While growing up cookbooks were not high on our reading list. Pushed aside by Dr Susse, Laura Ingalls Wilder, P.D. Eastman and many more they only made an appearance as delicious smells wafted through the house. Then too, they lay flat on the counter as the cook, often mom, mixed ingredients per the prescribed list. And here is your first detective clue, do you have your magnifying glass handy? As we grew older there were the occasional help mom sessions, cookies were a favorite. Still, the book sat on the shelf, sometimes to be forgotten in favor of a newer 'better recipes' book. Gathering dust, they remain until words like '"Hey sis, look, here is mom's old cookbook". They get added to the now grown up children's own collection of books. On your bookshelves old cookbooks sit clues within, ready to be found. If you open one of these books the first clue is the copyright. This puts the book in a timeline of the previous owner. My parents were married in 1931 and I have a couple of books from the early 30's. Being careful not to disturb the pages too much, flipping through the pages, there may be small pieces of paper between the pages marking the locations of favorite recipes. Back to our first clue. Open books on a counter while preparing a recipe seem to attract drops and splashes of ingredients. The more drops and splashes, the more popular the recipe. I have found several of these. Dogeared pages, notes in the margins, and hints from memories provide a trail to old meal favorites you may not quite duplicate. Perhaps it's time to clean and polish the magnifying glass for a little Sherlock Holmes detective work and sleuthing in an old cook book. Have fun. Copyright 1934, 'spotting' the past, with a paper hint ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Jerry
The oldest cookbook I have is a Better Homes and Gardens Bread Cookbook from 1963. It was given to me for christmas 1963 since I was engaged and getting married the next summer. My Mom never owned a cookbook, neither did her Mom. Mom clipped recipes out of the newspaper and magazines but never used them. She hated to cook so when TV Dinners showed up at the grocery store, the only real cooking she did was lunch on Sunday. The first TV Dinner pictured..TV Dinners...is what my brother and I ate a lot of, Mom and Dad usually had either the meatloaf or salsbury steak version. Her cakes were made from a mix, chocolate chip cookie recipe was on the bag of Toll House Chocolate Chips and the peanut butter cookie recipe was on the peanut butter jar.
Jerry, That is so nice. I just went through the old 3x5 file card recipes from my mom and grandma. They are precious. I am going to put some of the best ones on my computer but I just can't get rid of the cards. Some of them say from, Barby, "me". They have notes and smudges, I remember some of the days that they got there. Those special times with them. I can't help thinking, "If I bend down and smell the spot *whispering* or even taste the spot will special thoughts radiate in my head of the days we sat around the table eating the food on that page?" Oh and then there was the day over the phone my daughter asked me how to make that great tasting spaghetti sauce. She wrote it on a card as I told her what to do. She wrote on it, "from mom".... That was a special day. She and her boyfriend said how great her dinner turned out. I found that note tucked away in her antique front drop down desk. Of course, I put it in my card file box. Now I have a collection of, my own recipes in my box, that my family members wrote, who have passed on. It is it's own category. LOL So I have 3 of the same recipes. My original one, the ones my mom and my daughter wrote saying Barby and my mom on the respective ones in their own handwriting. I have nice memories when it comes to food and my loved ones who have gone away from me. It's very nice.
One of life's great pleasures is going to an antique store/old book store and searching through the cookbook section! I have my mother's Ball canning book from the 1930's, and a Kerr canning book from the 40's. There are several cookbooks compiled by ladies' auxiliaries, church groups, and historical societies that I use quite often. Yes, they are spotted and there are notations in the margins (some in lovely spidery Copperplate handwriting). The lists of ingredients (Southern Pound Cake for example requires a pound of almost everything in the kitchen!) are a trip back in time. "Select a young rooster for your Sunday dinner"--I bet the roosters hated Sundays! I read around the dots and splashes, try to imagine making the dish on an old-fashioned stove, and gain new respect for the women who fed families three hearty meals a day, and could select a fine young rooster!
What lovely stories.I agree that recipe books are special.I was lucky in that my Mum was a very good basic cook and it is from her I inherited my love of food.I remember being allowed to break my first egg when I was about 6 or 7 and I don't think any of it ended up in the mixing bowl.I was devastated but Mum was totally unflustered and I had another go. A year or two ago we needed more space on our bookshelves and some books had to go.We had no idea how difficult it would be because of the memories held for different recipes and occasions.A few went but not many. Thank you Jerry for raising the subject.
