Aren’t beloved recipes that make it down the family tree — or across the backyard fence — the best?
Over at A Way to Garden, my friend Margaret is focusing all week on putting up the harvest. She started by showing off these Mrs. Whitacre’s pickled cukes, made from a 1952 recipe card. Margaret got these pickles and the recipe from her friend Nancy, who explained:
“Mom got it from our over-the-back-fence neighbor in Michigan. Viola Whitacre and her husband, Archie, lived in the house behind ours. Archie was the gardener; Viola kept the house and was the kind of neighbor who made us special cookies and shared jars of these wonderful bread and butter cukes, as she called them…
Over the Labor Day weekend, Retro Renovation readers shared 133 photos of their favorite recipe cards and/or cookbooks and/or photos of the delicious results. Continue on to see their photos and stories about collecting recipes, too. –>
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
what a coincidence – Webstaurant Store also just posted that they are starting a listing of vintage recipes (not vintage recipe cards)
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/postdetails.cfm?post=974
Such a fun idea! Vintage cookbooks are a weakness, I can’t resist them. I’m also fortunate to have dear older neighbors who share favorite recipes on handwritten cards.
Ima Pam! lol – I just uploaded a pic of the same Hostess Cookbook. I had to have it too, the cover is just too awesome.
Pam K, since it’s already represented, don’t have to use my photo. But, I DO have one that’s a must see. Lemme snap a pic.
hannah, are those your tantalizing food pictures? I especially love the sloppy joe and potato salad setting. That tablecloth! and what are the placemats, orange lucite?
Ima Pam – YES! Those are my “Plate Shots”. Thank you for gushing.
Since I finally got my own home, and we are going all MCM on it, I decided that on Saturday or Sunday we’ll have a ‘sit down’ meal like we did at my Grandmothers growing up. I take a ‘plate shot’ of every meal…and have an album on Facebook titled “Adventures in Cooking” which houses all the photos. It’s even fun for me to revisit and look at the display.
The tablecloth is believed to be by Parisian Prints, and the title of the pattern is “Glass Shelf”. There is one on Etsy now (from the same seller I got this from) but it’s reserved. Plus, it’s more than double what I paid (but I think it’s mint with tag, which mine is not). The place-mats are like ones my Grandmother had. I found a set in orange on eBay years ago and had to have them. They’re plastic, flexible and wash up nicely and dry well since there are little holes throughout the things. I’ve since found a set in pink like Grandma’s, and 2 random yellow ones with an orange one as well (one of my orange ones hasn’t surfaced since our move, so it’s all good). One of the yellow ones is larger, a bit stiffer and has GLITTER! OMG!
My place-mats cost me $9 for one set, $11 for the other two plus shipping. There is a blue set on Etsy for a couple months now, but they’ve got stains (I think from light damage, not sure – as food shouldn’t stain these) and they are WAY overpriced IMHO. I do searches for them frequently as I suppose they came in a range of colors. Still looking for blue and green.
hannah
Hannah…Did you say some have GLITTER?
that would be just perfect! One more thing to be looking for! I think it’s great that you set the table all nice and take plate shots. 1.) because I really like seeing them here and 2.) because now I can prove to the kids I’m not the only one. HAHAHA. I have so many vintage dishes, flatware and such! I like to set a pretty table and take photos too, but we’ve been soo busy and have gotten away from having the family sit down to dinner lately. This inspires me to get started again. Recently got a nice display cabinet to keep some out for show as well!
Charming
Hey! Maybe someone has Aunt Bea’s homemade pickle recipie from that famous Andy Griffith episode!!!!
That’s one of the best episodes EVER!
There is a book called Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook, which is still available on Amazon. It is chock-ful of wonderful recipes (Coca-Cola Pork Chops is a favorite in our house)… though I don’t know if there’s actually a recipe for her homemade pickles in it.
Oh Pam, how terrible of you to not flip the cards over and capture the backs! I know the cards are very pretty, but I’m actually pretty interested in the recipes themselves!
