SC - An Elderly Cookbook.- An Adventure in Recent History ;-)

[Alderton, Philippa]

At a recent fleamarket, I picked up a rather battered Cook Book for $2. At
the time, I was merely hoping that it went back to the '50s, thinking that
it might have a lot of good recipes which don't use commercial products in
them, and I was right- it does. The cover says: "Ladies Home Cook Book", I
think. The book has been through what looks like a fire, and the cover is
very hard to read. There is no title page left, merely an unsigned "Fore
Word". In the front section, which is merely (?) a group of recipes, sorted
by type, I discovered several bookmarks, a couple of which are newspaper
articles with recipes on the front, and baseball standings on the back, the
only date being August 9, No Year, and later a

"Program Children's Day

Grace Methodist Episcopal Sunday School

Kokomo Indiana

June 12, 1904".

There is an index following the initial recipe section, then a section of
bound-in lined notepaper, in which, apparently, the housewife was expected
to write her recipes and other notes, and she did, oh yes, oh my, she did,
in a very proper, very precise, cursive script.

An excerpt:

" Formaldehyde or corrosive (sublimieribe- sic, as best I can tell) on
potatoes before being cut to prevent scab. Gapes in chickens. Three drops of
creoline to one quart of drinking water, should be used as (preventitive ?)
as well.

" Iodine of Potash   2 drams
Compound syrup of (Shlingia?)

"To remove moles from face. bathe in caster oil every day.-------Sweet
spirits nite for frosted feet or hands. Powdered borax will keep moths out
of clothes or rugs."

The next section starts with a very strong looking woman, probably middle
aged, with greying hair, cut rather short and "business like", is the
adjective which comes to mind. She looks very stern, but she also looks as
if she might, when not sitting for a formal portrait, be kind and humorous.
Under her portrait is a cursive signature, "Very sincerely yours,
Marion Harland."
I cannot tell if it is in fact her signature, or an engraving/facsimile.

The facing page says:

"Bills of Fare for All Seasons of the Year including Thanksgiving and
Christmas Dinners

........by...........

Marion Harland"

and a poem:

"We may live without poetry, music, and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books:
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books---- what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope---- what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love---- what is passion but pining?
But where is the man who can live without dining?"

On the following page it says:

"Copyrighted 1896
       By
L. M. Palmer"

The rest of the book is menus with recipes, divided by the seasons. Each
"day" contains a breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with recipes- If I tried to
eat all of what was offered, I'd weigh 500 lbs in a week ;-)

It is very obviously a "modern" American Cookbook- it has recipes for
"Southern Gumbo" and "Brunswick Stew",  "Oyster Soup" and "Oyster Stew",
"Pickled Tripe" and proper "Souse".

What I am asking you folk, is what exactly this cookbook is- when published,
when written, who wrote the first section, etc. Thomas, Bear, Cariadoc, Ras,
Adamantius, I'm particularly counting on your help- I'll be surfing the 'Net
myself to see what I can find, but I think the more we have looking, the
more chance we have of finding something.

My intention is to scan the entire thing and clean it up and put it on CD
for future reference, saving the original for detailed questions- the book
truly is in bad shape, flaking apart, with bookworm holes and such- once I'm
done with it, I intend to seal it in an anaerobic bag. It may not be, in
fact probably isn't, intrinsicly valuable, but I count it a personal
treasure- best 2 bucks I've spent in 20 years ;-)

The Rest of the Story

On the inside of the front cover there is a signature:

Mrs Genevieve Jamison Pickett
Union City, Oh
RR # 5

Upon a series of adventures, including a couple of local police departments
and Chambers of Commerce, I found the local museum for the county in which
Union City is,  in Greeneville, Darke County, Ohio, very near the Indiana
border and 35 miles NW of Dayton, where it just happens I'm scheduled to
visit Andrew MacRobb this weekend. We're going up this weekend, book in tow,
to the Garst Museum to meet with their book curator, and see what else we
can find. If nothing else, this museum happens to have the finest wordwide
collection of Annie Oakley memorabilia, who just happens to be a lifetime
shero of mine, so I rather doubt we'll be bored ;-)

Anybody nearby in the MK is welcome to meet us there- it's open from 11 to 5
on Saturday- we'll be there early.

Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous