Presentation
Introduction
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Gee, you guys are on the cutting edge. You know cookbooks used to be just cookbooks, right? Not any more. Are we getting the -- you want to get the lights down? And I’ll tell you when to stop. Okay.
Well, cookbooks, now, are becoming studied for their significance historically, and for what they can tell us. And that’s part of what I’m going to be sharing with you this evening. I think I’ll take my glasses off so I can see.
Are you okay? Is it dark enough?
AUDIENCE: No.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay. You might -- you can go a little darker.
I can still read. So if you need it darker.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: I think that’s about my max.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay. All right.
Within the pages of Missouri cookbooks readers find more than recipes for culinary creations; they find solutions to common household problems. Dad has dyspepsia. There are ants in the pantry and the hens have quit laying. The brass fixtures are dull and the children have a cough and there’s still supper to cook. What’s a busy housewife to do?
Missouri’s early authors and compilers have invited readers into their kitchens to share details of demanding household duties, information about daily farm activities and bits of information about ongoing medical problems. Certainly, they also deliver cooking instructions. Additionally, Missouri’s cookbooks have documented the affect that world events, societal changes and technological advances have had on those who gather around our kitchen tables.
Cookbooks have also been an important part of fairs and festivals and have even entered the political arena. Missouri’s community charity cookbooks organized and published by groups throughout the state often include local, historical, community vignettes blended with recipes for such ol’ time favorites as jam cake, vinegar pie, corn pone, pot roast and dandelion wine, thus preserving important community historical details along with instructions for a delectable fare. Missouri’s cookbook history presents a table set with platters, bowls and dishes of simple, hearty foods prepared with fruits and vegetables grown in Missouri’s farms, meats from the animal raised on our state’s farms, our game hunted in Missouri woods and fields, and fish caught in its lakes and streams and rivers.
In modern times cookbooks have added recipes using items perched -- purchased at a plethora of grocery stores, public markets, farmers markets and roadside stands. Even though Missouri cookbooks use similar food products, ethnic cookbook authors and compilers assure readers that indeed there was and continues to be variety on the Missouri table by detailing ethnic and regional styles and techniques, adding ingredients, spices and flavorings to suit their specific cultural tastes.
Missouri’s cookbook authors and compilers have also brought the state into the 21st Century with stylish works brimming with sophisticated recipes using updated food products some reflecting current health issues of the day, and others preserving regional fare and encouraging ethnic options.
Cookbooks have preserved for present day Missourians a sense of times past in their kitchens and in their communities both rural and urban. In the state’s cookbooks time is marked in the kitchen through descriptions of cooking devices, kitchen equipment and utensils.
Cooking details chronicle the availability of food products used in dishes for family meals. Early cookbook use -- early cookbooks utilize basic staples from the store combined with homegrown fruits, meats and vegetables in made-from-scratch meals.
Modern life not only brought high-tech gadgets and appliances in the kitchen, but also an assortment of pre-packaged and prepared food items, many of which have enticed Missouri cooks to trade homemade tastes for convenience and efficiency.
An examination of the style in which a recipe is written provides information not only about the contributor of the recipe, but also about the intended reader. Let me explain. A pie or a cake recipe in early Missouri cookbooks assumes a certain level of expertise and thus offers minimal mixing and measuring directions. On the other hand, recipes found in more recent cookbooks line out much more detailed directions including exact measurements for the convenience of the not-so-savvy modern Missouri baker or cooker.
5:55 First American Cookbook
In 1796, in Hartford, Connecticut, the first American cookbook was written by an American for American cooks. It was published in 1796. It was the work of Amelia Simmons. She was a good cook. She knew her way around the kitchen, but unfortunately she could not write. So she arranged for somebody to pen her cookbook for her. At the time of 1796 that that publication Missouri was, at that time, on the western frontier.
6:32 Manuscript Cookbooks
The earliest Missouri cookbooks that John and I have been able to locate are manuscript cookbooks. Here we mention two that are preserved at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. The first is titled: The Julia Clark Household Memorandum Book. This is Julia. She was the wife of William Clark of Lewis & Clark fame. This cookbook documents the food ways of a notable family of the early 19th Century on the western frontier. It also includes detailed lists of the Clark family’s items of clothing allowing us to have -- to see what -– to learn about what the fashions of the day were like.
I’m going to read to you an example of one of Julia’s recipes. I will tell you that in this recipe there was one period and one comma. And I’ve been practicing this. I punctuated it being the English, past English teacher. To one quart of flour take a pint of new milk a large bit of butter warm your milk and butter together then put to your flour four spoonfuls of yeast and three eggs beat this in your flour with your milk and butter warm make it in a batter and set it to rise in the morning work it well make out your roles, by the way, rolls is spelled R-O-L-E-S. Lay them on a tin plate to rise when enough rises bake them quick they are very light and fair.
The second manuscript cookbook was written by Harriet O’Fallon. Can you-all hear me?
(No response.)
MS CAROL FISHER: The wife of Clark’s nephew John O’Fallon. And you may know that O’Fallon, Missouri, is named after this influential family. Here you will see one of Harriet’s recipes, instructions for preparing tomato or love-apple ketchup. This recipe and Julia’s recipe demonstrate the recipe format in the voice of two Missouri cooks in the 17 -- in the 1820s.
8:44 Nineteenth Century Cookbooks
Now, let’s enjoy some of the earliest 19th Century published Missouri cookbooks. This is My Mother’s Cook Book. It was published in 1880 and possibly as early as 1875. It was compiled by the Ladies of St. Louis for the benefit of the Women’s Child- -- Christian Home.
In this cookbook we find recipes for some dishes not so different from things that we have on our tables, our Missouri tables today. For example, we find that cooks of this time prepared familiar Missouri fares such as beans, peas, corn, roast beef, and fried fish. Not so different. However, they also cooked snipes, woodcocks, quail and pigeons. Not to be overlooked is a recipe for fried pigs’ feet. I have heard of pickled pigs’ feet, but not fried. John’s had pickled pigs’ feet, not me.
