Food Friday: Fruit Cake

I have a confession to make. I like fruit cake. I realize this is like confessing to a criminal act, but I don't care.  I like fruit cake. Maybe because no one ever forced me to eat it.  Maybe because no one has ever given me one. But I do like it.Here are three recipes from ladies who probably liked it as well. Notice that all their spices...

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List of Contributors to the Gulf City Cook Book, 1878

While typically you have to read through a community cookbook to find the names of all the women who contributed, there are times when an index or list  is provided. Sometimes this index provides the page numbers and other times it's simply a list of names.Such is the case for the Gulf City Cookbook found on Internet Archive.Have family from Mobile,...

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Food Friday: Scottish Woodcock

This recipe from The Community Cook Book by the First Presbyterian Church, South Orange, New Jersey (1917)  is featured in the Lucheon Dishes section of the cookbook. I've noticed that these luncheon dishes feature lots of cheese. Something that I highly approve of but my doctor doesn't.I should point out that no woodcocks are harmed in the making...

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A Genealogy Community Cookbook

I was excited to receive in the mail yesterday the Conejo Valley Genealogical Society cookbook, A Dash of Thyme. This cookbook is beautiful with vintage photos and recipes from Conejo Valley Genealogy Society members as well as "celebrity" genealogists. The celebrity genealogists include those local to Southern California like Barbara Renick, Jean Wilcox Hibben and Colleen Fitzpatrick and those outside of California like Lisa Alzo, Dear Myrtle, Maureen Taylor, Paula Stuart-Warren and Megan Smolenyak (just to name a few).You can find the recipe...

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Food Friday: Mock Turtle Soup

This community cookbook, My Mother's Cook Book, from the Ladies of St. Louis, compiled for the Women's Christian Home has a few recipes for Mock Turtle Soup (see page 17 for two versions). For the squimish cook, I would recommend the mock soup versus the Turtle Soup found on page 19 that requires the decapitation and bloodletting of a live turtle. (That's something you won't find on Food Networ...

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Funeral Home Advertisement for Newark, New Jersey

Here, the second advertisement on the page, is a possible lead on a funeral home that existed in 1917 in Newark, New Jersey. Notice that the advertisement provide the name of the mortician's father. This might indicate his father was the previous mortician. Which may also show that the funeral home was in existence for a longer period of time.This...

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Advertisers Index from The Community Cook Book. South Orange, New Jersey

As I have written previously, many community cookbooks have advertisements scattered among the recipes.  This was a win-win situation for both the group who was publishing the cookbook and the business advertising. This is also great for genealogists and researchers since that provides information that includes people's names and occupations....

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Cookbook Advertising Directed at Women 1912

One of the great aspects of community cookbooks is that they often include advertisements from community businesses. These advertisements helped pay for the printing of the cookbook. In the example below, the bank decided to target women in their advertisement, which was smart since they were the ones who used the cookbooks.  The bank was probably...

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New Jersey Community Cookbooks

Have a female ancestor from New Jersey?  There is a list of New Jersey community cookbooks on the Rutgers University Libraries website.  These cookbooks were written by women  from churches to membership organizations from 1900 to the present d...

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Food Friday: Jellied Veal Loaf

I like gelatin but I must admit that the combination of meat with gelatin doesn't thrill me.  I grew up with lots of Jello for dessert but mostly it was combined with fruit or a whipped topping. I remember the first time I saw a tomato aspic mold, I was about 20 years old, I couldn't understand why in the world someone thought that combining Jello...

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Happy Thanksgiving!

From: http://hubpages.com/hub/Thanksgiving-vintage-postca...

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1913 Student Recipe Book from Brigham Young College

From Brigham Young College Recipes (1913) available from University of Utah.While this cookbook is not a community cookbook,  it is a cookbook written by a Brigham Young College student and her instructor that includes contributions from other women. Recipes appear to be from instructors at the college and family members. The description for this...

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Food Friday: Tomato Appetizer

I had been thinking of doing something fun on Fridays featuring community cookbook recipes.  The title Funky Food Friday seemed appropriate but I decided that I didn't want people to feel insulted in case they enjoy the recipes I feature. But let me just say that each Food Friday installment will feature more unusual recipes.This first installment...

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Community Cookbook Contributors Aren't Always in the Same Community

Typically, when we see a community cookbook, the contributors are those who are somehow a part of the local community.  They all attend the same church, their kids go to the same elementary school or they share a favorite charitable cause.However, one's community may be more broad than that.  In genealogy there is the concept of cluster research. Cluster research looks beyond the individual and looks at those who had contact with the individual ancestor, like local business people, neighbors, and midwives.  Our ancestor's did not...

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Using Cookbooks as Family History Books

Yesterday one of my Facebook friends posted a link to a news story about a family who took their family history and recipes and created a cookbook. (Read more about the story entitled, Family Records 160 years of History in Cookbook.)One of my cousins did something similar to this. She wrote a cookbook where she included a brief story with each recipe. Stories included the author of  the recipe, memories of that person and when they cooked the dish (for example it it was a holiday or a family favorite). As I looked through her cookbook I noticed...

