Clever Cooks: A Ready-Mix of Stories, Recipes & Riddles

by Ellin Greene, Trina Schart Hyman (Illustrator), Marilyn Braaten (Cover Artist)

Start with a basic collection of clever cooks, such as Betta, a rich merchant's daughter who creates her true love out of marzipan. Or Grethel, who eats up her employer’s chicken but neatly avoids punishment. Stir in a few recipes—quick butter cookies, hearty soup, molasses milk shakes. Sprinkle in some riddles and a charm or two, and you end up with a most delightful concoction.

This is precisely what Ellin Greene has done in this charming anthology. She has put together a dozen stories involving clever cooks who outwit fairies, giants, kings and just ordinary people. Interspersed among the stories are charms, riddles and recipes that augment the stories and tickle the imagination.

Mrs. Greene has woven a wide variety of material into a cohesive whole that is laced throughout with warmth and humor.

Genres: Cookbooks

122 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1973

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

An old children's book purchased back in the 1970s by my wife's family or mine that has managed to stay on our bookshelves pretty much unread for fifty years. I'm giving it a read after all this time as part of an indexing project I'm doing of all the books we own.

It's a mix of mediocre folk and fairy tales about cooks or cooking and includes a bunch of recipes I will never make.


The Miller, His Cook, and the King ~ 3 stars ~

The mischievous cook gets a rich miller into trouble with the king and then cleverly gets him back out again. This is the sort of folktale I enjoy.


Clever Oonagh ~ 2 stars ~

Oonagh's husband is worried because another, bigger giant is coming to kick his butt. Oonagh has a plan to spare him though, but it's not as clever as the title suggests. For some reason, the illustrations show Oonagh as being a regular-sized person amidst these giants, though the text doesn't say anything about her size. Odd.


Pinto Smalto ~ 2 stars ~

A young woman builds herself the ideal man out of marzipan, then prays him to life. When he is kidnapped, she spends the rest of the story searching for and trying to free him. Her efforts are helped by a few magic words she randomly picks up along the way. Dumb and boring.


The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling ~ 2 stars ~

This tale from Japan follows a woman who loses a dumpling down a hole, and when she tries to retrieve it she falls into a fantastical underworld with dangerous onis. Her escape plan relies on vomit and is wholly underwhelming.


Dwarf Long Nose ~ 2 stars ~

This variant on Rip Van Winkle has the snotty son of a cobbler and an herb seller losing years as he is used and cursed by a witch. And then a talking goose shows up, because of course they do.


Clever Grethel ~ 3 stars ~

Ooh, Grethel isn't just clever, she's a saucy and naughty femme fatale who knows what she wants and gets it.


Pancake Day ~ 2 stars ~

So, some housewives in Olney, England, have a tradition of racing while flipping pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. So?


The Birth of Simnel Cake ~ 1 stars ~

This history of Simnel cake is as stupid as it is dull.


The Perambulatin' Pumpkin ~ 3 stars ~

A couple of old men at a county fair get into a pissing contest, resulting in one laying out the tall tale of the pumpkin he wasn't able to bring to the fair for judging. Just silly and amusing enough for a thumbs up.


The Old Woman and the Tramp ~ 2 stars ~

A variation on the old "Stone Soup" story has a wandering man tricking a crotchety old woman into having a feast with him. I prefer the other version.



FOR REFERENCE:

This is an abridged version of Clever Cooks: A Concoction of Stories, Charms, Recipes & Riddles, with fewer stories in a different order. Do not combine.

Contents [recipes in ALL CAPS]: Foreword -- The Miller, His Cook, and the King / Vladimir Kavcic -- CAREFREE BUTTER COOKIES -- Butter Charm -- MAKING BUTTER -- Clever Oonagh / Amabel Williams Ellis -- GRIDDLE BREAD -- MARZIPAN -- Pinto Smalto / Giovanni Bastiste Basile, translated from the Italian of Benedetto Croce by Martha Lucci -- COCONUT KISSES -- The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling / Hasegawa Takejirō, translated by Lafcadio Hearn -- CHERRY DUMPLINGS -- Menu for a King / Eleanor Farjeon -- Dwarf Long Nose / Andrew Lang -- JEM'S CHOCOLATE POTATO LAYER CAKE -- CHOCOLATE BUTTER ICING -- Clever Grethel / Walter de la Mare -- ROAST CHICKEN -- Pancake Day -- LITTLE PANCAKES -- FLY-OFF-THE-PLATE PANCAKES -- HONEY BUTTER -- The Birth of Simnel Cake / Eleanor Farjeon -- MODERN SIMNEL CAKE -- FAIRY CAKE -- MOLASSES MILK SHAKE -- The Perambulatin' Pumpkin / Ellis Credle -- PUMPKIN CHIFFON PIE -- GINGERSNAP CRUMB CRUST -- The Old Woman and the Tramp / Nils Gabriel Djurklou, translated by H. L. Braekstad -- HEARTY SOUP -- Cooking Hints

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of stories and recipes. Very much worth a read.