How much has cooking changed since 1939? And how much remains the same?

Would you like to see what my two daughters gave me for my birthday?

They went to the vintage district and found this cookbook. It's from 1939.

It's been interesting to look through to see what has changed and what still remains in the nearly 90 years since it's printing.

As this cookbook was compiled during the Great Depression, I thought viewing the included recipes and menus might best be done through the lens of budget-friendly cooking.

We all know that baking from scratch is about the most economical way to have breads and desserts. That was same back then as it is now. A few of the baked goods in the cookbook sounded more humble than what we've come to expect from our modern cookbooks. However, the 1939 cookbook  was serving it's depression-era reader. Carrot pie (shredded carrots in a sweetened egg custard), custard pie, sour milk cookies, raisin cookies, are perhaps not likely to show up in Bon Appétit, although I suspect those mentioned are tasty treats. There were several familiar baked goods listed, such as brownies, various fruit pies, Scottish shortbread, gingersnaps, and oatmeal cookies. 

The meat section was perhaps the most interesting, as folks a hundred years ago were accustomed to eating more variety in meat than modern consumers. There were several rabbit recipes, various fowl and game recipes, and perhaps the section most of us would prefer not to cook from -- recipes using organ meat, sweetbreads, heart, kidney, tongue and liver. Organ meats were substantially less expensive than muscle meats. During hard times, a dinner featuring tongue or heart or liver might be the only way a homemaker could put meat on her table. Aside from what was cooked, what I found surprising was how much meat recipes called for. Where the recipe yield stated 6 servings, 1 1/4 to 2 pounds of boneless meat were called for. I would have thought during the Depression the cookbook authors would have thought that perhaps less meat per serving might be what consumers at the time were most interested in. Despite this, there were familiar recipes included, such as chicken pie, beef pie, fried chicken, pot roast, meat loaf.

If I had to feed a large family, and I had a limited budget, I would focus on the soup section. Here's a sampling of soup recipes in this cookbook that sound appealing and are budget-friendly. Split Pea Soup, Chicken-Noodle Soup,  Corn Chowder, Dutch Potato Soup (has bacon in it!) or Golden Potato Soup, Vegetable Soup, Hamburger-Vegetable Chowder, Lima Bean Soup, Chicken and Rice Soup, and Okra Chowder (if I grew okra).

The other section that I would focus on to feed a large family on a budget would be the one on eggs. Eggs then and now are an economical source of protein. There's a recipe for Egg Balls that are a lot like meatballs, using hard-cooked eggs mashed and combined with bread crumbs, seasonings and a little cheese then formed into balls and deep-fried. Those sound interesting.

There's a section on making candy. As you might expect, given this book was from the Depression, many of these recipes use very basic ingredients such as sugar, corn syrup, milk, butter, honey, nuts, vinegar, and soda. In this section is a recipe for popcorn balls and candied apples. both very budget-friendly candy options using cheap (popping corn) or even free (homegrown apples) ingredients. Of course, there are other nostalgia-inducing candy recipes that likely were made around the holidays, such as sea foam, nougat, divinity, fondant, chocolate fudge, and pecan roll.

My impressions of this cookbook

Overall, the recipes seemed to only call for very ordinary (for the time) ingredients. Very few prepared products are used in these recipes. Exceptions included boxed cornflakes, graham crackers, and lady fingers used in some cookie and dessert recipes, canned tomatoes and canned tomato soup used in soup and main dish recipes, and American cheese in most recipes that call for cheese. Otherwise, this is a very cook-from-scratch cookbook. 

My other thought was that many of these recipes are suited to the home gardener/orchard keeper, forager, small game hunter, and weekend fisherman. I could find recipes for every type of fruit that we grow on our property, including new-to-us gooseberries. Many folks in the 30s scrambled for food to keep their families fed, and they made do with what they could grow, hunt, forage, or catch. 

This cookbook is a meet-you-where-you-are kind of cookbook, taking into account the necessity to use everything, even the soured milk, and to utilize humble ingredients, yet still create tasty meals and treats.

I look forward to trying some of these recipes that are completely new to me, such as the carrot pie and the egg balls. I'll tell you all about my cooking adventures in future posts.