FOOD Basic from scratch CookBook - 1950 Betty Crocker - good for us NewBees!

[Barry Natchitoches]

Most of my adult life I had a college mess hall or else a wonderful wife to cook my meals.

My idea of cooking for myself over the years was McDonalds, the Colonel, Corky’s Barbeque or a pre-packaged box.

Fortunately for me, my wife did 99% of my cooking, so I ate alot more salads, cooked veggies, and wholesome grilled meats than Big Macs.

But she is not able to do all that cooking right now. Since I really need to cook from scratch as much as possible, I needed a good cook book of simple foods that simple folks would like.

I found it on Amazon - a reprint of the very popular 1950 version of the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book.

BTW, most of the pictures inside the book are artist’s drawings. Very few books back in 1950 contained full color photographs.

But what I like about it is that they do not take anything for granted - they explain stuff that every cook should know, but too many of us today do not know.

Yet, it is not a simpleton’s dumbed down book. It is actually everything from a beginners cook book to an advanced intermediate cook’s book.

There are recipes in this book that my grandmother cooked me as a young boy, that I have not seen anywhere since. I cannot wait to try out the bread pudding (complete with with additional sauce) recipe. Or the from scratch peanut butter fudge recipe. Or the lemon icebox pie recipe. They seem to have the same “from scratch” fried chicken recipe my Mom used years ago. It puts the Colonel to shame.

Anyway, if you are new to cooking from scratch - or if you are looking for the recipes that were popular when we were kids but went out of style when the processed foods became popular - then you might want to get a copy.

 

[summerthyme]

That's great, Barry! I love my old cookbooks- how I wish I knew of your need when we were packing... so many were left behind.

My two staples as a clueless 16 year old bride were James Beard's American Cookery and The Farm Journal Country Cookbook. Both emphasized from scratch cooking from local foods, fresh if possible. But both recognized an Era that was not quite dead- where people grew what did well in their region, and ate what they grew, supplemented with wild game. But they also put food by for the winter, and the Cookbook explained ways to make those plain foods tastier.

Enjoy your journey...

Your wife- and you- are still in my prayers.

Summerthyme

 

[fish hook]

My wife and i used that book for years, and then gave it to our daughter when nshe married. I t served us well and with what little she remembered from her mother and grand mother and what i had learned from my years of batching it with my father we got pretty good. We even put together our own cook book of our favorites, knowing one of us would wind up alone. I don't use it much any more, got my favorite favorites memorized. I used it a lot during her last years, and the three years that she has been gone.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Um, “NewBees?” As opposed to old bees?

 

[ShadowMan]

I really like Alton Brown's "Good Eats" and "Cook's Illustrated" cookbooks because they explain the why's and where of's of cooking. We do have both my MIL's and my DW's original 50's "Better Homes and Garden's NEW cook book" which has a lot of our favorite specials.

The BEST magazine for those interested is cooking is a monthly subscription to Cook's Illustrated. No advertising B.S. just straight cooking how's and do's and why's. WELL WORTH the subscription. I always give subscriptions to COOK'S ILLUSTRATED for Christmas presents to fellow cooks and have yet to have anyone disappointed!!

 

[nehimama]

That's great, Barry! I love my old cookbooks- how I wish I knew of your need when we were packing... so many were left behind.

My two staples as a clueless 16 year old bride were James Beard's American Cookery and The Farm Journal Country Cookbook. Both emphasized from scratch cooking from local foods, fresh if possible. But both recognized an Era that was not quite dead- where people grew what did well in their region, and ate what they grew, supplemented with wild game. But they also put food by for the winter, and the Cookbook explained ways to make those plain foods tastier.

Enjoy your journey...

Your wife- and you- are still in my prayers.

Summerthyme

I really like the Farm Journal cookbooks, and have several. Recipes you can't find anywhere else these days.

