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:
Janet in CT says
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.
Janet in CT says
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!
Jim in Seattle says
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.
Janet says
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!
Eartha Kitsch says
I looooove this uploader collection!
Annie B. says
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”.
awhit says
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!
Suzanne says
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.
Chutti says
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!
Jamie says
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!
Chutti says
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!
Jamie says
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…
Chutti says
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!
Janet in CT says
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!
marji says
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…..