A friend of mine recently found some treasures as she was going through boxes of family heirlooms.
She found some immaculate copies of American Cookery (formerly the Boston Cooking-School Magazine). She graciously let me borrow a couple. All of these ancient copies are in perfect condition.
I love perusing through antique cookbooks and these magazines offered me the same nostalgia.
The November edition had a little bit about architecture, some fiction, some humor, and recipes galore. But, I have to share with you some of the language:
Most women would resent the statement that they took food for granted without giving it much thought. They would indignantly point to the countless hours they regularly spent in their kitchens in preparing meals, or at least supervising them, three times a day, twenty-one times a week, and one thousand ninety-five times a year.
—from “Food in Fiction” by Clifford Parcher
Yes, I can’t tell you how many meals I have supervised with my household staff! 🙂
My days are very full, but I sing as I polish the floors and whistle as I mould the delicate biscuits and sleep like a babe at night. It would take more sports than there are, all rolled into one, to give anything as versatile as housework.
—from “Housework—A Thrilling New Sport” by Gertine Ahrens
Truly, I cannot tell if this is meant as some ironic humor or is Gertine really loving that housework or has she had a bit too much “mother’s little helper”?
And for Thanksgiving? These are some feasts now:
Since the featured recipe was “Cape Cod Muffins,” I wanted to share that here. Here is the recipe exactly as it appeared in the November 1937 edition of American Cookery:
Cape Cod Muffins
Wash three-fourths a cup of cranberries; remove any stems or berries that are not perfect. Cut in halves and sprinkle with on-half a cup of powdered sugar. Butter small muffin tins. Sift two cups of flour, one-half a teaspoonful of salt, and three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Break an egg into a bowl, add one cup of milk and stir in one-fourth a cup of melted butter. Add the liquids quickly to the dry ingredients and stir, but do not over beat. Stir in the cranberries. Place the mixture into the muffin tins filling them two-thirds full. Bake at 400 deg. Fah. twenty minutes. These are very good as a luncheon muffin served with salad or creamed chicken.
Wow—I am glad modern recipes are written in a format that separates the ingredients from the directions; however, this might force me to read a recipe through before I start to assemble it. (And, it explains the format of a lot of the recipes we found in my grandmother’s kitchen. )
I am also fascinated with the advertisements (and remember, this was before Mad Men). I found some familiar products: Knox Gelatine, PET Milk, Gold Medal, Carnation Milk, and Morton’s Salt. Some of these products claims would be lost on us, the modern foodie.
- Famous for preventing clogged saltcellars! (Morton’s Salt)
- Irradiated Carnation Milk (Now, that is what I call a great selling feature!)
- Irradiated PET Milk (This must not mean what I think it means??)
Some not so familiar products: Shefford Snappy Cheese (I can only imagine), Farwell & Rhines Genuine Graham Flour, Cow Brand Baking Soda, and Three Diamonds Fancy Deep-Sea Crabmeat.
Only fifteen cents a copy—only $1.50 for a year’s subscription.
All I can say is that “We’ve come a long way, baby.”
Note: As I was doing some internet research about this magazine I found that American Cookery was first published in the late 1800s (as The Boston Cooking-School Magazine) and survived until 1947. (Interesting tidbit—Gourmet started publishing in 1941.)