Historic cookbooks provide glimpse into America's past

DALLAS -- Carefully turning the yellowed pages of old cookbooks, written by settlers a century or more ago, conjures up a time when lard was a common ingredient, puddings were all the rage and directions for measurements might read "a teacup full."

The value of recipes in old cookbooks isn't always culinary; they often lack accurate measurements and fail to give cooking directions. Just ask Cammie Vitale Shuman, a former cooking teacher, cookbook editor and part-time caterer, who attempted a muffin recipe from one of the books.

"They came out as hard as lead," she recalls. "The older the cookbook, the less likely you are to have satisfaction from the recipes in them."

The books have historical value for Vitale Shuman, curator of Southern Methodist University's collection of about 275 cookbooks from the 1870s to 1935.

Cookbook collection

"We want to have cookbooks here that help us unravel the cultural history of Western people," she says about the cookbooks, which yield tremendous information about the fiber of local communities.

"They were done by charitable and church organizations, and we assume that many of them were done to finance the programs that those church and civic and charitable organizations had in their local community," she says.

After the Civil War, there was a growth in the range of women's civic and community organizations, as seen in the sponsorship of cookbooks, says Crista DeLuzio, assistant history professor at SMU.

"Women are drawing on their traditional functions, but using that to claim a larger space in the public sphere," says DeLuzio, who plans to use the growing collection in her classes.

The cookbook collection is part of SMU's DeGolyer Library of rare books, specializing in Western Americana. It was started less than two years ago. Most of the books, which range in value from several hundred dollars to less than $10, were found by scanning eBay and other Internet vendors. The library is, of course, always looking for donations.

Many of the books contain interesting asides, including advertisements that provide insight into the lifestyles of another time.

Most of the older cookbooks didn't find it necessary to give cooking instructions. "Choice Receipts," published in 1873 to help pay for the building of a girl's school in Walla Walla in what is now Washington state, gives the following recipe for pound cake: one pound of sugar, three-quarters of a pound of butter, 10 eggs, one pound of flour and some grated nutmeg.

"They assumed that the cooks knew their way around the kitchen," Vitale Shuman says. "There's nothing really that passes for directions in these things."

Most recipes were handed down through families or friends, and precise instructions for the heat weren't included in the early cookbooks because they were working with wood or coal burning stoves, in which heat was difficult to control. Ingredients were often limited to locally available items.

RECIPES FROM OLD COOKBOOKS

Some recipes from old cookbooks collected at Southern Methodist University's DeGolyer Library:

Imperial Cake

One pound of butter, one pound of sugar, fourteen ounces of flour, ten eggs, one glass of wine, half a glass of rose water, two nutmegs, one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, one pound of almonds blanched and cut in pieces. Bake in two round loaves.

--"Choice Receipts," published in 1873 in Walla Walla, Wash.

Fig pudding

1/2 lb. chopped figs, 1/4 cup sugar, 3 eggs, butter size of egg, 1/2 cup cracker or bread crumbs. Beat eggs, add sugar, figs, butter and bread crumbs. Butter mold, cover lightly and boil 3 or 4 hours. Serve cold with whipped cream.

--"The Paris Cook Book," published 1931 in Paris, Texas.

Instructions for sweeping a carpet

Rub and wash four large potatoes, put them in a chopping bowl and chop into pieces the size of a pea, sprinkle them over the floor, brush well over the carpet with your broom, then sweep thoroughly. After using this you will discard salt, tea leaves, cornmeal, etc.

--"The Texas Cook Book," published in 1883 in Houston.