A special interest to us in this cookbook is a recipe for mock turtle soup. Preparation of this dish involves a multi-step culinary process requiring two days to complete. I’m going to read just part of it.
First Day: Take one large calf’s head with skin on. Let the butcher open. Remove the eyes and nose. Wash in cold water several times. That’s good. Take out the brains, skin and tie them in a thin cloth. Put in a pot with the head and three quarts of water. Skim carefully while boiling one hour. Take out the brains and put a side. Add to the soup two onions, two turnips, one leek, a bunch of parsley, cover and let stand where it boils gently seven hours.
At the time -- at the same time in a second pot an old hen, a knuckle of veal and three quarts of water, boil seven hours. Get this, let stand overnight and skim off the fat the next morning.
And then the process continues into the second day. With numerous seasonings added more simmering, then straining, then making gravy and also meatballs the size of a pigeon’s egg out of the brains. If the cook prefers she can make small egg balls instead of the brain meatballs to add the soup -- to add to the soup just before serving.
The compilers of My Mother’s Cook Book promise in a grandiose prose what the book will -- how -- what the -- promise that the book will solve problems of new cooks having to cope with the standards set by their experienced mothers and by their mother-in-law. This is what they say in the opening parts of -- of the preface: “Recipes here have been sent from all parts of the known world, some even from New Jersey.”
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Go figure. And they write: “Here is a wilderness of pies, puddings, pickles, jellies, jams. Here are more cookies and cream pies that could be found at a charitable Sunday school picnic.”
And if an inexperienced cook uses these recipes she will learn from her husband, she will hear from her husband, “Wife, your cooking of this or that dish has outdone our mothers. A thing we considered impossible.”
Additional cookbooks of this time period caught our interest. This is one of my favorite cookbooks coming up. And we don’t have a slide for this one. Yes, we do. Though this is not my favorite the next one is. Sorry about that. This book is Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving it was written in 1876 while the author was living in St. Louis. Mrs. Mary Foote Henderson was the bride of U.S. Senator John B. Henderson from Missouri. She -- he came to -- she came with him from New York as his bride. She was well-educated and attended cooking schools in America and in Europe. Her recipes reflect this culinary training.
Here is a sample of one of the pages from her cookbook demonstrating how to prepare and furthermore how to plate a salmon. She developed -- she devotes a portion of her cookbook to delivering a detailed discussion of how meals should be served properly.
Now, this is mine -- my cookbook coming up that I like. A little more than a decade later after Henderson shared her expertise on cooking and dinner giving in 1887 the Ladies of Kansas City organized their cookbook, Housekeeping and Dinner Giving in Kansas City under the editorial direction of Mrs. Willis and Mrs. Bird.
Now, we don’t have a slide for this because some of the old cookbooks have just generic folders and covers and not much in them. Really a lot of them don’t have any illustrations in them. If a young housewife in Missouri whether in the city or the country knew very little about taking care of her home her shortcomings would easily be remedied by ready Mrs. Willis’s 12 page narrative at the beginning of the cookbook.
The editor guides her readers from room to room and duty to duty delivering lessons. Over 100 years after the book’s publication, 21st Century readers have the opportunity to experience a virtual tour of what happens -- what appears to be a Kansas City home staffed with at least one servant.
We learn about the changing servant situations of that time. She writes, “The days of trained servants seem to be -- seem to have passed away and it’s necessary for every housekeeper to know something more than the theory of work. She must know how to put her knowledge to practical use that she may be able to teach and to control her servants.”
Mrs. Willis is generous in her spring cleaning tips. Here’s what she says, “bed clothes and pillows must be hung before an opened window and once each month mattresses should be taken into the open air.” Her suggestion for controlling bed bugs is to forget the poisons because they simply compel the bugs to leave the beds and go to other areas of the room. Her answer is what she advocates instead is to wash the bed, the slats and the sides and the ends of the mattress with a wet cloth soaked in brine. So what she’s essentially doing is killing the eggs.
Her tactic for keeping ants out of the tin safe is to place the legs of the tin safe into little cups of water. Sounds like it would work for me. She favors burning kitchen garbage because she doesn’t “see the need to have a swill bucket if you don’t have hogs.”
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: We certainly have come along way in our -- with our modern kitchen garbage disposals; don’t you think? When our carpets get soiled; what do we do? We call the local cleaning service. Not so in Kansas City at the time of Mrs. Willis’ cookbook. She hangs her rugs on a line and beats with them with a contraption described as “a leather strap two inches wide and four or five feet long on a wooden handle.” And then spot cleans the rugs with suds of soap, tree bark or beef gall. Sounds appetizing.
Instead of -- of interest to me was a gadget that she spoke of kind of like, I guess, would be like our modern intercom system. She says that -- she refers to it as a speaking tube. She uses it to communicate with her cook when she’s ready for the cook to finish up preparing breakfast.
And what about that breakfast in Kansas City at this time? A KC breakfast in her opinion sports a hearty bill of fare. Broiled beef steak, Saratoga potatoes, scrambled eggs, yeast powder biscuits, tea and coffee. And, oh by the way, she says, that you can have a first course of fruit or oatmeal and that’s acceptable. And as well, she said in seasons -- in season you can have sliced tomatoes. I always wondered why I ate sliced tomatoes on the farm. We always had them for breakfast. My friends in Kennett thought I was crazy. Indeed a hearty breakfast contrasted with precooked Jimmy Dean Summer -- Jimmy Dean Sausage Biscuits heated in a microwave or a couple of frozen waffles popped into the toaster.
Her directions for prepping spring chickens for the kill are priceless. Time constraints here prevent me sharing all of the details sufficed to say the chickens for her fried chicken dinner were plump and white quite unlike she says the skinny boney chickens that she finds at the market. And certainly different from our pre-fried frozen chicken strip dinners.
Another book that’s of interest to me because, you know, we have the health movement going on right now. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the vegetarian movement came to the United States in the mid 1800s. I was surprised. I didn’t realize that it came that early.
