Old cookbooks

[Adillo303]

I ran across this tonight and thought that some of you might be interested.

Old Recipe Books - Basic Home Cooking and Canning Recipes

 

[gadzooks]

Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. 1947-1955. Two volumes. I bought the first volume for a quarter at a thrift, because I liked the cake recipes. I wanted, later, to look something up, but found it was probably in volume 2. Recently found volume 2, but forgot what I was gonna look up. Have times changed? Well, volume 2 has a great recipe for brain fritters. These are great cookbooks, with some minor substitutions. Lard was very much en vogue back then.

 

[Michael in FtW]

I like old cook books - but I wouldn't use the old canning recipes!

I got my love for cooking from my grandmother .. but I was a little too young to write the recipes down (hey, I was only 5) and she never cooked from recipes - I just remembered the basics of what they were and how they tasted. When I found a reprint of an old out-of-print cookbook (Southern Cooking by Henrietta Dull aka Mrs. S. R. Dull) I was able to finally get back in touch my Nanny's cooking.

Oh and don't worry about lard ... it's not as bad as "they" say it is.

 

[GrillingFool]

Here's an interesting one:
1907 White House cookbook. Yeah, THE White House. Includes chapters on State dinners and such!
I have a slew of vintage advertising recipes booklets too, like Jello, Royal Baking Powder and such. Many came from a home ec teacher who used them back in the 1930s.
Somewhere I have a box of old cookbooks that will someday, if I find them, go on ebay. Someday.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

I have seen the White House cook book. But sadly do not own one.

 

[attie]

I like those old recipes, right back to basics

 

[KathyJ]

Thanks for the link!!
I love collecting the older cookbooks. My oldest is The Young Housekeeper's Friend by Mrs. Cornelius from 1859.
The White House cookbook is on my wishlist. I have a new one, though.

 

[Hoot]

The Gutenburg Project has the White House cookbook available for download.
Not nearly as cool as the real book but quite interesting.

The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) by Mrs. F.L. Gillette - Project Gutenberg

 

[KathyJ]

guess what I found at the library today?
2003 reprint of the 1887 White House Cook Book.
pretty cool! for $.50!

 

[Wart]

I finally got a First Edition of Betty Crocker Picture CookBook, 1950 Sixth Printing.

Almost unused with the original dust jacket.

For the most part the recipes are unexciting. I mean compared to much of todays ...

But the recipes being basic are excellent for the first time I do something.

 

[ChefJune]

Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. 1947-1955. Two volumes. I bought the first volume for a quarter at a thrift, because I liked the cake recipes. I wanted, later, to look something up, but found it was probably in volume 2. Recently found volume 2, but forgot what I was gonna look up. Have times changed? Well, volume 2 has a great recipe for brain fritters. These are great cookbooks, with some minor substitutions. Lard was very much en vogue back then.

and lard is back "en vogue" today. much better for you than shortening, and waaay tastier results.

 

[bethzaring]

on eBay, I bought a cookbook published in 1913 in Oskaloosa Iowa. It is titled "Friends' Cook Book" and in this case, Friends stands for the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. I would have had many ancestors belonging to this Church in 1913 and was hoping to find them represented in this cookbook. And they are. My great grandmother, my great great grandmother and her sister all contributed recipes. My grandmother would have been 23 years old but didn't contribute any recipes, but with three cooks in this multi-generational house, maybe she didn't have to cook? The cookbook has ads pertaining to food products; jello, Karo, Kingsford's Corn Starch, Royal baking powder, as well as local merchants ads. Other ads include Edison Mazda Lamps (light bulbs), steam and hot water boilers, a Phelps Smokeless Water Heater that got Oskaloosa through the cold winter of 1911-1912. This era was pre-refrigeration, as evidenced by techniques of how to handle meat salads. There is also a section of helpful hints at the back of the book, and sample menus for all meals, special occassions, seasonal meals.

The vegetable recipes are dreadful, boiling the poor things to death, as well as some other questionable recipes, chocolate walnut jello?? I was surprised by the number of fish and citrus recipes.

This is a wonderful cook book for me to see a slice of life of my ancestors.

 

[JMediger]

How exciting Beth!
I love old cookbooks. I have a couple that I really enjoy ... "Woman's Favorite Cook Book" from 1906 - wonderful condition with the color pictures still colorful; "A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Favorite Recipes" from 1917 - a story about a couples first year of marriage. Each day is written about and includes her daily activity (stocking her pantry, mending clothes, lunching with the ladies) and then what she made for supper. It my favorite book!

What I have noticed in all of them, though, is how popular veal was because it was considered a cheap cut. Again, how times have changed!

 

[GrillingFool]

I ALMOST got a 1948 Culinary Institute Cookbook but it went for over $50 at an auction recently, darn it.

 

[AllenOK]

I inherited a copy of the 1938 second edition printing of the 1931 "Household Searchlight" cookbook. I think it was a collection of recipes published in a magazine way-back-when. Lots of really interesting articles. When I first opened it, there were numerous clippings of recipes between the front cover and the first page. One of those had an artist's rendering of the US Army's newest bomber, a B-25 Mitchell, chasing and shooting down a Japanese Zero. I believe that clipping was dated for '39 or '40.

I also have Escoffier's cookbook. While it's a modern reprinting, I don't believe anything was really changed since it was translated in the early part of the 20th Century.

 

[PieSusan]

Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. 1947-1955. Two volumes. I bought the first volume for a quarter at a thrift, because I liked the cake recipes. I wanted, later, to look something up, but found it was probably in volume 2. Recently found volume 2, but forgot what I was gonna look up. Have times changed? Well, volume 2 has a great recipe for brain fritters. These are great cookbooks, with some minor substitutions. Lard was very much en vogue back then.

Meta Givens books are really an historical look back to see how people ate. She has recipes for squirrel, too. I have both of them--also thrift store finds.

I also have my mom's and a much earlier edition of The Settlement Cookbook (The Way to a Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach). It is a fantastic book, even today. Also, there are old fashioned ads in the older edition.

 

[JMediger]

...I also have my mom's and a much earlier edition of The Settlement Cookbook (The Way to a Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach). It is a fantastic book, even today. Also, there are old fashioned ads in the older edition.

OH! I love that one too! I especially love the menus at the back. I have a 1936 printing ... do you know how many were done?

 

[KathyJ]

I have a 1951 edition of The Settlement Cookbook..... no ads.