how to make Canadian type whiskey
I’m at a loss how to classify Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices. Grizzled loner? Disgruntled former employee? The book, by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter, was published by the Herters in Waseca, Minnesota, in the 1960s and features recipes, photos and opinions galore. There are [...]
Posts under ‘Vintage Cookbooks’
Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices: Nobody Knows How to Do Anything These Days
A Lion in the Kitchen, Meats Edition: Pork-A-Plenty
pork chop-noodle skillet
A Lion in the Kitchen is a 1965 Lions club recipe compilation. I don’t know if there were other volumes, but this one focuses on meat, and boy, are there a lot of meat dishes included. Wild game, beef roasts, sandwiches, stews, grill preparations, and even a few silly recipes (such as “How [...]
So Quick With New Bisquick: Some Effort, Minimal Reward
hamburger pancake roll-ups
It’s time for another Recipes of the Damned treat! Well, “treat” may not be the correct word. So Quick With New Bisquick is a 1967 compendium of recipes using the boxed buttermilk baking mix. Offerings range from the obvious basics (pancakes, waffles, biscuits) to the predictable variations (coffee cakes, batters for deep-frying) to [...]
The New Hostess of To-Day: In Which I Rediscover the Joy of Custard Sauce
apple snow, with boiled custard (soft)
The New Hostess of To-Day dates from 1916, so it’s not quite as impenetrable as Miss Leslie’s work but is still chock full of vague directives and alarming ingredients. Pigeon Galantine, for example, though I may just be biased by living in New York and therefore seeing any pigeon recipe [...]
New Delineator Recipes: In Which I Mock the Mock Sausage
mock sausage
New Delineator Recipes is a slim volume published in 1930. I got it for the Recipes of the Damned; the volume is rife with under-seasoned recipes. I decided against a pot roast in which the only additional seasoning is the inherent flavor in the pork fat you use to brown the meat; I decided [...]
The Joy of Cooking (2006 ed.): A Classic, Revised
chicken breasts baked on a bed of mushrooms
The Joy of Cooking was the first cookbook I remember working with. My mother owned a copy that dated from the early 1960s, I think, and it was loaded with fascinating information. I still laugh at the thought of a recipe my sister and I came across at [...]
Miss Leslie’s Secrets: My First Real Failure
sunderlands or jelly puffs
I first learned of Miss Eliza Leslie when I was in graduate school, doing some research on American 19th century etiquette guides. Miss Leslie had written a popular one, full of advice on matters such as dining at table, writing letters, paying visits, and navigating crowded sidewalks. In one section about proper [...]
1946 Modern Homemaker: Prosperity Through Home Canning
peach jam
Modern Homemaker appears to be a magazine* from Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corp. (now owned by Ball), so it’s not too surprising that it devotes most of its attention to home canning. On an introductory page, editor Zella Hale Weyant notes that while the war and its demands for food rationing and shared sacrifice have [...]
Health-For-Victory Club Meal Planning Guide: Defeating the Nazis With Deviled Eggs
deviled eggs; bacon-cheese sandwich filling
Health-For-Victory Club Meal Planning Guide is a 1943 pamphlet from the Home Economics Institute of Westinghouse in Mansfield, Ohio. So it brings together wartime scarcity and rationing with the precepts of early-20th-century home economics, which means a lot of things with white sauce.
In all fairness, the majority of the recipes are [...]
Franks to the Aid of the Party: Private Hot Dog Party
Kitchen Party: Franks with assorted relishes
Franks to the Aid of the Party is a 1950s pamphlet from Swift Premium, intended for teenagers who are planning parties for their friends. Apparently the pamphlet’s writers wanted readers to believe that there could be no better way to make friends, build your popularity and establish your social status [...]
