Angel's Slice of the Pie #9: My Vintage Cookbook Collection

Hi Nostalgiacs!

This week's Angel's Slice of the Pie has been inspired by a conversation I had with my friend MJ where we were talking about our collection of vintage cook books (I promise you, our conversations are a lot more riveting than this. Although we think talking about vintage cook books, or vintage anything for that matter) is always pretty riveting!)

It's no secret that I collect vintage magazines. It is one of my absolute passions and it is because I'm an avid magazine collector that I got to meet MJ who is also an avid magazine collector himself. And the rest is history! But what a lot of people don't know is that I also collect vintage cook books and I get very excited when I find yet another one to add to my ever-growing collection (I do have a life - honest!)

All the vintage cookbooks I currently have with me here in the States. The rest are still in London

I don't know when I made the conscious decision to collect cook books. I was always surrounded by them when I was growing up. In the living room of our very first house in East London, we had book cases which took up almost half the length of our flock-wallpapered through-lounge. You could easily tell which books belonged to whom just by looking at the subject matter:

Dad - economics, accounting, literature, religion, language learning books, classic novels, romantic fiction, thrillers, adventure, horror, history, historical fiction, short stories, detective fiction, user manuals and reference guides.

Kids - fairy tales, children's novels, children's Bible, early learning books

Mum - Cookery books. OK prayer and hymn books too!

I love my books! If you come over to my house, you'll find books on a wide array of topics just like my dad had. And also a million and one cook books just like my mum still has! My mum was, and still is, very much a foodie. She loves to cook, watch television cooking shows, and if ever she goes out and hears a recipe book calling out her name - then it just has to come home with her! But don't worry - she always pays for it first!

I do like modern day cook books and have quite a few of those but it's the vintage ones that I'm particularly interested in - anything pre-1990. I pick one up and I'm instantly reminded of the cook books Mum had and I'm transported back to my childhood. I love the simplicity of the recipes; the unfussiness of the ingredients, and the homeliness of the accompanying food photos and sketches. It goes without saying that for a nostalgia nut like me, I am completely in my element! In fact I find it very relaxing after a long day to just flick through one when I want to chill (I swear I have a life!)

The legend that is Ms. Childs

It's unfortunate that most of my collection is back home in the UK - including my ones by Queen Delia - but I have brought a few back with me. Not as many as I would have preferred, admittedly, but more than my husband would have liked, definitely! And I've also been fortunate to have stumbled over some awesome finds here in the States, including a couple of Good Housekeeping cookbooks, one by Better Homes and Gardens, and surprisingly two Sainsbury's cookbooks from the 1980s. I'm guessing there's another ex-pat around here who's been in the States a lot longer than I have! And of course you can't really call yourself a collector of vintage cookbooks unless you have at least one by Julia Childs - and thankfully I do!

I have some cookbooks that are absolute favourites. One of them is Good Housekeeping's Hot and Cold Puddings which seems to be very obscure and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of information about it. It used to belong to my mum but now it has pride of place in my own home, and I remember this being on our bookshelves back in the eighties. I'm also delighted to have a copy of Jenny Bristow's Highdays and Holidays as I used to watch her cooking show in the early nineties. Oh, and let's not forget the Farmhouse Kitchen Cook Book! For those of us who grew up watching the Farmhouse Kitchen TV cooking show, The Farmhouse Kitchen cook books are a must!

I also have two revisions of The Cookery Year which has been hailed as the cook's bible and you'll get no argument from me there! It's full of pretty illustrations, gorgeous photos and if you're someone who likes to use seasonal produce or wants to learn how to make classic dishes, this is the book for you. I have very happy memories of poring over the pages of The Cookery Year as a child, learning all about the different types of food and imagining all the dishes I would cook for my fancy dinner parties when I was all grown up (I've had lots of parties but still no grown-up, fancy dinner parties - yet!)

MJ asked if I actually put these cookbooks to good use by actually trying out the recipes. The truth is I haven't put the recipes to use as much as I should have but since my mid-teens, I've definitely tried some of them out. Any recipe that involved making something that was sweet and totally bad for your teeth and waistline was definitely a winner with me! My absolute fave recipe was for an orange foam sauce that you served with puddings. My dad loved hot puddings with loads of custard but one night, I found that we'd run out of milk so I needed to find a sauce that didn't need milk. And I found it in The Cookery Year. I may have flicked the The Cookery Year as a child but it finally took just over a decade for me to actually use one of the recipes!

One of the advantages of living in America (free refills; better steak; a stone's throw from Wahlburgers so I might be able to bump into Mark or Donnie...) is that I'm finding lots of cool vintage cookbooks to add to my collection that I may not have found if I'd still been living in England. It's interesting to pore over the pages and see what was en vogue food-wise back in the day Stateside, and of course I'm learning about all kinds of old-school American classics that we don't have in the UK. And for those of you who think that a 'casserole' in America is the same as a stew in the UK or Europe, think again! Out here it's a carb-laden baked dish which can be sweet like a bread and butter pudding, or savoury and topped with breadcrumbs or cheese. Thanks for clearing that up, American cookbooks!

So I will be out at my favourite store tomorrow, seeing what other vintage finds I can add to my ever expanding collection - much to Mr. D's annoyance!

All photos by Angel Noire

Word cloud logo by Angel Noire