I had so much fun looking through the 133 vintage recipe cards, cookbooks and finished treats from the Labor Day weekend uploader. The recipe box above belonged to reader Tut‘s mother, who used it for decades — and took mighty fine care of it I might add — it looks to be in pristine condition. The lively illustrations, fanciful type and sentimental value make this a family treasure for sure.
Cooking can be humorous
I noticed a definite recurring theme in reader submissions — humor. Again and again I found myself confronted with clever titles, humorous photos or illustrations and references that are laugh-inducing. The illustrated recipe card above, submitted by Louisa, reminded me of some of my own family’s cooking blunders. My Nana — who loved to give dinner parties, but did not love to cook — was known to serve exploded peas as the vegetable at many a gathering. I like to think she was having too much fun at her own party to patrol the peas. My mother’s issues were in the baking department. She has managed to burn and make lop-sided the store-bought, frozen Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin pie every year on Thanksgiving — which has now become a tradition. I admit, I’ve had my own hilarious cooking blunders over the years — and I’m sure there is some truth to laughter being the best medicine, followed by a healthy portion of home cookin’.
The 1949 cookbook above — which features 112 pages of recipes all using healthy “digestible” Crisco — is wonderful for so many reasons. I’m in love with the vintage wallpaper, the stove — and is that a Revere Ware pot on the stove? What I love most though, is the ridiculously joyful expressions on everyone’s faces — especially the kids — who appear to be on sugar overload already.
Above: Who wouldn’t want to attend a party powered by meat? That is one big ham. That’s Meat Power!
Above: Speaking of meat, I don’t know what would posses Alice to hug a heaping pile of raw chicken and beef (I think?) — maybe she’s on her way to the meat power party? Weren’t the hippies all vegetarians? I hope she’s going to change first.
Above: We have reader Bungalow Bill to thank for submitting this delicious meat dish, which he claims is “actually pretty awesome.” Apparently the bacon craze of today has been going strong for years.
Above and right: This excerpt from reader Hannah‘s retro Good Housekeeping 10pm Cookbook, has a special section for when your late night dinner crowd will be “strictly stag.” The spread they suggest: A sausage fest. I’m in disbelief that the publisher gave the okay for that hot dog and bean arrangement.
Above: As long as our minds are in the gutter, why not try cooking something from one of these cookbooks — guaranteed to have a plentiful serving of Schmecks Appeal?
Above: Thanks to reader LarsErik for submitting this interesting cookbook cover — featuring dozens of professional chefs sitting around and smoking while they admire the buffet of food they have just created.
Above: This cookbook cover nearly blew me out of my computer chair with its bold and succinct title — I’ll give the cover designer credit for simulating the hangover that will surely occur after using this book.
Above: Yes this cookbook will show you how to serve food attractively — but what is that? Artichokes filled with jello?
Vintage cookbooks with great illustrations
All comedy aside now, there were several wonderfully illustrated examples of vintage cookbooks. The cookbook above is so cool — because of the mid century house on the cover — that two of our readers uploaded photos of it. The photo above is courtesy of reader Hannah. Reader Ima Pam also owns this book.
Above: I love the graphics on this collection of mini cookbooks — from reader Mary — featuring different ethic styles of cooking.
Above: Here’s another brightly colored cookbook with great graphics. The cover makes it look like cooking these great dishes is as easy as opening a bottle of wine.
Above: If you aren’t the cookbook type, there are always great vintage recipe tiles that can be built right into your backsplash. The tile looks good — not sure about the cream dressing recipe.
Above: If all this talk of cooking is making you tired — you can always lay down on your kitchen floor — a remedy advised by this Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, submitted by reader Betsy . If that doesn’t sound appealing, take Betsy’s advice, “…leave the floor dirty and head out for drinks with {your} friends.”
Thanks to everyone for all your photos, they were great!
Susan C. says
The recipe card holder is cute. It looks like a J. Chein!
Patrick says
Wieners laying horizontally on your plate? 9pm Cookbook. Wieners standing vertically? That’s a 10pm Cookbook.
marta says
ROFL, ROFL, ROFL!
Lauryn says
Thanks for the inspiration, Tut! I keep planning on reorganizing my recipe cards and I love that little box.
Kate, the “jello” looks like roe (fish eggs) to me.
Kate says
Good call Lauryn…my husband actually said the same thing. I’m still not sure that is a “normal” combination! Still looks like Jello to me!
Tut says
I forgot to mention that my Mom sketched all the illustrations for the section dividers in that centennial cookbook, except for one, which my brother did. So that book is definitely a keeper. 🙂
Nancy A says
I believe the cover illustration on the Betty Crocker “Hostess” book is by Charley Harper.
hannah says
The book says illustrator was Deirdre Stanforth. Just did a Google image search and lots of period cookbooks come up.
Tut says
Wow, won’t my Mom be surprised to see her recipe box at the top of the article! I chose between that or a recipe that appeared in my hometown’s centennial cookbook:
Polish Dressing, by Vi Romine
4 cups dry bread crumbs
4 eggs
1/2 cup celery
1 envelope Lipton onion soup
1 cup uncooked popcorn
Mix ingredients, stuff turkey. Bake at 375° for 3 hours. When the 3 hours are up, get the hell out of the kitchen, because that stuffin’ is going to blow the turkey’s rear-end right out of the oven.
pam kueber says
you made me LOL. thank you!
RetroSandie says
I’m cracking up too! I can just picture this………LOL
Jenny A. says
“Meat Power” and the weenie/beanie arrangement are totally cracking me up this morning.
lynda says
Kate, life has changed in so many ways. Cooking today, thanks to the Food Network and the affluence of consumers, has improved so much. My guess is that the “jello” in the artichokes is tomato aspic. Gelled dishes were very popular in the 60’s and 70’s. We can buy fresh raspberries at the stores year round–I remember waiting for the season to start and picking the berries! I would freeze them if I wanted some the rest of the year. We are very fortunate to have so much available in the culinary world.
Marvel Anne says
Lynda, you’re right! The cookbook says “artichokes, halved, filled with jellied madrilene and topped with a slim slice of lemon are beautiful to look at and wonderful to eat.”
I then had to look up madrilene and learned that it is a consomme flavored with tomato, often served jellied and chilled.
The author provided no details on making artichoke candle holders or wall art. I guess she figured that we are all crafty.
Lynda says
I do not remember ever hearing the word madrilene. Learn something new every day! I do remember consommé being a popular soup to start a meal. We learned to make it in Home Economics in the 60’s. I also remember consommé being gelled too.
marta says
Jello actually marketed a meat-flavored jello for use in savory dishes. I’m definitely a carnivore, but even though I love savory aspics, the thought of ‘meat jello’ makes me shudder.
natalie says
ok, i lost it at sausage fest. hahhahaha!
the bacon/pancake thing does look pretty tasty though. i usually try to eat them in the same bite anyway if i’m having them together.
Janet in CT says
Oh, Do I! In 1972, right after we got married, I decided to attempt to cook a duckling, my husband’s favorite. He went fishing with a friend who was coming over for dinner. I popped it in the oven and half an hour later, my little apartment was full of smoke! I opened all the windows and decided to run down to my mother’s house to finish it in her oven because I had suspected our ancient little 20″ gas range’s oven had no temperature control at all. Phil had gone fishing with a friend and took the car, so I had borrowed my father’s Chevy van with the sliding door in back. It was a delivery van so the back was totally empty, and the floor was bare metal with no rug or mat. I took duckling, hot pan and all, and stuck it in the back on the floor. As I sped to my mother’s house, I rounded a curve and the pan with duckling slid across the back of the van and flipped over right into the dirty step down at the sliding side door, grease everywhere! Needless to say, I cleaned up the mess in the van and went home disgusted with my grit coated duckling carcass, only to find the landlady, my husband and his friend frantically trying to figure out where all the smoke was coming from and what was burning. I tried to explain the oven overheated and the duck grease spatter smoked up the house, but they just thought I was a dumb new bride who didn’t know how to cook. I was sniffling at the table while we ate hamburg and gravy, as they kept trying to stifle their occasional giggling fits with a hand at the mouth. I was mortified and never attempted to cook a duck since.
natalie says
oh you poor thing!!
Elaine says
Oh, my, I hear you about that duck. I learned when my mom tried to cook a goose. Grease everywhere! When I cooked a goose, I parboiled it first and got a whole lot of nice white goose grease.
My first big meal for new hubby was pot roast. I worked with Peg Bracken’s recipe, Sweep Steak, I think it was called. She said to add the potatoes half an hour before the roast is done. I did that, and am still trying to live down the rock potatoes. Still mad at Peg!
marta says
Knowing how Peg Bracken felt about cooking in general (she did publish the ‘I Hate to Cook’ book) I wouldn’t be surprised if you were supposed to use canned potatoes, and that ‘canned’ got left out in editing.