Perry ladies cookbook of 1920...from the ladies of Perry KS

[kenmoreguy89]

While looking for midwestern cuisine cookbooks and recipes time ago I came up to this online print...
Thought it would be interesting to share
http://www.kancoll.org/books/perry/#salads

 

[cuffs054]

You might find the "Candle Stick Salad" somewhat suggestive. My neighbor made it and brought me a plate. I might have choked on my tea.

 

[danemodsandy]

Very Cool....

....And interesting cookbook.

What's fun to see is all the different foods that were available in Kansas at the time; in the days of really well-developed rail networks, the good ladies of Topeka had access to asparagus, lettuce, bananas, pineapple and halibut, among other perishables not commonly raised in Western cities of the time.

Those women were not unadventurous, either: Spaghetti is one of the offerings, a recipe for mayonnaise is given, and you could have a cheese souffle if you wanted.

In reading the recipes, certain names appear over and over, and correlating the recipes with the contributor sometimes allows one to play the game of guessing what the lady in question was like, though I confess some of my imaginations have no source in the cookbook. I fancy that Mrs. Pius Voelker never wasted a morsel of food, complained a lot about her digestion and regaled her luncheon buddies with endless tales of obstetrics gone wrong. Kate Montague sounds like a lively and pretty, but completely proper young matron - she would never snap her garter at a traveling salesman, but he'd wish to Heaven she would. Oleita Stark and Eda Stark sound as if they might have been sisters - Oleita the glamorous one, Eda the good housewife. Mrs. A.F. DeBacker was, presumably, a lady of Position and Means - her and her fancy-Dan veal loaf!

Thanks for linking this!

 

[davey7]

I have a Galena (Illinois, retirement home of General President U Grant) Ladies League cookbook, very similar feel to this, even though its from the early 70's.

 

[abcomatic]

My grandmother made 'Candlelight Salad'. The way she made it was similar but she put prunes at the base and drizzled Miracle Whip down along the side of the banana. You should have seen the looks at the table as she served that! My brother and I loved it, my mom, not so much! "Ma, what in the hell is this?"
"I read it in a cookbook and thought that I would try it." We didn't dare laugh, we didn't want to hurt her feelings.

 

[ken]

Gary:

LOL. The picture I have in my head!

 

[abcomatic]

Ken

Ken, That was way back in 1962. I think I am going to make that for a dinner party and see what happens! I should get some laughs on that one. To get the cherry to stand up like a flame, grandma even cut a slit in the end of the banana and put the cherry in that way. I wish we had pictures of that. My dad just sat there and didn't say a word. After the shock was over, we had to figure out how to eat this thing. Use you imagination on that one and you will be correct. lol I am glad you had fun with this as much as I do in retelling this. Gary

 

[ken]

Should have gotten pictures of everyone eating it!

 

[danemodsandy]

Just In Case....

....Anyone here is unaware why Candlelight Salad causes such mirth, here's a visual.

I will say no more.

 

[abcomatic]

lol, Yep, that's pretty much it! Gary

 

[iheartmaytag]

You guys have dirty minds.

It just looks like a nice holiday candle.  (giggle)

 

As for the recipes, I question some of the ingredients for the 20s.  Most items were fresh, so all the ingredients for canned peas, canned. . .makes me think it had bee unpdated. 

 

Asparagus is/was not that uncommon of an ingredient in Kansas during that time, or now.  The stuff used to grow wild.  Of course now I would kill for a fence row of the stuff. 

 

[danemodsandy]

Harley:

Actually, the rail networks in that era were so good that Americans in some very rural places and small cities and towns had access to things that were hard to get when the railroads declined.

It was nothing to enjoy brook trout or lobster aboard a train miles from any bodies of water, and Midwesterners could get California produce in the dead of Winter. The Depression began to dry all that up, and after World War II, enormous cutbacks in rail service - both passenger and freight - made "commodity" items, like iceberg lettuce, refrigerated meat, and packaged and canned goods, the only ones available in many places.

It took a long time before a hugely improved trucking industry and the creation of our Interstate highway system made it possible to enjoy those benefits again. And the energy costs of today's system are very high compared to yesterday's.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

I think Harley is right about asparagus, my mon told me that she used to go to pick up wild asparagus along country road sides and railways sides when she was little.
Over here you can find them too, I could find a bunch of them at the base of a cable pole in our field at the farm, they grew always there every year, and so they did until during a storm, a lighting bolt hit a pine near there (litterally cur in half) , it should have hit the pole also as I remember that in the house some switches got fried and fuses blowed, , I do not know why but since then they stopped growing at the base of that pole, i loved them...they could melt in your mouth..not stringy like the cultivated type..
speaking of midwest further and generally I found a little weird they were not usual there also because of this, kansas and for extension midwestern weather is really similar to here, so if they rise here they also should there...

About canned stuff, Harley I am not sure...I noticed they also use alot of canned stuff, you are right...but also thought that in the 20s canning was still a very common practice as there were not many refrigerators or modern way of conservation....

 

[iheartmaytag]

Home Canning was very popular

Store bought cans I didn't think was quite so popular. 

 

Maybe for the city folk store bought canned items were more popular, my parent's folks had very little store bought anything.  Mom said when she went to high school, and moved to the big school where there were more than 12 kids in the school.  The city kids would trade her store bought bread for her homemade bread sandwiches.  Each was a treat for the other. 

 

My Grandmother always made my Mother her special Birthday, which is in June, Pea salad, and Blueberry Pie because that was what was in season at the time. 

 

 

[ken]

We have wild asparagus here on our property in NY.

During the time my parents were young both of my grandmothers canned everything and anything you wanted to preserve for later. One (fathers mother) moreso than the other. She even canned meat. My mothers mothers family preserved meat by curing in a barrel. Both grandmothers had an icebox at that time. No electric refrigerator. My fathers mother got her first and only fridge (Kelvinator) in 1941 which I now have and still works. My mothers mother didnt have a fridge until after my parents got married (1947) and had use of one shelf in my mothers fridge (1948 Kelvinator) which I have and still works.

Frozen food preservation didnt gain popularity until after WWII. You can see how the freezer boxes in refrigerators got progressively larger starting in the 1940s as frozen food storage became more common place.

My mother never did as much canning as either of my grandmothers did.

Writing this brings to mind two amusing stories Ive heard my mother and her first cousin mention (they grew up in the same house) about the meat that was cured "back on the farm". One was "sugar cured" pork. They said it was so salty you could hardly stand to eat it. The second was "salt pork" which would jiggle on the plate when put on the table. My mother and cousin would be told "thats not fat; eat it."