What a fun project! I was stunned to see the bread and butter cuke recipe. Years ago when we first got married, Phil’s Polish mother had a similar bread and butter pickle recipe that is wonderful. She said it came from her Bobcia who brought it over from Poland at the turn of the century. I love to pick up those little cookbooks from churches or ladies’ guilds or food companies so I have quite a few of them. Imagine my surprise to find the almost exact same recipe in one of the church cookbooks! So either the submitter of the recipe had a Polish grandmother too, or the recipe is right out of the old American recipe books!
My best friend, Marlene is someone from another era. She grows her own cucumbers and pickles them. If she gives you some, you better send her back the jars if you want more. I wish I had saved the recipe cards my mother-in-law had given me before she passed away.
Suzanne, I make an almost identical recipe for these pickles and give alot of them away, and almost everyone gives me the jars back so they get more! I think mine doesn’t use cloves and has a bit less sugar – that is ALOT of sugar. I posted a bunch of my recipe books and I have alot more but I think that is enough to bore everyone! My favorite is the Swan’s Down one with the lithograph art work, followed closely by the calendar with “Recipes from the Stars” and photos of the contributors! I have never heard of most of them! My mother’s famous Pineapple Upside Down Cake is out of this calendar and I make it all the time; it’s the best one I ever had.
Recipes from the Stars is GREAT!
I have an old cookbook from the Hollywood SPCA. Lots of starts with ‘when the maid is out” entries. Men lean towards anything fried or made with beer.
The best was from Agnes Moorhead (my fashion idol from Bewitched!) :
Parfait with- ONE raisin, ONE Nilla Wafer, ONE Spoon of Creme Fraiche, And TWO shots of Rum.
Hmmmmm. Guess Endora had her priorities!
*Luv*
Love, love, LOVE vintage recipe cards and cookbooks, have a good collection of both. But my favorite is the recipe for Christmas fudge that I cajoled out of my great-aunt nearly 20 years ago. When I begged, she sent me a neatly hand-written copy of her legendary secret, on pink stationery. But when I went to purchase the ingredients…I discovered that it’s just the recipe off the back of the Kraft marshmallow whip jar.
Still darned good, though, and I laugh and think of her every year when I make it!
Kim, my father’s legendary recipe for fudge was also from the jar. I asked him for the recipe and he told me it was on the marshmallow creme jar. However, Dad’s secret for making the fudge is to leave it to set in the coolest room in the house. Works great every time!
I just brought some hand typed recipes cards in a vintage box from an estate sale a few weeks back. I can’t wait to try some of them.
Some of those are going to have to be good.
I’m a huge fan of church cookbooks for the same reason!
My Mom has the box of handwritten cards – so I don’t have any to send pictures of. I do have a box of old recipes that my Grandma cut from magazines instead of the handwritten cards. For now at least –
I did upload two really sweet notecards that I found this summer –
Just a Line & Between my ‘Pressing’ duties -…they are almost too cute to use. Set of 20 cards
So-speaking of recipe cards, I also uploaded a pic of a checkerboard cake – so delicious & easy to make. If you have the pans (another vintage find). So far, I’ve made this milk choc & vanilla cake, and a strawberry & lemon cake…delish!
I gave a friend the checkerboard cake pans back in the 80s for a shower gift. Also saw the pan in the box at Goodwill last week. Suspect those pans were used rarely – more trouble than they are worth.
a checkerboard cake is just as easy as a regular cake. you should really try it. it’s also a great math lesson for kids – how to turn a round cake into squares.
re: checker board cake pan…They are actually really easy to use and fun to make if you have young children. They are also nice for a young,novist baker to achieve a special looking cake with very little effort- . However, with everyone watching our waistlines , layer cakes in general probably aren’t made as much as they used to be…I have a friend who doesn’t bake at all – nada…..she doesn’t even own a hand mixer…..
GREAT topic. I treasure grandma’s green tomato recipe card enough that it’s in my “in case the house burns down file”. She gave me that when she was 96 and in a nursing home….that shaky old lady writing means you’re getting a great recipe.
Hubs feels the same about his mom’s 1920′s cast iron pans.
I admire the Lockhorns enhanced homemade cookbook-I got a similar binder of family recipes in college, but no cartoons.
The foodarama cookbook is my best ever-holiday theme parties with recipes using specific features of your Kelvinator fridge. I won a county fair contest with my cookbooks matched with grandma’s hats-this one was the highlight.
