Hello again…it is almost Spring here in Canada. The temps go from warm then back to freezing every few days lest we get complacent and think winter is over!
I’m sitting here after a cold dog walk ,sipping my hot tea and just read an article in a local magazine about women and how far we have come in the world at least in terms of homemaking !
I think my generation of babies born after the second World War ,came in at a very interesting time. I have watched women scream,fight and protest their way to some sort of freedom from the confines of strickly being housewives, child bearers and minders to knowing they could work at anything they wanted to,get all the education they wanted and if marriage and children were in the picture ,husbands would hopefully step up and help.
This was my Mom ,on the left, a Dental Nurse or Assistant as they are now called,in the 1940’s.
She loved her job but after she married my Dad in 1949 she was not allowed to work outside the home. Her job was to make a comfortable home ,look after my father and have children .
She didnt regret focusing on family as that was what women did, but she needed more and found things to do that fulfilled her need to be around people . She was a guide leader and taught a partyfoods course, among other voluteer stints. She loved to cook and try new things and thankfully kept all her oldest cookbooks so now I may enjoy them!
What I wanted to talk about was recipe books ! I find them facinating …how they have morphed from covering every aspect of keeping house to the shiny bright tomes that making us feel quite lacking in the area of cookery! Healthy ingredients presented so beautifully no one could resit a taste!
THis reproduction of an old book cerca 1877, I bought in the gift shop of a museum/ art gallery. Its a fascinating read with everything from “social observances”to “housekeeping”, laundry and cures for the invalids! I love the menus at the back and considering women had to do laundry by hand the lunch menu is excessive! My mother in law told me that on busy days the children would get a slice of bread and a canned pear or such ! No fancy lunch for sure!
Old cookbooks were always about so much more than food ! How to make stove black to keep your wood burning cookstove at its shiny best, how to cure various illnesses to how to iron a tablecloth …most every homekeeping question is answered! Even brewing beer and wines!
This old blue ribbon book was my Mom’s and along with her Five Roses Flour book, were always on the kichen table beside her sunbeam mixer! Ah the memories of the wonderful baking that we all gobbled down !
Most women had small notebooks or binders where the carefully cut out recipes from the daily newspaper or ladies magazines were glued. I have a jello recipe (jello was standard fare in the fifties and sixties)…that was written in the margin of a 1955 phone bill…probably never made but who knows !
The old 1970’s Kate Aikens book is mine . I bought it in 1976 after I was married and many of the recipes have ” Helpful hints for brides ” under them!
It is totally falling apart as it was well used and I still pull it out for some favorite cookie and pie recipes!
My favorite cookbooks by far are by the late Edna Staebler,” Schmecks Appeal ” and “More food that really Schmecks”
Her books are mostly Mennonite recipes that she wrote down while visiting her Mennonite friend’s and her own delicious, simple food !
Each chapter starts with a story and many recipes have little snipits of info,some quite amusing! You can read them cover to cover then go back and try the recipes!
All the old cookbooks ,the ones written before television, when women were quite often isolated were like encyclopedias for these homemakers . Now we can just ” google” absolutely everything ,including recipes so why have the books ?! Yes we have come along way as they say ,heck we don’t even need to cook if we don’t want to. Fast food ,takeout,ready made frozen everything ,its all available !
I admit to getting recipes off of Pinterest alot , but I pull out my own cookbooks and yes my binder full of cut out recipes regularly too.
Yes we have come along way ladies and I’m thankful for that , we have “Maids” as my Mom called her dishwasher and washing machine, we have a myriad of electrical appliances ,microwave ovens …I could go on ,but its nice to slow down and puruse a cookbook ,especially if generations before me thumbed through the same one , and possibly create something from it. Make some buiscuits or a loaf of bread ,a simple soup made from scratch will be better for you than any canned soup.Creating a meal can be a pleasure and when its made with a scoop of love its even better ! Men are wonderful cooks and its fun to watch my son in law get so enthusiastic about his smoker or the beautiful sourdough loaf he just made ,between him and my daughter they feed their family wonderful healthy food …my own son and I spent lots of time cooking together as well and my Grandchildren all love to cook with me. I’ll be passing these old cookbooks down to them I’m sure and they can have a laugh at the old ways !
Well I’m off to pull out my recipe for Cottage Pie ,not sure where it originated from…that’s what Hubs is getting for dinner, one of his favorites.
Happy Cooking and if you have a chance to look into the past via an old cookbook do so! It’s a facinating peek into a time gone by!
Cheers! Jaye
JayeB's little Green Cottage 