Negative Space: cookbooks
- A 1950 recipe calendar for 2023
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In October, a friend gave me this cool calendar of recipes from 1950. It turns out, 1950 is the same as 2023, right down to the date of Easter. Print it out and hang it if you wish, and happy New Year!
- All Mimsy cookbook reviews
- I have now added all of the old cookbook reviews from the earlier Mimsy to the new Mimsy, though I’ve yet to add all the really old reviews. These are all of the books I’ve reviewed, in alphabetical order.
- The Art of Korean Cooking
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An interesting book and a very attractive cover, it would make a nice addition to your collection if you need a book of Korean recipes.
- The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking
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If you’re on a diet, you want to avoid this book. But, as the saying goes, “Neither a fat wife nor a full barn ever did any man harm!”
- The Art of Syrian Cookery
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Lots of eggplant, sweets, and mahleb. This is a very good cookbook.
- A Bicentennial Meal for the Sestercentennial
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Four community cookbooks celebrating the bicentennial. As we approach our sestercentennial in 2026, what makes a meal from 1976?
- Bull Cook Historical Recipes
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Mere words cannot describe this authentic relic of the nuclear era. Whether you want the Virgin Mary’s favorite spinach recipe or how to prepare for a cobalt bomb, Herter covers it, keeping “as much in alphabetical order as possible.”
- The Casserole Cookbook
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“The greatest single boon for the busy hostess is the casserole,” says author Myra Waldo. I’m afraid I’d have to disagree with that. It’s a pretty strong statement! But casseroles, like the crockpot, are certainly useful for starting your main dish early and then getting on with other things—like talking to your guests.
- Cavalier Cooking
- This University of Virginia cookbook probably provides some nostalgia for alumni, but there is nothing otherwise special about it.
- Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book
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Let the singing and teaching banana introduce you to the joys of baking and cooking with bananas: green, yellow, and brown!
- Classic Chinese Cuisine
- Classic Chinese Cuisine starts with a short introduction to the “culture” of cooking and eating in China, with a little bit about each of the regions, a couple of definitions of things like black beans and bean curd, and a short paen to the wok.
- Club recipe archive
- Every Sunday, the Padgett Sunday Supper Club features one special recipe. These are the recipes that have been featured on past Sundays.
- The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking
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This “Oriental” cookbook written in 1960 has slowly become one of my most-used cookbooks when I need something quick but interesting. It covers a variety of recipes form the “exotic cookery of the Orient” which includes the Pacific Islands to India to China.
- The Complete Bread Cookbook
- This small book covers a lot of ground, but is nothing special. All the recipes I’ve tried work fine. All in all, it’s a worthwhile choice if you need more bread recipes.
- A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy
- This thick book from the forties rivals the Larousse in breadth. It’s a fascinating browse.
- The Cooking of Vienna’s Empire
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Review of The Cooking of Vienna’s Empire, with a recipe for Cold Sour Cherry Soup.
- Cooking the Bahamian Way
- An interesting book with new and exciting ways to prepare conch or make okra palatable, and some fried chicken.
- Country Commune Cooking
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Lucy Horton’s “Country Commune Cooking” isn’t really much of a recipe book, but it is a fascinating glimpse into the community living movement of the sixties and early seventies.
- Crockery Cookery
- Review of Crockery Cookery, with a recipe for Mint Wafers.
- A Decade of Jell-O Joys: 1963-1973
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What changes a decade brings! I have the 1963 Joy of Jell-O and the 1973 New Joys of Jell-O. What happened to Jell-O and gelatin between the sixties and the seventies?
- The Deplorable Index
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The greatest movie review of all time… and it’s a cookbook. A cookbook!
- Dominion Electric Corporation Wafflemaker Manual
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Dominion Electric Corporation waffle irons are ubiquitous on eBay and in antique shops, but the manuals for them are not. Here’s one that came with the Model 1315A.
- The Donna Rathmell German Bread Machine Cookbook collection
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Donna Rathmell German’s little cookbooks, from the Nitty Gritty collection, are a great companion to your bread machine and a great lesson in using bread machines to make bread.
- The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
- Review of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, with a recipe for Ham Casserole Country Style.
- A Fifteenth Century Cookry Boke
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Review of A Fifteenth Century Cookry Boke, with a recipe for Prymerose.
- Finding vintage cookbook downloads
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There are several sites for finding vintage cookbooks, from general-purpose online archives to special collections at universities. Here are a few of my favorites.
- Franklin Golden Syrup Recipes
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Golden syrup has a wonderful caramel flavor. This ca. 1910 promotional cookbook from the Franklin Sugar Refining Company really shows off that flavor.