Did anyone else get to make a castle cake or long sought after childhood recipe? That Betty Crocker Kid’s Cookbook has great illustrations and comments from the kid cooks-I’ve loved it forever.
Can’t wait to see what is shared here……
More kitchen fun, please!
There were five of us kids and my mother was very frugal so she canned and froze everything out of the garden and from the orchard. She was a fantastic baker and cook and I have all of her cookbooks and her very large recipe file, but they are all on plain cards – nothing fancy ever in our house due to her Amish background. I always wanted a fancy birthday cake but never got one. For years she tried to make our favorites though, raisin for my brother for instance. That is fantastic recipe everyone loves. BUT she made me angel food cake year after year until one year when I asked her why and she replied because it was my favorite. I told her I really didn’t like it and we have no idea where she got the notion it was my favorite! She didn’t do frilly or fancy, but she sure was a great cook!
Oh my gawd! I have my grandmother’s 1940′s-1960′s-ish cookbook where she kept her own recipes, magazine clippings, recipes from the back of boxes, etc. And her home was SUCH a mid-century home with the thin wood cabinets and a Fridgidaire Flaire stove in the kitchen… I wish my scanner wasn’t in storage right now! There are SO many great blasts-from-the-past in that cookbook! There’s one recipe clipped from the newspaper, with a story about a sinking U boat on the backside of the recipe. Recipes from the back of a Rice Krispies box with excessive amounts of Krispies and Jello! Recipes from a Crisco container, where the label touts Crisco as, “It’s digestible!” Even a Recipe-of-the-Month card addressed to her with her maiden name….
I need to get my scanner out of storage…
I am so jeaous of you all, with your amazing cooking relatives. My Grandmother worked outside the house almost all her life. There was nothing fancy or very special about either hers or my Mother’s cooking. But my Mom did have a Betty Cocker cookbook from 1956 or 57. I would look at the beautiful pics of cookies, cakes and candy and wish my Mom would make that kind of stuff. Now that I have my own KitchenAid mixer, I make all the stuff I didn’t get when I was a kid. Only wish I could get a copy of that old cookbook.
You probably CAN get a copy of your Mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook. The most popular ones have been reprinted-that’s how we were able to save our fall-aparty ones.
And there’s always Ebay, Amazon and your best bet-Alibris.
I used to laugh at my mom’s old cookbooks when I was a teen, now I have more than she did!
But a fall aparty cookbook has more character than a new cookbook. My parents gave me their old Betty Crocker cookbook (not sure which year it’s from). The biscuit recipe page has grease splattered on it and the page is falling out (gotta buy some of those little binder ring stickers). The pancake recipe page is crusted with old flour. Most importantly, the back cover has a beautiful spiral shaped burn from the time someone, decades ago, accidentally set it down on a hot burner. This spiral is so iconic that when my parents gifted my brother with a NEW Betty Crocker cookbook, he immediately went to the stove, turned it on, and proceeded to “brand” his cookbook (which was actually pretty exciting. When he set it on the hot burner, there was a sudden “whooooph” as the chemicals in the cover made a short flash flame before smoldering). Now his book also has a perfect spiral char mark!
yes, I hear ya! FWIW I always look for the stained pages when I find a used cookbook. My stained up originals are much beloved, and kept. The two Betty Crocker ones are now just too fragile for actual kitchen use. DH was one of 6 kids-anything in their house was just plain worn out!
Believe me, the typed page of Grandma’s Chocolate Cake is nearly illegible from good smeary stuff. I pretty much have it memorized, anyway.
I LOVE the branding. I would totally have done that too!
My great-grandma was the one that did the cookbook with the Lockhorns. She also included some cooking tips, a recipe for friendship and most have a note on where she got it. When I was younger I coveted my mom’s copy, my grandma passed hers down to me. My great grandma was a wonderful cook, always had tins of cookies and pies in the freezer for company. They lived in an awesome house built in the 40′s with a full creepy basement. I loved it!
My mother, who was married in 1947, bought the BH&G ’47 cookbook as a bride. Over the years, she filled it with wonderful recipe cards, newspaper clippings of recipes, notes in the margins of the pages, and recipes jotted on the chapter dividers. I think her favorite recipe in the book is one printed in smudgy No.2 pencil on a chapter divider for a concoction created by a six-year old: “OK’s Rabbit Stew”. It calls for green beans, pimentoe (sic) and one PICE of cheese. The notes by the author (who shall remain nameless) say that “it is VERY GOOD”.
I looooove this uploader collection!
For the person who posted the Swan’s Down cake flour pictures: You can have the pages you like scanned and printed out or color copied if you want to frame them and hang them. I’ve done this several times with images from books I didn’t want to destroy. I agree that it would be a shame to pull the pages out of your fantastic cook book.
Good idea, Jim! I never even thought of doing that but then again, I am old school and alot of the new technology has gone right by me!
I think just about everyone’s mother had the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with the red and white tablecloth checked cover. I always loved that cookbook! I too remember looking at all the photos of the fancy cakes and even molded salads and wanting to make them. I did attempt some of the cakes but I don’t recall anyone being particularly impressed! There are sections in back for table settings and meal planning all sectioned out with main meat dish, veggie, “starchy complement”, salad, dessert and even “accent”. My mother gave me the 1972 printing when I got married, and for a few months I tried to follow this exact plan twice a week. That didn’t last long! I remember in her old version from the fifties, there was a molded salad that I loved to look at. It had different fillings sandwiched in between layers of what I think was some kind of cream cheese mixture. We had a picnic years ago and one of my sister’s friends was late arriving but came with that salad; she wanted to bring something but had no idea how time consuming it was to make that thing! We had already eaten but no-one wanted to cut it up anyhow because it was so pretty! That is about the only fancy presentation item I have ever seen out of that book! If anyone has an older version of the book and can find it, I would love to see a photo of it. It was a long loaf pan mold and it had colorful layers of filling but was frosted in white. I still see all kinds of things in that book that I would love to make but it is just the two of us now and I just can’t eat like I used to! I should make it anyhow and give half away!
When I was photographing my cookbooks, I noticed that I actually have an extra of the “American Woman’s Cookbook”, the blue green one in the photos of the two with the moose, elk, possum and squirrel recipes. It is very worn but I am sure was much used. I know one was my Aunt Rosie’s which is even more worn out; I have no idea where the other one came from but if anyone is interested in an old cookbook, I will post it in the forum under kitchen. This book has ALOT of old recipes that you just don’t see any more.
What I love most about looking through my old recipes is looking at the handwriting of friends and family members, many of whom are no longer living. Seeing my grandmother’s handwriting connects me to her in a way that’s different from seeing a photograph. The original, handwritten cards are pricess!
Lisa, I have the same feeling when I look at the recipe cards. My Grandmother or Mom would write “from Aunt Audrey” or whoever else they got the recipe from. Most all gone now.
yes, yes! The recipes are more precious to me than the photos.
I will NEVER know who Ira Sprague is, but her lemon pie recipe is great.
DH and I want to write a novel with characters taken from old church cookbooks….there’s a lot between the lines if you pay attention.
That Carol Sprunger is a wanton woman-turning men’s heads with her fancy ingredients: Soya Sauce! Water Chestnuts! Curry!
I have many of the old cookbooks featured. My degree was in home economics back in the very old days. (I don’t even think that degree is around anymore!) It is amazing how much the recipes have changed over the years. Recipes use many more fresh ingredients now instead of canned or frozen foods. We couldn’t get the fresh vegetables and fruits year around in previous decades. I think now the cooking blogs are the new recipe cards. My daughter has a blog and she has included some great new recipes and some old family favorites. Although is easy to find the recipes on the internet, I still can’t part with the old cookbooks. It is sometimes just fun to look at them.
Fun theme! I LOVE to cook, and I have an embarrassing amount of cookbooks. I did thin some out over the last couple of years – but then bought up a collection of Better Homes & Gardens from a guy at the local flea market. They were his Moms, in mint condition. The covers, book titles and subject matter are all fabulous!
I still have my Grandmother’s Good & Easy (she gave it to when a pre-teen) cookbook, and I have the red and white checkerboard BC cookbook that was hers as well. She was a fabulous cook, and like someone else said, she would cut recipes out of the newspaper, magazines and stuff them in her recipe box. I still have that too, but it’s not handy at the moment and I don’t have a functional scanner.
