With the new year, I’m moving to 1924 cookbooks. I’m re-energized by the opportunity to explore “new” hundred-year-old cookbooks.

By 1924, more cooks were getting gas and electric stoves, and cookbooks were addressing their challenges as they learned new cooking techniques. The New Home Cook Book noted on the cover that it included a cooking guide for “wood-fire, gas, and electricity.”  Cooks apparently found it challenging to know how long foods should be cooked, so the book included a table that could be used for tracking cooking times, temperatures, and the oven rack used.

The last page of a  hospital auxiliary cookbook published in 1923 had this poem. It fits my mood as 2023 comes to an end. I’ve really enjoyed exploring 1923 cookbooks this year to find foods to make for this blog.

I always do recipes on my Sunday post, so there actually will be one more post on December 31 that contains a 1923 recipe. As I browsed through my 1923 cookbooks one last time to select that recipe, it felt a bit bittersweet. There are so many wonderful 1923 recipes that I never had a chance to make – and that I now will never make as I retire my 1923 cookbooks to the bookshelves in the basement family room; but, at the same time, I can hardly wait to start looking through a whole new (actually old) group of 1924 cookbooks.

Have a happy new year! And, thank you to all the readers that I’ve gotten to know over the past 12 years. You’re awesome. You have made this journey so much fun, and I’ve learned so much from you and your comments. I look forward to exploring 1924 foods with you next year.

Wow! Based on the information in this hundred-year-old advertisement in the 1923 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Baker’s Chocolate has been around for 243 holiday baking seasons.

I’m intrigued by this advertisement because, I posted a very similar advertisement in 2021 from the 1921 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Here’s the image I used from the 1921 cookbook:

It’s fascinating how there are many tiny formatting differences there are across the two years. For example, “Registered U.S. Pat. Office” is two lines in the 1921 advertisement but has morphed into one line that says, “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” by 1923. The border frame is also slightly different on the two ads, and, most intriguing of all, the woman’s face and hair have been tweaked. Why did a graphic designer decide that these changes were needed?

It’s always hard to know how much to spend on gifts. Here’s what it says in a hundred-year-old home economics textbook:

Gifts

At the end of the year many persons who do not keep accounts would be very much surprised if they could see the total sum of money that has been devoted to gifts. Some would be impressed by the smallness of the total sum, and others would be astonished at the disproportionately large amount used. This represents money used for others, but it cannot be taken as a very valuable index of generosity toward others. The money devoted to church and benevolence is a better indication of generosity.

Gifts are given very frequently to persons from whom gifts are received and it very often happens that they are chosen with the idea of equaling in value a gift received. Very frequently gifts represent a money value entirely out of proportion to the income. This class of expenditures may well receive a more careful consideration by many persons. One’s real regard and generosity to friends never can be measured in money and it is unfortunate to put such emphasis upon gifts.

Economics of the Family by C.W. Taber and Ruth A Wardall (1923)

 

I make a “new”  hundred-year-old candy recipe each December. This year I flipped through several 1923 cookbooks trying to decide which sweet confection to make – and ended up going with a recipe called Smith College Fudge that I found in a hospital auxiliary cookbook from western Pennsylvania.

The name intrigued me. Was this fudge commonly made by Smith College students? And, how did a fudge named after a college in Massachusetts end up in a western Pennsylvania cookbook?

This recipe was a winner. This classic fudge was rich and melted in my mouth. It contained a small amount of molasses which is not typically included in modern fudge recipes. The molasses made the fudge more flavorful in a delightful, nuanced way.

Here’s the original recipe:

Chocolate squares are smaller now than they used to be. A square once was 1 ounce; today the squares for many brands are only 1/2 ounce. When I made this recipe, I assumed that the author was referring to the larger chocolate squares of yesteryear, so used 4 squares (2 ounces) instead of the two that the recipe called for. I melted the chocolate prior to mixing with the other ingredients rather than grating it. I also added walnuts when I made this recipe.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Here’s the poem in a hundred-year-old cookbook at the beginning of the Cookies and Small Cakes chapter. Enjoy!

Here’s some hundred-year-old advice for selecting a turkey:

Turkey is the king of the winter table. It may be that there are people who don’t enjoy roast turkey, but the poor things are luckily few. But – if you aren’t careful, your turkey will not be as good as he ought to be. First, don’t pick out a bird whose breast bone is as unbending as iron, and the legs shouldn’t be nice and white, but sort of bluish. Gentlemen turkeys are said to be the best, but I think that’s sex prejudice. I’ve had some delectable meals from lady birds. Clean your turkey thoroughly, pull the tendons from the legs – if you can- and cut out the oil bag at the root of the tail. Wash, and then dry him, inside and out.

The Calorie Cook Book by Mary Dickerson Donahey (1923)

I probably should have done this post earlier in November – though somehow I don’t think that it would have been very helpful when you selected your Thanksgiving turkey.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!