vintage cookbooks

[Good Buddy]

I know what you mean! I have one old handwritten cookbook from the 30s that has a recipe for Blood Cake in it! Eww!

When I was a kid, we lived in Naples Italy.
My nice mom gave me some pudding once at a restaurant. It was chocolate but tasted kinda funny, salty actually.
And yes it was indeed pigs blood pudding which in essence means my mom fed me a huge pig scab.
I have yet to let her live that one down.

MMMMMmmmm chocolatish, salty, irony pudding. Great!

They also sell dried beef blood in Home Depot as fertilizer. No thanks..

[tiamatgreen]

I've had ducks blood soup-

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Duck-Soup-Czarnina/Detail.aspx

-a Polish friend of mine loves it and brought me some last time she made it (I'm half Polish but never had it before that) It wasn't too awful, mostly what I tasted was vinegar. I also grew up eating venison, since both my parents hunt. (I actually did for a few years too, before I moved out) Most people are afraid to try it, but it tastes alot like beef. Just alot leaner, so you have to cook it right so it's not tough.

[Other People s Junk]

Venison isn't bad, especially with lots of veggies and garlic.  Mmm!

I have had cow liver- when I was little my Mom would coat it with Shake'n'Bake and deep fat fry it.  Then we'd dip it in a mixture of mayo/mustard.  That was tasty and cheap (which was the point back then), but even though I remember it tasting good, I don't think I would be able to eat that now!

The recipe I have for Blood Cake is this- "2 c blood, 1 c sour milk, 1/2 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, a little salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp soda, flour.  If liked 1 c or so tallow, cut up and raisins, can be added."

It turns my stomach every time I read it!  It doesn't say how long a person would bake the thing, or how much flour.

[genuineimitation]

ok, we're really getting off topic here.. but who cares!

just to prove i do live in the boonies.. i actually had a conversation at the checkout counter of the grocery store the other day with 3 other people about bear meat. One woman was totally against it (said it was not only greasy but really smelly) and another guy said it was pretty good as stew. i have no experience with bear meat, so was not able to contribute much to the conversation! i've had other offal meats, and game, and i must say i'm partial to tongue (beef) and venison saddle. other than that i will admit to cultural food bias.

if you look at your old cookbooks (getting back on topic..) you'll find much more than blood pudding that seems odd to us now. It's amazing how we've changed our eating habits, even since WWII. I read one book from the 70's that recommended you have your butcher premix your meatloaf meat with 1/3 lung in the mix. Is there a butcher that even sells lung anymore? certainly not mine!

[foutchie]

Might be fun to ask a butcher though - "a little lung mixed in my burger please" - just to see the look on his face!  LOL
I never had wild game until I married a hunter - I do love venison in chili, very tasty!
Had alligator at a new years party a couple of years ago - interesting fried.......

[tiamatgreen]

Oh I have had bear too! I lived with one of my uncles for a few months about 3 years ago, and he went bear hunting up in Canada. He actually got one and had it butchered and brought it home. Bear is even tougher than venison, but I made a bear stew and it was delicious! A little splash of white vinegar when you brown the meat takes away any gamey taste and you don't taste the vinegar in the finished product. And then you just let it simmer on low heat for a few hours so it gets nice and tender.

[genuineimitation]

i'll remember the advice about the vinegar NEXT time i get bear meat...

maybe we need a "thrift" section in the butcher department - all the lung and bear you can handle for pennies on the pound!

[SecondhandSophisticate]

I never thought I'd be joining this thread, but never say "Never!"

DH's BD is always on or around Thanksgiving. Since he was a teen, Thanksgiving has always meant "Alice's Restaurant". 

I found the actual "Alice's Restaurant" cookbook in a thrift for only .25! It's in usable condition. It's a first edition from 1969 and it's chock-full of interesting meat and comfort food recipes . Ahhhhhh, the good old days!

Hoping that someone else on this board knows about "Alice's Restaurant",
SeSo

[SecondhandSophisticate]

PS: I forgot to mention that I bought it as a little gift for his BD

[foutchie]

I DO know the song (it's a thanksgiving classic around here) but didn't know there was a cookbook!  neat!

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Ha-- does each recipe have circles and arrows on the back of each one explaining what each one is? 

I, too, always listen to Alice's Restaurant around Thanksgiving. Nice find, SeSo!

[SecondhandSophisticate]

TSR, you are a trip! 

I would have answered sooner, but I just got back from picking up de garbage


Ciao and Good Vibes,
SeSo

[Frchgrl]

Oh, I love vintage cookbooks. Especially the jello pamphlets and what not. I have the coolest hardback book on serving cheese. The cover looks a bit like this sites background. Fun stuff. I haven't tried to cook anything. Mostly just eye candy at this point but I may one day.

[kupton]

This is the first time I have wanted to show and tell about anything I collect but the topic of cookbooks is the love of my colletions. Mostly I just read all of the posts. 

In 1970 I went to a Garage Sale and purchased a 1899 edition of The Whitehouse Cookbook and I thought it was way cool, for the 5 cents I spent. After that I bought cookbooks sporadically with no plan, for many years, than I got the 1st Pillsbury Bakeoff cookbook, which was published in 1950 and knew I needed the entire series.

39 years later I confess that I have a library that has grown to over 7,000 cookbooks. I have every Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens, I have all of the hard covered ones that have been published. I also have many product endorsed cookbooks, many vintage cookbooks, ethnic cookbooks...too many too list! I am really proud of the early ones that are more works of art than cookbooks, Jell-O cookbooks from the early 1900’s have the best lithograph, the colors are so bright, nothing like we see today.

Right now I have a new goal of getting a fund raising cookbook (Church Cookbooks are my favorites) from every state in the Union.  I am also trying to get a Cookbook from every County/City in Minnesota. I am sure that will take me to every thrift store in the entire state of Minnesota. What a goal to have! 

Another favorite is my collection of old recipe boxes with hand written family recipes that I rescue from thrift stores, garage sales etc. I guess my hobby has spread by word of mouth in our area of my massive collection, and   people ask me to please take their old cookbooks and recipe boxes because no one in the family wants them and they want to save them from going into the thrash. The recipe cards are written in Grandma’s handwriting, sometimes written in the language from the old county.

I read my cookbooks, as most people read novels. I do not use them when I do cook, I am a taste as I go cook. Oddly enough my favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations at our favorite restaurant.

Thanks everyone for making this a fantastic site!

[valleythriftshopper]

That sounds like an amazing collection, how do you display it?  I would love to see pictures of some of your cookbooks.  I love vintage recipe card boxes too.

I haven't seen too many unusual cookbooks lately, but I was at the library today & in the books for sale section (books people donated to raise $ for library) there was a book called "Freak Trees of New York", it was published in the 20's by Syracuse U.  It is a book of weirdly formed trees & other oddities.  I might get it if it is still there the next time I go.