Keep those pics coming!!!
Hannah’s deviled eggs look fantastic!
So do her biscuits and burger stew!
Thank you, Janet!
Mr. Wonderful made the burger stew – and my jaw dropped when I tasted it. It was beyond perfect! Of course, he’s one of those cooks that doesn’t usually replicate his dishes exactly when he makes then subsequently.
The Cheese and Garlic biscuits, I found a recipe on a blog when looking for the method for Ruby Tuesday’s little butter bomb things. The blog has a weird name, purple something. The Purple Foodie: http://purplefoodie.com/cheddar-cheese-biscuits/
Warning: Once you start eating these fresh out of the oven, it’s hard to stop. So, maybe fast the day before.
Thank you, Jay!
My Mom used to ‘cook the snot’ out of eggs when she hard boiled them. I think after they came to a boil, she set the timer for 20 minutes! :O A childhood friend told me 12 minutes is all they need when we were young married women. That’s one secret.
Piping the filling? Fill a zip lock bag with the filling, then snip the corner off and all of a sudden, you’re a chef! BIG secret to great deviled eggs – HELLMAN’S MAYO ONLY (otherwise known as Best Foods on the west coast).
I loved looking at all the vintage recipes and books so much that I just bought a copy of the Weber BBQ cookbook off of ebay. Love your site.
OOH, and I have always wanted to make that crown roast shown on the cover page of that cookbooklet, with the little paper thingies on the end too! Never seen one up close and personal done like that but sure is elegant!
My family made it once just because we got sick of seeing it on the cover! It was pretty tasty, but a little lean for a family of 8.
My mom had three full recipe boxes and I can’t find them! I so wanted to post one entitled “A Dinner to Please a Boyfriend”, which involved among other things, hamburger cooked in wine. I will keep looking, but I have posted various pamphlets I saved when my dad was basically throwing away everything that wasn’t nailed down in the house before moving.
I know and love so many of these cookbooks, especially the Betty Crocker ones (even though I’d be hard pressed to find anything I want to make in a couple of them). I remember particularly staring at a double page spread of ice cream sodas in the “Boys and Girls” cookbook and dreaming of the day that I would make them all. Hey, I’m a grown up now; I can do what I want! I’m going to make them! (I feel like one of those Swiffer ad women
yes- make the sodas! Alllllll of them!
have a soda party!
It’s almost embarrassing how thrilled we were to finally make that recipe!
I have my sister’s 1957 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from when she first married. She bought a later edition of it so she passed her old one on to me. Its raggedy and pages are torn out, but I love the “old-timey” feel to it and the recipes aren’t half bad.
Last year I had to empty my parents’ house. I found all the recipe/instruction books for the first appliances my parents bought in the mid 50′s when they bought their first home. Coldspot refrigerator, GE mixer, and the Kenmore Gas Range Recipe book I’ve posted here. The refrigerator died years and years ago, the mixer too. But the Kenmore stove was still in operation. I couldn’t bring it with me – but I brought the cookbook to remind me of 50 years of nightly meals, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas dinners and countless other dishes that my Mom cooked in and on that stove.
THANK YOU THANK YOU, everyone, for all the wonderful photos! I just love to look at them and how nice to peruse them all this Sunday Morning with my tea. I especially LOVE the recipe tile in the kitchen! And those of you who took photos of meals or cookies etc, so well done! And Hannah, those wonderful placemats and the presentation makes me feel ashamed of how I plop a meal down at the table!
Janet, try setting a nice table, just ONCE – it’s so much fun to treat your family. That is if you have time, so many of us don’t these days. But, we have no kids, so the weekend is mine to do what I wish…and part of what gives me great joy is to prepare a great meal, and serve it up – otherwise, why did I spend all this money on vintage dinnerware, mixing bowls, flatware, etc? MUST USE! *lol*
In a reply to Ima Pam, I talk a lot about those placemats. My Grandmother had a pink set in the 60s and I always loved them. Now, I OWN them in a few colors! I just wish I could figure out the maker of them. I have hopes one day of finding a NOS set.
Well, I love the “BOOZE” book. That couldn’t be anymore straightforward, could it? *lol* Love the graphics on it – very “Laugh-In” mod!