 

[lonestar09]

Better homes and gardens cookbook, the joy of cooking, betty crocker cookbook and also farm journal are excellent cookbooks

 

[anna43]

My mother had that Betty Crocker cookbook (original not reprint!) and I learned to cook from it. I was given the Better Homes and Garden cookbook from the same era as a wedding gift (1960) and that was what I used for many years. My m-i-l had the same Betty Crocker cookbook and I borrowed it so often that she ended up giving it to me. I treasure it. I now have a large cookbook collection but still use those two more than any others. The newer edition of Better Homes and Gardens is worthless unless you cook by using a box of this and a can of that. I haven't reviewed the newest edition of Betty Crocker.

 

[thompson]

For years and years, a gift of a Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens cookbook was a standard shower gift that was received by many soon-to-be brides, and a very welcome one, too. Over the years I've seen these older ones at estate sales and I'll thumb through them, see all of the splatters on various well-worn pages, and smile.

James Beard's American Cookery

I have a TON of cookbooks. Of all the ones I have, if I was forced to cull only a few, that one would be the very last to go.

The newer edition of Better Homes and Gardens is worthless unless you cook by using a box of this and a can of that.

I sure do agree with you. The BH&G was another basic, textbook cookbook, until it wasn't.

The BEST magazine for those interested is cooking is a monthly subscription to Cook's Illustrated.

Yep. I'm a big fan of both the magazine and their cookbooks and the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country cookbooks, both of which are a part of Cook's. I love how they get into the science of cooking, the "why" of things.

 

[marsh]

Cooking for two was my favorite coobook starting out

The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, Gift Edition: 650 Recipes for Everything You'll Ever Want to Make (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series): America's Test Kitchen: 9781945256066: Amazon.com: Books

The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, Gift Edition: 650 Recipes for Everything You'll Ever Want to Make (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series) [America's Test Kitchen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, Gift Edition: 650 Recipes for...

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[fairywell]

I have a 1970's version of Betty Crocker that I learned to cook from. I still use it for certain recipes or for the conversion chart at the back of the book. I love Betty Crocker cookbooks! Some interesting salad recipes also.
I have been cooking for years now and my skills are quite sophisticated compared to back then when I used Betty Crocker. I married at 22, called my mom to ask her how to bake a potato, have come a long way since.

 

[JasmineAndLace]

I have my mother's Betty Crocker Cookbook (original) as well as mine from when I got married in the early 60's. Both are tattered and torn and stained from a lot of usage but the information contained inside and the memories all those stains evoke are priceless. I have accumulated a lot of cookbooks over the years and still go back to the old Betty Crocker ones.

 

[WalknTrot]

Congrats on the discovery, Barry!

I still have my Grandma's 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook..it's sitting right beside me on the shelf here. Haha! Red cover with pretty white fleur de lis-like vine pattern. Incredible bible of cooking. Great on the basics and technique. What we grew up eating for sure - home cooking at it's best.

My go to and favorite from my other Grandma is/was the Farm Journal Country cookbook. That one is worn to a frazzle, brittle yellowed pages, and has tons of cooking stains, markers, paper clips and notes. If you can't make something good from what you have in the kitchen/garden/pantry out of that book there's no hope for ya.

 

[ainitfunny]

Betty Crocker doesn't tell you how to cook GAME. THE JOY OF COOKING DOES!
IIRC That includes SMALL GAME Like squirrels. It tells you how to butcher and clean them too. Get an OLD copy, they may have edited out that in newer copies.

Always BUY THE OLDEST COOKBOOKS.

 

[Melodi]

I learned to cook mostly from my Mom's 1955 edition of the Joy of Cooking that she got as a wedding present - and I still use it a lot.

She gave me the then "new" edition in the 1970s and I never used it - it was all a box of this and a can of that - the 1955 edition explained everything up to and including knowing when water was at a "rapid boil" but didn't make you feel stupid about it.

 

[Melodi]

Betty Crocker doesn't tell you how to cook GAME. THE JOY OF COOKING DOES!
IIRC That includes SMALL GAME Like squirrels. It tells you how to butcher and clean them too. Get an OLD copy, they may have edited out that in newer copies.

Always BUY THE OLDEST COOKBOOKS.

I have the 1930s reprint of the Joy of Cooking (and The Boston Cooking School) but I think the 1950s version is superior to the one published in the 1930s.

I can't remember if the 1930's version has the game cooking or not but the 1950s does, the 1930s is much smaller and while useful, I use the 1950's versions a lot more(I have 1955 and 1956 at this point).

