Did/Do You Have This Book?

[StarSong]

I had that and Betty Crocker's cookbook.

 

[MountainRa]

I have that exact Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It was a gift given to me when I graduated high school.
I used it often then, very rarely look at it now.

 

[dusty]

My mother had it. She was a home ec student in high school and she took it seriously. Over the years she glued or copied other recipes into the pages. I Got it whenn she passed in 1974.

 

[OldFeller]

I love thumbing through the pristine pages of old cookbooks until I come across a dirty stained page with notes scribbled in the margins, I know that I’ve found a great old family favorite worth making.

I think we have some kind of old cookbook from the 40s or 50s but all the recipes are hard work.

You know, go out and kill a chicken. Drain its blood. Pluck it. Who's got that kind of time?
My Italian grandmother once grabbed a pigeon off her front porch. Drowned it in a pot. Plucked and prepared it and ate it.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I think we have some kind of old cookbook from the 40s or 50s but all the recipes are hard work.

You know, go out and kill a chicken. Drain its blood. Pluck it. Who's got that kind of time?
My Italian grandmother once grabbed a pigeon off her front porch. Drowned it in a pot. Plucked and prepared it and ate it.

I grew up in a world where it wasn’t unusual for your Sunday dinner to be running around the yard on Saturday morning.

I enjoy reading those accounts and am thankful that I can rely on so many convenience products that weren’t available to my parents and grandparents or even to me during my working years.

We’ve come a long way, Baby!

 

[RadishRose]

The only cookbook I remember my mother having was Americas Cookbook published by the NY Times.. It contained a wartime supplement.

 

[jujube]

I still have the Better Homes and Gardens and the Joy of Cooking cookbooks in my kitchen. I got both of them as wedding presents in 1969. The Better Homes one has a big deep stove burner mark on the front from cutting on the wrong burner one day. If you looked in either one, you'd be able to tell which were my favorite recipes by the pages with grease and tomato sauce stains on them or the flour in the page binding.

They have been well-used over the years.

My mom used "The Settlement" cookbook, which has been around since the early 1900's. Hers came from either her mother or grandmother and it looked like it. It was tied with a ribbon because a lot of the pages were loose. There were a lot of notes written in the margins of the recipes by those fabulous cooks, things like "Use less sugar", "Don't cook as long", "Add some _______". I sure wish I had that book. I don't know what happened to it.

 

[dobielvr]

I rec'vd one as a wedding gift back in 1994 from my brother. Still have it, of course.

 

[dusty]

When I had our homestead I would go out and chop off the head, drain and defeather, butcher and cook. I never liked free range chickens taste but loved the eggs they gave. Had a huge garden and canned of froze everything.

 

[Babs2u]

Did this one make it to anyone's kitchen?

It was well used in my house growing up and sill today.

I have used this book since i got married in 1965. Now I often just check the Internet. I was about to bake salmon the other day at 325 degrees when one of the guys preheated the oven to 450. I typed in "salmon at 450" and got several recipes. It was already in a crumb coating and turned out to be excellent.

 

[StarSong]

Must admit I purged nearly all my cookbooks, including this one & BC over ten years ago. Whatever I needed from them I either put into my own cookbook or can easily find on the internet.

 

[OldFeller]

Must admit I purged nearly all my cookbooks, including this one & BC over ten years ago. Whatever I needed from them I either put into my own cookbook or can easily find on the internet.

The problem with the internet recipes is that you get that one kook who likes it with more spice. Watch your measurements!

 

[Della]

Nope, I prefer the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

So did I. I still have standards from it that I make often. According to raves from dozens of pot lucks over the years hers is the very best potato salad. I was 20 when I got married and although I had done a lot of baking in my mother's kitchen she had never really taught me how to cook and organize whole meals. The front of this book has so many step by step lessons for brand new cooks.

Like StarSong, I purged all mine, too. I cut out the recipes I actually use and added them to my recipe file my mother had long ago made for me. It has things like "Loretta's Raisin Tarts" and "Grandma's Floating Island" that can't be found anywhere else.

 

[Pecos]

We still have one.

 

[Bella]

I don't recall my mother's cookbooks or my grandmother even having cookbooks. However, my Aunt Dorothy had a ton of cookbooks; many of them are now in my possession. Until a year ago I had over two hundred cookbooks, but last year I donated about half of them. I haven't bought a cookbook in a long time because recipes are now readily available online, but I do treasure the ones I have.

Some books I have from my aunt are below.

Good Housekeeping Cookbook (1934)

Lily Wallace New American Cookbook (1947)

Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cookbook (1961)

Real French Cooking by Savarin (1957)

Ladies's Home Journal Cookbook (1960)

The White House Cookbook by Janet Halliday (1964)

The James Beard Cookbook (1956)

Craig Claiborne's Favorites from The New York Times (1976)

From Julia Child's Kitchen (1970)

The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child (1961)

The Gourmet Cookbook—Recipes from the Magazine (1956)

The Art of Cuisine by Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant (1966)

My favorite go-to cookbook when I was first starting out was The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. I still occasionally refer to it.

