First a mention of the MAIN STREET GRILL (http://www.delandmainstreetgrill.com/) where we went after our readings. Once a favorite of my dear late hubby I hadn’t been there for awhile and was delighted that it was still as great as ever.
I have always loved to cook and am even a good if not great baker, but due to my singular status I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit, except for simple things and now that I’m dieting even those are limited. But as I was sorting out my bookshelves lately I noted several cookbooks and decided to look into cook books as collectibles.
Fannie Farmer, 1929, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, $15.00
According to Kovels (September 2013) For generations, food companies have been giving away recipe to customers who bought their products and today these are currently bargain “advertising collectibles.”
Bananas 1920’s Vintage Boston Marketing Recipies Brochure $31.99
A cookbook …is a kitchen reference publication that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions. Cookbooks can also cover a wide variety topics, including cooking techniques for the home…etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookbook
The oldest British cookbook, “De Conservanda Bona Valetudine,” “to conserve good health,” published in Antwerp, 1562,…the oldest American cookbook: “American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life,” by Amelia Simmons, “an American orphan,” Hartford: Printed for Simeon Butler, Northampton, 1798. The latter was the first cookbook written by a colonial American, using American ingredients such as cornmeal, and marking the first use of the words “cookie” and “slaw.” https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/in-news/harvards-cookbooks-speak-our-history
K C Baking Powder The Cook’s Book 1930’s $19.49
By the twentieth century, there was a tremendous burst of interest in cooking as a variety of new processed foods became available. Food companies started publishing pamphlets advertising regional foods and equipment, with middle-class women as the target audience. From peanuts to cook stoves, companies used cookbooks to introduce and promote their products to consumers who came to appreciate the convenience of new products like packaged yeasts and baking powder. http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-history-explorer/cookbooks
BETTY CROCKER COOKBOOK 1982 / 7TH PRINTING $39.99
These were published by any number of manufactures and were meant to highlight the specific uses of their product in everyday cooking. “Recipes for Dainty Dishes: Culinary, Toilet and Medicinal Hints”, published in 1910 by the California Fruit Growers Association and endorsed by Sunkist, is one such publication. The title of the document is a bit of curiosity; an advertisement for the many uses of citrus, including cooking and cleaning a toilet? Yet, here it is with forty-four pages of recipes, cleaning tips and medical claims. https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5323
1939 Sealtest Kitchen Recipes World’s Fair Edition Cook Book $17.25
The advertising cookbook offers a unique view into the early 20th century, the growing role of women as workers and consumers and the ambivalence of advertisers who at once wished to tap a female market and reinforce the traditional role of women as homemakers and caretakers. Therefore they evince both the worries of working women and the worries of a patriarchal system invested in traditional gender roles. An important story — told in no small part through recipe and purple advertising prose. http://brynmawrcollections.org/home/exhibits/show/factory-table
“the Jell-o Book Of Surprises” Recipe Book $8.00
As far as collectibles go according to Kovel several of the booklets where sold at a summer Conestoga auction (Manheim, PA), with the most expensive being $47.00 each for a 1932 Wesson Oil book and a 1898 Rumford Chemical Works (Rhode Island company that created the first baking powder–it closed after more than 100 years in business in 1968).
This isn’t on my store (http://chasingadventureorg.ipage.com/http/chasingadventureorg/store/) yet (or click above) but if you contact me about it I can add it or your purchase and will take 10% off the $20.00 current asking price.
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” ― Julia Child