Is the high cost of living getting you down? Never fear! I know a cookbook that can help you cook an entire meal for just two cents! The back cover promises this.
Yes, "An entire meal cooked for 2 cents cuts the 'High Cost of Living.'" (I'm not sure why it's capitalized this way or why "High Cost of Living" is in quotation marks, but just go with it.) "What is this wonder?" you may ask.
It's the New Perfection CookBook (undated, but the stove looks similar to one in this 1922 ad, so I'm going to say 1920s, though I might be able to get a more exact date if I had the patience to go down a rabbit hole of finding the dates of production for every single New Perfection item this booklet advertises, such as the iron-heating plate).
The "For Best Results Use 'Pearl' Oil" printed very lightly on the bottom should clue you in that this is an oil-fueled stove, one that is operated "generally like ... a lamp, and quite as simple" followed by pages of instructions on wick care, ways to prevent and fix oil leaks, instructions on draining the feed pipe, etc. Cooking for two cents sounds less and less appealing, never mind "simple."
The recipes are mostly for baked goods-- cakes, cookies, puddings, pies, breads. Those less familiar with terms for old-timey cooking utensils might be alarmed by the "Spider Corn Cake."
The instructions to "Melt the butter in a hot spider" should probably tip you off that it's just a name for a type of pan that has little legs on the bottom so it can cook above a flame. No arachnids are involved!
There are also recipes for things to do with leftovers, like stretching out that last 3/4 cup of chopped meat or fish...
...by scalloping it with hard-boiled eggs and cracker crumbs under a pint of white sauce.
And what old-timey collection would be complete without recipes for invalids, like good old Arrowroot Gruel?
Yay! Water thickened with a flavorless powder! Cream or milk may be added if the cook is feeling extravagant.
So... Not the most exciting recipe collection, but certainly fun, if for no other reason than that it allows me to spend an afternoon feeling grateful that I don't have to spend it posing in a gingham jumper handing out biscuits and pretending that I'm downright stoked to have an appliance that requires wick care and regular feed pipe drainage, all for the low price of two cents a meal and the possibility it could spring a fuel leak at any time.
I'm imagining kids running into the house to see what is for dinner, then volunteering to run outside and keep playing. For some reason the scalloped eggs made me think of a kid walking in to see a white, slimy mess for dinner and deciding that it was time to do something bad enough to be sent to bed without dinner. I guess that it's my inner child remembering meals completely devoid of flavor.
ReplyDeleteYes, the good old days when everything had to be served in a thick coat of white sauce because everybody was supposed to consume at least ten gallons of milk per day.
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