Costco Used To Release Cookbooks — Here's What You Missed

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With their hard-to-beat prices and dizzyingly large, comprehensive inventory, Costco is the go-to destination when you want to stock your entire kitchen. Perhaps you've filled your freezer with some of the best frozen seafood staples at Costco, or the canned goods you shouldn't leave the store without, but do you always know what to do with all those tasty bargain finds? Is it possible for anyone in today's busy world to come up with breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas for every single serving of Costco food in the fridge and pantry? Well, the chain used to help shoppers with this very puzzle. From 2002 to 2015, Costco published its very own cookbooks. Lucky customers would receive them for free at store locations on Black Friday. 

The first cookbook was "Entertaining, the Costco Way," while the subsequent annual releases covered all different manners of cooking from "easy" to "creative" to "smart." These books weren't just treasure-worthy souvenirs for Costco fans, but handy guides and inspiration resources for what to do with store finds, whether you're making a quick and easy weekday lunch for your kids or hosting an elegant dinner party. The entertaining book had handy tips for everything from tailgate parties to bridal luncheons (which even included wedding gift ideas); while the more specifically cooking-geared books featured every recipe you could think of, arranged by cuisine or meal.

At this point, you're probably thinking how interesting and helpful these cookbooks sound — maybe you'd like to whip up Nigella Lawson's recipe for Italian sausage and lentils from 2009's "Home Cooking, the Costco Way,"  or craft a handheld quiche from 2006's "Cooking in Style, the Costco Way." But how can you access this series of publications from 10 to 20 years ago? Fortunately, devoted Costco enthusiasts have done the world a kindness and uploaded copies to the internet, either from their own books or from deep internet dives to unearth the copies that Costco used to have available on its website. You can find complete, searchable PDFs on Costco fan blogs and Reddit threads for free, typically organized in order by year. If your heart is set on a hard copy, you can track some down on Amazon, like "Favorite Recipes, the Costco Way," from 2007, for $14.98.

Apparently, Costco stopped releasing actual books in favor of including recipes in their magazine, Costco Connection. But many fans miss the more long-lasting, even giftable books. "I have all of them and they were SO good!" says Reddit user ExplorerLazy3151. User pibb01 agrees, saying the books are one of the best things they ever got on Black Friday. With so many recipes for so many different occasions, when it comes to cookbooks everyone should own, these are a must — even if in PDF form — for any Costco shopper.