Cookbooks, Pre 1923!

[JPK Huson 1863]

In light of poor Ami's announcement earlier, maybe it would be fun to track down cook books and recipes from ' legal ' cookbooks, i.e. pre- 1923. I have a few, fortunately books no one thought to do anything but hand on to the next generation, once again proving that even in death some females are still more terrifying than quite a few living.



I did not have time to look up the particulars on these although am slightly familiar with at least half. The recipes are really very good especially if you're looking for breads, roasts, pies, cakes and jams I'm sorry but quite a few recipes cannot be improved in and in fact are worse, having been handed through generations smugly convinced 3 or 4 extra smidgeons of flour are enough to make a difference in how dry a cake is or messing around with your pie crust a fraction of second too long, well, go throw yourself on the river at full flood- you're useless as a female and a cook. Just cook, for crying out loud. That's the gist of advice in these old tomes. These women had no social media telling them how they've failed at everything going in, if their peach tartlets a la raw fish and vegan crème brulee did not make your family's cholesterol count fall to 12 over night.



I've switched more and more to the old tomes and my Nana's books, btw- recipes going back to 1860 in our family. I'll show you. Last time I was in a hurry and pulled up ' Easy bread recipe ' from a baker's blog? Driest, lightest, worst bread ever. Never again. Also insisted I go out, use the old fashioned cake yeast. Old fashioned cake yeast is very bad tempered yeast. The blogger fails to coax it like bad tempered yeast should be coaxed, I did it her way to find new old fashioned cake yeast is just as witchy, good to know. Moral of the story is- not a lot of improving to be done when it comes to cooking, honest, And just because someone smiles, has very good teeth and is pushy toboot it does not mean they have the secret key. The old cookbooks were the ' bloggers ' of the day, reaching out to young cooks struggling with becoming brilliant enough at a talent considered as feminine as her bloomers.

 

[donna]

Some books I will check into.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Some books I will check into.

Hope you do not mind? I'm not trying to be at all snitty, honest! I just thought well, if there are constraints to what is allowable, may as well honor the old ones, right? If it were my cook book from today, I'd be honored for you to use it. Never saw a forum get so busy in a big hurry as this one! That's everyone running to the Food Forum. They have to, to get rid of all calories. Funny, to have poor Ami deal with take down notices, you'd think she'd be inundated with requests, ' Please, please may we share here? " Oh well. Now I'm committed ( not like you'd think.... ) to sharing ancestor's feasts.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

My personal favorite is Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Many recipes from Goodeys were from her huge volume of everything cooking and household related. I have an Oxford edition I use for research when I want an era appropriate meal for my characters. Love just flipping through it randomly too when feeling curious.

 

[MaryDee]

I have my mother's Boston Cooking School Cook Book, but it turns out to be the 1934 edition, so it's only a year older than I am. I learned to cook as a teenager from that edition! When I married, I got the 1958 edition and still have that. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite recipes from my childhood are not in the newer editions, or have been altered significantly and don't taste the same. But since even my old favorites are all still under copyright, I'll refrain.

The first edition of the Boston Cooking School book (per the copyright page on my 1934 edition) was in 1896. It's still going (as the Fanny Farmer cookbook), and the 100th Anniversary edition (1996) is still available.

Actually, this being a Civil War forum, we probably should stick to the oldies that were around in the early 1860s. No copyright issues there!

 

[Allie]

My personal favorite is Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Many recipes from Goodeys were from her huge volume of everything cooking and household related. I have an Oxford edition I use for research when I want an era appropriate meal for my characters. Love just flipping through it randomly too when feeling curious.

I have a facsimile version of this which I love to flip through!

The Carolina Housewife is another favorite for period recipes.

 

[James B White]

I love the Carolina Housewife, but I wonder how far the more unusual rice and peanut recipes had spread. It seems to give uniquely regional insight to the area. My favorite is the Kentucky Housewife, just because it's a little more local to where I reenact and if I'm elsewhere, the foods seem sort of generic midwest-south. For modern life I like the flavor of modern food better, but I enjoyed cooking a variety of period things at reenactments.

 

[BrrrBRRRR]

I have my Mom's Joy of Cooking from the early 1950s and while the recipes and ways of cooking have changed over the years and editions, both the modern one as well as her's still have an encyclopedic knowledge of food and entertaining. Plus it is interesting to see how even over 60 years how the American diet has changed.