- French Bistro Cooking
- Review of French Bistro Cooking, with a recipe for Onion Soup Gratinée.
- French Cooking Simplified With a Food Processor
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Review of French Cooking Simplified With a Food Processor, with a recipe for Carrot Soup.
- The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas
- “What should we prepare for Joseph? Something that a simple man would understand, such as unleavened brown bread cakes.” I picked this book up on the discount table at the Borders in San Francisco.
- The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast
- Review of The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast, with a recipe for Yogurt and Cucumber Soup with Saffron.
- A golden harvest of sunflower seeds
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Golden Harvest Sunflower Seed Recipes is a fascinating bit of ephemera from the seventies and the tail end of the era of regional whole grain mills.
- Good Food From Mexico
- Review of Good Food From Mexico, with a recipe for Mueganos.
- The Healthy Cuisine of India
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Bharti Kirchner’s Healthy Cuisine of India is a great introductory cookbook to Indian (or at least Bengali) cuisine. Everything unfamiliar is explained simply, and the recipes are extremely tasty.
- Heritage of America Cookbook
- Review of Heritage of America Cookbook, with a recipe for Peppers and Grits.
- Hope Lutheran 1950 Lenten fish au gratin
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One of the interesting things about old calendars that are also something else—such as a cookbook—is that they follow seasons that no longer exist.
- In a Persian Kitchen
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This is probably the best Iranian/Persian cookbook I have; it is definitely the one I use most often.
- In Good Taste
- Review of In Good Taste, with a recipe for Rich Carrot Soup.
- The Indian Spice Kitchen
- Review of The Indian Spice Kitchen, with a recipe for Bengali Dal.
- The Italian Ingredients Cookbook
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Review of The Italian Ingredients Cookbook, with a recipe for Pasta with Cream and Parmesan.
- James Beard’s Fireside Cook Book
- Review of James Beard’s Fireside Cook Book Way, with a recipe for creole fried chicken.
- Japanese Country Cookbook
- Review of Japanese Country Cookbook, with a recipe for Chicken Teriyaki with Sesame.
- Jerry’s Diner Revue
- These reviews of cookbooks and a few restaurants are slowly moving to the Jerry’s Diner section of Mimsy Were the Borogoves.
- La Cuisine Française
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Review of La Cuisine Française, with a recipe for Crème aux Abricots.
- Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking
- Review of Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking, with a recipe for Eggplant Fareed (Batinjan).
- Laurel’s Kitchen
- Review of Laurel’s Kitchen, with a recipe for Homemade Ketchup.
- Lebanese Cuisine
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Garlic, eggplant, and chickpeas. You can’t hardly go wrong with Lebanese food, and this book is great.
- Lemon Tea Bread from O’Donnell Angel Food Cookbook
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This cookbook from the O’Donnell Angel Flight of Louisiana Tech University is a real find, with authentic seventies recipes straight out of your mother’s pot lucks. Have some lemon tea bread from the Air Force southern command!
- Life, Loves, and Meat Loaf
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Subtitled, “For the barefoot gourmet, a cook book for the bachelor-minded male,” this is a book about early California beach philosophy as much as it is a book about recipes.
- The missing indexes
- Whoever decided that cookbooks don’t need indexes was never stuck hungry at one o’clock in the morning with nothing but a pepper, a tomato, and a couple of cloves of garlic, and a craving for brownies.
- My year in food: 2022
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From New Year to Christmas, from ice cream to casseroles, from San Diego to New Orleans, from 1893 to 2014… and beyond!
- My Year in Food: 2023
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From Italy to the Ukraine—some of it real, and some through cookbooks—this has been a great year for food.
- The Natural Foods Cookbook
- Review of The Natural Foods Cookbook, with a recipe for Turkish Brain Salad.
- The New Larousse Gastronomique
- Review of the Larousse Gastronomique, with a recipe for Zabaglione á la kola.
- The New Larousse Gastronomique
- Prosper Montagné’s cookbook is the foundation of many a kitchen; but there are a few recipes that you aren’t going to be able to master without risking prison time. It’s fascinating that at one point ingredients such as cocaine were unremarkable fare for dessert.
- The Northwest Cartoon Cookery
- Review of The Northwest Cartoon Cookery, with a recipe for Joe Sacco’s “What the Poor Eat”.
- Our Favorite Hometown Recipes Vol. II
- Review of Our Favorite Hometown Recipes Vol. II, with a recipe for Cottage Cheese Casserole.
- Padgett Sunday Supper Club
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Dedicated to the preservation of vintage recipes.
- Pains Spéciaux & Viennoiseries
- Review of Pains Spéciaux & Viennoiseries, with a recipe for Couque carrée aux fruits.