Health in the Household: or a Hygienic Cookery by Dr. Susanna Dodds was published in 1883. She was one of St. Louis’s first women doctors. One source indicates that there were only two women doctors in St. Louis before she came to St. Louis. She came to practice with her sister Mary who also had medical training. And what they did is they organized their practices in St. Louis. At that time, women doctors were not accepted by the male doctors very much in the late 1800s.
And so what the women would do is they would set up their own clinics. And what they did they used natural treatments for healing, which included diet, exercise, massage, electricity, hydrotherapy. And instead of the mainstream practices, and I think I would have rather gone to her, which included purging, bleeding and the use of drugs.
Now, Dr. Dodds and I have her cookbook down her on the table, she did this extensive cookbook and she had three sections of the cookbook. The first one was, “The Strict Hygienic”, is what they called it, the strict hygienic way of eating. Then she had a section called “The Compromise”. And then one called “The Worldly Recipes”. Now, this is interesting. According to the information in the cookbook the strict hygienic diet did not allow the use of these things in the kitchen: white flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk, sweeteners, spices, condiments and flesh foods. What’s left? Fruit, vegetables and whole wheat flour; is there anything else? I guess that’s it.
Now, that does take quite a bit of ingredients from the cook. Dodds was influenced by her husband who was a strict vegetarian and by other doctors who promoted the -- this same way of eating. One of her medical contemporaries indicates that in addition to her positive role of contributing to medicine of the time she also took a stand for dress reform. And she, “continued to stock -- to shock the prudish of her era by wearing pants instead of dresses.”
Okay. This is our new slide. Here we see the cover of the Granite Iron Ware Cook Book put out in 1896 in St. Louis by the Granite Iron Ware Company. There is speculation that an earlier edition came out in 1878. This small 64 page company cookbook mixes recipes with images of the company’s products for the kitchen and home. Cookbook historians indicate that this small promotional publication set the style for kitchen utensils across the country. And here is the little book. It’s just a little baby book. Isn’t that cool?
Even though the cookbook was -- had limited space with relatively few recipes in it the company designated a section, and I love this, to detail the social dos and don’ts of Missourians who traveled in elevated circles, social circles at the time.
Readers are told that persons invited to a dinner party should be of the same standing in society. They need not be acquaintances, yet, they should move -- they should be such as move in the same class. Good talkers and good listeners are equally invaluable at a dinner. And among your guests invite a couple of musicians. This will add greatly to the entertainment before and after dinner.
Readers also learn that gentlemen cannot be invited without their wives. That is unless it is to be a dinner given only for gentlemen and ladies should not be invited without their husbands when other ladies were invited with their husbands. The time for dinner in the city was from five to eight and in the country an hour or two earlier was acceptable.
Now, take a look of the back cover of the Granite Iron Ware book, is that where we are, John?
MR. JOHN FISHER: Yes.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: This is the back cover. This back cover features numerous toilet articles including slop jars, water carriers, foot tubs and chamber pots. Certainly essential items for the times back then however, they are not the sort of items that you might find on a modern day cookbook in Missouri.
23:44 Community Cookbooks
I’m sure many of you would agree that our community cookbooks, the ones we use for our fundraising activities are some of our favorite cookbooks. Just let me tell you how -- do any of you know how community cookbooks got started?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Community cookbooks got their start during the Civil War. A few -- the first known charity community cookbook was written by a lady name Maria J. Moss. And she lived in Philadelphia. She donated a cookbook that she had previously written to the Great Philadelphia Sanitary Fair. Do any of you know what sanitary fairs are?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay. In the north during the Civil War the high-society ladies had these huge like large bazaars and they raised -- actually millions of dollars during a few years and what the proceeds went to, they went to whatever the government could provide for the Northern soldiers. They did not primarily give the stuff to the Southern soldiers.
Selling fundraising -- now, this was in 1864, keep this in mind, selling fundraising cookbooks obviously became a very popular money-making activity by women’s groups because by the 1870s and the 1880s organizations across the country including some in Missouri were developing and promoting cookbooks through their church and civic organizations. And that -- that’s not very long. Several reasons contributed to the popularity of community cookbooks.
Cookbooks reflected, first of all, what was actually being cooked in the kitchen. The ingredients called for were generally available. Many times at their backdoor, you know, in their kitchens. Signed recipes indicated that these recipes were tried and true because women probably did not want to put their name on a recipe that was a bust, you know, they needed a good recipe.
Individuals buying fundraising cookbooks may actually have tasted some of the recipes, the foods because they may have attended church supper, church dinners, things like this. And so they knew that they were going to be getting a set of good recipes if they had been to church chicken and dumpling dinners and stuff like that. Groups planning a cookbook often sold ads in their cookbook to help finance their project so they’d have more money.
Today these ads tell us a whole lot about the early history of some our communities in Missouri. Let’s take a look to see what we can learn from some of these ads. Now, I have to tout my hometown. This is an Arcadia Valley Cook Book. My hometown is Ironton. And this was -- or this cookbook was organized in 1920 by the Ladies’ Aid Group at the Baptist church in Ironton.
It includes an ad for the A.J. Sheahan Granite Company in Graniteville, Missouri, which is a neighboring community. The ad features a photo of a giant granite boulder located in Graniteville known as the Elephant Rock. Information at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources website indicates that the property where the Elephant Rock rests was -- is located, moved into private ownership as a public park when Dr. John S. Brown, a retired St. Joe Lead Company geologists purchased the property and then donated it to the state for a public park.
Okay. This is an ad from a Campbell Cook Book. You might be surprised to learn that in 1910 if you had some wild horses that you could take advantage of the following service at the Campbell -- in Campbell, Missouri. This ad appeared and, I think, the ladies of the First Baptist Church there did this. The ad reminds, “Don’t fail to bring in your wild horses. We do all kinds of blacksmith and woodwork. We work promptly and have reasonable rates.”
The Kitchen Oracle, I think, I have this cookbook down here, too, was compiled in 1889 by the Helen Richardson Mission band of the St. Louis Lafayette Park M.E. Church South. In this cookbook not only could we find an ad for a homeopathic doctor, but we could also locate information on an excursion steamer.
Doctor C.H. Eyermann lists office hours and indicates treatment specialties including chronic diseases and diseases of women and children. Can you guess who C.H. might be?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: My guess because this doctor specifically advertises for the treatment of diseases of women and children is the C.H. Eyermann might be a woman doctor. I also was intrigued by the phone number, Sidney 282.
In the Columbia Excursion ad we learn about leisure activities of the time. This time a day or evening excursion on the City of Providence. The suggestion here is that this might be a nice activity for churches, Sunday schools or societies. Another page of the same book features a full page ad for the Iron Mountain Railroad detailing the famous winter resorts of the Southwest. The ad gives readers, the modern day reader, the idea of what a leisurely train trip would have been like in the late 1800s. According to the ad tourists traveled in cars with varying amenities. Can you-all read that? Can they read it, John?
MR. JOHN FISHER: The bigger print, not the small print.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: They -- the cars range from Pullman buffet sleeping cars to reclining chair cars. The seats were free, not an extra charge and Pullman tourist cars and then elegant day coaches. The ad as far as setting up how they’re going to do this, how they’re going to pay for it; the ad indicates that the tourist tickets were on sale via the line at greatly reduced prices, rates, no e-tickets here, no e-mail at this time and maybe not even a phone.
Since no phone number is applied. The ad continues call on. I interpret that to mean stop by or address any agent of the company or the general passenger agent in St. Louis.
Okay. This isn’t an ad --
MRS. CAROL FISHER: -- This is actually a picture we got from the State Archives. The Pure Food Cook Book was compiled by the farm women of Missouri in 1923. A bit Missouri history shows up in an ad in the cookbook via a small ad for two hatcheries. After seeing the ad John and I started doing a little bit of research and we focused our efforts on the chicken production in Missouri.
This photo is the courtesy, like I said, of the State Archives here and it shows a laborer and chickens scrambling for food at the Booth Hatcheries and Farms in Clinton. As many of you may know that Clinton is, was what? The Baby Chick. They don’t know it, John. Capital of the world at one time.
A final observation about community cookbooks, like cooks themselves community cookbooks continue to be affected by societal changes. Think about this, replacing the made-from-scratch recipes that appeared in earlier projects, probably grandma’s recipes, community cookbooks today are primarily filled with what?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: They’re filled with types of recipes found in a steady flow of women’s magazines, newspaper food columns and food magazines designed to offer cooks albeit women or men the latest in cooking styles, techniques, ingredients and projects and products. You know our, what’s in cookbooks in the community cookbooks has changed.
32:07 Ethnic Cookbooks
I want to talk a little bit about ethnic cookbooks, now. Ethnic cookbooks in Missouri on Missouri’s cookbook buffet reflect the diverse mix of cultures that settled our state. Our settlers crisscrossed the state, forded rivers, carved trails through the woodlands, cleared land, established farms, built homes, raised families and as they did this definitely influenced what we eat. This photo -- this is my three little dead pig photo -- I’m sorry -- this photo represents a fall activity practiced on farms in Missouri in order to provide meat for the family table.
In central Missouri, here it was seen that these German farmers in Norborne had a busy morning and probably still have a lot of work to do until they get all the meat processed. In the southwestern part of the state the senior citizens of Freistatt, also one of the state’s German communities, compiled a small Missouri cookbook under this name.
And when you hear a name like this you know you’re going to get some goodies in it. Authentic German recipes: Old Time Remedies and Historical Sketches of Freistatt you’re going -- this is going to be a gold mine in history. The seniors devoted almost half of the space in their cookbook to information about their community’s way of living; about its customs, reserving the other half for authentic German recipes. They included discussions of homebuilding, housekeeping details, community development, social activities and church life.
Accounts of farming practice including this same fall butchering practice and the recipe collection includes instructions for various ways of preserving the meat that was grown on the farm.
Two additional noteworthy of German cookbooks if you’re looking for German heritage cookbooks, one, is the German Missouri Cookbook of Duden County by the Augusta Historical Society. And then some of you may be aware of The Art of Hermann German Cookery. I have both of those on the table if you want to look at them and get the information.
Okay. Descendants of the members of the Pennytown -- how many of you have heard of Pennytown? Raise your hands. Good somebody’s heard.
Descendants of the members of the Pennytown Freewill Baptist Church collected their favorite recipes and published Sharing Recipes Pennytown cookbook in 1993 as a fundraiser for this church preservation project. The story we learn in the opening pages of this cookbook is it’s a story of Pennytown a small African-American community in central Missouri. And what they say is this: “It is believed that Joe Penny came to Missouri from Kentucky on March the 30th1871 purchased a little over eight acres of land and divided it into 100 square feet plots and divided it amongst the people of his race.”
According to Karen Grace of the -- the editor of Preservation Issues this appears to be a rare business transaction possibly the only instance in the early period -- of this early period of a legal transfer of land to a freed man. It’s interesting to note that the Pennytown Church became a part -- or the Pennytown Church became a part of this community and this little church is the only surviving building from that town, which was a bustling little town.
The church has been preserved and descendants of the Pennytown Church meet the first Sunday afternoon -- the first Sunday of August in the afternoon for a dinner on the grounds and then they have a church service.
The compilers of the cookbook included recipes in honor of the descendants. Actually they had two editions of the cookbook. One of them includes a lot of recipes given in honor of these descendants. Some are found more frequently on African-American tables, but to my surprise many of these old time recipes I feel reflect the same cooking styles of most of the cookbooks in rural Missouri at that time in this state.
Of particular interest was one that was contributed in memory of George S.H. Green. It was his instructions for preparing a pot of wild greens and it lists all the greens that we went out and hunted and how he cooked it and what he put in it and how he seasoned. And then Josephine Lawrence had a recipe for chitterlings. And then recipes for baked goods; one of the church member said that -- or one of the members in the area said this would have been the things they carried to what they call basket dinners. Sweet potato pie, sour cream raisin pie, southern fried peas, rhubarb cream pie, black walnut cookies and the list went on forever.
