Are cookery books a thing of the past now we have laptops, tablets & apps?

Having cookery books in your home often makes it look like you’re a great chef, but with a whole host of recipe apps and small portable gadgets, do we really need them anymore?

A new study conducted by PC manufacturer Lenovo has found that more than a third of Brits often turn to their laptops to look for recipes instead of searching through books.

In fact a huge 83% have looked for recipes online before (that’s a lot of men) and 44% say they enjoy browsing through recipe sites, blogs apps and online libraries of ideas on a regular basis to find inspiration. In comparison, only one in ten said they still turn to a normal cookery book (with actual paper and everything) to find the recipes they’re looking for.

Those that prefer to hang onto traditions and curse eReaders, laptops and tablets for trying to replace books will probably be upset by these findings. However, it’s no surprise people prefer to go online for recipes as it’s just so simple to find what you want, there’s an infinite number of ideas and increasingly blogs and publishers are accompanying recipes with how-to videos too, which makes the whole process even easier to follow.

To take advantage of this growing trend many companies have introduced accessories to make our technology as safe as possible, like the Chef Sleeve, which protects your iPad and the Fridgepad, which keeps your tablet high and dry on your fridge door.

Others have instead created more compact and durable computers to ensure that they won’t get ruined in the kitchen, the U300S Ultrabook from Lenovo (pictured above) has been sandblasted to create a tough, scratch-resistant, coating so if you accidentally scrape a spatula covered in cookie batter all over it you won’t feel too guilty!

[Thumbnail image via Ross Griff]