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?

 

[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!

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[sumi]

My mom had a recipe book that was compiled and sold by an old age home she used to work at. I loved that book and the recipes in it, "Such and such's sweet cookies" "Such and such's quiche".. Many of the residents gave their recipes for popular traditional dishes and others and it was so nice to read and cook from.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I collect those kind too!! I love the slices of Americana inserted between the lines!!! Sorry...can't have mine @FarmerJamie

Check FB for similar groups btw