We just returned from a trip to see J's bro in San Francisco. My sister-in-law is an avid collector of cookbooks, particularly cookbooks from the 30s and 40s. What a trip to flip through some of those old-school recipes! Not only is the typeface super-cool, but the subheads are hilarious. For example:
Walnut Loaf Bread
By Mrs. James Pincher
Ideal for brunch after church, or as a tasty treat for dinner party guests.
It's also interesting to see what ingredients were essential (salt pork, anyone?) and what were the trendy dishes at the time. It seems you couldn't go wrong fusing various elements into a gelatinous mold (I must have seen 40 recipes for jelly molds), or using mincemeat.
The best cookbooks had sidebars with tips on being the consummate wife. In addition to making the dishes outlined in the book, the proper housewife should also don a "fancy dress" and meet her husband at the door with a dry martini when he returned from work. Love it!!
Obviously I didn't return home with any new recipe ideas and I'm not longing to return to the 40s anytime soon, but there was something oddly sweet about flipping through the aged pages, reading someone's hand-written notes in the columns and being transported to a more innocent time.
Ina Garten's recipes are probably better, but her cookbooks don't rock like the oldies.
Just because they only come every four years...
12 years ago
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