Today, as more and more of us get our recipes from the Internetwhile the cooking aisle in major bookstores is packed with books bycelebrity chefs, old cookbooks are almost the only cookbooks worthowning. Old cookbooks are cookbooks made for real women serving realfamilies at real dinner tables. No celebrities required and youdidn't have to hit the print button.
And if you look closely, they're a treasure trove of culinary,social and women's history.
I collect old cookbooks now, but the first old cookbook that cameinto my hands was simply given as a family memento. It was the 1927Butterick Book of Recipes and Household Helps. It was given to me bymy mother and inside, handwritten, is my great-grandmother's name.
Jessie Woodall was my great-grandmother on my mother's side, theflatlander side of my family. My father was, after he completed hisbombing missions during World War II, stationed in Oklahoma. He madeoff with my mother and took her away to a West Virginia holler, justas Jessie's husband took her away when they married, hauling her offto Oklahoma before it was even a state. My great-grandfather claimedland in Oklahoma as part of the government's effort to settle thearea, making him one of the state's early pioneers. My great-grandfather had to haul lumber back and forth across the prairie, bylantern-light when necessary, to build them a house.
Jessie was a good cook, by all accounts, and I like having hercookbook. I like to imagine her turning its pages, and I wonderwhich ones were her favorites. There's an X by a recipe for LittleChocolate Cakes. I wonder if that means she didn't like it?
There are plenty of tips included for the domestic goddesses ofthe time, such as this one for how to make it easier to see thingsinside your oven while you're baking-paint the inside of the oven alight color with aluminum paint. I think I'll stick with a lightbulb.
When setting the table: "The handles of all of the flat silverplaced to the right and left of the plate must be in a perfect linewith the edge of the table." I bet Jessie always had her table setproperly, even on the wild prairie.
The Butterick Book of Recipes and Household Helps was publishedby the Butterick Publishing Company and includes all sorts of extrasgeared to the women of its time, such as instructions for keeping areserve supply shelf and the temperature breakdowns of slow,moderate, or quick ovens. Older recipes often only directedtemperature by those terms. (Slow, less than 300 degrees, moderate,over 300 but below 400, quick, 400 or above.)
Along with recipes, there is an abundance of "household helps" toguide the women of the day in caring for everything from their skinand nails to their carpets and house plants. It was a book for womenwho didn't have a lot of books, and in fact, might only have thisone book. It was a little of everything - the most necessary, themost useful, the most all-encompassing. It was a practical book fora new bride to take to the wild prairie with her to set uphousekeeping, but also a book for an established matron with sixchildren to feed who needed fast, efficient information at herfingertips to get her through her harried days.
They don't make 'em like that anymore.
I've tried several recipes out of this book. I keep it on hand inmy kitchen and enjoy knowing it spent many years in my great-grandmother's kitchen. I love this one for crullers.
Crullers
1/4 cup butter or shortening 1 cup sugar 2 eggs, well-beaten 1cup milk 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 cups flour
1. Cream the butter or shortening. Add sugar then the well-beaten eggs. 2. In a separate bowl, stir the baking powder, nutmeg,and salt with one cup of the flour and add alternately with the milkto the first mixture. Add additional flour to make a dough stiffenough to handle. (For me, this takes about 4 cups flour total.) 3.Toss on a floured board and roll 1/2-inch thick; cut into strips.Twist strips and fry in hot oil until golden, turning once. Drain,cool, and roll in powdered sugar. Be sure all your silverware islined up perfectly with the edge of the table before serving.
COURTESY PHOTO This 1927 copy of Butterick Book of Recipes andHousehold Helps belonged to Suzanne McMinns great- grandmother.
Writer Suzanne McMinn lives in Roane County, where she writesevery day in her blog, Chickens in the Road, at www.chickensintheroad.com.
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