Great old Chicago cookbooks

I found a couple of interesting old Chicago fundraising cookbooks on the always-intriguing Manybooks site, and I thought I'd share. These are free downloads, available in a wide variety of formats.

Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book

A collection of recipes from the national "Lady Managers" of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Most of the recipes are very straightforward, although measurements like "one-half coffeecup milk," "two tumblers molasses" and "three cups of very light dough" will make things difficult for modern cooks, as will ingredients like terrapin, and isinglass.

The collection features loads of recipes for old-fashioned dishes such as the larded fillet of beef served with mushroom sauce or a la jardiniere contributed by Mrs. Governor Oglesby, of Illinois, along with her economical recipe for beef olives to be made from the scraps.

Further recipes include steamed puddings, "bread cakes," gelatine "sponges," and other dishes rarely seen today, often with notes from the contributors, among whom were the likes of the eminent Mrs. Oglesby; Mrs. Governor Richards, of Montana, Mrs. Governor Edwin C. Burleigh, of Maine; and Mrs. Potter Palmer, of Chicago.

Stevenson Memorial Cook Book

The Sarah Hackett Stevenson Memorial Lodging House Association published this intriguing collection of recipes in 1919. This worthy Chicago group ran the women's shelter established in 1893 by Dr. Stevenson, the first woman to be admitted to the American Medical Association. Its motto was "Help First; Investigate Afterwards." (A quick Google reveals the home was open at least through the late 1940s, and the association apparently still exists in some nonprofit capacity.)

We aren't told anything about the cookbook's contributors, although a few of them number among the executive committee and trustees of the association. Some recipes clearly came from well-to-do households, but it's not impossible that residents of the home contributed others.

Compiled by Mrs. William D. Hurlbut, the recipes include a few dishes that would fit right into trendy menus of today, such as Miss Agnes Sieber's prune-and-bacon canapes, Mrs. H.D. Sheldon's sun-cooked strawberries and tea sherbet from Mrs. A.H. Wagoner. Dishes less likely to appeal to present-day tastes include Mrs. W.R. McGhee's stuffed and braised calves' hearts and braised larded liver and Mrs. Hurlbut's fried pickled pigs' feet.

Mrs. Frederick T. Hoyt's recipe for frozen lemonade shows that this Chicago summer staple dates back to well before Mario DiPaolo founded his Taylor Street stand in 1953. The still-extant Midlothian Country Club contributed temperate recipes for its grape juice mint julep, black cow and "a delicious fruit cup." Those who decry Chicago's unsmoked style of "barbecue" as inauthentic may be surprised by its pedigree, exhibited in Mrs. Chase's "barbecued roast pork," cooked in the oven and basted with a sauce of vinegar, salt and red and black pepper.

Mrs. Willard Brown's shrimp wiggle, consisting of one can of shrimp and one can of green peas mixed with cream sauce and served over toast, shows that convenience foods have a long history, while Mrs. J.G. Sherer's "good imitation of Maryland fried chicken," made from rabbit, suggests the economics of groceries have changed somewhat in the past 90 years.

Mrs. Sherer is also one of three cooks contributing recipes for chop suey, all of which call for veal and only one of which uses soy sauce. (All of them contain molasses.) Far from a quick stir-fry, Mrs. C.S. Junge's version calls for three hours of cooking. Other ethnic dishes include "a Porto Rican dinner" from Mrs. G.W. Plummer, a vegetarian meal of canned red kidney beans, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, nut meats and green olives, and Mrs. Jean Wallace Butler's Indian vegetable curry, featuring cans of baked beans, lima beans, string beans, wax beans and tomatoes mixed with onions and "one heaping teaspoonful" curry powder. There are also three recipes for "Italian spaghetti," such as Mrs. C.A. Jennings', which calls for boiling the pasta for 40 minutes before mixing it with tomato sauce and grated Herkimer or American cheese.

Famous recipes include Mrs. Archy S. Corken's "glorified hoe cakes," which won a $10 Chicago Tribune prize for wartime conservation recipes, and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt's recipe for spice cake, which may give modern cooks some difficulty because it provides only a list of ingredients, and no directions.

