Old Cookbooks in the Public Domain

[Mini Mia]

The Picayune Creole Cookbook

Favorite Recipes from
America's Dairyland, from 1944

Feeding America:
The Historic American
Cookbook Project



Calibre Free eReader



Share Favorite Recipes
Found In Cookbooks
In The Public Domain

[Spock]

Thanks! My wife loves to collect cookbooks.

[Mini Mia]

You're very welcome.

[stepper]

I'm sure the idea of on-line cookbooks would entertain some, but I'm not an adventurous eater. As a matter of matter of fact, I have an in-adventurous tongue. It’s not fond of surprises at all. Sushi for instance. I’ve seen some very pretty sushi – but leave that stuff out on the coffee table just a day or so and it fades right out and smells up the house. Anything to goes so bad so quickly, how can people eat that stuff without cooking it? Clearly it was on the verge of spoilage in the first place. Maybe that’s why it has such a strange name. Maybe it’s a foreign word for “going bad and will taste yucky if your taste buds are still working.” Or maybe in English it means “not a cheeseburger.” Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat. And one more thing, there are some people in prison for poisoning their spouse/significant other. You have to be careful you don’t add ingredients you don’t normally use. Carolina Reaper for instance. The fact that “reaper” is part of the name should be enough warning that the only time to whip this stuff out is on Halloween and even then it’s a self defense mechanism to be used against the Headless Horseman, Werewolves, Vampires, and Trick-or-Treaters. And 7 Pot Douglah AKA Chocolate 7 Pod. You’d think calling it chocolate it’d be a treat for kids. But noooooo. It comes from Trinidad. One pod is used per 7 pots of chili. This is an entertaining chili where the point is to intentionally eat something that burns its way through your intestines and causes your butt to burn. Carolina Reaper is the worlds hottest chili pepper – and can actually kill.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Nope, no strange food for me!

[Mini Mia]

I've never eaten Sushi, and never intend to.

[stepper]

Smart girl!

[Mini Mia]

I like to think I am.

[Phalon]

Those old cookbooks are interesting reading, even if you never intend on cooking any of the recipes.

My wife loves to collect cookbooks.

My Mom was like that. Actually, I don't know if she actually collected them or ended up with so many just because she never threw anything away - cleaning out her house after she died, I found hundreds of them. Modern cookbooks, old cookbooks, well-used cookbooks and those that looked as if they'd never been opened. I gave most of them away, and sold others, but there were two that I kept: Her cookbook, the one with handwritten recipes in it, I kept for obvious reasons. The other is a book of reprints of old recipes followed by a modern updates; that one I kept purely for entertainment.

Such as this recipe for Fricassee of Chickens from 1658: Kill your chickens, pull skin and feathers off together, cut them in thin slices, season them with thime and lemmon minced, nutmeg and salt, and handful of sorrel minced, and then fry it well with six spoonfuls of water, and some fresh butter; when it is tender, take three spoonsful of verjuice, one spoonful of sugar, heat it together, to dish it with sippets about.

* * *

I would probably fall into the mid-range category of adventurous eaters. I've tried sushi just-for-the-hell-of-it, although I knew I probably wouldn't like it. I didn't. The idea of raw seafood is gross to me; I don't like oysters on the half-shell either.

The thought of eating bugs is equally as disgusting, although I ate chocolate covered ants once. The chocolate negated the ickiness of eating an insect.

Although I've eaten some things that could be hit by a car - turtle, deer, rattlesnake, rabbit, etc., I've never eaten roadkill.

I hate salmon in any form.

I like spicy foods, but probably the hottest peppers I eat is habaneros, and only when used as flavoring with other foods.

I dislike navy beans, butter beans, lima beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas. I love pinto beans, black beans, Great Northern beans, and whatever beans are made creamy by turning them into refried beans. Green beans - yum. Wax beans - bluck.

I could never eat one of a species of animal I have kept as a pet, even if I was in a country where those animals were raised to be eaten; when Hubs was stationed in Korea, for example, dog and cat meat was a staple food on the menu.


Pig snouts should never been eaten; same for its feet. Neither should the testicles of any animal. Anything still alive should never be consumed, much less be considered a delicacy.

And that thing Joxie posted links to in another thread is too gross to look at; eating it is out-of-the-question.

[stepper]

I was on a tour in Turkey. The restaurant we stopped at for lunch on the second day was in the middle of no darn place. What ever it was they served, even the Turkish guide wouldn't eat it. We think it was horse that had gone bad - might have been goat if it was road kill from a few weeks prior. What ever it was, smell convinced most of us we were going hungry until supper. Even the adventurous quickly gave up on it.

[Phalon]

...might have been goat if it was road kill...

When I was stationed in Germany, one of my roommates, a friend of hers, and I went to Belgium one weekend just for the heck of it; great thing about being stationed in Europe is that almost any country is a weekend trip by train. We were enticed into a little sidewalk restaurant one morning by the pastries in the window, and while we were eating what I'm sure was our daily intake of calories rolled into one Belgium pastry, a man walked through the front door leading two goats on leashes. He and the goats proceeded through the restaurant, past our table, and into the kitchen.

My roommate's friend said, "Oh, isn't that charming! He's bringing in his goats to be milked!!!"

Uhm.... Seriously? I'm sure I rolled my eyes.

Just as I'm sure the evening's dinner special was goat stew. Fresh, and not road kill.

Still...live animals in a restaurant was kind of a weird thing to see. Dining abroad is always an interesting experience.

[stepper]

So is drinking. We went to the chai house just off Incirlik. Turkish tea is stronger than American tea. And Turkish water is why I came back stateside with a serious Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi addiction.

[Phalon]

Ah, yes...drinking in a foreign country can be quite an adventure. Reminds me of the time a bunch of us went to Spain; after a few glasses of Sangria, I woke up some time later laying on a beach next to a dog.

A dog of the canine species, mind you - which I suppose is better than having a couple of drinks and waking up in bed next to a dog of the 'what the hell was I thinking" human species.

[stepper]

I wonder what the dog thought?

Can't say I've had an equivalent adventure or misadventure. I've never blacked out and awakened in an unknown location.

[Spock]

Jun 27, 2014 6:03:56 GMT -6 Phalon said:

Ah, yes...drinking in a foreign country can be quite an adventure. Reminds me of the time a bunch of us went to Spain; after a few glasses of Sangria, I woke up some time later laying on a beach next to a dog.

A dog of the canine species, mind you - which I suppose is better than having a couple of drinks and waking up in bed next to a dog of the 'what the hell was I thinking" human species.

If it was ONLY a couple of drinks, there might have been more in your glass than Sangria ...

[Mini Mia]

Spock: Now that is a scarey thought.

[stepper]

Like a super L-Tryptophan dose but with evil intent. (Gaining weight from turkey and other foods with L-Tryptophan doesn't constitute evil intent - unless you are the turkey.) But yeah, it's a scary thought.

[Phalon]

If it was ONLY a couple of drinks, there might have been more in your glass than Sangria ...

Oh, I'm positive there was more in my glass than Sangria. It was the fruit. I barely weighed 100 pounds, so a couple of glasses of anything would have been enough to get me a bit tipsy, but the fruit pushed it over the edge. I had no idea at the time that fruit soaked in alcohol of any sort, even wine, will be much more potent than the drink itself.

(I do have to say though, that the Sangria and its intoxicating fruit had nothing to do with us almost getting arrested for driving mopeds on the sidewalk; we were completely sober. Luckily, my boyfriend spoke Spanish and whatever he said, got us off with a warning.)

It was one of the best trips I took while I was stationed in Europe. Eating-wise it was spectacular. Oh-my-god, the paella! I've never since had paella that came even remotely close to the paella we ate in Spain.

[stepper]

That's new to me. I've never heard that fruit made any form of alcohol more potent or that fruit caused accellerated absorbtion.

[Spock]

Wouldn't fruit soaked in alcohol tend to absorb the liquid ... assuming it wasn't saturated already with fruit juice?

[Mini Mia]

I know mixing whiskey with beer will knock you on your a$$. My sister does not remember that night. But I do. I was sober. Kinda wished I'd have drank something so I didn't remember that night too. At least I got out of cleaning the back seat of the car.

I wonder if jello will do the same thing? Never had a jello-shot, but I hear they're really good.

Google: Recipe Authentic Paella

[Phalon]

I'm not sure why the fruit is so intoxicating, just that it is. Maybe it absorbs the alcohol, or maybe it's like a sponge absorbing liquid. I just know that you're sitting there with friends, yik-yaking away, popping a strawberry here, a slice of orange there, a few pieces of pineapple and before you know it, you've consumed more alcohol than you would have if you had another drink.

Here's the low-down on Sangria; stuff I didn't know 'til now...obviously the restaurant waiter knew back then that we tourists: simplifyreality.com/the-secret-behind-sangria/

[Phalon]

I wonder if jello will do the same thing? Never had a jello-shot, but I hear they're really good.

We used to make batches of Jello shots during Blueberry Fest. Bars serve them, restaurants serve them, friends serve them...it's the South Haven thing to do. They're a pain in the @ss to make....blueberry Jello, blueberries, and vodka poured into little plastic or paper cups, then put into the freezer on trays to solidify. Inevitably you will spill some of the liquid while pouring it into the little cups, while carrying the tray to the freezer, and while placing the tray into the freezer already packed with other freezer stuff. The more batches you make, the more you spill because of the previously consumed shots. What you end up with is a kitchen that is a big, sticky mess. They are good, though.

[stepper]

The link finally worked for me - it has to do with how different foods are absorbed during digestion. Think about Tylenol Migraine - the secret is that the acetaminophen is chemically bound to caffeine and since the caffeine is absorbed more quickly, it brings the acetaminophen with it making it hit quicker.