One thing I like about the 1950s version is electric mixers are becoming common but microwaves have yet to be invented.

Packaged foods are started to become more common, but there is a page of cakes I still make that are "one-bowl cakes" designed to be "as easy as a box, but made from scratch."

 

[Redcat]

I must have 4 dozen cookbooks. But the two that serve me best are the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and my favorite, the Purity Cookbook.

My Purity is dated 1922, it was my Grandmothers passed down. I love the hadwritten notes from my Mom and Grandma.

 

[Homestyle]

I never saw a cookbook in our house. I don't remember seeing cookbooks at my friends houses either. In ninth grade Home Ec class we made a casserole, the first time I had ever had a casserole and bought ingredients just to make one thing. That was unheard of. LOL When I first married I use to cut the recipes off the back of packages and cans and kept them in a recipe box.

 

[Publius]

In this day and age they will never do reprints of these books and many in some political cycles don't what you to have that info.

 

[amarilla]

I learned to cook from a set of cookbooks that Home Ec teachers put out. Best casseroles ever. they had a meat one and dessert one as well. Not sure if others. Those were the only three we owned. No photos but solid tasty easy even for students to make recipes.

 

[desertvet2]

Um, “NewBees?” As opposed to old bees?

...and then there are the "busy body bees"...

 

[WalknTrot]

I never saw a cookbook in our house. I don't remember seeing cookbooks at my friends houses either. In ninth grade Home Ec class we made a casserole, the first time I had ever had a casserole and bought ingredients just to make one thing. That was unheard of. LOL When I first married I use to cut the recipes off the back of packages and cans and kept them in a recipe box.

I still have Mom's recipe box, too. Many on pieces of paper in both Grandma's handwriting along with Ma's. Also mine when I was just a kid but still with favorite recipes, even then.

 

[Millwright]

Pirates Pantry was compiled by the Junior League of Lake Charles, La. in 1976.

A collection of family recipes from the area.

Most of the classic Cajun dishes are represented.

I have an original and still reference it.

 

[ShadowMan]

I have an old 1920's or 30's version of "A Way To A Man's Heart" cook book!! Totally PRICELESS!! Talk about basic's!! No boxed ingredients there, everything from scratch. It's totally chauvinistic in every since of the word! It's not only a cook book but a how to keep house book!! "Ladies don't forget to 'freshen up' and put on a clean frock BEFORE your husband gets home after a long hard day at work."....and stuff like that! Ah the good old days!!

 

[Rabbit]

My wife and i used that book for years, and then gave it to our daughter when nshe married. I t served us well and with what little she remembered from her mother and grand mother and what i had learned from my years of batching it with my father we got pretty good. We even put together our own cook book of our favorites, knowing one of us would wind up alone. I don't use it much any more, got my favorite favorites memorized. I used it a lot during her last years, and the three years that she has been gone.

My mother hand-wrote some favorite recipes in a spiral notebook and I cherish it. Mothers, fathers, grandparents it is a wonderful gift to leave behind for your family.

 

[sssarawolf]

Wonderful book indeed. Many great cook books out there. I learned by watching mom and cooking out of the only cookbook she ever had. The 1943 North Shore Cookbook. Lots of Scandinavian recipes of course. I don't think you can buy them anymore, just a new one by that name printed in 2015-ack.

 

[fish hook]

My mother hand-wrote some favorite recipes in a spiral notebook and I cherish it. Mothers, fathers, grandparents it is a wonderful gift to leave behind for your family.

Both my daughter and grand daughter already have a copy.

 

[thompson]

I still have Mom's recipe box, too. Many on pieces of paper in both Grandma's handwriting along with Ma's. Also mine when I was just a kid but still with favorite recipes, even then.

I have my grandmother's recipes, all handwritten. A very treasured and prized possession.

 

[thompson]

Pirates Pantry was compiled by the Junior League of Lake Charles, La. in 1976.

A collection of family recipes from the area.

Most of the classic Cajun dishes are represented.

I have an original and still reference it.

I've never run into a cookbook put out by any Junior League in any city that wasn't a keeper.

