Favorite Old Cookbooks?

tortoise · Nov 28, 2017

I picked up a 1962 - 1973 edition of Joy of Cooking. I love it! The text is so funny! It's like a history lesson - not current events but how people really lived. The cooking style applies to homestead cooking much better. I find modern cookbooks to be utterly useless!

Do you have a favorite old or homestead-style cookbook? Please shar what funny things you find in old cookbooks!

Hinotori · Dec 1, 2017

Sugar lobby paid for cherry picked "studies" to put the blame on fats.

tortoise · Dec 1, 2017

Sugar industry did a massive coverup of the research they funded that implicated sugar as cause of heart disease. That's when they launched the campaign on fat. The research was done in the 70's and was released January 2016. Or published in RD industry magazines Jan '16

NH Homesteader · Nov 29, 2017

Bay I have the same problem. Honestly, having gestational diabetes is a blessing in disguise because it's changed the way I eat, and it's made me realize that junk needs to go. I always give in when DH and my mother go for the processed junk and sticking my finger 4 times a day has made me realize I need to crack down on that for myself and DD (and future DD, who I hope will never learn the bad habits that need to be unlearned!). The rest of 'em can do what they want but not in my house!

treerooted · Nov 30, 2017

So I don't use this book, it's more novelty for me, but might be of interest to self-sustainers.

It's not old, but it's old-style cooking. It's a compilation featuring traditional wild foods and other community recipes.

It has recipes like:
Moose Teriyaki
Sweet & Spicy Bear
Smoked Muskrat
High Bush Cranberry Catsup
Bannock
Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies

Britesea · Dec 1, 2017

Years ago, I had a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook - you know, the one with the red and white checked cover? Then I bought a replacement about 30 years later. It was interesting seeing the differences in the recipes over the years. They had drunk the Kool-Aid about Demon Fat and Demon Salt, and everything had been slimmed down. Unfortunately, whatever they say, the flavor had been slimmed down as well.

I remember reading about a study where someone had figured out the average calories eaten in the mid-1800's by midwestern farmers-- it was something like 4000 calories a day! And then you look at the painting "American Gothic" and you just gotta shake your head at how much work they must have been doing, to eat that much and still be that skinny.

frustratedearthmother · Nov 28, 2017

I have a REALLY old one that came from mom...it's got to be close to 50 years old. It lives in a Ziploc bag right now because it is really crumbling. I'm not sure, but I think it's a Betty Crocker...the cover is gone. My childhood memory is that it had a red, hardcover that was textured like some kind of cloth.

I'm going to try to remember to dig it out tonight and actually see if it has any identifying information left anywhere. But, it's awesome - it's got instructions for throwing a dinner party and how to set the table for formal occasions and what stemware to use and just tons of old recipes that you never hear anymore. And, some that are still good!

Looked on Ebay and think this might actually be it - or very close to it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-BE...566800?hash=item3d4d667ad0:g:SwQAAOSwN6JY~-o1

Devonviolet · Nov 28, 2017

moxies_chickennuggets said:
I discovered The Settlement Cookbook when I was around 13.

The Settlement cookbook was my mother's favorite cookbook. I used her's often, as I was growing up. Then, when I got married (the first time) in 1972, she gave me a copy of my own. As the years went by, and I learned to cook my own style, I gradually moved away from that cookbook, and developed my own recipes. I also started looking online, as the Internet blossomed and grew. I do still have that cookbook, but I just looked and it is not in my book case. I asked DH and he promise me he wouldn't have donated it when clearing out, before we moved to Texas. He said there are 3 or 4 boxes of books in the loft of the workshop. So I'm hoping it is in one of those boxes.

One of my favorite cookbooks (more for the novelty of it), is the 1899 Edition, of the Whitehouse Cookbook. I've had it for about 20 years, and for the life of me, I don't remember where I got it, except that it was in Rochester, MN, when I lived there. I love the old world ways it tells to do things.