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Extra! Extra! Eat All About It!: Recipes and Culinary Curiosities from Historic Wisconsin Newspapers
A journey back in time through 50 retro recipes along with engaging essays about quirky food traditions.
A blend of cookbook and bite-size history, Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! offers a unique glimpse into the culinary landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fifty recipes selected from Wisconsin newspapers are served alongside brief essays that dig into the stories behind the food trends of the time.
In lively prose, Jane Conway and Randi Julia Ramsden reveal how coconuts and oysters made their way to 1800s Wisconsin, how bakers gauged the temperatures of their wood-burning stoves, and how our predecessors really did slip on banana peels, among other flavorful facts. In addition to capturing quirky food fashions, like breakfast parties and paper-bag cooking, the recipes provide insights into regional cooking traditions.
Each original recipe appears alongside the authors’ easy-to-follow updated version. Mouthwatering modern photographs showcase the revived dishes for the first time in their long history, and newspaper clippings, ads, and illustrations give the book a charming vintage feel. Featuring a variety of recipes, ranging from trendy (Barbecued Ham with Bananas) and tempting (Pickled Walnuts) to traditional (Pumpernickel) and tantalizing (Apple de Luxe), Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! will satisfy the appetites of history lovers and home chefs alike.
“Such a fun and fascinating book! Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! deftly delves into Wisconsin’s long-ago food fads, evolutions, and absurdities. Don’t be surprised if this book inspires new trends that are riffs on some of these century-old ideas. Pickled walnuts, anyone? Or mock pumpkin pie, with prunes?” — Mary Bergin, author of Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook
“Both cookbook and chronicle, Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! is an ingenious, illuminating tasting menu of our culinary past. Sourced from nineteenth and early twentieth century Wisconsin newspapers, its fifty vignettes serve up historical insights, forgotten fads and bygone recipes. From paper bag cookery and ‘oyster saloons’ to fire-baked eggs and maple taffy, I ate this book right up.” — Terese Allen, coauthor of The Flavor of Wisconsin
“This beautiful, fun, and informative book is a masterclass in how historical cooking opens a window onto wider historical themes, including mechanization, the impacts of war, immigration, globalization, and changing nutritional advice.” — Eleanor Barrett, author of A History of Food Waste and Preservation
“Conway and Ramsden do a great job of using historical documents to demonstrate what people were eating and how they entertained. They describe recipes as interaction and community, as well as how food trends change over time. The writing is smart and clever. A wonderful read.” — Kimberly Wilmot Voss, author of The Food Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community
A blend of cookbook and bite-size history, Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! offers a unique glimpse into the culinary landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fifty recipes selected from Wisconsin newspapers are served alongside brief essays that dig into the stories behind the food trends of the time.
In lively prose, Jane Conway and Randi Julia Ramsden reveal how coconuts and oysters made their way to 1800s Wisconsin, how bakers gauged the temperatures of their wood-burning stoves, and how our predecessors really did slip on banana peels, among other flavorful facts. In addition to capturing quirky food fashions, like breakfast parties and paper-bag cooking, the recipes provide insights into regional cooking traditions.
Each original recipe appears alongside the authors’ easy-to-follow updated version. Mouthwatering modern photographs showcase the revived dishes for the first time in their long history, and newspaper clippings, ads, and illustrations give the book a charming vintage feel. Featuring a variety of recipes, ranging from trendy (Barbecued Ham with Bananas) and tempting (Pickled Walnuts) to traditional (Pumpernickel) and tantalizing (Apple de Luxe), Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! will satisfy the appetites of history lovers and home chefs alike.
