Vintage Cookbooks

To state it simply, I love cookbooks! I especially adore vintage cookbooks. I learned to cook from my mother and two cookbooks: Betty Crocker's Cookbook (23rd printing 1974, copyright 1969) and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook revised by Wilma Lord Perkins (Eleventh Edition, 1965). My mother gave me the basic building blocks of cooking and the two cookbooks taught me the many structures that could be created. One of the reasons I love vintage cookbooks so much is that they don't insult your intelligence. They expect that you can debone meat, mix batters by hand, and chop, slice, and mince with your own knife. I no longer wonder that most Americans no longer know how to cook from scratch when many of today's cookbooks use as many convenience items as possible and advertise that all of your meals can be cooked in 30 minutes or less. There are popular chefs whose cookbooks do not follow this trend, but I fear their cookbooks end up being coffee table books rather than kitchen staples. I hope I am wrong, but with the number of people who tell me they don't know how to cook makes me worry.

Another thing lacking in many newer cookbooks is taste. Boneless, skinless meat should only be used to a certain extent. Cooks should not fear putting oil or butter in their pan rather than spray oil. Vintage cookbooks give me the recipes as people used to make them, full of flavor and style, but with out pretension. And after cooking a while, you can be your own judge of whether that recipe you want to try really needs a whole stick of butter or a whole cup of heavy cream. I approach vintage cookbooks as I approach all recipes - I adapt them to my own tastes or those of my guests.

So, my favorite cream of mushroom soup recipe is adapted from a Fannie Farmer recipe. I cut the butter and the cream. I usually use half-and-half rather than cream because that's typically what I have in my refrigerator. My favorite chicken potpie recipe is actually my mother’s, which she adapted from Betty Crocker. If you limit yourself to what is exactly in a recipe, you will get bored in your kitchen quickly. That said, vintage cookbooks are the land of "new" ideas and invention. There is a greater variety of ingredients in comparison to today's limited diet.

My current library of "vintage" cookbooks (and I suppose I use that liberally, since some are from the 60s) includes:

Betty Crocker's Cookbook by General Mills, Inc; copyright 1969, printed 1974.
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook revised by Wilma Lord Perkins; copyright 1965.
[I want to get this book in its older editions as well and compare the recipes.]
The American Heritage Cookbook by the editors of American Heritage, copyright 1964.
Sweets [appears to be by Lydia E. Pinkham's Medicines, no date is given]
The Metropolitan Cook Book by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, printed 1925.
Choice Recipes: How To Operate a Fireless Cookstove by Toledo Cooker Company, copyright 1920.
Victory Cook Book: How to Eat Well... Live Well... Plan Balanced Meals... under Food Rationing by Lysol Disinfectant, copyright 1943 [and free with purchase of Lysol].
Everybody's Cook Book published by The Haskin Service, (no date, but was printed during WWII).
The next two I just received for Christmas from my brother, Kurt, and his wife, Jenny.
Modern Priscilla Cookbook: 1,000 Recipes and Cooking Methods by The Priscilla Publishing Company, copyright 1929.
The Wine Cook Book by The Browns (Cora, Rose and Bob), copyright 1951.

My new favorite sentence is: "Cookery becomes an art when judgment, skill, creative ability and a fine appreciation of flavors enter into it." [Quoted from Modern Priscilla Cookbook] Finally I have proof that I am artistic - with food!