Cooking Books

INTRODUCTION Once upon a time there was a little girl named Margaret, and she wanted to cook, so she went into the kitchen and tried and tried, but she could not understand the cook-books, and she made dreadful messes, and spoiled her frocks and burned her fingers till she just had to cry. One day she went to her grandmother and her mother and her Pretty Aunt and her Other Aunt, who were all sitting... more...

SKETCH OF MY LIFE I was born in Murray County, Tennessee, in 1857, a slave. I was given the name of my master, D. J. Estes, who owned my mother's family, consisting of seven boys and two girls, I being the youngest of the family. After the war broke out all the male slaves in the neighborhood for miles around ran off and joined the "Yankees." This left us little folks to bear the burdens.... more...

The suggestions and recipes of this cook book have been gathering through the years from sources far and wide. Friends and neighbors have contributed, personal experience has offered its lessons, thrifty housekeepers in home departments of newspapers, reports of lectures, and recipes given to the newspaper world, from teachers in the science of cookery, have all added color or substance to what is... more...

Cocoa and Chocolate The term "Cocoa," a corruption of "Cacao," is almost universally used in English-speaking countries to designate the seeds of the small tropical tree known to botanists as THEOBROMA CACAO, from which a great variety of preparations under the name of cocoa and chocolate for eating and drinking are made. The name "Chocolatl" is nearly the same in most European... more...

FOREWORD The Community Cook Book is a collection of recipes chosen from many hundreds that may well be considered representative of the best to be found in any of the more intelligent and progressive of American Communities in which a part of the population make occasional visits to all parts of the country from which they bring back choice recipes to contribute to the neighborhood fund. Added to this,... more...

INTRODUCTION The word "fat" is one of the most interesting in food chemistry. It is the great energy producer. John C. Olsen, A.M., Ph.D., in his book, "Pure Food," states that fats furnish half the total energy obtained by human beings from their food. The three primary, solid cooking fats today are: There are numbers of substitutes for these, such as butterine, oleomargarine and... more...

CHAPTER I. MARY'S LETTERS RECEIVED AT CLEAR SPRING FARM. One morning in early spring, John Landis, a Pennsylvania German farmer living in Schuggenhaus Township, Bucks County, on opening his mail box, fastened to a tree at the crossroads (for the convenience of rural mail carriers) found one letter for his wife Sarah, the envelope addressed in the well-known handwriting of her favorite niece, Mary... more...

CHAPTER I. THE MISTRESS. "Strength, and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household; and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."—Proverbs, xxxi. 25-28. I. AS WITH... more...

Luncheon Giving To give a luncheon is to indulge one's self in the most charming and satisfying form of entertaining. All the dignity of the stately dinner-party is lacking, it is true, but all the delight of informality is present; one has opportunity and leisure to chat, to laugh, and to discuss the dainty and unsubstantial dishes beloved of women. That hostess is to be congratulated who can and... more...

a few preliminary remarks Alexandre Dumas, père, after writing five hundred novels, says, "I wish to close my literary career with a book on cooking." And in the hundred pages or so of preface—or perhaps overture would be the better word, since in it a group of literary men, while contributing recondite recipes, flourish trumpets in every key—to his huge volume he says, "I wish to be... more...