Here's Where You Should Be Storing Your Cookbooks

While pots, pans, and knives are the most basic cooking essentials, a good collection of your favorite pop culture cookbooks or classic cookbooks really completes a proper cook's kitchen. Sure, they can be a bit bulky to store. But cookbooks can show off a home chef's preferred style of cuisine — and serve as cute decoration, to boot. 

I personally prefer to store my cookbooks out on a shelf on the wall to show off my culinary tastes. But no matter where you chose to store your collection, it is of utmost importance that you keep them away from heat sources like stoves and ovens. This is because the residual heat from cooking appliances can easily melt the book binding, warp the structure, and cause stains from food splatters. While a little bit of wear and tear makes a cookbook appear well-loved, keeping your cookbooks away from the stove will help them maintain their looks for much longer.

A pristine cookbook will never look natural too me; A few stains and splatters show that you've really utilized your cookbooks to their full potential. However, you still want to take care of your most treasured cookbooks by treating them as you would any other tool in your kitchen.

So long as you keep your cookbooks away from heat, you can avoid inadvertently causing the glue holding the pages together to melt. Plus, there is the added fire risk of keeping paper too close to an open flame. There's also that greasy residue that can become a sticky dust trap, collecting grime on every surface — including your cookbook covers, as well as the recipe pages.

I like to keep my cookbooks on a shelf on the opposite side of the kitchen from my stove, but you can easily utilize your kitchen space by lining them up on an open counter if you have the room. If space is at a premium in your kitchen, an empty cabinet or drawer might be the best bet for you, which will give you some extra protection from direct sunlight which can bleach the colors of your cookbooks over time. You will also want to avoid keeping them too close to your kitchen sink, since the moisture can cause the covers to warp. With a little TLC, your favorite cookbooks will last for years.