Wow- what an amazing assortment! This is a very fun post.
-I love the Hostess cookbook- that’s now on my “must-have” list.
-The “stag night” page is just hilarious.
-I wonder why Betty Crocker advised women to lie on the floor instead of the couch…wouldn’t want to get too comfortable, I guess!
-Every recipe from my aunt is on a Here’s What’s Cookin’ card with the grandfather clock on it…I associate those with her so much it was strange to see someone else’s writing on one!
-I just uploaded a pic of my first cookbook- the 1966 paperback Better Homes and Gardens (a condensed version of the full cookbook.) My mom gave it to me when I moved into my first apartment. It contains the original version of what has morphed into one of my signature dinner-for-a-crowd recipes…cheese enchilladas.
Ima Pam!!! I JUST saw your cookies! OMG! How did you get those shapes? Surely, there is no cookie cutter like that, you had to do those by hand?
I’m going to have to look up that recipe. Gerry is the baker in the house. Seriously, how did you get those shapes? I WANTS!
Hannah-well, the starbursts were a cookie cutter shape from a thrift shop, but not vintage-had a barcode tag proclaiming “made in china”-so they may be out there somewhere. The imprinted pictures on the others are from houseonthehill.net They have everything needed for old world cookies, and probably hundreds of different picture molds!
Thanks, Ima Pam! I’ll keep an eye out. We’ve not done refrigerator dough – I assume that’s what those are. Cool, then roll and cut. ??
Yes! The Land o Lakes Best Ever Butter Cookies are refrigerate and roll out. I found several places with the starburst by googling “bethlehem star cookie cutter” Good luck and have fun!
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one obsessed with vintage cookbooks! I think we have three (very packed) shelves in our pantry devoted to them at the moment. I submitted photos from one I didn’t see on here yet — The Professional Chefs’ Book of Buffets. They do absolutely astounding (and sometimes frightening) things with food in it. If you happen upon it, its worth picking up for the photos alone!
Just posted a photo of my 7-layer jello that my mother always made and was always a favorite of mine. My dad was a teacher at a very ethnic (middle eastern) school in our city and my mom belonged to the Mother’s Club at the school. For a fundraiser (back in the 70s) – the Mother’s Club put together a recipe book of their favorite recipes and I still use it to this day (for my mom’s recipes as well as others). Notice the recipe for “Watergate Salad” above the 7-layer jello recipe! I think it because it has nuts in it!
Two things.
1. I WANT that Famous Foods from Famous People – never seen it.
2. I read in a reply a reference that someone did a wall in recipe? I can’t pick that out and would love to view it if someone could point out which pic that is.
It’s image 40- the recipe for Roquefort Cream Dressing
I have a set of these tiles, NOS that I spotted on ebay last year. Not installed… hoarded. I’ll have to get them out and show them all!
Hannah, I may be able to help you on the Famous Foods from Famous Places cookbook. I had several sets of cookbooks in an open front cardboard case that were either giveaways or prizes from GE years ago. My father had alot of them and everyone in the extended family got a set and I inherited several of them from Gramma and my mother and I already had a set myself. I just have to find them! I have way too much stored away and can’t find anything. Will look and see if I can locate it.
Hannah, I found the cookbooks. If you go into the steel cabinet forum to the Kitchen stuff, I will post info there.
Thank you so much Janet. I’ll check it out tomorrow morning with coffee. Not feeling well tonight – fighting a flu bug I think. Going to lay down for the evening.
Oh how I love vintage cookbooks. I have mom’s half burned BH&G she won in the 40′s. Her pineapple upside down cake won third prize. I love buying lots of cookbooks at estate auctions. I feel like I am reaching back though time when I find slips of paper with handwritten recipes hidden among the pages.
I also have the Joys of Jello cookbook in your first picture. The BEST cookbook EVER! Have you ever tried any of the really whacky recipes? I once vowed to try every recipe in the book, but I haven’t made much progress yet. I love the strange dinner recipes…sort of like dinner casseroles encased in Jello complete with meats and veggies! And I also love that almost every recipe calls for “Lemon or Lemon-Lime Jello”. It’s a classic, that’s for sure!