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 Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books.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 American woman’s cook book by Ruth Berolzheimer – 26 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

USE OF RECIPES

To become a good cook requires more than the blind following of a recipe. This is frequently illustrated when several women living in the same community, all using the same recipe, obtain widely differing results. It is the reason so many cooks say, “I had good luck with my cake to-day,” or “I had bad luck with my bread yesterday.” Happily, luck causes neither the success nor the failure of a product. To become a good cook means to gain a knowledge of foods and how they behave, and skill in manipulating them. The recipe by itself, helpful as it is, will not produce a good product; the human being using the recipe must interpret it and must have skill in handling the materials it prescribes.

Some of the lessons which the person desiring to become a good cook should learn are given in the following pages. They will not be learned all at once; but if they are gradually mastered, luck will play a less important part in culinary conversation.

Reviewer: Judith Martin – favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite – December 15, 2009 
Subject: American Woman’s Cook Book (1939)

* 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

What is your favorite beer, wine or beverage?

Porter at Eureka, Claremont, California

Since we had to drive to Cal Poly for an awards presentation for @drrosannewelch and an eSports event for @gogojosephw, we took some time out for a stroll and dinner in Downtown Claremont. There we had drinks and dinner at @eurekaclaremont. We ended the evening at a poetry and music show at @sanctuarycoffee, a non-profit coffeehouse that donates all profits to public assistant organizations. 

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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

What is your favorite Southern California view?

View from The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch

Rosanne and I had lunch, along with my sister, Denise, at the nice Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch. This is part of their hospitality program and staffed by students.

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What is your favorite coffee?

After lunch caffé at Kellogg Ranch

Rosanne and I had lunch, along with my sister, Denise, at the nice Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch. This is part of their hospitality program and staffed by students.

I love having a nice caffé (as the Italians call it) after a nice meal. 

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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

Too often, whiskey lists are compilations of fancy, limited-run bottles that are either impossible to track down or simply too expensive – usually both. After all, when there’s rent to pay and mouths to feed, people can’t always slap down hundreds of dollars on a bottle of hooch, regardless of its age or collectability. And truth be told, you don’t have to. There are still great deals to be had on unique and delicious bourbons, single malts and even Japanese bottles if you know where to look. But seeking out undervalued whiskey is not without risk – there’s a lot of nasty stuff out there. So avoid the swill and check out these fine bottles that deliver maximum bang for under 40 bucks.

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: Famous old receipts used a hundred years and more in the kitchens of the North and the South (1908) by Jacqueline Harrison Smith – 25 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

INTRODUCTION.

The title of this book by itself conveys so much that any intro- duction to the many good things told in its pages seems superfluous. It certainly should not require any urging to induce all who can to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them.

“One hundred years ago and more” brings before us a delightful period in our country’s history, and recalls the generous, cordial feel- ings which prevailed among our ancestors — that ” open-handed spirit, irank and blythe, of ancient hospitality,” which made the homes of the New World all that a stranger could desire.

We may reconcile ourselves to the passing of ” the fugaceous hospitalities of the snuffbox ” as needing the powdered wig and three- cornered hat to justify them. What a genuine ring there is in the words of Washington, referring to Mount Vernon, when he said : ” T.et the hospitality of the house with respect to the poor be kept up; let no one go hungry away.” And the cordiality of Jefferson while living in Philadelphia is delightfully expressed in a letter to Richard Peters: “Call on me whenever you come to town, and if it should be about the hour of three, I shall rejoice the more. You will find a bad dinner, a good glass of wine, and a host thankful for your favour and desirous of encouraging repetitions of it, wathout number, form, or ceremony.”

It was a time when there was truly that ” hospitality sitting with gladness,” w-hich all the luxuries of the present day cannot supply.

* 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

Even in the cocktail-forward South, tequila sometimes gets an unfair rep as the shot of choice for college kids, or something to hide beneath a margarita mix. But a fine tequila, such as Jalisco, Mexico’s Patrón Añejo, is aged in white oak barrels for twelve to fifteen months, and is a smooth, nuanced sipper. The oak imparts a warmth and depth reminiscent of bourbon. Just in time for the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), swap in aged tequila for bourbon in a twist on an Old Fashioned.

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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: Simple Italian cookery (192) by Mabel Earl McGinnis – 24 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

Risotto with Ham

Cut into small pieces one ounce of raw ham, fat and lean. Chop up fine a small piece of onion, and put it with the ham into a frying-pan with one-half a table- spoon of butter. Fry slowly until the ham and onions are golden. Then add one-half cup of uncooked rice; when it has cooked for a few minutes, add twice its height of bouillon (or water), salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and mix well and allow it to boil for twenty minutes over a good fire. Then take off the stove, add two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese grated; mix well and serve.

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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: Twenty-five cent dinners for families of six (1879) by Corson, Juliet – 23 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 REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION.

DURING the time that this little book has been a candidate for public favor, it has attained a success far beyond the expectations of its most sanguine advocates ; and in issuing this revised and enlarged edition the author returns her sincere thanks to both press and public, who have so substantially seconded her efforts for culinary reform. In this edition an additional chapter has been devoted to the preparation of fruit for dessert, withspecial reference to the needs of American housewives. Most American ladies prepare fruit for table use either by canning it, or making it into rich and expensive preserves; while both of these methods are palatable, and available for winter use, the receipts given in the closing chapter will provide a welcome variety for serving fresh fruits at the table, and will tend to increase the healthy consumption of those abundant and excellent domestic productions, while they cannot fail to decrease the deplorable prevalence of that objectionable national compound, the pie. Recent investigations concerning retail prices in different sections of the country confirm the author in the estimate of cost given in this work ; in certain localities some of the articles quoted are more expensive, while others are cheaper ; but the average is about equal.

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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