# Mother Lode of Recipes



## Alix (Apr 30, 2008)

I just discovered a VERY old cookbook. Looks self published. Might have been my gramma's so say about 40's or so, possibly older? It has some killer recipes in it for all kinds of baking. Things I've never heard of like Graham Crumb cake and other cool things. Anyone looking for a really old recipe that I might be able to locate in this book?


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## jabbur (Apr 30, 2008)

My sisters and I just went through Mom's cookbook collection.  Dad finally decided he wasn't going to be cooking from them since moving to the independant living condo and eating most of his meals in the dining hall there.  We found several that were old church cookbooks from Grandma's time too.  We're in the process of copying them so we each have the recipes.  It was a great walk through memory lane though!


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## Alix (Apr 30, 2008)

Pretty cool huh? I have seen a few recipes that made me raise my eyebrows. My husband says, "they actually ate that?"


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## SierraCook (May 1, 2008)

Alix, I have two cookbooks that are my favorites to browse through.  Both have been in my family for a long time.  The first one is from West Bend and it is called _Cooking Magic_.  My mom and I have made a blackberry pie recipe from it that is the best I have ever tasted.  It is published in 1955.  It was my great great aunt Edna's.  She was from Kansas and everytime we visited her she cooked lunch:  baked ham or fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, lima beans, and rolls.  For dessert we usually had peach pie and ice cream.  

The second cookbook was my grandmother's.  It is a Betty Crocker cookbook from 1950.  Inside the cover it says:  To LaVern From Mother and Daddy, Christmas - 1953.  It is loaded with her notes and other recipes that she has tucked into the book.  

I know if my house was burning down, if I could these would be some of the things that I would grab first if I had a chance.  I probably should store them in a fireproof container. 

Enjoy your cookbook that was your Gramma's.  I love to look at mine and think of how many times their hands of turned those pages while making meals and desserts for their families.


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## JPolito830 (May 1, 2008)

I actually found 100 or so notecards with recipes from my grandma when she was in Italy.  They are about 60 yrs old, and every one of them is amazing.  Nothing beats this homemade sauce.


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## Alix (May 1, 2008)

I have a few recipe books from my Gramma. Its kind of neat because they are all handwritten and most of them have nothing but ingredients listed. No method, no nothing. Some of them are incomplete ingredient wise too. For example, the spice cake I made yesterday says to pour the boiling water over the margarine and rolled oats, but nowhere in the recipe does it tell you how MUCH boiling water to use. LOL, you just have to guess and pray!


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## Jeekinz (May 1, 2008)

LOL - How many of those recipes require a bundt pan or jelly mold?


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## Alix (May 1, 2008)

None of the baking ones I have seen. I think that was later than my Gramma's era. My MOM'S recipe books would likely feature a few of those. I know my MIL has a few.


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## Jeekinz (May 1, 2008)

I meant those old recipes that used molds for meatloaves and gelatenous thingys. Usually the garnish was put in the mold first, lol, then the filling.  Like from the 40's.


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## Alix (May 1, 2008)

Nope, this is strictly desserty stuff. (Pssst...thats why its in the baking section Jeeks! )


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## Jeekinz (May 1, 2008)

Duh - LOL............


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## quicksilver (May 1, 2008)

_I found this little booklet 5" X 71/2", 63 pages at a garage sale a couple of years ago. The front cover is missing and there's no date on the 1st page. but that page has _"Table of measures_"  and lists various oz.s and weights used today. Under that though it has _"Oven Temperatures",_ and states_, " slow oven requires 1 burner halfway on. moderate oven requires 2 burners halfway on. hot oven requires 2 burners on full. If the oven is equiped with a heat control, follow directions given by the manufacturer." 
_I love seeing that._
_One of the catagories in Table of Contents is "_Invalid Cookery"
_and some of the recipes are "_Rice Gruel", Rice Water", "Albumen Beverages", "Irish Moss Lemonage", "Mutton Broth".
_Then there's the catagory "_The Lunch Box" _and those are like whole meals._
_The title is "_The Metropolitan Life Cook Book" (_they seperated the word cookbook)_
_It's was common back '30's, 40's, 50's, to have companies put these out and today they are treasures. I'd love to have more._
_My grandmother's recipes, which look like scraps of paper are too kryptic to figures out; _"use the whole thing", "add special blend".
_What the heck does that mean?_
_Those recipes are lost forever. Like her saurbraten. Never had it like her's since._


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## Dave Hutchins (May 1, 2008)

When I first joined DC I erged  all members to write down , watch, ask questions from their elder relitives so they could have family cook books so that when aunt jenny passed away I wish I had her recipe for cream cake won't be lost forever.  My mother was a fantastic cook and baker and I have a great deal of her recipe,s and still fix a  lot of them


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## AllenOK (May 7, 2008)

Many years ago, when my step-father's mom passed away, the family gave me her cookbooks and notebooks, as I was the only one really interested in cooking.  I've gone through most of the hand-written notebooks, and saved the ones that I thought were interesting, but most of them were types of fast, throw-together foods that I don't normally cook.  I also got a cookbook, titled "The Household Searchlight", and copyrighted 1931, second printing 1938.  There was a newspaper clipping of recipe, and on the back side, was an artists drawing of what the "new" B-29 should look like shooting down Japanese Zero fighter.  Talk about old!


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## Alix (May 7, 2008)

Don't you just love finding a little piece of history like that? I do. 

I made a few things out of this cookbook recently. I consider it a challenge when you read the recipe and there is no method, or one ingredient is left out. I just made a butter cake as the base for my daughters Boston Banana Cream Cake and holy cow it was good. Dense, moist, but not overpowering in flavour at all. Perfect. I've marked THAT page for future use.


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## Nancy Jane (May 7, 2008)

Wow, what a great find!  Very special.  I have this funny old cookbook called How To Please Your Husband that I got for my wedding a million years ago.  Some of those recipes are an interesting read.


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