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Menu from Camp Funston, 1917

 On this Veterans Day I want to thank all those who are serving and who have served in the military. Your service is appreciated.So thinking about Veterans Day and its precursor Armistice Day, I started wondering what people were eating during the World War I years. I came across a menu available through a digitized menu collection at the Los...

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Houston Presbyterian Church Cookbook circa 1883

Information about Church Cookbooks seem to be almost everywhere. Case in point is the inclusion of a page from a Presbyterian Church Cookbook in the book, Houston 1860-1900 by Ann Dunphy Becker (published by Arcadia and part of their Images of America series). On page 31 she has an image of a page from this cookbook, no other publication information is listed.  It also appears that the recipes from this cookbook may not have the names of submitters attached to them but it's hard to tell looking at only one page.The page the author used in...

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What Did Your Family Eat in the 1920s?

Ever wonder about your ancestor's life in the 1920s?  The website, The Roaring Twenties: A Historical Snapshot of Life in the 1920s and their  blog, provides some great information about all sorts of social history including food.The short article on food includes information on what foods were ate, appliances and prohibition. A list of food advertisements provides an idea of what was available from various companies. Other pages that relate to food include Prohibition and Gard...

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The El Paso Cookbook

In many cases, community cookbooks are self published in small runs so that many are never archived. The total number of community cookbooks ever published will probably never be known.  But in a rare case, a cookbook may be reprinted and annotated for a modern audience.  Such is the case for the El Paso Cookbook, originally written to benefit the Ladies Axillary of the Y.M.C.A. in El Paso, Texas. This book is available to read at Google Books and available for sale at Amazon.This cookbook provides a short history of charity cookbooks...

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On the Bookshelf: The American History Cookbook

I've been reading various cookbook histories and picked up The American History Cookbook by Mark H. Zanger at my local library. This book provides the reader with  historical information on food and recipes throughout American history. These recipes are largely from cookbooks published in each historical era. Recipes begin with America before it was "discovered" and then continue through history to include the Revolutionary War, Early American Health Food, The Civil War, Settlers and Homesteaders, World War I, The Great Depression, World War...

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Church Record Sunday: Historic Paxton Church Cookbook

You have to love a cookbook that has so much rolled into it. Not only does the cookbook, Historic Paxton, Her Days and Her Ways 1722-1913. Family Recipes Contributed by The Women's Aid Society of Paxton Church have recipes but it also has a comprehensive history of this Paxton, Pennsylvania  church. This history includes not only the church, the ministers, and the attached school but even the history of the graveyard.  This is my kind of cookbook! There is 144 pages of historical content before you reach the recipes section.To get to...

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Recipes from the Past: Vinegar Pie

Have you ever thought about the food that generations past ate but that for whatever reason is absent from your dinner table?  I'm always interested in knowing why some of the dishes of our parents or even grand-parents generation no longer are fixed.  Now, I do realize that in some cases you wouldn't want them to end up on your dinner plate....

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Libraries and Websites to Find Community Cookbooks

This list will be migrating over to the right side bar but for now I thought I would bring your attention to just a few places that have collections of community cookbooks.  These resources are not just regional, they have collections from all over the United States. This list is in no particular order.LibrariesLos Angeles Public LibraryUniversity of Illinois LibraryLibrary of Congress Radcliffe Institute Schlesinger Library Harvard University WebsitesInternet Archive...

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Where Can I Find Community Cookbooks?

As with any new resource that you want to research for clues to your family history, the most important question is where to find that resource. Currently, community cookbooks are a little different than the majority of genealogical resources we typically use. They are not indexed in a database. They are not available on a subscription site. And because they are largely self-published, they are not part of  all library collections. So what's a researcher to do?Well, that's when it's necessary to not mull over where they aren't but where they...

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Community Cookbook: Spirit Lake Cook Book

One of the oldest community cookbooks in my personal collection is the Spirit Lake Cook Book sponsored by Dorcas Circle of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1937. Spirit Lake, Iowa.This cookbook features recipes and advertising from local businesses. Including advertising was mutually beneficial, it allowed businesses to receive much needed exposure...

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What Did Your Family Eat During World War II?

World War II ushered in an era of necessity that changed the way Americans, and those in other nations, ate. This era included such experiences as food rationing, victory gardens and introductions to different types of food. All families would have been affected as their choices at the grocery store were diminished and women were encouraged to make...

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Introduction: Community Cookbook Detective

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Cookbooks Reflecting our Religion

On my blog, Gena's Genealogy I have a weekly theme called Church Record Sunday. These postings deal with archives, books and records that might help you find church records for your ancestor. On occasion I have written about cookbooks as part of Church Record Sunday.In studying community cookbooks, considering the beliefs of the group who is publishing the cookbook can help in learning more about your ancestor's life. Their beliefs about food including the use of alcohol, meat, vegetables and desserts will become apparent in the pages of their...

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Welcome to Food.Family.Ephemera

Some readers may know me as a genealogist. As a genealogist, I am very interested in the records that our female ancestors left behind. Family history researchers often get frustrated by the lack of records for women and the difficulty in researching women. This concern led me to thinking, what records exist that are unique to women? What resources...

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