Peg Bracken dead at 89

by Bob Sassone, Posted Oct 26th 2007 @ 5:00PM

Peg Bracken was the author of a bestselling cookbook that I really have to find a copy of, The I Hate To Cook Book. She was one of the first to suggest (late 50s, early 60s) that busy housewives use store bought items and other shortcuts in their meal making. She was a former advertising executive who went on to write other books, including I Hate To Housekeep Book, other cookbooks, and the memoir A Window Over The Kitchen Sink.

She died of pulmonary fibrosis in Portland, OR.

Filed Under: Retro cookery, Books, How To
Tags: cooking short cuts, i hate to cook book, peg bracken, recipes, retro food

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-26-2007 @6:37PM Kiwi Carlisle said... I beg to differ with the concept that
Peg Bracken was the first to suggest that housewives use packaged foods in recipes. Irma Rombauer was suggesting that in the Joy of Cooking in the early 50s, maybe even earlier.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

10-26-2007 @7:11PM Allison said... Besides Adelle Davis's "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit," Peg Bracken and her LOL cookbook were my constant companions in the kitchen as a new bride in the early '60s. Bracken gave me a whole new, wholesome and most important, liberated, outlook on cooking that freed me from a-recipe-is-a-chemical-formula which must never be deviated from. She'd say things like: "If you don't like this ingredient, leave it out," quickly followed by "pour a glass of wine and enjoy for 45 minutes until this casserole gets as ready as you want it to be."

What more could I have asked for: good food, a glass of wine, and hearty chuckles. Hope she and Julia are having a great time together at that big table in the sky.

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

10-26-2007 @11:06PM theQueenZ said... Kiwi, please read carefully. "She was one of the first...". Peg Bracken might (?) have suggested it first in a "real" cookbook but that was a big intimidating tomb, at least it was to me and I've been cooking since I was able to reach the top of the old wood cooking stove. The I Hate To Cook book was a nice little paperback that gave people confidence in themselves that they could get into the kitchen and cook too. As a pretty good cook I still read my copy from time to time.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

1-19-2008 @10:42PM theQueenZ said... OOPS, "Peg Bracken might (?) have suggested it first in a "real" cookbook" should have been been Irma Rombauer. Where is the edit option?
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

10-27-2007 @1:06AM AS said... Oh Bummer. I was late to the Peg Bracken party (only two or so years ago), but I loved her outlook tremendously. Godspeed, Ms. Bracken.
Reply