Church Cook/Recipe Books

[FarmerJamie]

I looking to rekindle a hobby I started decades ago....

Collecting cookbooks assembled and published by churches or civic groups. I remember my grandmother leading a group of ladies at church to create one in the seventies. So many memories.

I started picking up copies from other places on vacation. Then the divorce. Now I am starting to unpack. I love seeing the personal insights in those local slices of Americana. "Aunt Mae's meatballs". "Ms. Jean's tangerine jello salad"..makes me smile

Anyone want to get rid of one or two? Do you have a local group selling any?

 

[Britesea]

I've got a reprint of The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. One of the first cookbooks ever printed in the English Language. Here's a Sample Recipe: (odd spellings occasionally) I haven't tried it because frankly, boiling cauliflower for an hour ???? Now I understand why New Englanders boiled their vegetables into mush.

To dress cauliflowers.
Take your flowers, cut off all the green part, and then then cut the flowers into four, and lay them into water for an hour: then have some milk and water boiling, put in the cauliflowers, and be sure to skim the sauce-pan well. When the stalks are tender, take them carefully up, and put them into a cullender to drain: then put a spoonful of water into a clean stew-pan with a little dust of flower, about a quarter of a pound of butter, and shake it round till it is all finely melted, with a little pepper and salt; then take half the cauliflower and cut it as you would for pickling, lay in into the stew-pan, turn it, and shake the pan round. Ten minutes will do it. Lay the stewed in the middle of your plate, and the boiled round it. Pour the butter you did it in over it, and send it to table.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I've got at least one or two I could part with. pm your address to me. @frustratedearthmother, you too if you want one.

 

[Britesea]

One of my favorite cookbooks is The Cotton Country Collection presented by the Junior Charity League of Monroe, Louisiana. Quite a large book compared to a lot of those "church cookbooks." Our favorite chili recipe came from it.

My ex brought it home from one of his work trips. I wore out the first copy and was thrilled to find it online.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have a 1973 revised Culinary Arts Institute "encyclopedic cookbook". There were NO quick fixes in this one, save maybe a can of evaporated milk. What is nice about it (if you have time to read that much!) is the full explanations as to why/how/what that you could use -- how to make substitutions, why not knead too much, cold vs hot, what makes it not gel/thicken, etc. Excellent recipes but, a real "teaching" to cook book. It's large & heavy... Nothing like my quick foods to prepare in a camper one.

What's nice about the church type is that you get a real good compilation of the dishes so many love -- all in one place.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I used to have the same hobby! Love(d) those cookbooks. Mine all got destroyed in hurricane Ike when my kitchen took on water...I miss those cookbooks!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ah, thanks MMD! I'm good though...when I remodeled my kitchen I didn't include a space to store cookbooks. I usually store mine online now. Not quite the nostalgic charm - but quick and easy to access.

 

[baymule]

I also love old cookbooks. I have one from 1960 by the "ladies of society" of Charleston. There are no "open a 16 ounce Cool Whip" or any of the other short cuts in modern recipes. I also have a couple of Hershey reprints from the 1930's that are dated 1970. And a few other old cookbooks.

I understand your love of old cookbooks, but nope, I ain't letting mine go!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Interesting glimpse into the past with that recipe!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Actually @Britesea, I think you just set it in water for an hour, then add it to boiling milk and water? It actually sounds pretty good. What a neat book to have!
One thing I like about old recipes (and sewing patterns) is that they just assume everyone knows certain things already: "cut it as you would for pickling" as if, of course, everyone pickles cauliflower. Old sewing patterns do the same thing. They'll say things like "after you add the pockets" without any directions at all on how to do that. It's a little picture of how much we've lost over time.