Thursday, July 21, 2011

Look What I Just Found!!!!

Earlier this week I posted my favorite cookbooks on the book page here on my blog, along with my very biased opinion on them. I've been cooking for a LONG time and have amassed a LARGE collection of cookbooks. I have thinned out the collection a few times, and have about 250 or so currently.

One of my all time favorites is the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. I have a copy that belonged to my Grandmothers Cousin. It came complete with notes in the margins, old recipes from the newspaper and a few recipe cards tucked into various pages. All in all the book was in great shape and it holds some of my favorite recipes, ones I still make! Why? Because they are classics, things that haven't been improved upon. As the revised publications of this book came out it evolved with the current food trends of the times and adapted to a more quick and easy form of cooking using packaged foods, etc. Personally, it's not how I cook. Yes, old style can take a little longer, but if you've been doing it a long time, making a pie crust from scratch takes less time than going to the store and buying that stuff they sell in the refrigerator section and it only contains ingredients a six year old can read.

Today as I was scrolling through my activity feed on Etsy, I saw listed in a shop a book I easily recognized...Yep.. the 1950 edition of Betty Crocker! If you LOVE to cook.. I'd run and grab this gem! They did reprint the book a few years back and put it in a note book style format, I also have that one, I acquired it from my Grandmother, who purchased it when it came out, but honestly, it NEVER gets opened...I like my old, starting to fall apart at the binding, full of history, yellowing pages, antique copy! I do also have my Mothers copy from the mid-1960's which is literally held together by some string, it is missing a few pages, but I do still use it for a few recipes. That edition is also worth getting. It was before they really sold out to convenience. I know the current editions still have some recipes that do require actual cooking, but they are a far cry from where the books began.

8 comments:

Made By Tammy said...

I love my beat-up Betty Crocker 1980's book.

Unknown said...

Yep.. Sometimes, the classics are the best. I do like new cookbooks, but for tried and true, you know it won't fail you.. go for the classics!

Anonymous said...

That's so awesome! I'm an aspiring cook! I just hate the clean-up. Haha. I'll have to look at the cook book on Etsy. =)

Unknown said...

Dondi,
I must admit, clean-up is my least favorite part as well.. I don't know anyone who actually likes that part! BUT..it comes with the territory and I still have a 17 year old at home..AKA free labor!(in reality it's NOT so free!)

PGs Gemspiration said...

That's my girl! Now all the cookbooks are in one place. I don't remember which of Granny's cousins had that copy. Who was it? I don't know what I'd do without my old Betty Crocker Cookbook. Glad the mantel's passed on to you.

Unknown said...

Cousin(Aunt)Dorothy..Granny gave me whole bunch of stuff after she passed way, books cookware etc.. I have all kinds of crazy old utensil and stuff too. I am still using the pots and the cookbook, I only occasionally find a use for the utensils.

Nicole V Lozano said...

I was enjoying your cookbook recommendations in astonishment of your collection and wondered, have you heard of http://www.librarything.com/ ? If not you might want to take a peek and see if it might be a nice way to maintain an online catalog of that massive collection. Just a thought... I enjoy using it.

Unknown said...

Nicole,
Thanks, I haven't heard of that..I'll have to check it out!