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:
Lee says
Soooooo!! glad I ran into this site.?.?.I feel human now knowing Im related to ALL you COOKBOOK Horders!!
I just cant give mine away. I think they are never really out dated. You don’t need a book mark….Just open to Any
Page, any time….Love It!! I also have a large recipe box, my brother in law made, from a wine crate. I have many, many
recipes in it. Looking for somthing?? Let me know!!
Judy says
I found an old recipe on Pinterest yesterday that I had handwritten to a friend 30-40 years ago…it was a Lasagna recipe by Judy and it was 4 cards long …wish I knew who posted it or where it was was found as some of these are found in estate sale recipe book! Superb cool though!
Cruznvso says
Can’t get to any other recipes, except the Pickles… don’t see any arrows to advance to other recipes. Whats up?
pam kueber says
Oopsy. Fixed it. Thanks for letting me know!
Sara says
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!
Heidi F says
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.
hannah says
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.
Tom Munoz says
It’s image 40- the recipe for Roquefort Cream Dressing
pam kueber says
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!
Janet says
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.
Janet says
Hannah, I found the cookbooks. If you go into the steel cabinet forum to the Kitchen stuff, I will post info there.
hannah says
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.
Jeanne says
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! 🙂
LarsErik says
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!
hannah says
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!
Ima Pam says
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!
hannah says
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. ??
Ima Pam says
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!
Wendy M. says
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.