Among other interesting desserts you'll find Mrs. Harry M. Boon's rye bread torte; Miss Katharine Orr's Southern pork cake, including salt pork, raisins, eggs, flour, nut meats, sugar, molasses, cinnamon and cloves; and Helen Collins puffed rice candy, which seems like a precursor to Rice Krispies treats.

A very sweet look back at culinary history.

More fascinating food books.

I love to go to used book stores and garage sales and pick up those spiral bound locally published cookbooks written by ladies of the PTA, churches and organizations. The older ones are fantastic as you can really see the food trends noted in the ingredients and preparation techniques. I love the books of the early 1960s. I have been tempted to buy homespun books in rural areas such as Alaska and Yukon territory in Canada as the ingredients call for wild berries and game of the region but space no longer permits obtaining these culinary time capsules and I know that I would not make any of the dishes as the ingredients are hard to come by.

Elfin wrote:space no longer permits obtaining these culinary time capsules

That's the great part of online cookbooks!

The Internet Archive has quite a few local cookbooks online.

LAZ wrote:The Internet Archive has quite a few local cookbooks online.

A partial list:

The North end club cook book : a collection of choice and tested recipes - North End Club (Chicago, Ill.)

Woman's City Club cook book - Woman's City Club of Chicago (Ill.). Library Committee

The Pilgrim cook book : containing nearly 700 carefully tested recipes - Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church (Chicago, Il.) Ladies' Aid Society

Original recipes of good things to eat - Order of the Eastern Star. Logan Square Chapter No. 560 (Chicago, Ill.)

Balanced meals with recipes : food values, drying and cold pack canning, menus, with and without meat, box luncheons - Lake View Woman's Club (Chicago, Ill.)

The Cook County cook book - Associated College Women Workers

Chi Omega cook book - Chi Omega (Evanston, Ill.) North Shore Alumnae

Ye kirkie cookerie - First Methodist Church (Evanston, Ill.) Women's Union

Recipes from here and there - Bethany Union Church (Chicago, Ill.). Thirty Group

The Wheel cook book - Second Congregational Church (Oak Park, Ill.). Carroll-Parsal Wheel

Twentieth century cook book : a feast of good things : a careful compilation of tried and approved recipes - Baptist Church (Plano, Ill.). Ladies Aid Society

Peoria women's cook book - First Methodist Episcopal Church (Peoria, Ill.) Young Women's League

Pipe organ cook book - First Presbyterian Church (Aledo, Ill.). Ladies Social Circle

The New home cook book - Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.)

The P.E.O. cook book - P.E.O. Sisterhood. Chapter Z (Harrisburg, Ill.)

The Home cook book : compiled from recipes contributed by ladies of Chicago and other cities and towns - Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.)

Neighborhood cook book - Hemenway Methodist Church (Evanston, Ill.). Home Service Department Women's Union. Circle No. 5

The Mendelssohn Club cook book - Mendelssohn Club (Rockford, Ill.)

The Housekeeper's friend - Grace Methodist Episcopal Church (Chicago, Ill.). Young Ladies Missionary Society


The home guide : or, a book by 500 ladies, embracing about 1,000 recipes and hints, pertaining to cookery, the household, the sick room, the toilet, etc. - Chicago Daily Tribune Home Dept

Tried and true recipes. The home cook book of Chicago. Comp. from recipes contributed by ladies of Chicago and other cities and towns: published for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless - Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.)

Grayville cook book : 1912-1913 - United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.)

Good recipes - Winnetka Congregational Church. Woman's Society

Christopher House Guild cook book - First Presbyterian Church (Evanston, Ill.) : Christopher House Guild

Favorite tested recipes of the members of Humboldt Park Chapter O.E.S and their friends - Order of the Eastern Star. Humboldt Park Chapter (Chicago, Ill)

Favorite recipes - Congregational Church (La Grange, Ill.). Young Woman's Auxiliary

Cook book - Ossoli Club (Highland Park, Ill.)

The Baptist ladies' cook book : choice and tested recipies contributed by the ladies of Monmouth, Ill - Baptist Ladies' Aid Society (Monmouth, Illinois)

A book of unusual recipes : compiled for the members of the Parent-Teacher's Association of Oakton School - Oakton School (Evanston, Ill.). Parent-Teacher Association