My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Archive.org has a host of old cookery books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. I happened across a few in my Pinterest feed and gone completely down the rabbit hole in this treasure trove of information. Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books. I’ll be sharing more books as I find them in the coming weeks. –Douglas

Historical Cooking Books: The physiology of taste; Harder’s book of practical American cookery (1885) by Jules Arthur Harder – 27 in a series

What might you find in these old cookbooks? What special recipes have been handed down to you? Share in the Comments!

Available in PDF, Text, JPG formats, and more

PREFACE.

“What ! ” the reader may exclaim “Another book on cookery ! Have we not Careme and Francatelli, Yatel and Soyer, Ude and Gouffe, Miss Acton and Mrs. Beeton, Meg Dodds and Mrs. Hale, and scores of other authorities on the same subject ? Must every cook be an author, and we be asked to read his book, as well as to eat of the dishes he prepares?” Gentle reader, it is to anticipate this possible state of mind, and to answer these probable questions, that this explanatory preface is submitted. Many a dish is cooked that is not worth the time and trouble, even by an ordinarily educated palate, given to its discussion, and many a book written especially on the subject of Cookery the reading of which is worse than time wasted. There have been innumerable Cook Books for popular use published, I grant you ; but if you ask nine out of ten persons who consult them, they will tell you they become more and more perplexed as they attempt to follow their guidance. The housekeeper will confess she has been led into errors by their vague recipes, injurious to the family health, and, at the same time, expensive to the family purse. It is to dissipate this fog enveloping the literature of the kitchen that the publication of the BOOK OF AMERICAN PRACTICAL COOKERY is undertaken. The author claims that the work is the result of a lifetime of study, constant observation, and practical experience in the best culinary establishments of both Continents. He, therefore, brings to his task a thorough knowledge of the subject, and asserts, fearless of successful contradiction, that the result of his labors will be the only competent, treatise applying culinary science especially to the material conditions of this country ever written. He intends it for a trustworthy guide to all what to eat and drink, and what to avoid.

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Archive.org has a host of old cookery books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. I happened across a few in my Pinterest feed and gone completely down the rabbit hole in this treasure trove of information. Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books. I’ll be sharing more books as I find them in the coming weeks. –Douglas

Historical Cooking Books: The complete confectioner, pastry-cook, and baker : plain and practical directions for making confectionary and pastry, and for baking (1864) – 21 in a series

What might you find in these old cookbooks? What special recipes have been handed down to you? Share in the Comments!

Available in PDF, Text, JPG formats, and more

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

Almost every foreigner who visits this country remarks with astonishment the ahnost universal neglect of that art upon which, more than any thing else, depends the health and comfort of a people ; and by many scientific men have most of the prevalent diseases of this country, especially the dyspepsia, been ascribea to the hurried, crude and unwholesome manner in which our food is prepared ; of latter years, more attention nas been paid to cooking; but the handmaiden of that parent art, confectionary, is still neglected and unknown, yet it is of little less importance than the graver branch referred to. Confectionary is the poetry of epicurism it throws over the heavy enjoyments of the table tht relief of a milder indulgence, and dispenses the delights of a lighter and more harmless gratification of the appetite. The dessert, properly prepared, contributes equally to health and comfort; but “got up” as confectionary too often is, it is not only distasteful to a correct palate, but is deleterious and often actually poisonous.

In introducing to the American public the modes by which the table of hospitality may be enriched andadorned, we have consulted every authority, French or English, within our reach; but the basis of our little work is to be found in Read’s Confectioner, a late London publicationi,

Having for many years been connected with the oldest, most extensive and successful confectionary establishment in the country, we have been enabled to make from our own experience many important modifications and to introduce many additional receipts, particularly m relation to the various articles of luxury which the bounty of our soil and climate render almost exclusivel) American.

The volume has thus been increased in size, and we trust improved in value.

Trusting that our efforts to advance the populai Knowledge of the art which has for many years engaged our attention, may meet with approbation, we present the result of our labours to a candid and indulgent Public.

Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Archive.org has a host of old cookery books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. I happened across a few in my Pinterest feed and gone completely down the rabbit hole in this treasure trove of information. Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books. I’ll be sharing more books as I find them in the coming weeks. –Douglas

Historical Cooking Books: Culture and cooking; or, Art in the kitchen by Catherine Owen (1881) – 20 in a series

What might you find in these old cookbooks? What special recipes have been handed down to you? Share in the Comments!

Available in PDF, Text, JPG formats, and more

PREFACE,

This is not a cookery book. It makes no attempt to replace a good one ; it is rather an effort to fill up the gap between you and your household oracle, whether she be one of those exasperating old friends who mad- dened our mother with their yagueness, or the newer and better lights of our own generation, the latest and best of all being a lady as well known for her novels as for her works on domestic economy — one more proof, if proof were needed, of the truth I endearor to set forth — if somewhat tediously forgive me — in this little book : that cooking and cultivation are by no means antagonis- tic. Who does not remember with affectionate admira- tion Charlotte Bronte taking the eyes out of the pota- toes stealthily, for fear of hurting the feelings of her purblind old servant ; or Margaret Fuller shelling peas ?

