Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book, Cookbook of the Day

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Mar 27th 2008 @ 6:03PM

cover of the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book

As you may have noticed, I have something of a weakness for vintage cookbooks. I like seeing how women were cooking (and it was almost always women doing the home cooking back in those days) in the few generations before I was born. I like the pictures, which typically range from quirky and appealing to downright stomach-turning (that cherry pie doesn't look particularly appetizing).

This Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book, which is the second edition and was published in 1956 (to see covers of all editions of this book, click here), satisfies my vintage cookbook needs on a lot of levels. It starts you out with a photographic tour of the modernly decorated offices and workspaces of the Betty Crocker kitchens (complete with faux living room) and then moves you into the basic recipes and meal plans. There are pictures throughout the text, but more often you come across helpful diagrams and line drawings, some very reminiscent of the illustrations found in my preferred edition of the Joy of Cooking (late sixties/early seventies, with the white dust jacket and turquoise fabric underneath).

Beyond all that though, it is a useful and still-applicable cookbook. It has pie crust recipes which aren't particularly different from many of those available today. It has temperature guides for roasting meats and offers an assortment of menus that help you get dinner on the table fast (whether you're doing your cooking in 1956 or 2008).

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Filed Under: Retro cookery, Cookbook Spotlight, Books
Tags: Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book, BettyCrocker, BettyCrockerPictureCookBook, Cookbook of the Day, CookbookOfTheDay, General Mills, GeneralMills, retro food

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-27-2008 @9:12PM Aimee said... This is one of the best cookbooks of all time. I blogged about it back in November over here: http://home-cookin.livejournal.com/15922.html. Mine is a lot more beat up compared to the one pictured here. :)
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3-28-2008 @1:04AM Doctor Electro said... Check out this Kitchen Chick post:

http://www.kitchenchick.com/2008/03/angle-cake-supr.html#more

I think you will like it.
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3-28-2008 @12:43PM LinC said... I have a 1960's Betty Crocker ring-bound cookbook (the red plaid one), and I love it for its slice of history. There are sections about entertaining in the front with beautiful tables that are soooo 60's. Instant nostalgia.
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3-28-2008 @10:51PM CK said... I have the exact one you're picturing there - it was my mother's, a bridal shower gift in 1957. Growing up we always turned to "ask Betty" about anything that was in question, and "Ethel's Sugar Cookies" are the single best roll-out cookies in the world!
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4-16-2008 @12:44PM jmlsdi3 said... Wondering around Blog Land looking for kindred spirits & found you. :D I love vintage cookbooks. My blog is a hodge podge of things, but I blog about vintage recipes about 1x/wk. Pop on over. We'll have fun.

For your daily dose of vintage goodness & a bit of silliness, stop by Confessions of an Apron Queen, the home of Vintage Thingies Thursdays.
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5-10-2008 @4:45PM chloedell said... I have a "Meta Given's" Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking first copy written in 1947. Mine is a 1952 edition.

Anyone else seen this?
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