 

[Randy in Arizona]

I sometimes find them at yard or garage sales.
Estate sales are also good places to look!

857

 

[CarolynA]

Another cook book I like is the Boston Cooking School, Fanny Farmer cookbook from the 1890s. If you use old fashioned ingredients or wild game it's a must have.

 

[Homestyle]

This cookbook saved me during a need to save every cent period. The money factor has changed of course but the savings are real. The recipes are all tasty and easy to change up for more variety.
The $1.98 Cookbook: How to Eat Like a Gourmet and Save $6,000-Or More-A Year by Carl Japikse

 

[jward]

My favorite commercial cookbook is:
Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book: The Boston Cooking School

But my most beloved and dog earned tome is an old folder that's been compiled over the years;
My first mother in law (Russian) gave me a hand written and compiled "book" of favorites from
their household.

As time passed and I became widowed and remarried into other ethnic groups, similar efforts
were made by Polish, Italian, Swedish, Scottish folks in the families I married into. My resulting
"cookbook" also has recipes and recollections I've found and used over the years.

At the heart of it, food is loving, and the nurturing we provide one another extends far beyond
the nutritional make up of meals. Some of those meals, and memories, are ones that folks would
ask for when age or illness wouldn't allow them to eat anything else.

..hope we're all making similar "books" of our own to share : )

 

[Griz3752]

I found it on Amazon - a reprint of the very popular 1950 version of the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book.

I have my mom's original; one of the few things I snagged/wanted when she died. My sister is still cranky but the last thing she needs is yet another cook book. She has a flair.

I'm going to Amazon as this one, while it was my mom's, is now more see-through tape & paper clipped pages than anything else.

 

[AlfaMan]

I must have 4 dozen cookbooks. But the two that serve me best are the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and my favorite, the Purity Cookbook.

My Purity is dated 1922, it was my Grandmothers passed down. I love the hadwritten notes from my Mom and Grandma.

The only cookbook mama ever used was the Fannie Farmer cookbook. It's in paperback, yellowed from age. She gave it to my wife when we got married; it's sitting on the shelf where her mama gave her HER Betty Crocker cookbook from the '50s. And her dad taught her what he grew up eating-Napolitan Italian dishes. Her dad was a hellacious cook!

The missus couldn't boil water when we got married-for the first month of our marriage every other meal was Beef Taco hamburger helper but she learned. Learned from watching the food channel and those cookbooks. Now, when she wants to she can put on a spread fit for a king.

 

[1eagle]

Please be sure your kids/grandkid can read cursive for those handwritten recipes, or type them out lest they be lost forever....

 

[anna43]

I have an original 1946 Joy of Cooking. When I was at war with a groundhog I checked there for how to cook. Fortunately for both the groundhog and me I convinced it to move on. I also have a Fanny Farmer. Also an American Woman Cookbook which appears to be from the 1930's. The first pages are missing. It is also a 'teaching" cookbook with explanation of ingredients and appliances and even includes an "ideal" kitchen layout. Detailed with pictures a hot to render fat. I haven't had it long enough to make it a favorite, but its very interesting and the recipes sound. How does peeled melon filled with tomato aspic and frosted with cream cheese sound?? Not one I'm anxious to try!!!!!!!!!!

The More-with-Less Cookbook is another favorite for simple ingredient recipes. I always use the pizza crust recipe from that one. I have the Farm Journal Cookbook as well as several of the Farm Journal specialty cookbooks. Is the Farm Journal Magazine still published? I used to love the women's section in that as well as the farming info. I have so many cookbooks that I went through them and made a list of favorite recipes and put it inside the front cover of each.

I have a lot of church and community cookbooks some of which were not proofread very well!! The ones published in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's are loaded with Jello salad recipes. I commented at our recent church potluck that there were no Jello salads!!

 

[Dozdoats]

No bees like old bees

 

[KFhunter]

cookbooks so old, you can no longer find the ingredients

 

[amarilla]

Did anyone else read the cookbook by Jo Ann York "How I feed my family on $16 a week?" I found that one when I was single. Great no nonsense book.
I've always wondered what happened to her. If you are her, or her kids or something, and are reading this, PLEASE tell more.