Now, we don’t have a picture of the next short thing I’m going to say about one cookbook. I have it down here on the corner of the table, the white one. It’s called, just simply, Ethnic Cookbook and it was a project of the Novinger community. The Novinger Plan Progress is the name of the organization. And what they did is they dedicated it to the members of their community whose ancestors had immigrated to America and had worked in the coal mining area of Novinger, if you’re familiar with that area.
It was interesting to me all the different cultures that were represented and they have recipes for each one of these cultures. They had Irish, Scottish, German and Polish. They had Danish, Welch, Yugoslavian, Croatian, Austrian, Italian, French, English, Czechoslovakian, Canadian and Anglo-American. This cookbook, if you like to cook ethnic foods, is literally -- it offers Missouri cooks an actually international recipe feast.
All right. This is Foreign Cookery, this was published originally as recipes from abroad, but it was so popular that it was prepared again. And it was prepared by the women of many different nationalities that participated in activities at the International Institute in St. Louis. Recipes from 33 foreign countries arranged alphabetically by country are included in this little 100 page book. And I think I might have that down there.
One that I have down there, but I don’t have up here is an Italian cookbook. And the reason I talk about it, have any of you seen it? It’s from The Hill. It’s called, The Hill: Its History - Its Recipes. Ah, don’t they have good recipes in there. It was written by Eleanore Berra Marfisi. And it’s an example of a slick modern Missouri cookbook and it’s illustrated with melt in your mouth color food photos contrasted with black and white photos that are vintage photos of their community members. Have you seen the cookbook?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: It’s a great cookbook. The cookbook features Italian recipes from individual cooks, but also if you like to visit the restaurants there they include restaurants from the four of the notable Italian restaurants on the Hill, which is a long-time Italian neighborhood in St. Louis.
Marfisi discusses contributions made by the members of the community in the area of education, politics and business. The cookbook also includes information about leisure time, activities and social interaction in the community.
Anybody here a Cardinal fan?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: I see some red. For her Cardinal fan cooks the author notes that at one time baseball Hall of Fame members Joe Garagiola, Jack Buck and Lawrence “Yogi” Berra, I figured this is one of her relatives, all lived on the same block on the Hill at one time.
Also, in our project, in Pot Roast down here, the book, we discussed three Jewish cookbooks that came out of St. Louis and Kansas City. And I would also like to mention the recipes of old Ste. Genevieve. This was first published in 1959 and it takes cooks down the streets and into the kitchens of colonial Ste. Genevieve, Missouri’s earliest permanent settlement.
40:55 Cookbooks Record History
All cookbooks in some way provide history either for us or for our future generations. I just want to go through a few to show you little tidbits of history that you can find in cookbooks.
This book was printed -- cookbook was printed in 1909 and it was a cookbook to be used in the St. Louis Public Schools. And what you see here is what a student cook might look like. The dress quite different from school clothes today; wouldn’t you say?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Very different.
Ready for the next one. All right. Any of you recognize this?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: The St. Louis Friends of the Winston Churchill Memorial in 1977 compiled The Cookery Book and I think I have it down here. It includes information about the church that was -- that donated by the British to serve as a memorial to one of history’s most significant oration. Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech delivered at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
Here this – we, John took this picture a couple of years ago. This is the church of St. Mary Aldermanbury, London. It was donated to Westminster College by the British for the people of the United States. This cookbook includes both British recipes of people who helped with the project and American recipes and records the process of dismantling this church in England, which had been damaged during the war, transporting it -- labeling pieces, transporting them back to Fulton and then rebuilding it here. It’s a really neat thing you ought to go see it.
Now, this is one of my favorite books. And it’s down here, too. I have a lot of favorite cookbooks. Excuse me. This book was published in 1985 to celebrate 250 years. It’s Ste. Genevieve’s Missouri History on the Table. And it is -- was published to celebrate 250years in Missouri of good cooking and good eating. It is literally packed with Missouri history from cover-to-cover and from recipe-to-recipe.
The recipe collection is a result of what they did. Jean Rissover explained this to me; they -- they conducted a statewide historical recipe hunt. And they -- they had these people submit these recipes and that’s -- from all over Missouri and that -- those are the recipes that are in that book.
They did come up with six winners. They had first, second, third, fourth and some honorable mention. And I do tell you what the recipes are in that book. One of them, the first place winner, was for a zucchini pancake that this lady -- her grandmother had made. It sounds really like it would be something that might be fun to do when you have those bushels of squash being dropped by your door by your gardening friends that don’t have anything else to do with them. I have a friend that does that.
This next book is the McDonald County Native Foods Cookbook. Okay? We’re good. This was organized by the McDonald County Homemakers Council. And what they did, they took a close look at all the different wild things in the neighborhood; vegetables and wild game that they had that they could use. The -- they asked the cooks to look more closely at some delicious drinks that could be obtained from some of the weeds along the roadside, in the woods and on the lawn and garden. I’m not sure what that means. I’ve had sassafras tea, but I don’t know about these other things.
As well as, to become aware of the availability of tasting main dishes like fried eel, baked fish, baked groundhog and venison dishes. Some good stuff.
Albert E. Brumley’s All-Day Singin’ and Dinner on the Ground; this cookbook is, actually doubles as a gospel song book including not only ol’ time favorite recipes but it also includes songs actually written like you can play them on a piano in there. Some of you might recall, what was the famous song written by Brumley? Anybody know?
AUDIENCE: I’ll Fly Away.
Anybody know another one?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: How about Turn Your Radio On, he wrote that. It was originally published in 1938 and then Ray Stevens re-recorded it in 1971 and made it even more popular. Just for the sake of some songs to make you remember songs that grandma liked included in that book is Just Over in the Glory Land. You’ve heard that song. Revive us Again, When I Reach that City, the other one is Life’s Railway to Heaven.
All right. We don’t have a picture of this, but how about our Jesse James, one of the best-known Americans in the world according to St. Joseph website. Yes, there is a Jesse James Missouri cookbook. I have it on the table. It was one of our really cool finds. We have that there with -- that is there not that there. I’m a former English teacher. It was -- there are a lot of Missouri recipes delivered with -- to us with the history of him compliments of cookbook author Leon Howell.
How about this quote, “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.” Who said that?
AUDIENCE: Harry S. Truman.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Harry S. Truman.
How appropriate is this Missouri cookbook titled? The Independence Junior Service League honors our 33rd President of the United States, Missouri’s own, Harry S. Truman. In this publication and you will find out in that book and you will find out in Pot Roast what the S stands for. Do any of you know what it stands for?
AUDIENCE: Shipp.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That’s partially maybe right.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: You’ll have to check that out. But that -- that is partially correct.
What the -- the compilers of the cookbook did, the Junior League did instead of going through all the political stuff because they said that had already been covered. What they did is they concentrated going through the book with the recipes and including some of his famous quotes. They took a little bit of a lighter approach to it. I like this one, “Criticism is something a person gets everyday just like breakfast.” Doesn’t that sound like Harry Truman? The group also did a follow-up cookbook called The Bess Collection in honor of Bess Truman and they highlighted certain recipes that were attributed to Bess. And among these recipes you might have prepared some of these in your kitchen, meatloaf. Okay? Frozen lemon pie and, yes, even the lonely tuna noodle casserole. That’s attributed to the first lady.
Some of you may be familiar with the Missouri Sesquicentennial Cook Book. It was delivered to cooks in 1971. It was dedicated to Mrs. Warren G. Hearnes. And it was sponsored by the First State Capitol Restoration Sesquicentennial Commission. And that book contains a lot of Missouri history with recipes as well.
Past and Repast; are you-all familiar with this one?
(No response.)
MS. DCAROL FISHER: Okay.
This was edited by Governor Bond’s wife Carolyn. It again it focuses on his- -- on the history and hospitality of the governor’s mansion. And it was being reworked and all that’s included in that book.
All right. The community -- The Missouri Ozarks Commodity Cookbook is just a little cookbook and I’ve got it down here that I found. I am always looking for cookbooks. I guess you’ve realized that. But this was done by Community Action Agency. Today we have several government programs such as WIC and the food stamp program to assist those in need. This cookbook takes us back to the commodity -- to the original commodity program of earlier -- an early assistance program. Here it’s like a small probably in a hall office copy not a copy machine probably on one of those purple mimeograph things like we used to have at school. And it delivers recipes just for these foods, cheese, honey, butter, dry milk, cornmeal, flour and rice.
I have to add on the way up here I thought of one more cookbook that I really wanted to mention in this section and that is the Arrow Rock Cookbook that was put out by the DAR in -- in that area. And that has a whole lot of -- you know, we’ve got Pot Roast, Politics, and Ants in the Pantry that’s got a lot of political stuff in it. Do you know that three Missouri governors came from Arrow Rock?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: I don’t know if you know that. There’s a whole story about how many married, how many Sappington’s daughters; that’s a cool story, too. That’s in Pot Roast, too.
50:17 Individually Authored Cookbooks
I want to talk just briefly about Missouri’s individually authored cookbooks. Are you-all still able to hear me back there?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Obviously who am I going to have to mention? Individually authored, who is this?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That’s Ms. Irma Rombauer I think her book would have to be, if we talked about a Missouri cookbook buffet, hers would have to be like the centerpiece on this buffet. She -- her cookbook is referred to as the cookbook bible. She self-published her collection of recipes after her husband passed away in 1931. She was from St. Louis. And then Bobbs-Merrill picked up -- they re-worked it in 1936, but by 1943 Joy of -- the “the” had been dropped;Joy of Cooking became America’s not Missouri’s, America’s most popular cookbook. So that came from Missouri. It’s still in print in various editions.
Now, I want to talk about this gentleman. Keeping company with Missouri’s primarily female group of cookbook authors Thomas Bullock published his collection of cocktail recipes in The Ideal Bartender in 1917. Bullock was a popular bartender at the St. Louis Country Club. The very complimentary introduction of his book was written by a frequent golfer there who evidently enjoyed Bullock’s concoctions, George Herbert Walker. He was the grandfather of George Herbert Walker Bush the 41st President and great-grandfather of George Walker Bush our 43rd President.
One -- two more individually authored cookbooks, one, was called The Missouri Traveler Cookbook. I don’t have a picture of it. It was authored by Mary Hosford. She was a native of Kansas City. And her story is also in Pot Roast, but basically she became -- she starred in a movie called The Missouri Traveler with Lee Marvin and Anna Love Price. And her story of how she hooked up with the movie direct and how she got the role is kind of a neat story. But she decided to do a cookbook as well.
Now, anybody know about Cy Littlebee’s Guide to Cooking Fish and Wild Game? Any hunters in here?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay.
I don’t hunt, I don’t fish, but I love this cookbook. It was in its fourth printing in 1964 and, I think, recently has undergone another one and I’m not sure what printing we’re on. But it was written by a Missouri conservation agent, conservationist Werner Nagel. And what he does -- I wasn’t quite sure what this was until I read a little bit more about it, but he created a character named Cy Littlebee who was a wild game connoisseur. And the cookbook not only provides information about how to prepare wild game, but it also entertains along the way.
As an example of his sense of humor, let me read to you through the voice of Cy Littlebee who chats with the cook prior to the rabbit recipe section:
“You take a state where there are four to six million rabbits is eat in a year, not counting tamed rabbits nor any they shipped in. All you can figure is that either a lot of folks like some rabbit or some folks likes a lot of rabbit.”
But the whole book has cool stuff in there.
53:56 Producer and Festival Cookbooks
Some of you may be familiar with the producer and festival cookbooks. I know we all like to go to festivals. With health concerns and fresh foods becoming more modern day requirements roadside fruit stands, vegetable stands, local producers, famers markets and alternative agriculture operations have become very popular in our society now. From honey and hogs to peach cobbler and pork chops traditional cookbooks and in more recent years high-tech, on-line recipe collections show cooks how to take Missouri grown products to the table.
Both the Missouri Beef Industry and the Missouri Pork Association promote beef and pork consumption through an alternative formatted cookbook on the web. You have your own little recipe box and everything. You find a recipe, you drop it in it, and then go back later and pick it out and cook it.
We have here the Pumpkin Festival Cookbook, Nancy Grant, who’s here tonight made us aware of the Pumpkin Festival first and then she said we do have a cookbook and so we got one from her.
In let’s see, I believe, it was the Pumpkin Festival that meets the second week in October and in 2005 they had, get this, 55,000 visitors, okay, for that weekend. The editors of this cookbook included their community history. They speak fondly of the star of their cookbook. While pumpkins are a colorful symbol of our fall celebrations they are also nutritious and delicious any time of the year. And so there’s your plug. Okay. Everybody go to the festival.
The Best of Soy, I think, I don’t -- this is what we thought; soybeans are Missouri’s top crop. Is that right, John, still?
MR. JOHN FISHER: Still.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Still top crop. The Best of Soy delivers such recipes as, here we go; spinach tofu dip, soy donuts, mighty-mo munchies, calico soybean salad and chewy-gooey tofu cake. Doesn’t that sound yummy?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: And then we have the American buffalo or the bison is what this is. Equally interesting are the facts about the healthy Missouri -- this healthy Missouri meat. Cooks find unforgettable recipes in Cooking with the American Buffalo compiled under the direction of the Missouri Bison Association. To get a party started, this is in the hors d'oeuvre section. Missouri cooks might try buffalo chip dip.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: How about drunken buff dogs and buffalo cheesy bean dip, and the grand finale here, mini buffalo quiches that you will find in the American Buffalo book.
I want to mention; have any of you been to Soulard Market in St. Louis?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay.
They have two or three cookbooks. Suzanne Corbett delivers not only recipes, but also the back story relating to the oldest continually operated public market in Missouri and one of the oldest, west of the Mississippi.
This picture, John and I, were on our little research trip and we landed there the weekend before Thanksgiving. And you would not believe what people were buying. They had all sorts of cool things there to buy; live turkeys, dead rabbits and all sorts of stuff.
57:51 Company/Product Cookbooks
Are we ready for the next one? Okay. We have here, see the cookbook in the middle, this is one of my favorites. This is my baby cookbook. This cookbook has recipes of four languages in it. These three flour cookbooks call attention to the Missouri milling industry, Kansas -- the Missouri milling industry. Kansas City became the most significant milling area although not the most, not the only important site. The red turkey on the Aristo’s cookbook represents the introduction of turkey red wheat, a hard winter wheat into Kansas which provided a revival supply of wheat to the Missouri mills. John insisted I tell you that. He is an ex-farmer turned writer.
Okay. That’s the red turkey there. I wondered about it. He told me all about it. He’s a Missouri historian. Now, okay, this is really kind of a neat thing. I have this cookbook down here, too. The Home Comfort Cook Book, Wrought Iron Range cookbook what it does -- what you need to do is take note of the market strategies discussed in this Home Comfort Cook Book from this company.
Salesmen traveled, you know these big cast iron stoves that they used to use, salesmen traveled throughout the country in large wagons which carried four cook stoves making a house-to-house canvas and delivering these cook stoves as they were sold. They were pulled by fine horses and the people that did it were very proud of these nice, beautiful beasts.
During the 1890s, they were replaced by a demonstration wagon that only hauled one around for them to look at and then I guess they delivered others later. But then early in the first couple of decades in the 20th Century what they did is they created these just intricate little miniature models that these salesmen were then able to carry around with them and show the product.
59:56 Restaurant Cookbooks
Okay. This is -- I want to talk just a little bit about cookbooks that originated from restaurants. Are any of you familiar with the vegetarian -- the Unity Inn Vegetarian Restaurant in Kansas City?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay.
I visited with the archivist there quite a bit. This is from an edition of a cookbook that came out in 1910. This is a dining room of the restaurant in about 1921 to ’25, I think. The restaurant featured only vegetarian meals starting in 1906 and why they were vegetarian meals, I don’t have time to explain, but it’s in the book.
A choice of meat meals started being offered in the ‘60s, and the Unity Inn still is a public restaurant in Jackson County with vegetarian options still on the menu.
Any of you been to the Blue Owl --
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: -- Restaurant? Okay.
A Celebration of Cooking 20 Years of Blessings is one of the series of Blue Owl cookbooks. This is Mary Hostetter, the owner of the Blue Owl holding the Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery in Kimmswick. This very popular restaurant features the levee high apple pie. You familiar with that?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: This was made -- she designed this pie, created it as a tribute to the heroic sandbagging efforts during the Great Flood of the Mississippi in 1993. This special pie baked daily uses 18 apples and weighs 17 -- 17 -- seven and a half pounds.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: In our interview with Hostetter she shared a great Paula Deen story, which I don’t have time to tell, but it’s in the book, when she was asked to do a Food Network thing.
And when she was asked to go there she was requested -- or Paula Deen requested for her to make her pie that was better than the levee-high pie. So she made a Savannah-high apple pie and the story’s in there about how that all came down.
I might also mention some cookbooks that I’ve been able to gather up from restaurants no longer in business. And some of you may know these restaurants; Stephenson’s Apple Farm.
Okay. They did a little -- Les and Lloyd Stephenson did a little cookbook at one time and he even included some secret recipes in that little cookbook. And like for barbecue sauce; did they do barbecue there?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: I think he’s got his barbecue sauce recipe in there.
Miss Hulling’s Cafeteria, in St. Louis, that’s a hard to find little cookbook. I found one, it’s not in good condition, but that one and then there was another one; Virginia McDonald owned a tea room in Gallatin and her recipe book was How I Cook It.
AUDIENCE: (Statement inaudible.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Do you really?
AUDIENCE: (Statement inaudible.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Cool I have one, too. Mine even has a ratty dust jacket on it that I’m protecting.
1:02:57 World Events and Politics in Cookbooks
Cookbooks were involved in world events and politics in -- as well. This one is the Patriotic Show Official Recipe Book. During World War I, the Women’s Central Committee of Food Conservation sponsored a patriotic food show. And this cookbook came out of it. And what it did, basically, it showed women how to use substitutes because there were certain foods they were saving for the soldiers which were meat, wheat, fat, sugar and milk. And so it was kind of a patriotic push to give women -- they didn’t make people be rationed in World War I as they did in World War II, but they strongly encouraged women. Saying if you don’t do it you’re unpatriotic.
During the World’s Fair in St. Louis, some cookbooks came out of that. There was a lady who -- Mrs. Sarah Tyson Roar who was the well-known Philadelphia cook had this big restaurant that could seat 1,200 people. And so she had a book called the World’s Fair Souvenir Cook Book and that’s out in a reprint, like, a facsimile edition. It’s hard to find the other one. I have the facsimile.
Also, are we -- do you have the political ones? Oh. Okay. Two cookbooks went to -- on the political campaign. It was Sally Danforth’s Cookbook and A Taste of Missouri Bond Family Favorites. And those were kind of incorporated in the -- in the campaign.
All right. I think I’m getting real close to my time. Am I?
(No response.)
1:04:31 Kitchen Medicine and Housekeeping Tips
MRS. CAROL FISHER: But I have a little something fun to do.
This -- okay, I’m ready for Dr. Bull. Okay. This is an almanac from 1904 and you’ve heard of patented medicines. Okay. This was an advert- -- this was Dr. W.H. Bull’s Herbs and Iron 1904 Almanac. And let’s go to the next one.
This was an ad that was in there. And I think it’s pretty cool here. I just want to read what it says what this liquid sulfur ointment is able to do; are you ready?
Are you coming on down, John? Okay. It says gives instant relief and cures burns, scalds, bites and stings. Also, diphtheria, sore throat, canker mouth and poison oak, hives, (inaudible) rash, tender and swelling feet and prickly heat, invaluable treatment of skin diseases, open sores, chapped parts and especially recommended for use after shaving. That sounds like, you know, you don’t need to buy anything else.
Now, John is going to have a little thing here he wants to share. This was -- it was like a testimonial sent in from a Missouri customer who hailed from Simmons, Missouri. So we’re going to let John read this and then if time permits we’re going to read our Top 10 Kitchen Medicine and Housekeeping Tips.
Go, John.
MR. JOHN FISHER: Gentlemen, for 15 years I was troubled with granulated lids that nearly made me blind. The suffering from the awful scratching pains makes me shutter when I think about it today. And it hardly seems possible that anyone could have endured so much pain.
The doctors here could not do anything for me except to cause greater suffering in their effort to affect a cure. I was advised to try Dr. W.H. Bull’s Golden Eye Salve. But must admit I had no faith in it, but, yet, you know, a drowning man will grasp at a straw. I’ve got two bottles of Dr. Bull’s Golden Eye Salve and after using it in my eyes they were cured. And now I see as well as ever. You will think so, too, when I tell you that I was at a turkey shoot a few days ago and won most all the turkeys.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: All right.
Now, what we’re going to do. We’re going to give you our Top 10 Favorite Kitchen Medicine Tips and Housekeeping Tips. Ready.
I’ve got the first one. Is my microphone working? Yes.
For ear ache there is nothing more effective than a hot griddle cake baked in plenty of grease and applied as hot as can be endured. That was from the Cape Girardeau cookbook, 1904.
MR. JOHN FISHER: For a cough --
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Now, now, if you’ve not tried this. I don’t think you probably should.
MR. JOHN FISHER: -- one tea cup full of good vinegar, one half cup full of honey, one teaspoon full of cayenne pepper. Mix well and simmer on the fire. When cold take one teaspoonful every hour until the cough is cured.
(Laughter.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Okay.
To make a salve for a burn; scrape the inside bark of Elder, slice in sheep suet and a little wax. That came from Julia Clark, 1820.
MR. JOHN FISHER: For rheumatism carry a potato on the person, the side diseased; also bathe the parts in hot potato water.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That was the ladies of St. Louis, My Mother’s Cook Book. Okay.
A tea made of all spice for night sweats ladies and the essence of peppermint to cure weak eyes, again, from My Mother’s Cook Book.
MR. JOHN FISHER: For frost-bitten feet one-half plug tobacco in a bowl of warm water.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That was the Campbell cookbook down in my neck of the woods.
The -- in the household guide put out by the Rock View Methodist Church in 1951 it says, and this -- this makes sense: do not grease the sides of a cake pan. How would you like to climb a greased pole?
(Laughter.)
MR. JOHN FISHER: In cooking a tough fowl or meat one tablespoon of vinegar in the water will save nearly two hours of boiling.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That was in the 1910 cookbook from the Union Avenue Church.
If your curtain rods, ladies, this is a pretty cool idea. You know how you have to thread them through the little things and they won’t go. If your curtain rods are a little hard to get through the hem of your curtains try using a thimble over the end of the rod, Pure Food Cook Book, 1923.
MR. JOHN FISHER: For ridding the house of ants a strong solution of carbolic acid and water poured into the holes will kill all the ants it touches. And the survivors will shake themselves off. Another tip for dealing with ants scatter cayenne pepper all over the pantry shelves and not an ant will molest you.
MRS. CAROL FISHER: That was from the Iron County cookbook, my stomping grounds.
Now, one final thing here, if you’re interested, ladies; gentlemen, you might need to check this out, too. On how to cook a husband, you can find that prose piece in at least two Missouri cookbooks and also it’s the grand finale in this book.
Okay. Any other questions?
(No response.)
MRS. CAROL FISHER: Man we must have done good.
(Applause.)