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The American Woman's Cookbook
wartime edition of The American Woman's Cook Book, "with Victory Substitutes and Economical Recipes for Delicious Wartime Meals" (from frontispiece)
825 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 1, 2019
This is my favorite cookbook, the one I have used so much that I had to put packing tape on the spine to keep it together. It's an old book, with old recipes - but there are the original recipes, and they don't have additives or other nasty things. Portions are smaller, explanations are simpler. This is how people ate before there was fast food and prepackaged everything, when people knew how to eat healthy food and a reasonable price.
One of the things I discovered recently is that portions have gotten a lot larger since this book was written. Most of the recipes serve 6 in the book, but modern versions with the same ingredient amounts serve 4. How is that even possible? It's simple, plates were smaller then, people ate less and were not hungry. I happen to collect Vernonware plates that were popular during this period. My vintage plates are 8" in diameter, while my modern plates are 10" in diameter.
This book is priceless, and if you can find a copy, guard it with your life!
One of the things I discovered recently is that portions have gotten a lot larger since this book was written. Most of the recipes serve 6 in the book, but modern versions with the same ingredient amounts serve 4. How is that even possible? It's simple, plates were smaller then, people ate less and were not hungry. I happen to collect Vernonware plates that were popular during this period. My vintage plates are 8" in diameter, while my modern plates are 10" in diameter.
This book is priceless, and if you can find a copy, guard it with your life!
September 11, 2011
What I love most about this cookbook is dependent on the edition. I own two of the Victory Binding editions, from World War II. In these editions, the pages are tabbed by section but also, in the back of the book, they contain sections titled "Wartime Cookery". These sections are about feeding a family during the rationing of WWII, and are utterly fascinating. Can you imagine feeding a family of five on fifteen dollars a week? Well, that's just what it says in the back of this book!
These books contain recipes for everything from sauces to breads to canned goods. There's even a vegetarian section! A beautiful piece of history and useful to boot, the Victory Bindings of the American Woman's Cookbook are truly treasures to me.
These books contain recipes for everything from sauces to breads to canned goods. There's even a vegetarian section! A beautiful piece of history and useful to boot, the Victory Bindings of the American Woman's Cookbook are truly treasures to me.
November 22, 2014
I love cookbooks. I especially love old cookbooks with recipes I can alter to my personal tastes.
This book belonged to my Aunt Jean. She passed away last year, and her husband, my Uncle Vic, allowed me to have several of her cookbooks.
This book has a chapter on Menu Making. Several of the menus are meat-free.
Just a few of the many other chapters are: How to Buy Food, Table Setting and Service, Carving, Vegetarian Dishes, French Recipes, Food for Invalids, High Altitude Cooking, Cooking at the Table, The Friends Who Honor Us, and Wine Seasons Find Food.
This book also has some very interesting illustrations, and a handful of full-color photos.
I'm marking this book as read. If I put it as currently reading, it would never leave that category. I will read it over and over and over.
Another few notes:
The binding on this book is a little worn, but the book is in very good condition.
My aunt pasted a newspaper clipped recipe for Tomato Juice Sauce on the inside cover. Across from it, is a clipping listing some appliances and their "typical operating costs". The clipping does not have a date, but I'm guessing it is from the 1960's. Here are some of the costs listed:
Coffee Maker 2.8 cents per 30 minutes
Dishwasher 5.6 cents per hour
Frying Pan 3.5 cents per hour
Solid state, color TV .67 per hour
Clock 80 cents per hour
Sewing machine 35 cents per hour
This book belonged to my Aunt Jean. She passed away last year, and her husband, my Uncle Vic, allowed me to have several of her cookbooks.
This book has a chapter on Menu Making. Several of the menus are meat-free.
Just a few of the many other chapters are: How to Buy Food, Table Setting and Service, Carving, Vegetarian Dishes, French Recipes, Food for Invalids, High Altitude Cooking, Cooking at the Table, The Friends Who Honor Us, and Wine Seasons Find Food.
