Excerpts from a Vintage Cookbook and a Giveaway!

I really love vintage cookbooks.  They are so fun to read.  As I've mentioned before, I was an odd child and was reading (and cooking from) vintage cookbooks somewhere between the ages of ten and twelve.  This past-time has never grown dull to me.






I love the quaint directions and measurements (butter the size of a walnut).  I love that they mostly use real food (thick sour milk is the real deal- raw milk that has thickened and soured naturally). No modern convenience foods here.

I love the nostalgia value, the coziness.  And yes, I love the fact that I am loving reading and cooking from these vintage cookbooks in my very modern kitchen where hot water and heat for cooking are available with the flip of a switch or a knob, and where water runs freely from a tap that does not even require strong arms to pump. 


I shared an excerpt from one such gem recently- it was about the proper way to sweep.  I loved this one so much that I updated it with a section defining terms, explaining weights and measures, and a section on vintage utensils. I added an essay, and I spent some time working on formatting the chapter headings and the table of contents so they are active for Kindle.


Here are some more excerpts from that cookbook:


Bannocks

1 Cupful of Thick Sour Milk
1/2 Cupful of Sugar
1 Egg
2 Cupfuls of Flour
1/2 Cupful of Indian Meal
1 Teaspoonful of Soda
A pinch of Salt

 Make the mixture stiff enough to drop from a spoon. Drop mixture, size of a walnut, into boiling fat. Serve warm, with maple syrup.

 Corn Meal Gems
2 Cupfuls of Flour
1 Cupful of Corn Meal (bolted is best)*
2 Cupfuls of Milk
2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
1 Teaspoonful of Baking Soda
1 Egg
1/2 Cupful of Sugar
1/2 Teaspoonful of Salt

 Stir the flour and meal together, adding cream of tartar, soda, salt and sugar. Beat the egg, add the milk to it, and stir into the other ingredients. Bake in a gem-pan* twenty minutes.

 *’bolted corn meal’ is ground corn that is then sifted through a screen to remove larger pieces of the bran and germ to make a finer grade of corn meal.

 *A ‘gem-pan’: use your muffin pan

CAKES and COOKIES

Nurse was there, and tea was ready: seedy cake and plummy cake, and jam and hot buttered toast, and the prettiest china with red and gold and blue flowers on it, and real tea, and as many cups of it as you liked.The Book of Dragons, by E. Nesbit

Sugar Cookies
1 Cupful of Sugar
1/2 Cupful of Butter
2 Tablespoonfuls of Milk
1 Egg
2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
1 Teaspoonful of Soda
1 Teaspoonful of Lemon Extract
Flour enough to roll

Beat the butter, sugar and egg together, add the milk, stir the cream of tartar and soda into the flour dry. Stir all together and roll.

The author gives no directions for baking. If I were to make these, I would roll them about 1/8” inch thick, cut with cookie cutters or the sugared edge of a juice glass. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at about 375 for ten to fifteen minutes, or until just golden at the edges. Remove from sheets and cool on brown paper or a baking rack.


Excerpts from the 'Tips' section:

*When Washing Lamp Chimneys 

     If you live in the country and use kerosene lamps, do not dread washing the chimneys. Make a good hot suds, then wash them in this, with a clean cloth kept for that purpose. Pour over them very hot or boiling water and dry with an old soft cloth. Twist a piece of brown paper or newspaper, into  cornucopia shape and place over the chimneys to protect from dust and flies. 

*To Remove Disagreeable Odors from the House 

     Sprinkle fresh ground coffee, on a shovel of hot coals, or burn sugar on the shovel. This is an old-fashioned disinfectant, still good. 

Excerpt from the essay in the epilogue:

Every age has its excesses and its deficits, and just as a child lacking in some particular vitamin or mineral will seek out substances to meet that need without even realizing why they have that craving, there will be a general yearning for an antidote to the excesses or deficits of this age, and that antidote will usually be found in some ancient writer or work who seems to be the very antithesis of all that the current age stands for (because he is).

I wonder if we don’t enjoy vintage cookbooks because they center on hearth and home, and as such are an antidote to our toxic culture which no longer values either.

It’s not that the ‘good old days’ were perfect. They definitely were not. They had their flaws, weaknesses, and false beliefs. But as C.S. Lewis said, they made their own mistakes, not ours.

If I am correct in thinking that some of us read these old cookbooks because unconsciously or otherwise,we are seeking the antidote to something we find toxic in our culture, what can we do about it?

The above excerpts are all taken from the book THINGS MOTHER USED TO MAKE : A COLLECTION OF OLD TIME RECIPES, SOME NEARLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD AND NEVER PUBLISHED BEFORE (Annotated), available on your Kindle for 1.99.

Okay,  Actually, you can get another version of Things Mother Used to Make for free. That version has the recipes, but it does not have an annotated, linked, active Table of Contents. It doesn't have the same weights and measures updated info. It doesn't include the essay on vintage cookbooks (and how they can be used to build your family's relationships), and it doesn't include definitions of terms like 'gem pan,' and 'Indian meal.' =)

Still, it's a very sweet little cookbook, and free is always nice, even though an active TOC is a major convenience. So do with this information what you will- I set before a 1.99 version with extra goodies, and a still very nice free version without the extras.=)

Well, and speaking of FREE (because who does not like FREE?):

I will giveaway FIVE FREE copies by emailing the document with all the extra goodies for your Kindle to FIVE lucky readers.

 Here's how to grab your chance at a free copy of the version loaded with all the extras:

 If you have a blog, blog about this giveaway and the cookbook, linking back to this post. Leave a comment telling me you've done this, and leaving the link to your post. That's one entry.

 Link to this post or THINGS MOTHER USED TO MAKE : A COLLECTION OF OLD TIME RECIPES, SOME NEARLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD AND NEVER PUBLISHED BEFORE (Annotated) on FB, and leave me a comment with the link to your fb comment. That's one entry.

 Tweet about it, linking back to this post. Leave me a comment with the link. That's a third possible entry.

 Leave me a comment on this post telling me what you like about vintage cookbooks. That's a fourth possible entry.

 You use other social media? Super.Tell me about it! Link back to this blog post via that other social media, and leave me a comment telling me that's what you did and giving me the link. Do this for *each* social media form you use, and that's an additional entry for each one.

 I'll choose five fabulous winners Wednesday, the 25th. You will need to read that post to see if your name was chosen.

 I'm so tickled to be able to share this cookbook!


Linked at Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books