Mystery, romance, history, comedy, thriller, suspense, science fiction, cook books—all reading categories. Reading cook books for fun surprises folks, but once you begin reading them recreationally, you discover those categories listed above slip into each and every recipe book on your shelf.
Though she was a good cook, my mom didn’t love to cook. As a result, I grew up reading few cook books. Her mom, however, loved creating amazing meals and desserts so Grandma Lottie owned more. While she didn’t have near the selection I have or that I’ve found at nearby auctions or thrift stores, her most interesting recipes were written on scraps of paper, old envelopes, and snipped from old newspapers. She tucked these in the fronts and backs of her worn recipe books where I found them after she passed away. In addition, she saved a manila envelope full of her mom’s and grandmother’s recipes. These originated in England and came with the Bears to Russell County.
These handwritten, detailed ingredients remind me of reading history. The cooks wrote instructions for wood or coal stoves so this modern-day cook had to research what cool, warm, and hot oven mean. Rarely did they offer exact cup or spoon measurements. A pinch, a dash, a handful, an egg- size bit of butter made their point.
To complicate matters, these recipes call for ingredients I either can’t find in Kansas such as eels to make eel pie or saleratus, which I learned is an old-timey word for baking soda. My great and great-great grandmothers saved several recipes that called for fresh kidneys. Though I can get those from the butcher, I have no urges to bake a kidney pie.
Since I began cooking in my teens, cook books and cooking shows have gained popularity. Any of us can buy a celebrity cookbook and serve our families the same meals that Trish Yearwood and Valerie Bertinelli whip up in their kitchens. For those of us who like learning about other cultures through their foods, we can add Amish, Mexican, Italian, Native American Creole, and other foods to our diets.
Regional collections put together by churches or communities as commemorative collections or fund- raisers count among my favorites. Ellis County contributes a treasure trove of amazing dishes created by Volga German, Bukovina, and Bohemian cooks. Even though I have a Volga German grandmother, I’d have never learned how much I love those old recipes if I hadn’t moved here and bought cook books. On another note, I have a favorite from Wallace, Idaho, a mountain silver mining town. Huckleberry recipes abound as desserts, side dishes, and meat sauces. Because English families moved there to work the mines, the book shares several pasty varieties, a great find for cooks who love hand pies.
One way to travel back in time involves rereading cook books I received as a bride or soon after. Not only do I recall foods we loved to eat back then like Watergate Salad, but also, I see names that jerk me back several decades. What a poignant way to remember favorite people and foods.
So, if you can’t find anything good to read at the library or on your kindle, scan through your old recipe books. You might get as lucky as I did the other day and have your grandma’s best lemon meringue pie recipe written in her hand fall in your lap. It was almost as good a real visit.
Karen is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and sixth-generation Kansan. After a time away, she’s glad to be home.