November 5, 2026
Q&A: Cookbook management, cheese boards
Each week, we answer reader questions about food and drink in Charlotte
Q: I’m a cookbook addict. I have bookshelves full of them, but it’s a real chore to dig through them all to get recipes for a particular dish. Do you have any cookbook management tips?
Tom: I certainly do. CookShelf is a searchable index for the cookbooks you already own. It’s available on the web and as an app for iPhone, iPad, and Android. To build your digital shelf, scan each book’s barcode with your phone or look it up by title. I added all 66 of my cookbooks in less than 45 minutes, and I was taking my time. Once your books are in, you can search for a dish like pasta puttanesca or see what you can make with, say, Asian pears and ginger. CookShelf tells you which of your books have matching recipes, lists the ingredients, and usually gives you the page number. For the amounts and directions, you pull the book off the shelf. That’s my favorite part. It gets me opening books I’d nearly forgotten I owned. I like this because it gives you the help you need while still preserving the author’s rights to the recipe. You can also browse recipe listings from books you don’t own and find links to recipes online. A few of my more obscure cookbooks haven’t been indexed yet, but you can request an index from the book’s listing. The free plan lets you add up to five cookbooks. I’d start with five you rarely open and search for an ingredient you already have on hand. The full plan lets you add as many books as you like for about $40 a year. For me, that’s a bargain for getting more out of the cookbooks I’ve already paid for and rediscover buried recipe treasures.
Q: I want to put together a really nice cheese board for Thanksgiving. Any tips?
Tom: The first place I’d start is to source from a cheesemonger I trust, like 2026 UPPY finalist Orrman’s Cheese Shop in Myers Park or The Culture Shop that straddles the Plaza Midwood, Plaza Hills, and Villa Heights neighborhoods. They can point you to popular favorites as well as some unique finds. The book on cheese boards is to have at least three, usually a creamy Brie, a sharp aged cheddar, and a blue cheese. If blue is a tough sell with your crowd, go with a tangy goat cheese. Mild cheeses like Havarti also work well. Then add some fruit such as apples, pears, and/or grapes. A good, local honey is a nice add, as well as some fruit preserves (I like fig or cranberry). You can go with some quality crackers if you want, but to me, nothing sells a cheese board like a crusty baguette. Serving tips: take the cheeses out of the fridge about 30 minutes before serving, and cut a few pieces of each so nobody feels they are the first to dig in. With Thanksgiving dinner still to come, a few ounces of cheese per person should be plenty.
