I brought home three cookbooks this last week just to check
them out. They are all ruined with wear
or mold, but I thought they might prove to be entertaining reads. The three smaller cookbooks use lard as their
every day fat often. One 1909 cookbook
has a whole chapter on Grandma’s Puddings where lard is used generously.
I closed the books.
Later today I will get into a Gourmet hard bound by Samuel Chamberlain and his wife. Skimming
Google to find out more about him, I was lead astray by a link to Food Timeline by Decades. Only later in the morning was I able to get
unstuck from decades of foodie stuff to learn more about this friend and
teacher of my mothers and his work his
work.
Friends like this one can span generations.
Life is Really in the
Footnotes:
It might amuse you to know I got out a magnifying glass to try and read the cookbook titles after I saw those 50 cents signs! (ha ha, it didn't work.) Then I got a little sidelined too by that food of the times link. Browsing some of the menus I'm flabbergasted at the size of the meals and number of items provided and people ate! And obesity didn't seem to be the problem it is today!
ReplyDeleteAll the old cookbooks look as if they're designed to make people fat.
ReplyDeleteYou have to remember that (1) obesity was considered a sign that the individual was well to do and (2) most people who worked had heavy jobs and needed all those extra calories.
Some were healthier than we are now, but a lot of them died young and no one knew why.
I was using my very favorite Betty Crocker cookbook that I bought when I was getting married ~ 48 years ago...It's so marked and stained on certain pages that they fall open without much prodding.
ReplyDeleteThere really CAN be too much lard.
ReplyDeleteI am about ready to return to the pool. Got to do something before I lock up completely.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of lard reminded me that when I was a kid, we saved bacon grease in a jar on the stove. Mom used it for cooking. Gosh, that can't have been too healthy. Dianne