Kitchen Things: An Album of Vintage Utensils and Farm-Kitchen Recipes

by Richard Snodgrass

Many home cooks—and professionals, as well—swear by the tried-and-true implements they’ve used for the Foley Food Mill that works like a charm every time; the manually operated juicer that’s a tradition of family breakfasts; the cast iron skillet that’s been handed down through the generations. For serious cooks, there’s nothing like a familiar implement, a thing that works exactly as you expect it to.

Similarly, most people usually have a library of favorite recipes on which they some passed along from relatives and friends, others from mentors and teachers. These are the recipes cooks return to time and time again, in part because they evoke memories of the people who have enjoyed them and prepared them in the past.

Kitchen Things , by master photographer and respected novelist Richard Snodgrass, celebrates these well-loved objects and recipes and showcases them in an unexpected way—a way that touches upon the science of food, the physics of cooking, the sensory pleasures of eating, and indeed the very nature of life itself.

In his reflections, the author is aided by his patient, persistent, and very perceptive wife, Marty, and her mother, from whose Western Pennsylvania farmhouse kitchens the objects and recipes were sourced. The gentle, often humorous repartee between the author and these wise and knowing women forms a running narrative throughout the book.

Genres: Cookbooks, Photography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2013

About the author

Richard Snodgrass is the critically acclaimed author of the “Books of Furnass” Series, an eleven-volume set of novels that explores the hopes, disappointments, relationships, and betrayals that make up life in a fictional Western Pennsylvania mill town and its surrounding farmlands from the time of the French and Indian War to modern day. The eleventh book in the series, Torn, will be released on September 17, 2025.

Snodgrass is also the author of There’s Something in the Back Yard, published in 1989 by Viking, and praised by Jack Stephens of the Washington Post Book World who wrote, “Observe this mysterious book and be changed.” Other works by Snodgrass include: An Uncommon Field: The Flight 93 Temporary Memorial, published in September of 2011 by Carnegie Mellon University Press, and Kitchen Things: An Album of Vintage Utensils and Farm Kitchen Recipes, published in 2013 by Skyhorse and named one of the year’s “best books to get you thinking about food” by the Associated Press.

Snodgrass’s short stories and essays have appeared in the New England Review/Bread Loaf Quarterly, South Dakota Review, California Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is also a master photographer who has been artist-in-residence at LightWorks (University of Syracuse) and at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Richard Snodgrass lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife Marty and two indomitable female tuxedo cats, raised from feral kittens, named Frankie and Becca.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cook's Illustrated has one old, mysterious tool in each magazine, with an explanation about its use and sometimes a bit of history. That is what I expected from this book, but was greatly disappointed. It turned out to be a very expensive Goodwill donation! I like history and all-things cooking related, and the description and Amazon reviews convinced me it would make a good gift. It's not heavy reading, so I planned to read it first before passing it on. I actually bought 2 of these as gifts but after reading it, decided to give one of the copies to charity. (I apologized to my friend who received the other copy, urging her to pass it on to others or donate it.) It's a very large book made up mostly of photos along with some very awful recipes - things people made in the 60s and 70s that are now only amusing. (This is not your grandmother's cooking unless she didn't cook 'from scratch'.) A coffee table book but one which I would be embarrassed to set out. Pricey for the amount of information. The author writes very brief, uninteresting stories, mostly snippets, about some of the implements, many of which were inherited from his wife's family. It was laughable because there were few, if any, tools that were dated prior to the 1950s and many were from the 1970s. I did not find even one that was unique, rare, unusual or unfamiliar. Many are in my own kitchen! Perhaps, this is a book for someone who is 20-something, but, even then, if she/he grew up with a mother or grandmother who cooked, the tools would likely not be anything new. Don't waste your money!

[Sandra Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part art/coffee table book and part cookbook, but completely fun!! Great black & white photos of old kitchen utensils scattered with old farm-style recipes that can take you back to your childhood and beyond!

I've used many of the items in this book, saw my grandparents use others and there's even a few I've never seen before! The photos are great and it's a joy just to slowly look through this book.

Ummmm! Butterscotch cookies, cornmeal mush, baked beans, scalloped oysters, creamed potatoes, lemon pie.....need I go on?

If you're looking for a book filled to the brim with recipes, this is not for you. If you, like me, love all things kitchen & cooking and like vintage things, you'll love this book!!

I received a copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to collectibles. Each kitchen utensil has a two page spread, the right hand side is a black and white photo and an essay on the left. These are utensil found as the author says in a farm kitchen, these items are not high end collectibles. I enjoyed the essays, especially the one about the flour sifter as my daughter and I had just had a discussion about sifting flour. The essay actually tells one when and why to sift. Also the essay on corn shucks was interesting pointing out the difference between shucking and husking. And then there was the match holder discussing strike anywhere matches and strike on the box ones.
All of the utensils were obviously well used and continued to be used and loved. A very different and refreshing approach to collectibles.

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected. This is a book of photography, with essays about the objects. Sort of interesting, but not a keeper.

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs, but I was hoping for something more useful in the identification of antique kitchen implements, and these were mostly self-explanatory. In addition, I found most of the "essays" that accompanied these photographs to be a little inane.

[Kim Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely charming book of fascinating photos, recipes, and stories from another time.