"vintage cookbook" news and stories

I found this adorable retro cooking-and-lifestyle book from 1965 in a vintage store in Wisconsin. Enchanted by the title, I picked it up (for fifty cents) and have never regretted it.

Written by two Stanford roommates, this book is hilariously frank and provides great tips the modern Bachelorette can still use.

Example: Here's an excerpt from the Table of Contents:

4. Food fit for a...

• Man in a Brooks Brothers Suit
• Man's Man
• Man in a Garret
• Lover with a Leica
• Man in the Gray Flannel Lederhosen

The list goes on. It's not misogynistic, it's hysterical. Other chapters include "Deadly Little Dinners" and "Happiness is a Very Dry Martini." Each includes an introduction, usually with an anecdote, and often with a warning about putting plastic bags over your head or something silly. I'm certain that Jinx and Judy would have been girlfriends of mine.

I recommend this book. And guess what a simple Googling told me? In 2006, they updated the book! Same gals, still funny. Visit saucepansandthesinglegirl.com to read about it and see where to buy!

I added this volume to my ever-growing collection of vintage cookbooks while I was in Chestertown, MD over Labor Day weekend. It was sitting on the shelf, a burst of vibrant, mid-century color amidst a row of brown and mustard-colored spines from the seventies. As you can see from the price tag on the cover (I couldn't get it off without ripping the dust jacket), I paid $3 for it. That's more than I typically pay for interesting old cookbooks, but I just couldn't let this one slip away.

Written by the Spice Islands Home Economics Staff, The Spice Islands Cook Book was published in 1961 and offered housewives a comprehensive guide on how to incorporate a full spectrum of spices into their cooking.

In addition to offering 150 pages of recipes (everything from appetizers to main dishes to drinks), the authors also incorporated a comprehensive glossary of herbs, so that those cooks who wanted to learn more about the rosemary they were sprinkling into their meals would have easy access to information. There is also a table of equivalents that offers tips on how to substitute one ingredient for another so that a recipe wouldn't be ruined by an empty spice bottle.

Some of the standout recipes from the book include Herb Corn Bread (page 128), Hawaiian Bean Pot (page 94) and the Greek Walnut Cake (page 142). Heidi at 101 Cookbooks also has a copy of this volume and several years ago, posted the recipe from it for Gold Coast French Toast. Yum!

In the days before the internet, cooking shows had to figure out an easy way for viewers to get a hold of the recipes featured on their programs. There was typically an address that one could write to to obtain the recipes. Alternately, they would leave the ingredient list and instructions up on the screen for some time at some point during the program, so that a quick transcriptionist could hurriedly jot them down. Sometimes, the only option for the viewer was to take notes while watching (my Aunt Doris always watched Julia Child with steno pad and pencil in hand).

This book, Julia Child and Company, was something of a revolution. Printed in 1978, it came out at the very same time as Child's show of the same name began to air. That way, viewers could watch the show at leisure, unworried about catching every nuance of the recipe as they knew they'd have Child's clear and careful written instructions to reference later on. Now, thirty years later, we can't follow along with the series, but we can still utilize the recipes in the book.

It is organized by menu, which is fun in that you can see just how Child would have served a meal (it's not just French food in this volume, she incorporates a variety of cultural favorites). However, if you don't want to recreate an entire show's worth of food, you do have to poke around a bit more to find what you're looking for. If you're a fan of Child and want another opportunity to "hear" her calm, helpful voice in the kitchen, this is a good book to add to your collection.

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Just in time for 2008, I'm reviving a Slashfood feature that went fallow sometime last spring. That's right, I'm talking about the venerable Cookbook of the Day! However, I'm adding a twist. In addition to featuring new cookbooks, I'll also be shining the spotlight on an assortment of vintage, kitschy and community cookbooks from my very eclectic collection. And let me tell you, I've got some doozies.

Today's Cookbook of the Day is James Beard's Fireside Cookbook. Written in 1949, it is billed as the "Original basic cook book by America's foremost culinary authority." I think that Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer might argue with that particular assertion, but it is does offer a comprehensive assortment of recipes. The best part of this cookbook is the narrative that is interspersed among the many recipes. Beard's voice comes through so strongly in this book that it feels as if he is speaking directly to you.

This volume is currently out of print, but there are a number of used copies available on Amazon.

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Not only does Betty Crocker's New Dinners for Two contain a wealth of retro recipes, it also offers some rather unusual advice. Specifically, I am referring to the "Sunset Years Guide", a list of dietary tips found at the back of the book. It starts off well enough, advising people to keep protein as part of their diet, but it then begins to fly in the face of what is now the typical medical advice to people in their "sunset years". In addition to recommending that one avoid high fiber foods, the book suggests that "eating creamed foods, custards, cheeses and ice cream" are good ways to keep calcium intake high. It also selects liver and egg yolks as being excellent sources of nutrients, along with green leafy vegetables and citrus. In fairness, the "guide" concludes by making the recommendation that high fat foods should be substituted for lower fat ones, although it seems as though that might prove difficult with all the egg yolks and ice cream someone in their "sunset years" should be eating.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]