Recipes From Yesteryear

I’ve mentioned my mom’s old cookbook that she gave me. It’s now somewhere around 60 years old. I was looking through it tonight because Mom said she was looking for a recipe and wondered if it was in this old cookbook, that I keep here in my china cabinet.

It was so fun looking through the pages of recipes. It’s like taking a peek back in time at the foods and ingredients that they used back in the 1950’s and earlier. Some of the recipes looked like they might be tasty. Some looked not very appealing and I wondered if people really ate food like that.

Coffee with eggs in it. Fruit Buttermilk. Grape Juice Float. Pineapple Egg Punch. Stewed Quince. Cinnamon Blanc Mange. Finnan Haddie. Sauerbraten. Braised Pig Hocks. Poor Man’s Goose.

I’m not saying those recipes aren’t tasty. Just sayin’ they don’t sound tasty.

I thought I’d share some of the recipes in the old cookbook that I thought were interesting. Some of these names I recognize from hearing Mom and Grandma mention them long ago. I scanned them into my computer and please forgive that some of them might be a little crooked. I could have retyped them all but I wanted you to see them straight from the cookbook.

Sassafrass Tea

Rocks

Red Cabbage with Apples

Potato Kisses

Pan Fried Bananas

Old Fashioned Boiled Coffee

Lemon Cracker Pudding

Indian Pudding

Daffodil Cake

Cornflake Kisses

Cocoa Indians

Brown Betty

There are some recipes in the cookbook that I want to try. Even some of the above recipes. Old cookbooks are fun to read. This one makes me think of Mom and Grandma. Mom was a young mother who wanted to try new recipes so she got this cookbook and she used it a lot. There are stains on some of the pages where she splattered ingredients as she cooked and baked new recipes for her family.

Mom knew how to cook. She grew up helping her mama cook for a large household. There were 14 children in the family, though some had grown up and moved away and started their own families but there were a bunch of kids around most of the time. It’s interesting to me that she wanted to learn new recipes to feed her own family.

Do you like to read old cookbooks? Do you collect new cookbooks? I have a few in my collection. I also have a recipe box with recipes that I’ve collected from family and friends. Do you like to share your recipes with others? Let me make a suggestion. When you share the recipe, write it out on a card in your own handwriting and write a Bible verse or a sentiment on the back of the card. Then the person who is receiving your recipe card will always have something from you with your handwriting and your sentiment that will make that recipe special to them.

I’ve heard several times within the last month that “letter writing has become a lost art” and it’s true about handwriting too. Texting and emails have almost made handwriting extinct. I love to receive cards and letters that were handwritten. It’s more personal and it tells me that someone thought enough of me to take the time to do that.

Maybe we should start something new – share a recipe or write a letter at least once a month.

Good night friends. If you’d like to receive a recipe from the old cookbook, email me and put Yester-year in the subject line.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Karen

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