The chief difficulty, I fancy, with women trying recipes is, that they fail and know not why they fail, and so become discouraged, and this is where I hope to step in. But although this is not a cookery book, insomuch as it does not deal chiefly with recipes, I shall yet give a few ; but only when they are, or I believe them to be, better than those in general use, or good things little known, or supposed to belong to the do- main of a French chef, of which I have introduced a good many. Should I succeed in making things that were obscure before clear to a few women, I shall be as proud as was Mme. de Genlis when she boasts in her Memoirs that she has taught six new dishes to a Ger- man housewife. Six new dishes ! When Brillat-Sava- rin says : ” He who has invented one new dish has done more for the pleasure of mankind than he who has discovered a star.”

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Peanut Butter Cookies for our annual party

Recipe

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NEW KitchenAid 4.5-quart Tilt Head Stand Mixer w/bowl with handle
BUNDLE includes a Flex Edge Beater, a $39.99 MSRP

I love my KitchenAid mixers and I spotted this deal via the Inside Deals Newsletter from Inside.com. This is a significant price break on these mixed and includes there new Flex Edge Beater (something i wish I had myself) in the bundle.

Get your new mixer just in time for some holiday baking!

* A portion of each sale from eBay directly supports our blogs

Pizza — my favorite food — In our friends new pizza oven 🍕

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Want to learn more about pizza? Who doesn’t? Check out these books from your local library and Amazon.com!

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Books available at the LA Public Library

S

Saturday Brunch at Farm Table

Simple but tasty and exactly what I wanted. 

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Find more brunch ideas with these books

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

I’ll be highlighting books that I am reading (or re-reading) on all sorts of topics this year — Douglas

Reading – Toast and Jam by Sarah Owens – 16 in a series

While I am a fairly experienced cook, this book, despite its simple name, was a bit intimidating. Yes, it is truly a book devoted to Toast and Jam, but this is toast and bread unlike you have probably made in your home before.

I would classify this as a cookbook for advanced users — someone looking to challenge themselves and their skills. You’ll learn a great deal about baking by weight, bread made with tahini and sourdough starter and seeds of all description and jams made with melons and sage and sumac. This is certainly not your average, Joy of Cooking, cookbook for beginners.

Still, there is something to be said for taking on a challenge, even if you fail on occasion. If you learn from your mistakes you are sure to improve your baking skills and improve your life, too.

With that in mind, check out Toast and Jam and give it a try.

From Amazon.com…

Bread and butter, toast and jam, scones and clotted cream—baked goods have a long tradition of being paired with spreads to make their flavors and textures sing. As a baker with a passion for plants, Sarah Owens, author of the James Beard award–winning Sourdough, takes these simple pairings in fresh new directions. Spread some Strawberry & Meyer Lemon Preserves on a piece of Buckwheat Milk Bread for a special springtime treat. Top a slice of Pain de Mie with Watermelon Jelly for a bright taste of summer. Lather some Gingered Sweet Potato Butter on a piece of Spiced Carrot Levain for a warming fall breakfast. Make a batch of Dipping Chips to serve with Preserved Lemon and Fava Bean Hummus for an inspired snack. Wow brunch guests with a spread of Sourdough Whole-Grain Bagels, Lemony Herb Chèvre, and Beet-Cured Gravlax. The recipes here offer a thoroughly fresh sensibility for the comfort found in a simple slice of toast spread with jam.

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Previously in (Re)Reading:

• Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser
• The Old-Fashioned: The Story of the World’s First Classic Cocktail, with Recipes and Lore by Robert Simonson
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
• Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies by by Andrew Degraff and A.D. Jameson
• The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies by by Jason Fagone
• The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Garden: 326 Fast, Easy, Affordable Ways to Transform Your Yard One Project at a Time by Sally Roth
• Raised Bed Revolution: Build It, Fill It, Plant It … Garden Anywhere by Tara Nolan
• Bread Is Gold by Massimo Bottura
• Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Milk Street: The New Home Cooking by Christopher Kimble
• The Wildcrafted Cocktail: Make Your Own Foraged Syrups, Bitters, Infusions, and Garnishes by Ellen Zacho
• 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon by Robert Simonson
• Chemistry: A Novel by Weike Wong
• Back Pocket Pasta by Colu Henry
• Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon

I’ll be highlighting books that I am reading (or re-reading) on all sorts of topics this year — Douglas

Reading – Bread Is Gold by Massimo Bottura – 8 in a series

Food waste is a huge issue in today’s world. Millions of people go hungry every day and yet thousands of tons of food goes into trash heaps at the same time. World famous chef, Massimo Bottura had a unique idea of how to address this issue and chose the Milan Expo of 2015 to create The Refettorio Ambrosiano. During the 6 months of the Expo, other famous chefs would cook lunch and dinner for school kids and the homeless using mainly the supplies donated to them from other events and restaurants in the city. Chefs didn’t know what supplies they might have available until they arrived and then strove to create something useful, simple and yet, special for those meals.

