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 Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these books.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: Cooking for two; a handbook for young housekeepers (1906) by Janet McKenzie Hill – 28 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

Cooking for Two

CHAPTER I

A TALK ON FOOD

In the morning you work about the house, putting it in order, or you work in the garden with your flowers, or you go to market. Your husband attends to his work out-of-doors or in the office, and when mid-day is reached neither of you feel willing to do any more work, until you have eaten your mid-day meal. Your energy and motive power are gone. The movements you have made, not only those you have made of your own accord in working about the house, but also those made involuntarily by your heart in beating, your lungs in breathing, and your brain in thinking, have wasted your stock of energy and worn away tissues of flesh, blood and bones. This waste must be renewed at once, or you will remain faint and inactive; or, if the renewal be deferred for days, you will cease to live. More than this, if you have not attained your full normal growth, there must be a constant supply of material for this purpose. The material to renew energy and tissues and supply new growth comes from the food that is eaten. Not all the articles that we use as food contain elements for growth and repair of tissues ; from this fact you can see that, if those whom you send from your tables each day have not been supplied with the proper articles of food, you can not expect them to retain health or have the energy and courage to do their work in the world. An old saying expresses this in concise form, which you can easily remember; it is: ” The stomach is the seat of courage.”

* 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 are your favorite coffee or tea drink? Share in the comments!

Huge, gleaming, coffee roaster inside of @starbucksmilanoofficial

This store, the first in Italy, open last September, the day before we arrived for the Screenwriting Research Network conference. 
The store is a veritable coffee amusement park with typical Starbucks drinks and food as well as a full-service Italian “bar” with drinks and food and a very classy design. 

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Learn more about Milan

* 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 chain restaurant? A guilty pleasure, perhaps? Share in the comments!

Sweet Tea In Mason Jars…Must be Ohio

At lunch with family and the drinks come in branded Mason Jars. Pretty southern for being only 40 miles from Canada. 😀

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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 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