Friday, February 18, 2011
I love collecting cookbooks. I especially love finding vintage cookbooks that are worn and tattered!
While at the Red Rooster Antique Mall last summer, the store owner helped me dig out all his cookbooks. I only purchased the ones that looked like they were loved (i.e. stained, used/abused and left with remnants of flour dust in the the creases of each delicate page.) I took home a good handful of cookbooks that day. I will only share a few of my new books so as not to bore you.
Some of these cookbooks and cook-booklets amaze me. I found one called "Sweets" which was published in 1920 that has a small handful of candy recipes as well as advertisement for it's Vegetable Compound product for women by the Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company. If you're interested in knowing what the heck Vegetable Compound is, CLICK HERE to be directed to Mr. John Brand's Buckaroo Leather blog. There is a complete article there that I found to be quite interesting indeed!
This lady actually "brewed" her own home remedies for ...*a-hem* "Women Complaints". I'm interested in finding out if these recipes are legitimate, and I am pleased to say that I have an entire weekend in the kitchen to try my hand at one or two of these recipes! I will use my brood of kids as my guinea pigs. They don't mind taking the responsibility of being the home chef's guinea pigs! (At least, I don't think they mind... can't say I've ever asked.)
This cookbook, "The Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer, has definitely been through the wringer. The pages are dusted with old flour, stained with liquid ingredients and the spine looks as though it was dropped into a pot of mashed potatoes. It has definitely been loved and cherished for over 68 years!
Another book I took an interest in was "The Story of Crisco" cookbook, published in 1914. It's missing the front cover, and the back cover is ready to fall off. It's stained from Soup Verte on page 32 to Fig Fudge on page 128. It's edges are worn and pages are torn. It was loved all around and it boasts sporting "Two Hundred and Fifty Tested Recipes"!
But the most interesting cookbook of all that I found in the dusty stacks of books at the Red Rooster Antique Store was this one:
Copyright 1916
General Chemical Company
Food Department
New York
I didn't like it because it was worn and torn and stained all over. I didn't even like it because it boasted it's Tried-and-True "Dainty Cinderellas". I liked it because of what I found pasted inside the book.
Whoever owned this book clearly thought that the introduction and table of contents was rubbish.. a complete waste of space where more recipes could be displayed. For inside the book's front and back covers, as well as on the first few pages, I found newspaper and old cook-booklet clippings of recipes for Mock Chicken Pie, Spanish Omelets, He-Man's White Cake and more pasted on the pages! Thankfully not all the book's pages were covered in recipe clippings.
The store owner offered the book at a discount rate because he felt its value was depreciated due to the unfortunate destruction of its pages. I was pleased with paying $4 (I would have paid $12 but he doesn't need to know that.)
Seeing the book in the state it was in actually made me laugh to think that the cookbook's original owner used the book to store his/or her own favorite recipes by pasting them over the pages that weren't important to him/her. That's character right there, and I sure do love a book with character!
Here's a recipe taken from one of my new vintage cookbooks:
Ryzon Dainty Cinderellas
2 level teaspoonfuls Ryzon (baking powder).
2 level cupfuls (1/2 pound) flour.
1/2 cupful (1/4 pound) butter.
1 level cupful (1/2 pound) sugar.
1 egg
1/4 cupful (1/2 gill) milk.
1 teaspoonful orange or almond extract.
1 egg white.
Sift flour and Ryzon (baking powder) twice. Cream butter and sugar thoroughly together, add egg well beaten, milk, extract and flour. Mix well, turn out onto a floured baking board and roll out about one-half inch in thickness.
The Cinderellas should be cut out with fancy cake cutters in diamonds, triangles, squares, hearts, stars, and rounds. Brush tops of cakes with unbeaten white of egg and dust over with granulated sugar. Place on greased tins (i.e. baking sheets), without letting the cakes touch each other, and bake in a quick oven until nicely browned.
Sufficient for 40 cakes.
*Please note that a "Gill" is equivalent to 5-ounces. So 1/2 a Gill is half of that (2 1/2 shot glasses). Just remember that 1-ounce is 2-Tablespoons.
**Note: I think I will give this recipe a try tomorrow. My guess is that the cookies will likely require baking in a preheated oven of 350°F. for about 10-12 minutes. I will test it and see.
I love how the recipes calls for placing the dough on greased "tins". Have a great weekend everybody!
Love to all, (xoxo)
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