My Grandmother's Cookbook

 I discovered my paternal grandmother's cookbook on my bookcase a few weeks ago. I had forgotten that I had stuck it there after my father's death. I am really enjoying exploring Good Cooking (1936). The book was cherished and well used. It has a broken spine and the pages are worn and food stained. My grandmother wrote all over the cover pages, margins and end pages. Her ideas and recipes are spread throughout the book. In addition, the book is filled with recipes she cut out of magazines and got from neighbors and friends. It is a lovely insight to the way she cooked and baked. The first recipe I made was one of her oatmeal bread recipes. I say one because she had about five different oatmeal bread recipes! She must have loved that kind of bread. I decided to try the one that was carefully typed out on an index card. It was delicious and made an almost perfect sandwich bread. I plan on trying her other oatmeal bread recipes to see if any of them are even more amazing. There are also a half dozen recipes for different cheesecakes. 

The book itself is a treasure. I am thoroughly enjoying reading all of its aged advice. It begins with how to budget your family's shopping and where to shop. We don't even have some of the types of shopping choices that were available in 1936, but it is still fascinating. The sandwich section of the book gave me a chuckle. There are some unusual ideas for fillings, such as chopped tongue with cabbage, watercress and mayonnaise or ground raw carrot, cabbage and celery with ground peanuts and mayonnaise. I actually think the baked beans mashed with sweet pickles might make a lovely filling. I plan on trying some of them. I don't know about you, but we pretty much have peanut butter and jam, lunch meat and tuna fish sandwiches. We could use some creative ideas...but not the tongue one. That one can stay in the book and belong to a bygone era.  LOL

I love old cookbooks and having one that my grandmother used so often is a true treasure. I look forward to using it more over the coming years. 

Blessings, Dawn