[chat] What is your oldest cookbook?

[Homestyle]

I have the first Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook. And one cook booklet featuring Aunt Jenny for Spry (1940's ?) shortening. I never saw a cookbook at my grandmother's house! She did have a few handwritten recipes from church friends stuck here and there.

 

[CrystalWaters]

Guess my oldest is the Escoffier Cook Book.
Not that old but 1969.

 

[BillBk]

Just went and looked, all of ours seem to be from the early '70's.
Never knew of my mom or grandmothers having cookbooks--just recipes on the back of church bullitins.
( and all those for cakes and pies)

 

[Deb Mc]

Hi all!

I've one from the 1950's (cooking from scratch), can't remember the title. (Will try to dig it out tonight and post the name.) I lucked out at a flea market earlier this summer and picked it up for $1. Mom says that the pre-1960's cook books are some of the best as they teach how to cook from scratch, not relying on box mixes like some of the newer ones are supposed to.

Now, if I can just find the time to cook a home-made meal...

 

[Melodi]

I have several original old ones and a couple of re-prints. One of the oldest came with our house (a 200 year old Irish rectory). It has no date on it, but seems to be English, from around the eairly 1900's somewhere. Possibly as late as the 1920's. It has mesurements I've never heard of, but I managed to locate in Carla's Country Living Encylopedia. Its also full of fasinating "housekeeping hints" and pictures of "modern" kitchen appliances. I've also got my mom's 1956 Joy Of Cooking (I learned much of my cooking out of it). A reprint of the original 1930's edition. And one of my favorite re-prints, a hilarious mid-19th century book called, "The Cook Not Mad" with even funnier 1970's comments on "modernizing" the recipies. This one is from Canada, so its really different from my English turn of the century one. Finally, I've got lots of books on medievil cooking (and even eairlier). But they are all modern books, not even reprints of originals. My mom has my grandmother's cookbooks which I copy out of a lot. But she keeps the originals in Mississippi.

Melodi...looking forward to seeing what else is out there, I love old cookbooks, they are so much fun!

 

[5 gallon bucket]

The books I learned to cook from were free from the Baltimore Gas & Electric and were given to me by my mother in 1954. I have many cookbooks but use them only for ideas. I'm a pinch of this or that kind of cook, using whatever is on hand.

For instance, if I don't have pine nuts or enough basil for pesto, I use walnuts or drained spinach as a substitute.

 

[Cassie]

My oldest cookbook is the Lily Wallace New American Cook Book, copyrighted in 1941. It has over 3800 recipes, plus tips and hints in the back.

My favorite section is one titled "Game". There are recipes for possum, squirrel, pigeon, rabbit, venison, grouse, and pheasant in this section. I have never cooked any of these dishes. Actually this isn't a cook book that I use, but I hang on to it because it is old and has a lot of extinct recipes; you know, just in case I ever want to know how to cook boiled cusk and fried eels.



Cassie

 

[tropicalfish]

This thread really got me to thinking just how old my cookbooks are. I have a hobby of collecting cookbooks. I have a bunch of them stored right now, but I checked a few. I have "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" , by Fannie Merritt Farmer. It is the 1923 edition. The preface was dated Boston, July, 1923. Another one is "The Household Searchlight Recipe Book" by The Household Magazine, dated 1939. I know for a fact that book was my grandmother's.

A little off topic here, but there was another book I found called "The Library of Health", dated back in 1927. It does have some recipes in it, but found all kinds of home remedies for different ailments. This book is at least four inches thick, or more. I can't pick it up with one hand. LOL

 

[Coyote's Duchess]

Cassie, I have that one, too!

Picked it up at an estate or garage sale some years back. I love it! It's one of my very favorites for some strange reason.

My mother's cookbook collection once contained close to 2,000 different cookbooks - all sorts of different kinds, anything and everything you could imagine! Really neat. The collection filled a ceiling to floor bookcase that lined 3 of 4 walls in the family room. (A *real* PITA to dust, lemme tell ya!) When she got rid of the big house several years back she had a series of garage sales and did get rid of 'some' of them (and I ended up with some of them, too). She still has quite a few, as do I. My own collection is in the neighborhood of ~ 500 or so, all different kinds.

I may be weird (heh, been told that a time or twelve!), but I get a lot of satisfaction just reading cookbooks, especially older ones, for the historical value. You really get a different picture of days gone by, I think. Lots of good, practical information, too.

 

[LindaSW]

"Pillsbury's Cook Book" - A practical Recipe Book promoting efficiency in the home. Edited and prepared under the direct sipervision of the Pillsbury Laboratory. 94 pages Copyright 1921

This was given to me by my MIL it was given to her by her mother. Now that I'm looking at it I'm thinging of having it rebound.

 

[Mama Bear]

My oldest is one my Grandmother brought back from India with her. She was a missionary there from 1926 through 1946.

It's called "The Landour Community Centre Cook Book", first published in Landour 1930. I have the second edition published in Mussoorie, U.P. India 1938.

Although I don't handle it much (old binding), it's interesting reading, having been made up of recipes from the Missionaries and some ladies they had contact with in India. You can tell it was made with their location in mind... one of the tips read "In the hills, use less sugar in baking"; and some of the ingredients I've never heard of!!

For interest, here are two:

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Kofta Karmaunder (Meat section)

"Grind 2 or 3 pice worth of Bhune Chane ki Dal. (Roast dal of gram) and mix with one seer minced mutton for ten minutes, then mix with 1/2 masala and make into small balls. Masala, 2 chattack cocoanut, 4 chattack almonds, one pice worth of white llaechi (cardamom), 1 piece green ginger, a little garlic, 1 chattack kaskas, 1 or 2 pieces cinnamon, 1 or 2 green peppers, a little kotmir also fine cut.
Cook 1/4 seer gbi on mild fire. Put in finely sliced onions till brown. Put in last 1/2 of masala till reddish. Put in meat balls lightly. Cover dish till balls are dried, then stir slowly and add water to make gravy. Leave on fire now for about ten minutes. Serve with boiled rice." [sic]

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Gulab Jamans (Candies section)

1 seer kova
1 chhattak ghee
1 1/2 pao flour

Rub all together well. Make into balls and put half a batasa in the center of the ball. Fry in hot ghee. Then drop into a thick hot syrup." - Mrs. Shah
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HUH??

 

[Deena in GA]

I love old books of all kinds. One of my books isn't necessarily a cookbook but does have recipes along with other information. It is "It's Up to the Women" by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, copywrite 1933. It's a really neat book that has lots of info that's becoming more relevant every day. I bought it for $.25 years ago!

 

[city]

"A modern kitchen guide"
By Sears and Robuck (c) 1934

It's also my "main" cookbook I use,
it has all the recipes the good old
fashion way, by scratch.

I just replace "lard" with butter.

It also in the back has "how to"
tips for cleaning the house, women
sure didn't have a lot of cleaning
supplies/options in those days.