“Such a fun and fascinating book! Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! deftly delves into Wisconsin’s long-ago food fads, evolutions, and absurdities. Don’t be surprised if this book inspires new trends that are riffs on some of these century-old ideas. Pickled walnuts, anyone? Or mock pumpkin pie, with prunes?” — Mary Bergin, author of Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook
“Both cookbook and chronicle, Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! is an ingenious, illuminating tasting menu of our culinary past. Sourced from nineteenth and early twentieth century Wisconsin newspapers, its fifty vignettes serve up historical insights, forgotten fads and bygone recipes. From paper bag cookery and ‘oyster saloons’ to fire-baked eggs and maple taffy, I ate this book right up.” — Terese Allen, coauthor of The Flavor of Wisconsin
“This beautiful, fun, and informative book is a masterclass in how historical cooking opens a window onto wider historical themes, including mechanization, the impacts of war, immigration, globalization, and changing nutritional advice.” — Eleanor Barrett, author of A History of Food Waste and Preservation
“Conway and Ramsden do a great job of using historical documents to demonstrate what people were eating and how they entertained. They describe recipes as interaction and community, as well as how food trends change over time. The writing is smart and clever. A wonderful read.” — Kimberly Wilmot Voss, author of The Food Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community
- GenresCookbooks
264 pages, Paperback
Published October 22, 2024
4 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 11, 2024
Another win from the WHS press! Such a fun book, very easily digestible and I slowly read through it over a few week period. Love the bite-size history essays! I love food history and local history so this book was such a delight! I learned a lot, some new things, some things familiar but in a new local perspective. Some of the recipes seem fun and I’ll have to try them and will record thoughts later when I do! Would love to see more books like this! The authors sound lovely and it would be fun to hear more about their culinary experiments! Loved all the artifacts presented and that they included actual pictures of the vintage newspaper articles.
November 9, 2025
Cheers to learning so much about the origins of foods in WI and all the trivia!!!
While I don't think I'll make any of the recipes, this book was so much fun to read, starting with the very 1st chapter and "breakfast parties!" The apron chapter was interesting as were the sections on chocolate, beekeeping, and "the revolution of the grocery store." Each chapter is only 2-3 pages (not a lot of text) followed by a recipe. Archival photos and newspaper clippings are great additions to each chapter's historical contribution to Wisconsin life.
And, being a Wisconsin Historical Society Press publication, there are lots of footnotes and references.
An easy read worth enjoying over time.
While I don't think I'll make any of the recipes, this book was so much fun to read, starting with the very 1st chapter and "breakfast parties!" The apron chapter was interesting as were the sections on chocolate, beekeeping, and "the revolution of the grocery store." Each chapter is only 2-3 pages (not a lot of text) followed by a recipe. Archival photos and newspaper clippings are great additions to each chapter's historical contribution to Wisconsin life.
And, being a Wisconsin Historical Society Press publication, there are lots of footnotes and references.
An easy read worth enjoying over time.
March 31, 2025
This was such a fun book! I live in Indiana so this really hit home for me even though I don't live in Wisconsin. I LOVED the format of this book. Like most cookbooks, this book was broken into sections, drinks, breads, desserts, etc. Within each section there alternated between a historic recipe and a well written chapter on the historical origins of food, cooking techniques, cooking equipment, etc. I also loved that both the recipes and the the historical section included the original newspaper clippings that they came from. What a fun concept and enjoyable read. I learned so much! Some of the recipes were kind of bizarre, but some also looked really good. As a vegetarian I can't normally eat a lot of recipes from older cookbooks, but I could more than half of the ones included in here, I was impressed! I wish all states did something fun like this. What a great way to highlight newspapers and other archival material!
January 30, 2026
cooking in WI
The recipes were fun, but the history of cooking and food in WI was the highlight of the book. From how measurements were standardized to cherry picking summer camps for children, it gives insight to how we arrive at our methods of cooking today.
The recipes were fun, but the history of cooking and food in WI was the highlight of the book. From how measurements were standardized to cherry picking summer camps for children, it gives insight to how we arrive at our methods of cooking today.
November 7, 2024
Interesting book from a historical standpoint, but very few recipes I’d actually try.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews