CookBooks.com [42] supposedly has over 1 million recipes in its database that can be searched in every way imaginable, including ingredients. The only problem is the number of hits you get, so you have to get pretty specific. Information provided by Phil.
EllySaysOpa [43]the very tempting recipes and and ramblings of a Greek cook who also offers Mexican/TexMex recipes. Elly resides in my former home town of Chicago, where the Greeks are well known experts in the restaurant business. Suggested by Midnight Cowboy, who says everything he has tried here has been excellent.
Epicurious [44] has a large database of recipes that can be browsed in a good variety of ways.
Foodista [45] bills itself as the food encyclopedia that everyone can edit.. This wiki approach has resulted in a large number of recipes available as well as other cooking and dining information. Suggested by mrsound.
FoodNetwork [46]I found this site a bit difficult to get around and originally did not include it in my listing. But when redforever suggested it, I realized that if you follow the food network, or one of its shows, you could get to something you want quickly. So here it is thanks again to redforever.
MidwestLiving [47] has recipes and, with registration, a place for you to create your own cookbook [48] online. Suggested by Cathy of PuzzlEd.
Food Blogs
This section was inspired by and is a collection of sites from a post by redforever. These first four sites cull recipes from a number of food blogs and present a picture of the final result. If you like the picture, click on it and off you go to the recipe. The fifth site is a search engine for recipes at 3000 blogs. The final site is a blog that has the unique feature of video presentation of the recipes.
FoodGawke [49]r 2230 pages with about 50 pictures per page makes for a lot of temptation and recipes.
FoodPornDaily [50]not as many pictures (recipes) at once, but a nice collection that I assume changes regularly.
PhotoGrazing [51]another tempting site with a large collection.
TasteSpotting [52] 3491 pages of pictures (recipes) and they throw some good looking desserts right up front.
FoodBlogSearch [53] Just a plain site with a search engine that allows you to search for a recipe through 3000 food blogs.
FoodWishesVideoRecipes [54] a unique video presentation of some very unique recipes from Chef John. His Mother's Day recipe is a "Potted Plant Ice Cream Cake".
Wine & Other Alcohol
DrinkNation [55] has a large database of alcoholic drinks that can be browsed in a variety of ways. They also have a "Your Bar" feature where you enter all the drink ingredients that you have and it gives drink recipes for those that can be made from your bar. This information can be saved there if you register.
QuickFound [56] has a large listing of free books on wine available for download in pdf.
TheWebtender [57] has a good size database of alcoholic drinks that can be browsed, searched in various ways and they also have an "In My Bar" feature where you enter in all the ingredients that you have and it will list all the drinks that can be made from those ingredients.
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