One of the neighborhood grandmothers used to tell my “If Bobby wants to eat chocolate cake for breakfast...let him eat the cake...it has all the things that are good for him...eggs, flour, butter, milk, and chocolate!” Not exactly the advice of today, however the ladies of the Kingston Presbyterian Church must have agreed because over half of the 425 recipes in this cookbook are for desserts. Loaded with historic recipes, this cookbook is guaranteed to return you once again to your grandma’s kitchen.To be sure that you get the same results that grandma did you will need to use period real butter, cream, and so on, when using these recipes. Otherwise, they will not taste the same and some may not work at all. Old recipes were designed for use with unbleached flour and often will not work with bleached flour because of additives and bleaching agents that cause the flour to act differently. The recipes also may not work properly when you substitute modern ingredients for the use of lard in cooking. Old recipes also used different units of measurement than we do today. Standardized measurements did not appear until 1896. Where teaspoons or tablespoons are mentioned they are the spoons people ate or served with, a cup meant a teacup and a glass or tumbler was a small water glass. Readers are forewarned of other challenges to preparing these recipes. For instance, often the recipes are simply a list of ingredients without instructions. Cooking times and temperatures are a more modern invention and a recipe like the one for Beaf Loaf tells us to “Bake an hour and a quarter” but is silent as to the oven temperature. On the other hand, the recipe for Oyster Pie says to “bake in a quick oven” without mention to how long to bake the pie. Or, for that matter what a “quick oven” means. Other instructions like “cook until done” or “milk to make a batter” may also challenge readers aspiring to cook like their grandmother and/or great grandmother. Quite a challenge, but I am sure your grandmother will be there with you helping you recreate history!
This book is awesome. I found recipes for things my grandma used to make. She's been gone now for about 30 years, and I was young and dumb back then. I have always regretted not sitting down with her, a pen and a notebook to collect some of the great wisdom and knowledge that comes from someone who has walked this earth for 90 + years. At least now I can make some of the things that remind me of her. There is one drawback and that is with some the more obscure recipes. They include the ingredients but not any instructions. I guess in those days most women were home cooks and had some idea about what to do with the ingredients. In most cases, though if you have any kitchen experience, you can probably make your way through the ones missing instructions. The author does warn you about this, and he even includes little helps at the beginning and at the end to aid the reader along the way. I enjoyed this book very much. GOD bless you and Merry Christmas to you and yours !
Two stars for Mr Surridge taking the time to retype all the recipes out of an already published book. These recipes are very like those of the time period. They assume the cook/baker knows the basics already and do not spell them out. So "add flour" is all the direction included. Not how much or when or even how. No oven temps or baking times. While it is interesting to see the old recipes and the author added some local color, I would have liked to see actual pictures of the original book more than a retyped version. Sending back.
If you enjoy older recipes, or Looking at the history of American cookery This book is for you. A great luck At the recipes your grandmother and great grandmother used at the turn of the last century. A little fuzzy at times On the quantities But still an excellent book.
I really liked that the person who put this book out researched the women who wrote the recipes. The recipes were what I expected from any old church cookbook. Congealed salad anyone?
This is a great view of cooking more than 100 years ago I am glad I didn't have to use these recipes when I was learning to cook 60 years ago. I am glad my education included home economics to teach me the basics. I don't know how young women cope with feeding family.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The recipes have vague directions and some odd ingredients that require substitution for today's cooking. Quite interesting dishes worth trying once improvised!