 

[Marie5656]

 

[MountainRa]

The best cookbooks are those put out by local churches, women’s groups and civic organizations as fundraising efforts .
( in my opinion)

 

[StarSong]

The problem with the internet recipes is that you get that one kook who likes it with more spice. Watch your measurements!

Trust me, I spend more time reading the comments than the recipes. That's where you learn if a recipe is any good and the best ways to tweak it.

At this point in my cooking/baking life, I'm well-versed in spices and their quantities.

 

[Babs2u]

The best cookbooks are those put out by local churches, women’s groups and civic organizations as fundraising efforts .
( in my opinion)

My husband worked for a health agency that had offices in every state. He would often come home from a trip with a fundraiser cookbook from some locals. I agree. They are the best

 

[jujube]

The best cookbooks are those put out by local churches, women’s groups and civic organizations as fundraising efforts .
( in my opinion)

Oh, absolutely! I call it "church cooking". All the best recipes from all those "dinners on the grounds" or "pitch-in-dinners".

Another book I treasure for its recipes is "Being Dead is No Excuse", with lots of recipes for dishes no Southern funeral reception can possibly be without.

 

[Lilac]

I had a 1990s Better Homes & Gardens. That one & a bunch more cookbooks were donated a couple of years ago to the church thrift shop after giving some family member first dibs. I was up to around 150 cookbooks & reduced it to 90 or so.

@Bella, I remember a while back when you mentioned all of the books you had. I'm a piker when compared to your collection & you have some great books. My favorite is my Grandmother's that she got around 1911 when she was married. It's the only cookbook she had & it has her handwritten notes & recipes she had over the years.

 

[hollydolly]

I've got a copy of Mrs Beetons cook book.
Wifey has a copy of Harrowsmith's cook book.

I have an original Mrs Beeton cookbook... I can't remember exactly but I think it was published in 1912... hardback...book of household management

I never had the book in the OP..presumably it's American

 

[Jules]

Yes, I have it; it’s a replacement. Gave the old one to my daughter. I had the same Junior One that Marie posted. Unfortunately I passed that one on too soon and it got lost in their moves.

At one point I had a bookcase full. Now I have about a dozen left.

Wifey has a copy of Harrowsmith's cook book.

I have volume one and two.

 

[willnbugs]

Nope!

My grandmother had a very old handwritten scrapbook with recipes, a few dog eared pamphlets and a few bound church cookbooks along with bound cookbooks from food manufacturers.

This one was and still is a favorite.

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In the early 70s my mother received a paperback copy of the Fannie Farmer cookbook that she consulted from time to time but most of her best recipes came from friends and the backs of boxes and cans.

I had a collection of several hundred cookbooks but have gradually gotten down to about a dozen. I mainly use the internet.

When I saw this picture I am reminded that I also have it. I promised myself to make some of the recipes. Some of the ingredients are not available now, but there are suitable substitutions. The ingredients are nor complicated, but some of the procedures are lengthy.

I would use my blender or food processor when possible.
This book was published in 1933, so the recipes exhibit the events of 1933.
Vintage cook books are history books too.
Have you made any of the recipes?
Thanks for reminding me with this post.

 

[Aunt Bea]

When I saw this picture I am reminded that I also have it. I promised myself to make some of the recipes. Some of the ingredients are not available now, but there are suitable substitutions. The ingredients are nor complicated, but some of the procedures are lengthy.

I would use my blender or food processor when possible.
This book was published in 1933, so the recipes exhibit the events of 1933.
Vintage cook books are history books too.
Have you made any of the recipes?
Thanks for reminding me with this post.

I’m not aware of any ingredients that would not be available.

The main thrust of this particular baking book was to promote the value and convenience of double acting baking powder.

Try one of the cake recipes that allows you to mix and refrigerate the batter and bake it off several hours or a day later. That wouldn’t be possible using baking soda and cream of tartar as called for in many old recipes.

Date Surprises on page 56 using date filling on page 60. We made them as small hand pies and also as date pinwheels. The pinwheels always were part of our Christmas cookie platters.

We also made the Rolled Butterscotch Cookies in page 60 as ice box cookies. Thin slices bake off crispy while thicker slices bake off more crumbly and tender. We liked them thicker but it’s easy enough to experiment until you find something that suits you.

Try any of the icebox cookie recipes on pages 60-61.

Many old time cooks kept a wax paper roll or two of cookie dough in the fridge to bake off for company, very similar to today’s refrigerated cookie dough tubes from the dairy case.