- Popular Greek Recipes
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This cookbook contains the first rice pudding I’ve made that actually turned out as good as the stuff I buy at Trader Joe’s!
- Promotional cookbook archive
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I’ve managed to acquire several old promotional pamphlets and cookbooks that don’t appear to be available elsewhere on the net.
- Promotional Cookbook Archive
- I’ve managed to acquire several old promotional pamphlets and cookbooks that don’t appear to be available elsewhere on the net. I’m making them available here.
- Refrigerator Revolution Revisited: 1928 Frigidaire
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The 1928 manual and cookbook, Frigidaire Recipes, assumes a lot about then-modern society that could not have been assumed a few decades earlier.
- Refrigerator Revolution Revisited: 1942 Cold Cooking
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Iceless refrigeration had come a long way in the fourteen years since Frigidaire Recipes. And so had gelatin!
- Rumford Recipes Sliding Cookbooks
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One of the most interesting experiments in early twentieth century promotional baking pamphlets is this pair of sliding recipe cards from Rumford.
- A Russian Jew Cooks in Peru
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Review of A Russian Jew Cooks in Peru, with a recipe for Garbanzo Balls.
- Saucepans and the Single Girl
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Review of Saucepans and the Single Girl, with a recipe for Lobster Thermidor.
- Soul Food Cook Book
- Review of the Soul Food Cook Book, with a recipe for Peanut Butter Bacon Bread.
- Southern Cooking
- Review of Southern Cooking, with a recipe for Cheese Straws.
- Southern Living Cookbook for Two
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Cooking for two means doing a lot of math, some of it impossible—how do you cut a raw egg in half?—or which builds up a whole lot of leftovers. My answer has been to only make foods that are so good I don’t mind leftovers, and that store well especially in the freezer, but this book has me rethinking that strategy.
- The Southern Living Cookbook Library
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One of the best magazine-related cookbook series is also the one of the hardest to find. The Southern Living Cookbook Library appears to be under the radar of food writers online, but it either had a very low print run or few people want to get rid of their copies.
- St. Mary’s Altar Society Cookbooks
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The missing index for the St. Mary’s Altar Society cookbooks from 1976 through 1981.
- Stoy Soy Flour: Miracle Protein for World War II
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To replace protein lost by rationing, add the concentrated protein of Stoy’s soy flour to your baked goods and other dishes!
- The Tassajara Trilogy
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Review of The Tassajara Trilogy: Tassajara Cooking, Tassajara Recipe Book, and Tassajara Bread Book, with a recipe for Smoked Greens.
- Tempt Them with Tastier Foods: Second Printing
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The second printing of Tempt Them with Tastier Foods contains several newly-discovered Eddie Doucette recipes, as well as an interview with the chef’s son, Eddie Doucette III.
- A Traveling Man’s Cookery Book
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A Traveling Man’s Cookery Book is a collection of recipes that I enjoy making while traveling, and in other people’s kitchens.
- Vintage cookbook reproductions, and gold cakes compared fifty years apart
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I’m going to start producing facsimiles of some of the vintage cookbooks I’m covering here, because some of them are wonderful, and also because it’s easier to read them in a larger format.
- Whole Earth Cookbook
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Review of the Whole Earth Cookbook, with a recipe for Apple-Raisin Slaw.
- The Wok: a chinese cook book
- Review of The Wok, a chinese cook book, with a recipe for stir-fried parrot.
More Information
- Feeding Michigan
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“Feeding Michigan is a digital archive of 68 cookbooks from the MSU Libraries’ collection, which were published in Michigan or produced by Michigan communities, organizations, churches, or individuals dating back to the late nineteenth century.”
- Imperial Sugar Free Digital Cookbooks
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“We’ve gathered our favorite holiday recipes and compiled them into digital cookbooks for you to peruse. From holiday cookies to our most popular Thanksgiving recipes, you’ll find lots of tested and proven recipes in these books. Just download your favorite and view it online, or print it for future use. You can even share with your family and friends!”
- The Charlotte Cook Book (PDF)
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“A selection of tested recipes” from the First Congregational Church of Charlotte, Michigan, 1893.
- The New Larousse Gastronomique•
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This big old tome is a fascinating browser. It covers the gamut of European foodstuffs; this out-of-print version includes some things you’ll be unlikely to make today, such as Zabaglione à la kola. This dessert includes coca extract.
- The Southern Living Cookies and Candy Cookbook• (hardcover)
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This is the book that convinced me to collect this series. Oatmeal-butter cookies, peanut butterscotch bars, blonde brownies, peanut-meringue squares, molasses sandwich cookies, and more.
