Cookbooks and recipes

[rp2813]

Eddie, that Sunset "Easy Basics for Good Cooking" has been a go-to for simple recipes ever since I met Dave.  He had a copy that was so used that its binder-like cover had to be taped back together.  His oldest daughter got that one after I got a pristine spiral bound one like yours from my mom's stash. 

 

I found another of the binder type (see the similarly bound EB for International Cooking in my 2nd pic above) somewhere along the line and gave it to Dave's younger daughter.  It's the book she and her sister learned from.  She now uses it with her own daughter.

 

I'm like you.  I draw from more than one recipe and use what I like from them.  I do that with apple pie, using parts of the Land O' Lakes and Sunset EB recipes, and my banana bread comes from the L.A. Times book and another that escapes me.  I wrote that one down on paper. 

 

The L.A. Times book has some interesting entries.  One of them is a chili recipe from Paul Lynde.  It's nothing but opening cans and tossing the contents into a pot.  I'm sure he didn't expect them to print it, but I guess the editor didn't get the joke.

 

[ea56]

Ralph,

that is so ironic about your experience with the Sunset Easy Basic of Good Cooking, because my Mom had the Sunset Cookbook in your previous post on this thread. I learned to cook at home using this cookbook and the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. I think it was so helpful to have pictures to go along with these basic recipes so the user could actually have an idea of what to do if they were inexperienced cooks, or just not familar with a technique or recipe. I really believe anyone can be a good cook if they can follow directions at first and then have an imagination and interest in expanding their skills. And common sense doesn’t hurt either.

I’ve learned a lot from members on this site too. Like the recipe for Ann Landers Meatloaf. I can’t recall who posted it, but I tried it and now thats my go to recipe for meatloaf, because its simple and it really tastes good! I like that so many of us share our knowledge about not only appliances, but everything else too. I’m always learning something new, or remembering something I hadn’t thought of for a while.
Thanks everyone!
Eddie

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Thanks Hans! But it's not the one. Oh well. I wish I could remember the title. What I remember the most is the green and black hard cover. Anyway thanks again!

 

[ovrphil]

I could get lost

reading cookbooks. Your collection looks great, Hans. And I have adopted books from the thrifts that have many notes and additional recipes in them. It's eery, in a way, to get someone else's cookbook that looks like it still belongs in their kitchen. But it brings something to that cookbook, a store bought book will never have.

Thanks forthe posting and everyone else who commented. I hope to get more of my cookbooks out of boxes and onto some kind of bookcase soon.

Fun read here.

 

[frigilux]

Eddie-- Your '250 Ways To Make Candy' cookbook is a one from a series by the Culinary Arts Institute. I had the 'Cookie' book. Here are most of the others from the series (all images found online).

As others have mentioned, part of the fun of cookbooks is sitting down with a cup of coffee and paging through them. While I now use online sources for recipes and have an iPad for a recipe box, it can't replace the experience of thumbing through (especially vintage) cookbooks.

 

[ea56]

You know Eugene, when I bought the cand cookbook many years ago in an antique store they had all the others too that you posted photos of. At the time I was only interested in candy recipes for Christmas, so I passed on all the others. I’m sorry now that I didn’t buy them all. I believe they were only $1.00 each. Oh well! And I agree with you, I too look uo most recipes online now, but it does’t compare with the experience of looking through my old cookbooks. While looking for one thing I can’t help running across several other recipes of interest too. I think thisis what helps to keep our menus from getting boring.
Eddie

 

[johnrk]

CAI Cookbooks

When I was a small child 50 years ago, my mother had the "Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking". It was yellow with black dots on the cover and was huge. It wasn't until I was grown that I knew who Miss McBride was, and that the cookbook was the Culinary Arts Institute book,renamed and re-covered. I still have an old copy, though much newer, of that cookbook. As Eddie says, it's a fun one to look through because so many of the recipes are very vintage. Who still knows how to make Duchess Potatoes? I still use a ricer for mashed potatoes and also for turnips and cauliflower at times. I have made some of the vintage recipes in there for fun when friends come over for cards or socializing. Some of those sound awful, frankly, but some are great. I've owned and enjoyed several of the Ida Bailey Allen series of cookbooks, as she was the 'Martha Stewart' of her day from the 20's on. Kate Smith, the amazing singer, put out the 'Company's Coming' cookbook and some more, equally practical. I never got into the Rombauer cookbooks because I don't like cookbooks that string ingredients throughout the instructions. I like to get my ingredients together at the beginning!

For those out there who are blender lovers like me, I'd certainly recommend Ann Seranne's 'Good Food With A Blender' cookbook from the 70's. It deals with more than the usual stuff found in blender cookbooks. I still use her recipe in there for blender white sauce/cheese sauce regularly, 'cause it's the easiest and best I've found. In the mid 60's Hamilton-Beach published 'The Blender Way to Better Cooking' which is still easily found on EBay. It's a great and practical cookbook; I think they included it with their blenders back then. Seranne and Eileen Gadden put out 'The Blender Cookbook' in 1961 and it's great, as is 'Mary Mead's Magic Recipes For The Blender' in a couple of versions.

Sorry for the length of this, thought someone might be interested.

 

[abcomatic]

Hans, What year is you RCA radio that a bit was shown in your first picture? Thanks, Gary

 

[norgeway]

I dont know for sure

But its solid state so I think mid to late 60s, Plays great.