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Recipe of the Week: Cookbooks are timeless treasures in the digital age

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I like cookbooks.

I know that I can search recipes in seconds on the internet, and sometimes I do. But most of the time when I am researching recipes I turn to my substantial collection of books dedicated to the art of food.

I still have my mother’s cookbook; the covers are long gone and it is tattered and torn. I suspect I will be the last to treasure it. But even if you don’t include the notes written by my long-gone mother, it is a basic cookbook that still has lots of classic recipes with simple explanations of how to cook meals.

Her book was free; she got it from the Mirro company, no doubt to convince customers they should buy only that brand of cookware.

Cookbooks have been around for a long time. The oldest record recipes were on the Yale Tablets, which were a record of a circa 1700 BC meat stew. More recently, by the 1300s cookbooks were being recorded to save recipes made to satisfy kings and noblemen.

The first cookbook in English was “Forme of Cury,” which was written by the chefs of King Richard II in 1390. In 1796 the first cookbook was printed in America. It was “American Cookery” written by Amelia Simmons. The first cookbook authored by an African American was “A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Receipts (sic) for the Kitchen,” and was published by Malinda Russell in 1866.

My newest cookbook is an old one. Given to me by a dear friend, it’s an oversized volume that was distributed to Peace Corps volunteers headed to countries where there are no supermarkets to satisfy your every culinary desire. It is a wealth of information on how to get by without the amenities you are used to.

Today Peace Corps volunteers can download recipes online, but 50 years ago this book was all they had. Compiled from submissions sent in by volunteers, “Mmmm, Let’s Eat!” teaches how to utilize whatever ingredients you can forage.

Whether or not you could use a recipe depended on availability of ingredients where you were posted. But there also are recipes that anyone could use or adapt including soups, stews, fritters, casseroles, cereals, curries, eggs and pizzas.

The Peace Corps recipes come from the volunteers, so most of the directions are incomplete. It was just one more way for them to use their wits to get by. This stew recipe is from my mother’s cookbook; it’s been a favorite of mine for a long time.

Brown Stew with Dumplings

1 pounds beef, cut in 1 ½ -inch cubes

2 tablespoons fat

1 onion, chopped

1 cup hot water

1 cup carrots, sliced

1 cup potatoes, diced

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)

1 ¼ teaspoons pepper (or to taste)

1. Brown the meat thoroughly in a Dutch oven or skillet.

2. Add onion and hot water. Cover.

3. Cover over low heat for 1 hour.

4. Add carrots, potatoes, vinegar, salt and pepper. Cover and cook 20 minutes longer.

5. Drop dumplings over stew and cook according to directions. Serves 4 to 6.

Stew Dumplings

1 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons shortening

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together

2. Cut the shortening into the mixture with two knives or a pastry cutter.

3. Add the milk to make a soft dough.

4. Pat to ½ -inch thickness; cut with a biscuit cutter or use a small, round glass.

5. Cover and steam 12 to 15 minutes. Yields 12 dumplings.


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