500 Cookbooks, Time Travel, and Vintage Recipes
When I moved into my first “adult” apartment, my grandma gifted me her 1963 Good Housekeeping Cookbook. That was a very long time ago and cooking wasn’t exactly the priority then. Over the years, that cookbook has served me well.
The blue and cream cover is slightly discolored from age and many pages are dog-eared. There are notes in the margins and recipe cards from Grandma’s friends still tucked between pages. It is as much a book of recipes as it is a book that personifies Grandma’s life as a mother and grandmother.
By the time I was born, Grandma didn’t need recipes. She cooked from memory, but this was the one cookbook she used when she did need a recipe. Each time I remove it from the shelf, memories of standing at Grandma’s hip cooking or baking come flooding back. That cookbook tells the story of her life and mine and in its pages are many recipes that I grew up eating. These are the same recipes that I know by heart today and cook “from the hip”.
When I received Grandma’s blue cookbook, I was solidly into research my family history and had become a self-proclaimed history enthusiast. While flipping through the pages of “Ole Blue”, as I call it, I realized just how important cookbooks are to telling the story of daily living of our ancestors. Thus began my journey to collect vintage cookbooks, especially community and church cookbooks.
Today, my collection includes over 500 cookbooks. I love modern favorites like Ina Garten’s “Cook Like a Pro”, as well as new niche cookbooks like “Fresh Eggs Daily” by Lisa Steele – they make up a small part of my collection. The rest are antique and (mostly) vintage cookbooks like an 1890 copy of “Compendium of Cookery” that is so well-loved the cover is peeling, and many pages have come loose.
Sometimes I hear about a cookbook and add it to my list of “must finds”. More often, I will browse used bookstores and antique or resale shops and find treasures. That is how I uncovered my 1901 copy of the “Presidential Cookbook”. I collect collections, too, like the Better Homes & Gardens single-topic cookbooks from the 1960s and 70s.
Many of my friends find treasures and save them for me which is how I received my copy of “Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes”. Aunt Sammy predates modern cooking show and podcast hosts. She is the central character of the 1920s “Housekeepers’ Half-Hour” radio show that delivered recipes to listeners.
Still other friends gift me cookbooks from their own mom or grandma’s collection knowing that I will use and appreciate them. These are my favorites because the personal connection makes cooking from them all the sweeter. My most recent addition is a a 1968 “Cooking with Soup” by none other than the Campbell Soup Company that arrived by Pony Express shortly after the new year.
This year, on The Davises Eat cooking broadcast – and in this column – I will be sharing my collection with you. As my husband says, while giggling, we will be “cooking the books”, selecting old recipes and remaking them for the modern kitchen… and sharing the stories behind them.
I hope you will watch and follow along as we travel back in time to explore the foods of yesteryear.