1919 Sixty-Five Delicious Dishes Made With Bread

My grandmother Nell, my Nanny, said it was a “sickness”, her love of collecting cookbooks and recipes. I remember scanning all of her cookbooks on shelves in her kitchen. She had a good many of them, all sorts. She loved them and she loved copying recipes down on index cards and filling her old-school metal recipe box with those and recipe clippings from newspapers and magazines. Her recipe box had a rooster on it and now that she’s gone, God love her, my mother and myself are now the keepers of her cookbook collection, hand-written recipe cards and rooster recipe box. That “sickness”, well, she passed it right along to me with her high cheekbones and fondness for the color green. She loved writing letters and I reckon that’s something I got from her too. All those things she graciously passed on to me come together here, to this blog and to my very first blog post. I like to think she would have enjoyed reading it herself.

While I do love all cookbooks, I prefer old cookbooks with great illustrations and strange, gelatinous recipes. That is why I started collecting the small recipe and advertising booklets whenever I came across them. With everything becoming digital, I feel like I am somehow preserving the past by collecting these little gems of culinary history. They tell us much more than how to prepare a dish. The colors, design, illustrations and even the text and instruction, give a glimpse back in time to what was trendy and fashionable. I love to see the differences from era to era. I particularly love the 1940’s and 1950’s for the war-time fashions and the pastel, bright, candy colors of the atomic age.

The first cooking pamphlet I’ve chosen to share is the 1919 “Sixty-five Delicious Dishes Made with Bread” written by Marion Harris Neil and published by The Fleischmann Co. The cover illustration is a beautiful example of early 20th century women’s fashion. I love the soft colors. There are 32 pages of breads, stuffing, entrees and desserts. I’ve posted photos of some of the recipes that I found interesting and common to the era.

I’ve found oyster dishes were popular during the Victorian era and early 20th century. I love how this one is showcased in a “crust case”. It looks more like an edible bread coffin in my opinion.

Take a closer look at the “Dream Toast” recipe. It’s a fancy name for a grilled-cheese sandwich.

I think what I find most interesting about the recipes in this booklet is the popular bread “case” or basket that serves as the carrier of the dish.

“Arme Ritter” or french toast as we know it. Still sounds delicious, whatever you call it.