When Mother Lets Us Cook by Constance Johnson
This is a charming cookbook for children from 1919 with a ton of recipes and all the tips and rules written in rhyme. The rules are dispersed throughout the book-on the left hand page opposite a recipe.
“Things to Remember”
16 tablespoons make one cup
If milk and or water fill it up;
It takes but 8, heaped full and high,
If what you measure ‘s fine and dry.”
Here’s another very useful rhyme called “Ps and Qs”:
Two cupfuls make a pint; in short
Four even cupfuls make a quart.
And folks have found this saying sound-
A pints a pound the whole world round.
Besides the usual pudding or cake recipes-all very simple and geared for children (there’s a very easy fudge recipe on page 90-it almost sounds too good to be true), there are other interesting recipes.
On page 67, there’s a wonderful recipe for making your own cottage cheese…I’m keeping that one for the next time milk goes off. It’ll be fun to try and I may have a success!
And some “Ever wonder”s are answered!
Ever wonder how Beef Tea is made? (I have-it often comes up in novels and I’ve wondered how it differed from beef broth.) Well, the answer is on page 71!
How about Milk Toast…page 72 tells all.
Neither of these sound particularly appetizing to me but it is nice to finally know how they are made.
I definitely think you should take a look at this charmer…its fun to read. I particularly liked how Constance Johnson tells where to put the saucepan-on the hot part of the stove for example in the fudge recipe-now that is something I never realized. You didn’t just turn up or down the flame on a wood stove-you had to know your stove and know where the hot spots and cooler spots were.
You can read this free e-book on-line or download it in pdf. or Kindle format here.
If you have ever wanted someone to read a cookbook to you, here’s your chance. Kara Shallenberg does a delightful reading of this free audio-book available for download here.
There are some lovely woodblock prints as illustrations throughout the book-this one is the frontpiece.
3 comments:
That looks like a sweet book. I think if I'd known those rhymes when I was younger, it would have made cooking even more fun.
I want to get a copy for it sounds like a wonderful EFL material for children.
Up until I was about 14 my Mum cooked on a wood stove, double oven the firebox went all the way across the top. She kept the irons on the back [no electricity!]and definitely knew the hot spots in the oven and on the cook top! She also kept a bottle of castor oil[gag] for medicinal purposes, I learned NEVER to complain of a stomach ache,LOL!
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