This is a copy of American Cookery, Vol. XXVI No. 7, February 1922. It’s a very staid, stoic, little magazine.
The magazine was published by the Boston Cooking School of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics. It was at this school where culinary pioneer Fannie Farmer enrolled in 1887 at the age of 30, and then took the position of Principal in 1891. After leaving the school she published her famous cookbook, The Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1896.
This issue has recipes, menus for “A Week in February” covering breakfasts, dinners, suppers, and desserts, articles, and editorials.
There are a couple of short stories as well. One of these is titled “Mistress of the House” by Alice Margaret Ashton, where “Aunt Ruby” bestows her homemaking wisdom on the “Bride-Next-Door”:
Aunt Ruby: “Every young housekeeper learns if she really tries”
Bride-Next-Door: “You’ve given me hope, anyway. I’m going straight home and scrub potatoes to bake for supper and to make out my list of ‘morning chores’. And maybe, if I keep on learning, I’ll finally come to be really mistress of my house, as you are of yours.”
The combination of the articles and recipes, along with the write-in ads, how-to’s, poems, and humorous anecdotes remind me a lot of Yankee Magazine. It’s a charming little time capsule!
Washington Pie
- This recipe is from the American Cookery/Boston Cooking-School Magazine. The recipe is presented below as it appears in the magazine.
Cream one-half a cup of butter; add, gradually, one cup and one-half of sugar, three-fourths a cup of milk, mixed with three eggs, well beaten; lastly, add two cups and three-fourths of flour, sifted with three teaspoonfuls and three-fourths of baking powder. Bake in two round, layer-cake tins. Put raspberry jam between layers and sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
If I had to travel back to 1922, from the menus, it appears I would starve to death….
Hahahaha, I’m with you!
Makes me think of the 1936 book I have, English of course, Mrs. Beeton’s Recipes and Household Hints. The advice on how to run your home and what the servants should do and how they should dress is absolutely priceless.
I think I read some of the Mrs. Beeton book while back. It’s fascinating to read how things used to be.
I was just realizing that magazine is almost 100 years old. It’s fun to read snapshots of history like that. And that Washington Pie sounds really good!
I know, I love reading old recipes, old magazines, anything like that. What has changed is fascinating, but even more so is what hasn’t changed! It’s so interesting when I see recurring trends, or that folks had similar worries as we do today.
Wow! The mentality back in the day! Gives me the willies. =D
Holy shiitake mushrooms! That recipe! And I know you quoted it directly from the book. Amazing how things have changed.
It’s very true, the way recipes were written then it must have been so confusing for new cooks. Obviously they assumed people (women) had a lot of basics down that didn’t require writing out in a recipe.