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Sunset Cooking for Two
A cookbook designed for cooking for two people.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1909
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 29, 2015
Santa gift | Fascinating! Only semi-useful as a cookbook today, but a good proportion of the recipes could still be made as written, more can be made with a bit of translation to current terms, and the book overall is very interesting as an example of historic nutritional science. |
November 26, 2011
This fascinating little volume is a start-from-the-absolute-beginning guide to cooking. It opens with a very useful section titled "A Talk on Food," starting with water, air, carbon, and combustion, and then moving on to the "food principles," explaining in depth proteids, gelatinoids, extractives, protein, carbohydrates, and fats, starches, sugars, and mineral matter. Having read hundreds of cookbooks in my day, I was surprised to find that I was learning quite a few things I'd never known in this little treatise!
Then are explained the operation of the gas range, tables of measures, methods of cooking, and a list of household equipment is given. It was interesting to see the recommendations - included were agate ware (the old-fashioned spatter-paint stuff), aluminum ware, iron and steel, and then tin ware (for baking) wire ware, wooden ware, textiles, glass, silver, furniture, and finally a list of supplies. (Surprises among the supplies: I was startled to see a gallon of molasses called for, and wondered what you'd do with a gallon of it. Sadly, the recipes never filled me in. Other supplies surprises included "lard or cottolene" (cottolene seems to have been a suet-cottonseed oil shortening), and a whole Edam cheese).
Then we entered into the use of water, the making of tea, coffee, and chocolate, the cooking of proteins (milk and eggs), each chapter giving recipes in forms that would teach the principles at hand.
At the close of each of the opening sections, there is a set of study questions. They're not perfectly executed - at least a few times I came to a stumper, thought I'd skimmed over something, and on re-reading found the answer was not in the section. Some of them were answered later in the book, but some of them never were. Poor editing.
The book continues to build on itself, but continues leading you by the hand as new concepts are added most of the way through. Interestingly, it divides the recipes up by their nutritive composition or largest volume ingredient (proteins, carbohydrates, mineral salts/organic acids, sugar, flour mixtures) rather than the usual fruits, vegetables, salads, breads, etc. For that reason I thought it gave an especially good overview of the world of cooking - it presents the underlying framework as the principal organization rather than having the user build that framework herself once she reaches a greater level of understanding.
The book closes with menus - two weeks of menus for each month, which is really terrific, as it gives you a very good sense of what is in season at a particular time. There are some items listed in the menus that are not in the book. I noted the presence of trademarks Bromangleon, a Jell-O predecessor from the creator of the Tootsie Roll, and a cereal named Egg-O-See. I did note in the menus the frequent use of veal and the infrequent use of chicken. Chicken and veal used to be approximately opposite in price - veal was used to make mock chicken drumsticks because it was cheap.
I also learned something from this book that I've been wondering about absolutely forever - and that is the use of the word "digestible" applied to shortened foods like pastry and doughnuts. Early 20th century ads are always going on about how digestible their shortening will make your pastry, and I never really knew what that was about. Well, I found out recently that lard was considered less digestible, so "digestible" is code for "not made with lard." And then on page 311, I found myself face to face with this paragraph:
FINALLY! No longer will those Spry's Aunt Jenny and Crisco's ads bedevil me!
Anyhow, this was a fun little read, quite different from the average cookbook made up purely of recipes. There wasn't much that I learned to cook by reading it, as it is quite plain and simple food, the sort of thing I've long since mastered, mostly, but that would have been perfectly appropriate for its intended audience. This would have been an invaluable book for a young bride or someone who'd been dropped from another planet into an early 20th century homemaking situation.
Then are explained the operation of the gas range, tables of measures, methods of cooking, and a list of household equipment is given. It was interesting to see the recommendations - included were agate ware (the old-fashioned spatter-paint stuff), aluminum ware, iron and steel, and then tin ware (for baking) wire ware, wooden ware, textiles, glass, silver, furniture, and finally a list of supplies. (Surprises among the supplies: I was startled to see a gallon of molasses called for, and wondered what you'd do with a gallon of it. Sadly, the recipes never filled me in. Other supplies surprises included "lard or cottolene" (cottolene seems to have been a suet-cottonseed oil shortening), and a whole Edam cheese).
Then we entered into the use of water, the making of tea, coffee, and chocolate, the cooking of proteins (milk and eggs), each chapter giving recipes in forms that would teach the principles at hand.
At the close of each of the opening sections, there is a set of study questions. They're not perfectly executed - at least a few times I came to a stumper, thought I'd skimmed over something, and on re-reading found the answer was not in the section. Some of them were answered later in the book, but some of them never were. Poor editing.
The book continues to build on itself, but continues leading you by the hand as new concepts are added most of the way through. Interestingly, it divides the recipes up by their nutritive composition or largest volume ingredient (proteins, carbohydrates, mineral salts/organic acids, sugar, flour mixtures) rather than the usual fruits, vegetables, salads, breads, etc. For that reason I thought it gave an especially good overview of the world of cooking - it presents the underlying framework as the principal organization rather than having the user build that framework herself once she reaches a greater level of understanding.
The book closes with menus - two weeks of menus for each month, which is really terrific, as it gives you a very good sense of what is in season at a particular time. There are some items listed in the menus that are not in the book. I noted the presence of trademarks Bromangleon, a Jell-O predecessor from the creator of the Tootsie Roll, and a cereal named Egg-O-See. I did note in the menus the frequent use of veal and the infrequent use of chicken. Chicken and veal used to be approximately opposite in price - veal was used to make mock chicken drumsticks because it was cheap.
I also learned something from this book that I've been wondering about absolutely forever - and that is the use of the word "digestible" applied to shortened foods like pastry and doughnuts. Early 20th century ads are always going on about how digestible their shortening will make your pastry, and I never really knew what that was about. Well, I found out recently that lard was considered less digestible, so "digestible" is code for "not made with lard." And then on page 311, I found myself face to face with this paragraph:
WHY PASTRY IS THOUGHT UNHEALTHFUL
No one of the ingredients in pastry is unwholesome, and fat is absolutely necessary to perfect nutrition; but fat with other food-principles in an artificial combination has often proved unhygienic. To be properly digested, starch must be mixed with the digestive fluids of the mouth, but these fluids have no effect upon fat and, unless the mastication be very much prolonged, the starch surrounded by fat will pass on unchanged to the stomach. Then, if pastry be made, let it be tender, friable and well cooked; and let it be masticated thoroughly.
FINALLY! No longer will those Spry's Aunt Jenny and Crisco's ads bedevil me!
Anyhow, this was a fun little read, quite different from the average cookbook made up purely of recipes. There wasn't much that I learned to cook by reading it, as it is quite plain and simple food, the sort of thing I've long since mastered, mostly, but that would have been perfectly appropriate for its intended audience. This would have been an invaluable book for a young bride or someone who'd been dropped from another planet into an early 20th century homemaking situation.
January 8, 2013
It's a good book
classic recipes plus modern easy ones
i liked the part of sandwiches' ideas
classic recipes plus modern easy ones
i liked the part of sandwiches' ideas
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews