Claire
Master Chef
MFtW, obviously we are on the same wave length! I love it that this line made me take the cookbook out and look at it again! One of these days maybe I'll actually cook a recipe from it, just from curiousity! Maybe one of those cocktails! (NO, they look like headaches waiting for a head to move into!).
Some cookbooks ARE just for entertainment. And yes, both this one and the old "Joy" I have do have some things in common. Cookbooks to a collector shouldn't always have the cook-a-bility of the recipes as the raison d'etre. Even my new-ish reproduction of things like the White House cookbook or a few reproduction "receipts" collections and even a reproduction of home remedies have a lot of fun and interest value. For example, I keep a patch of mint in whitch I grow a few kinds of mint. The first year I grew pennyroyal in it. It all died out the first freeze after I moved here. THEN I read in a reproduction of an herbal guide that it was considered (in that era) to be an abortion agent! I looked further, and it was considered poisonous. I was growing it because in modern books it was considered a good, "natural" insecticide (and to some degree it does work. Pick some and rub it on your skin). BUT ... once it died off, I decided not to replace it. The chances of me feeding it to someone along with the spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm I grow in the area are miniscule, but I don't want to think about it! (and yes, I know that at various times in history, tomatoes and even potatoes were considered poisonous. But I wasn't growning pennyroyal for food, so ....)
Some cookbooks ARE just for entertainment. And yes, both this one and the old "Joy" I have do have some things in common. Cookbooks to a collector shouldn't always have the cook-a-bility of the recipes as the raison d'etre. Even my new-ish reproduction of things like the White House cookbook or a few reproduction "receipts" collections and even a reproduction of home remedies have a lot of fun and interest value. For example, I keep a patch of mint in whitch I grow a few kinds of mint. The first year I grew pennyroyal in it. It all died out the first freeze after I moved here. THEN I read in a reproduction of an herbal guide that it was considered (in that era) to be an abortion agent! I looked further, and it was considered poisonous. I was growing it because in modern books it was considered a good, "natural" insecticide (and to some degree it does work. Pick some and rub it on your skin). BUT ... once it died off, I decided not to replace it. The chances of me feeding it to someone along with the spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm I grow in the area are miniscule, but I don't want to think about it! (and yes, I know that at various times in history, tomatoes and even potatoes were considered poisonous. But I wasn't growning pennyroyal for food, so ....)