How fun is this find?! Before the advent of computers and the internet, many food and appliance companies would offer pamphlets and books highlighting their products in recipes for the consumer. I found a treasure trove of these Retro Recipe Booklets, which belonged to my mother and grandmother.
Among the metal recipe card holders, books with plastic sleeves to hold hand written recipe cards, newspaper clippings and recipes clipped from cardboard packaging were these books. This is just a sampling of the vintage cookery books in this collection, but they are some of the most fun, eclectic and cringe inducing ones.
For example, Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book, which features Chiquita Banana herself on the cover, her dress layers forming the table of contents.
For only 15 cents, you could buy Del Monte’s Focus on Dried Fruit, or as they called it “condensed nutrition.”
But my favorite just may be a pamphlet copyrighted in 1954, with recipes from the Frito company’s home economist named Daisy Dean. It’s called Daisy Dean’s Famous Ten-Minute Fritos Recipes, and includes recipes from appetizers to desserts. Yes, desserts made with Fritos corn chips.
I have decided to include an exploration of these book and pamphlets in my Retro Recipe Card Files, to show some of the evolution of American cookery. The world of food in America has literally become foods from around the world. Where once this was limited to large cities with immigrant populations, the plethora of food and cooking shows on television and the internet makes exploring different cuisines within arms reach. And finding rare or exotic ingredients is just a mouse click away.
I hope you will have fun and learn on this journey of discovery with me. No mouse clicks, no internet searching, just turning some pages of history. Umm, obviously you have to use the internet to read my blog, but that doesn’t count. 😉
sippitysup says
That’s quite a collection and a fun window to the past! GREG
CherylDLee says
Welcome Lynne and thank you!
I hope you find lots of recipes to cook and enjoy!
Lynne Felciano says
Just found your website while browsing for “oxtail” recipes. You have an amazing website! Thanks for all of the interesting recipes; I’ll be trying some of them very soon.