Opinion: Recipe books a step back through time

With a little more time at home these past few months, I’ve found myself flipping through some of the vintage cookbooks that fill a couple of shelves in one of my bookcases.

Two of my favorites are slim, battered, spiral-bound volumes that are in my rarely-used-but-I’ll-keep-them-forever-anyway collection.

“What’s Cookin’ in Portales, New Mexico,” was published by the Portales Woman’s Club in 1948.

“Our Favorite Recipes,” was compiled by the Homemakers Clubs of Roosevelt County sometime in the mid-1950s.

Every recipe is attributed to its contributor, a who’s who of familiar names for us old-timers: Mrs. J.P. Nash, Mrs. James Christoe, Mrs. Drue Best, Mrs. W.G. Vinzant, Mrs. E.N. Wheeler (both Jr., and Sr.), Mrs. Ben Prater, Mrs. Foy Jones … the list is endless.

For younger readers, no, women didn’t have first names back in those days.

Cookbooks from this era are a window into how our recipes and diets have changed in the last 70 years.

Mrs. Ray Medlock’s recipe for “Chicken and Rice Casserole,” for instance, starts with “1 boiled hen,” and instructs cooks to “skim off the fat and save for browning the bread crumbs,” as well as (brace yourself) “save skin and fat and run through food chopper and put with diced chicken.”

All-righty, then.

The first ingredient in Mrs. N.T. Watson’s recipe for “Ham and Sweetbreads in Ripe Olive Sauce” is “1 pair sweetbreads.”

For the uninitiated, sweetbreads are (is?) an organ meat from the thymus gland and pancreas. (Yes, I looked it up.) I hear they are delicious with … um … how about ham and ripe olive sauce?

These older cookbooks were sometimes compiled with more enthusiasm than editing, so it’s not uncommon to find handwritten corrections.

In the ingredient list for Mrs. E.B. Robbins’ recipe for “Oat Meal Pie,” for example, the word “starch” — in the line calling for “3/4 cup corn starch” — is scratched out. In its stead is penciled in “syrup.” Yep. That would make a difference.

While the Homemakers stayed on topic with recipes and nothing else, the Woman’s Club cookbook is a treasure trove of historical tidbits from the 1940s.

There are ads from businesses of the era like the Cozy Corner Café (“Your Second Home … Get What You Want When You Want It … We Make Our Own Pastry”), College Bakery (“So Tastee Bread”), and Rutherford and Company (“Shoes Scientifically Fitted by X-Ray”).

There are pages of “Household Hints” and beauty advice.

You may not know that “Hat veils may be ironed by placing between sheets of waxed paper,” or that “You can give extra gloss to linoleum by adding a little clothes starch to the mop water.”

I daresay most of us have forgotten that “Kid gloves may be kept clean much longer if rubbed gently and firmly with bread crumbs with each wearing.”

Under a section called “Tips for the Tall Woman,” rangy ladies are reminded to “Always wear your hair as flat as it can be made on top.” For formal occasions, “Long haired furs are very suitable.”

I leave you with one recipe from “What’s Cookin’” as proof that not all our ancestors believed in wasting time with complicated recipes and obscure ingredients.

Mrs. W.B. Cox’s recipe for “Chili Burgers” calls for: “1 pkg. of 8 hamburger buns, 1 can chili, 8 slices of cheese.”

She recommended scooping out the buns, filling with chili, topping with cheese, and baking for 12 minutes in a 300-degree oven.

“This makes a good quick snack with green salad, pie and coffee,” Mrs. Cox wrote.

My takeaway: Green salad, pie and coffee enhance any “snack.”

Happy cooking, friends.

For the culinary adventurous, Betty Williamson also found recipes for “Spam Pineapple,” “Weiner Casserole,” and “Bologna Mountains.” Reach her at:

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