What cookbook are you reading? Part 2

The old thread was getting long, so thought I would start a fresh one.

I'm reading Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery by J. George Frederick. Not a great impression so far. The ingredients would be harder for me to find than Asian or Indian cuisine spices, oh so much starchiness! Long cooking methods. The recipes might be doable for an experienced cook, but a novice would have a hard time. The instructions are written out of order, frequently assuming knowledge that the cook may not have, and leaving out steps. For instance, on a fruit pudding, that it needs to be baked! Maybe it was dumplings which should have been steamed. I was so irritated by the time I got there I don't remember. Hoping the next section about the people will be less irritating. All he has written so far about them is that they were the first and best people in America, and aside from the people in the south, and a few exceptions in New England, the only ones who have any talent for cooking.

>1 MrsLee: Suitably intrigued, I looked up the recipes in the Pennsylvania Dutch chapter of Time-Life's 50-year-old American Cooking: The Eastern Heartland. They didn't seem inordinately stodgy, and no startlingly difficult ingredients -- not, mind you, that I saw anything there that I want to rush out and make. This one is, I believe, available to read on Internet Archive if you're desperately curious. I can only conclude that the one you're reading is best avoided.

>2 hfglen: the difficult ingredients are things like scrapple, snapper turtle, tripe, eel, sago, green corn, oysterplants (?!), calf's head, Reading butter pretzels, calf liver, chestnuts, and the list goes on. I realize I could find some of the items online, but the recipes do not seem all that different from others, nor do they fire my imagination.

As usual, I have more than one cookbook on the go. I'm feeling nostalgic for my ex's and my ex mother-in-law's cooking, so I'm devouring Liv Wan's Home-Style Taiwanese Cooking. It's worth it for the white radish and pork rib soup alone, though I'm using cucumber instead of white radish as my ex mother-in-law did. I'm also enjoying Sabrina Ghayour's Persiana Everyday. I've already made the butternut squash and tahini soup, which was simple and so delicious. Many other recipes are ear-marked...

I'm starting The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert.

I just finished Claudia Roden's Mediterranean, which was a stunning cookbook. Now waiting for "The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever" from my library.

Look What's Cooking, In and Near San Francisco by Katherine Kerry. My mother-in-law had it and maybe got it from her sister who lived in the San Francisco area. It has recipes from restaurants as well as information and history of the restaurants.

>7 MarthaJeanne: Sorry about that. When I post from my phone the touchstones don't show up unless I go back in to edit the post. I forgot.

>9 MrsLee: No problem. I just like to look some of the books up, and this is the easiest way for me, plus the next person doesn't have to do it.

Picked up a copy of the Sunset Cookbook and a local book sale for $2! Hubby has an old copy of Sunset Easy Basics for Cooking and adores it! This is a monster book but have found a lot of great recipes in it!

>11 Barbs2017: I was given the Sunset Easy Basics for Good Cooking for my wedding 39 years ago. It is still my go-to for the basics. I've never seen the bigger version though. Enjoy!

I picked up a copy of Sourdough Jacks Cookery by Jack Macbee. It's dated 1959 and even has a packet of dry sourdough started stapled to the cover! I've tried sourdough several times but each time the started flops after only 1 days of growing! Am going to get serious about the stuff in 2023.

>13 Tess_W: Sourdough is on my 2023 to do list too! My Mom gave me an old recipe from the 70's called Herman! She swears its foolproof!

>13 Tess_W: There are areas where it is tricky to get sourdough to grow. I bought Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. He explains how to catch your own yeast in the "wild" which is what I did. I think I had it easy because I live in my grandmother's house and she used sourdough for years, so the yeast is probably still floating around the kitchen. I also threw in a couple of grapes and a fig from my yard which had the yeast bloom on them. My sourdough (its name is Bob) has been growing for over five years now. Hopefully you will have success! King Arthur flour website has some fantastic recipes for using sourdough.

I finished The Land of 10,000 Plates by Patrice M. Johnson. My local library has a challenge and one was to read a cookbook written by a Minnesota author. It was an intersting read. There were stories as well as recipes.

Just bought a copy of Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes by Anna Thomas.
I find her cookbooks fun to read right through.

Pulled out my Cooking with Friends. From the TV show. It's a fun read with quotes and photos from the show and every recipe I've tried so far was a keeper! Today was Hummus for Doctors and Other Dates. Delicious!

I just came across this discussion thread and got of excited. For the past two years I have been skimming old cookbooks and pamphlets that are in public domain. I find these interesting both from a recipe and historical perspectives. Even if I do not find any recipes I at least get insight into gastronomy of the time.

Three right now, in search of inspiration for tomorrow's supper: Evita's Kossie Sikelela, Fig Jam and Foxtrot and Return to Corriebush. The first is by Evita Bezuidenhout, South Africa's answer to Dame Edna Everage (but "she" cooks good food, which may be sampled at her restaurant, Evita se Perron (this is a typically Pieter-Dirk Uys Afrikaans pun: perron = (train station) platform); sure enough the restaurant is in the disused station at Darling, Western Cape. (It includes a collection of concrete sculptures in an area labelled "Boerassic Park", and in one of the buildings is a "nauseum" of political debris from the previous government. If I go with Evita supper will be chicken.

The other two celebrate the village of Pearston (setting of The Plains of Camdeboo by the late and much missed Eve Palmer), across the mountain from the Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape. Here I'm thinking tomato bobotie, which would be an interesting hybrid between two Cape Malay dishes.

I just re-skimmed Betty Crocker's Frosting Secrets. Technically more of a cake decorating book than a recipe book. This has some good introductory cake decorating methods that don't require investment in lots of cake decorating tools just regular silverware and for the intermediate techniques very few cake tips. There a few diffenent methods I will want to try out. If you have looked at many cake decorating books and have been intimidated like me, this might be a book thats worth a look. (It's avaliable on Project Guttenberg.)

I like to cook from my books. This week I have been using The complete Low-Fodmap Diet by av Sue Shepherd and Peter Gibson. It's a diet book with a lot of recipes and I don't like it, neither the diet which I think is too restrictive or the recipes which I think are too much of a tortuous inconsistent mix. Next week I'll try "Bullens kokbok" in three volumes from the 1930:s. Erik "Bullen" Berglund was a swedish actor who also published several cookbooks and had a radioshow about food, and is nowadays mostly known by a disgusting conserved sausage which is named after him Hopefully the recipes in the books taste better.

I just re-skimmed Homemade candy—sweet and dandy. After starting to look at it, I realized this recipe booklet was printed to advertise for Karo corn syrup years ago. Although at present I don't like to utilize corn syrup except in pecan tarts, this did remind me of some classic candies. Most of these candies in this booklet there are other recipe versions that can be found that does not use corn syrup. So overall the booklet was good for inspiration. (It's avaliable on Project Guttenberg.)

I have been reading Hershey's Chocolate Memories by Nao Hauser . I bought at a thrift store.

>24 mnleona: That sounds interesting. Do any of the recipes look like they have edible results?

>25 hfglen: The recipes look great.
I had no idea who Milton Hershey was and what he did. He built the town for his workers and helped people in so many ways. I am not sure how to put a link so here is my review. On GR, there are 3- 5*, 5-3*, and 1-2*.
More than recipes, this is a story of Milton Hershey and a "Through the Years" cookbook.
Introduction to Chocolate Memories
1899 to 1909 Candies
The Teens:Cookies
The Twenties:Beverages
The Thirties:Puddings, Ice Creama and Other Treats
The Forties:Pies
The Fifties:Cakes
The Sixties:Frostings, Fillings, and Sauces
The Seventies:Breads
The Eighties:Microwave Sweets
Recipe Index:Special HersheyHints; Photography Credits
Each decade has a short story of the history of events and recipes.
Gay 90s Pulled Taffy, Nickelodeon Peanut Butter Bars, Jazz Age Eggnog, Top Hat Custard Ice Cream, Big Band Black Bottom Pie, Pony Tail Pound Cake, Moon Walk Peanut Butter Sauce, Disco Berry Loaf and for the Eightes: Kiss Me Quick Teacakes.
Milton Heshey and his wife Catherine, did so much for their employes like building the town for them but also others of need.
He said "What I want to do is find a practical use for what I have and put it to work in a way to benefit others".

>26 mnleona: Sounds very interesting! Definitely putting this on my list to read.