This book also has some very interesting illustrations, and a handful of full-color photos.
I'm marking this book as read. If I put it as currently reading, it would never leave that category. I will read it over and over and over.
Another few notes:
The binding on this book is a little worn, but the book is in very good condition.
My aunt pasted a newspaper clipped recipe for Tomato Juice Sauce on the inside cover. Across from it, is a clipping listing some appliances and their "typical operating costs". The clipping does not have a date, but I'm guessing it is from the 1960's. Here are some of the costs listed:
Coffee Maker 2.8 cents per 30 minutes
Dishwasher 5.6 cents per hour
Frying Pan 3.5 cents per hour
Solid state, color TV .67 per hour
Clock 80 cents per hour
Sewing machine 35 cents per hour
February 25, 2010
An amazing old book Kyle found at a garage sale. This copy was published in 1949 (original from '38), so it's fun to have a notion of what my Mum, grandmothers and aunts must have aspired to in the culinary arts in the year I was born. Lots of wonderful instructional content of the kind you'd receive if you were in cooking class. FYI: For corned beef you'll need fresh-killed beef and a good oak barrel!
July 24, 2013
I love this cookbook! I love all cookbooks but I especially love this one. It is stained, worn & generally falling apart but it is the one I turn to time & time again. Menu planning, table setting - anything you want to know is in this cookbook. I have no doubt that June Cleaver owned this cookbook. I long for the days that are represented between it's hallowed covers.
July 16, 2009
Quite possibly one of the most useful tools I have ever laid my hands on.
September 7, 2022
This is an old book with so much information about so many things we just don't think about today about managing a frugal kitchen with a wealth of old recipes no one has any more. I had to laugh at the directions for rendering out and saving cooking fat for reuse. (Saving fat trimmings from red meat and pork is highly recommended, but render out poultry fat separately by bird.) While the directions they give will work, my father and I found a much safer way to render out fat. (We butchered our own meat from chickens to beef cattle.) The edition I read also mentions game meats but the few recipes included were for venison.
I must add here that this is the only cookbook I have read that has the recipe and procedure for making salt rising bread. (This takes up to 3 days and is finicky.) I didn't see any sourdough recipes however, which the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook does have.
I must add here that this is the only cookbook I have read that has the recipe and procedure for making salt rising bread. (This takes up to 3 days and is finicky.) I didn't see any sourdough recipes however, which the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook does have.
May 21, 2021
I inherited this book as part of my grandmother’s collection of cookbooks when she died a couple of months ago. I found it fascinating as a snapshot of life for women in the 1940s. The perfect handbook to be a perfect housewife ... my god, preparing meals back then seems so utterly complicated! How could women have any time left over to finish any other chores or have any leisure time? Reading this book made me appreciate the luxuries we have now, such as freezers and microwaves ... I don’t think I would have made it as a housewife in those times ...
January 22, 2023
A fascinating look into life 85 years ago. The recipes themselves are probably around 100 years old, if not older. While some are dated, I bookmarked quite a few that I think will translate well to 2023 tastebuds (after some modifications).
The ones that what “Mammy” or “Plantation” in the title were offensive, along with the blurb on how to entertain without a maid and the whole chapter on “cooking for invalids”. Again, this is practically primary source material so I needed to keep that in mind.
All in all, I’ll say it again. Fascinating.
The ones that what “Mammy” or “Plantation” in the title were offensive, along with the blurb on how to entertain without a maid and the whole chapter on “cooking for invalids”. Again, this is practically primary source material so I needed to keep that in mind.
All in all, I’ll say it again. Fascinating.
June 10, 2020
What a treasure. My sister gave me this book in honor of the 75th anniversary of V-E Day. I was so impressed with the quality and scope of this cookbook. It had quite a lot of pictures in both color and B&W, and recipes for just about every traditional American dish that a 1940s housewife could think of. I have tried several of the recipes and found them all very tasty, even if there is a tendency to cook things into a state of molded mush. Absolutely fascinating stuff.
November 9, 2018
Another traditional American cookbook offering the basic procedures and recipes for a beginner or intermediate chef, eminently usable in the American home. I saw this one at a used book store and snatched it up -- when i got home wife wife lovingly commandeered it from me. It is filled with procedures, definitions, and recipes - and is a constant cooking reference!
September 5, 2023
This used to be my grandmother's cookbook. It's old, but a lovely reminder of her.
January 1, 2026
I collect old cookbooks. This is another gem recently acquired with recipes couched in technical or practical advice.
The opening index includes a thank you to a handful of companies, notably the Carnation Company, for the color plates used to photograph select dishes in color. I find this interesting because this was considered state-of-the-art for cookbooks, but exactly what you'd expect in dark reddish-brown hues of gravy or green gray Lime Gelatin Fruit Salad.
The beginning starts with a teaching tone: Useful Facts About Food instructing on types of fats, the thickening power of flour and cornstarch, temperature and storage control for eggs, attributes of sugar, rendering fat, vitamin rich food charts, and meal prep or planning. These tutorials are diverse as they are practical or pedestrian: wine paring, the order of foods for five course meals, wedding meals, lunch box prep, or how to carve a holiday turkey. My favorite, a whole entire chapter called Cheese.
Can you go wrong with that? No. You cannot.
I find this cookbook a perfect balance of food science, practical application, economy, and Grandma's best cooking advice. It feels the 1940's equivalent of America's Test Kitchen, in all the best ways.
A few recipes or sections that caught my attention:
Liver and Bacon Sandwiches
Aspic (clear) Jelly with Cabbage
How to buy and prepare Terrapin or Turtle
Sweet Potato Waffles
Roast Squirrels
High Altitude Cooking
Food and Beverages for Invalids
Wine Seasons
Staple recipes are here as well, from roasting meat, sauces, breads, sides, desserts, and appetizers while subtly plying the reader more technical and pragmatic advice along the way. Diagrams, charts, and color photos are sprinkled throughout. I'm really looking forward to trying some of these recipes, but will be skipping anything Turtle or Squirrel.
A bit more on the origins of this collection:
This cookbook was an accumulation of recipes collected from its progenitor, the New York homemaker's sewing and fashion magazine, The Delineator (1860's to 1930's). The Delineator, a subsidiary of Butterick Publishing Company, also had a cookbook published, the precursor to The American Woman's Cook Book.
I went down a rabbit hole on the web to find the Culinary Art Institute, Directed by Ruth Berolzheimer, was a book publisher, held many test kitchens in Chicago, and was a subsidiary of Consolidated Book Publishers.
My copy is the 1947 Edition, tab indexed, National Binding (yellow hardback), 822 pages. Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer.
The opening index includes a thank you to a handful of companies, notably the Carnation Company, for the color plates used to photograph select dishes in color. I find this interesting because this was considered state-of-the-art for cookbooks, but exactly what you'd expect in dark reddish-brown hues of gravy or green gray Lime Gelatin Fruit Salad.
The beginning starts with a teaching tone: Useful Facts About Food instructing on types of fats, the thickening power of flour and cornstarch, temperature and storage control for eggs, attributes of sugar, rendering fat, vitamin rich food charts, and meal prep or planning. These tutorials are diverse as they are practical or pedestrian: wine paring, the order of foods for five course meals, wedding meals, lunch box prep, or how to carve a holiday turkey. My favorite, a whole entire chapter called Cheese.
Can you go wrong with that? No. You cannot.
I find this cookbook a perfect balance of food science, practical application, economy, and Grandma's best cooking advice. It feels the 1940's equivalent of America's Test Kitchen, in all the best ways.
A few recipes or sections that caught my attention:
Liver and Bacon Sandwiches
Aspic (clear) Jelly with Cabbage
How to buy and prepare Terrapin or Turtle
Sweet Potato Waffles
Roast Squirrels
High Altitude Cooking
Food and Beverages for Invalids
Wine Seasons
Staple recipes are here as well, from roasting meat, sauces, breads, sides, desserts, and appetizers while subtly plying the reader more technical and pragmatic advice along the way. Diagrams, charts, and color photos are sprinkled throughout. I'm really looking forward to trying some of these recipes, but will be skipping anything Turtle or Squirrel.