For me, I am often intimated by chef-level food in the real world. I have understand why people are attracted to the new, the special, the dangerous, but I prefer more down-to-earth fare. This is exactly what these chefs created during their meals. Sure, they dressed up the dishes, but at their heart these dishes were about constraints, simplicity and food as love. It is mainly the constraints that seem to drive the chefs to a higher level, as with many artistic forms. Having too much, too many, too special anything often leads us to be lazy and superficial in our art. Cooking (and painting writing and drawing) within constraints forces us to be creative, more thoughtful and more unique than we might think possible.

There are a host of amazing recipes here and just as many ideas on how to use kitchen scraps, leftovers, slightly damaged or out of date fruit and vegetables — just like what you might find in your own home. I know that there are nights when our own dinner is driven by what needs to be used or finished or saved so it doesn’t end up in the trash or the compost pile. I will need to check out his book from the library again so I can go back and collect all the recipes I want to try. There were simply too many to absorb on first reading. Along with the recipes are the excellent essays of each chef’s experience in the kitchen, what they made and how they made it.

** My version of this book was available as an eBook from the Los Angeles Public Library

From Amazon.com…

Massimo Bottura, the world’s best chef, prepares extraordinary meals from ordinary and sometimes ‘wasted’ ingredients inspiring home chefs to eat well while living well.

‘These dishes could change the way we feed the world, because they can be cooked by anyone, anywhere, on any budget. To feed the planet, first you have to fight the waste’, Massimo Bottura

Bread is Gold is the first book to take a holistic look at the subject of food waste, presenting recipes for three-course meals from 45 of the world’s top chefs, including Daniel Humm, Mario Batali, René Redzepi, Alain Ducasse, Joan Roca, Enrique Olvera, Ferran & Albert Adrià and Virgilio Martínez. These recipes, which number more than 150, turn everyday ingredients into inspiring dishes that are delicious, economical, and easy to make.

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library.
Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Previously in (Re)Reading:

• Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Milk Street: The New Home Cooking by Christopher Kimble
• The Wildcrafted Cocktail: Make Your Own Foraged Syrups, Bitters, Infusions, and Garnishes by Ellen Zacho
• 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon by Robert Simonson
• Chemistry: A Novel by Weike Wong
• Back Pocket Pasta by Colu Henry
• Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon

I’ll be highlighting books that I am reading (or re-reading) on all sorts of topics this year — Douglas

Reading – Milk Street: The New Home Cooking by Christopher Kimble – 6 in a series

You may know Christopher Kimball from his time at America’s Test Kitchen on PBS. He brings his same precision and dedication to Milk Street, his new, individual, company and cooking school. For the most part, Milk Street is about simple, international foods, brought home to out American kitchens and done very, very well. In an effort to help the reader find success with these recipes, they are clearly laid out in great detail with hints and tips and times clearly shown. Kimball and his staff have obviously tested these recipes again and again and want to help you succeed in making them.

Scattered throughout are sections detailing tips like why oil us better for cooking omelets and scrambled eggs, why carbon steel pans might be a home cook’s best friend and how to steam cook with a foil-parchment packet.

Along with this are excellent recipes, many of which I have marked for future “testing” in my own kitchen. Some of my favorites include:

• Curry Braised Eggs
• Spanish Spice-Crusted Pork Tenderloin Bites (Pinchos Morunos)
• Caramelized Pork with Orange and Sage
• Cracked Potatoes with Vermouth, Coriander, Fennel
• Whipped Cream Biscuits

** My version of this book was available as an eBook from the Los Angeles Public Library

From Amazon.com…

For more than twenty-five years, Christopher Kimball has promised home cooks that his recipes would work. Now, with his team of cooks and editors at Milk Street, he promises that a new approach in the kitchen can elevate the quality of your cooking far beyond anything you thought possible.

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, the first cookbook connected to Milk Street’s public television show, delivers more than 125 new recipes arranged by type of dish: from grains and salads, to a new way to scramble eggs, to simple dinners and twenty-first-century desserts.

At Milk Street, there are no long lists of hard-to-find ingredients, strange cookware, or all-day methods. Skillet-charred Brussels sprouts, Japanese fried chicken, rum-soaked chocolate cake, Thai-style coleslaw, and Mexican chicken soup all deliver big flavors and textures without your having to learn a new culinary language.

These recipes are more than just good recipes. They teach a simpler, bolder, healthier way to cook that will change your cooking forever. And cooking will become an act of pure pleasure, not a chore.

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Previously in (Re)Reading:

• The Wildcrafted Cocktail: Make Your Own Foraged Syrups, Bitters, Infusions, and Garnishes by Ellen Zacho
• 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon by Robert Simonson
• Chemistry: A Novel by Weike Wong
• Back Pocket Pasta by Colu Henry
• Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon