Review: Some really tasty receipts in here!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 8, 2011
Way back in the day, recipe's were also called receipts.  Why do I know this?  Because I had an argument with an aged spelling teacher who marked me wrong for spelling it 'recipe'.  OK. Enough of my history.  This book is fun history itself,  and the confident cook will enjoy using it.  It's not for the novice (who'd be better with something which stipulates just how much water to start with, how much seasoning, how many calories you end up with, etc.)  In my family there was a similar cookbook, long since destroyed, with directions for skinning a hare, cooking stew, making soap, whitening clothes--all in the same pot, if not at the same time.These recipes do not suggest just how many they'll feed.  This collection was for the housewife who had to be ready when company dropped in for the week or ten days.  There are a lot of wonderful 'stretcher' recipes--for soups and stews, with suggestions how to cook a large haunch of meat and use all that is usable in it for a few days.  Some of the recipes I have tried remind me of my mother's cooking and the directions sound familiar: take a good handful of this.  Add a couple pinches of that, and my all-time favorite--take a piece of butter the size of a walnut. (Uh, Mom, would that be in the shell or out?) This work is a must for those who love to read cookbooks, and the price is right!