A bit more on the origins of this collection:
This cookbook was an accumulation of recipes collected from its progenitor, the New York homemaker's sewing and fashion magazine, The Delineator (1860's to 1930's). The Delineator, a subsidiary of Butterick Publishing Company, also had a cookbook published, the precursor to The American Woman's Cook Book.
I went down a rabbit hole on the web to find the Culinary Art Institute, Directed by Ruth Berolzheimer, was a book publisher, held many test kitchens in Chicago, and was a subsidiary of Consolidated Book Publishers.
My copy is the 1947 Edition, tab indexed, National Binding (yellow hardback), 822 pages. Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer.
October 10, 2022
This is a quite lengthy, but deeply inclusive, cookbook that is sure to pique the interest of fans of old cookbooks and gourmands alike. It sure did for me.
I own a copy from 1941, handed down to me by a relative who obviously used it during its contemporary time, for there are a few cooking and baking stains on some of the pages. That adds to the charm of this book. This tells me that she used it to some extent.
Yet, what is even more interesting – and gag-worthy – are the plethora of recipes using lard. Now, given that these recipes might be suggesting shortening, it is just the mere thought of a brick of lard sitting in one’s refrigerator to use daily in baking and cooking that raises my eyebrows. The only way I use lard today is to make pączki and then for the French fries to clarify the lard, not for my daily meal preparations. Now, given the publication date, using lard is understandable, as butter was on its way to being rationed, and lard was plentiful. The thrifty housewife could ideally make her own.
Then I remembered how relatives told me how they ate sandwiches of lard spread on bread – and that was all – no meat, no eggs, no tomatoes – just pure lard on bread.
Oh, how times have changed!
Back to this review: The American Woman`s Cook Book is a wonderfully educational book with colorful photographs of some of the prepared foods. The recipes can easily be modified to make them healthier without compromising the finished product. There are photographs to give hostesses a guide to setting the table and setting a buffet table, too. Several pages are devoted to menu suggestions, which is very helpful.
📖 Book version.
I own a copy from 1941, handed down to me by a relative who obviously used it during its contemporary time, for there are a few cooking and baking stains on some of the pages. That adds to the charm of this book. This tells me that she used it to some extent.
Yet, what is even more interesting – and gag-worthy – are the plethora of recipes using lard. Now, given that these recipes might be suggesting shortening, it is just the mere thought of a brick of lard sitting in one’s refrigerator to use daily in baking and cooking that raises my eyebrows. The only way I use lard today is to make pączki and then for the French fries to clarify the lard, not for my daily meal preparations. Now, given the publication date, using lard is understandable, as butter was on its way to being rationed, and lard was plentiful. The thrifty housewife could ideally make her own.
Then I remembered how relatives told me how they ate sandwiches of lard spread on bread – and that was all – no meat, no eggs, no tomatoes – just pure lard on bread.
Oh, how times have changed!
Back to this review: The American Woman`s Cook Book is a wonderfully educational book with colorful photographs of some of the prepared foods. The recipes can easily be modified to make them healthier without compromising the finished product. There are photographs to give hostesses a guide to setting the table and setting a buffet table, too. Several pages are devoted to menu suggestions, which is very helpful.
📖 Book version.
March 5, 2012
I'm not sure I'd ever use many of these recipes, but it was pretty interesting to see how people ate, lived, and entertained back in the day.
July 15, 2013
A great little vintage cook book, I occasionally look for simple recipes here before checking in a newer book.
August 6, 2016
a staple
February 9, 2017
Best cookbook ever! Love it! And to know my father bought this for my mom makes it even more special! Thanks, Dad! Been so long..........
May 16, 2020
I absolutely love this book! It was a great history lesson as well as a wonderful source for new (to me obviously) recipes to try.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews