An Old Cookbook but new for Me

I always wanted to know how people ate in the 1930's and 40's. My Grandparents owned a bar then and they served chili and other bar food. My Mom used to talk about but I never really thought about how it tasted or was prepared. I loved watching old movies, think Fred Astaire, dining at some exclusive nightclub, and I wondered what they were eating and how it tasted.

At a recent estate sale I bought some old cookbooks, one of which is The Boston Cooking School Cookbook , Seventh Edition, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, published 1941 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston. This book was originally published in 1896 and as of 1941 there were 2,036,000 copies printed. I discoved that the last book completely edited by Fannie Farmer was the 1918 edition.

This is really a good basic cookbook and it has some fine dining recipies too, several mention truffles, a rarity I think even today. The book is not so recipe-specific as today's cookbooks are.

For example, the first dish I made, Creamed Chicken, was so simple, 2 cups of cooked cubed chicken, (I roasted a whole boneless and skinless chicken breast in the oven with just salt & pepper) and 2 cups of White or Veloute sauce. I used the latter which is basically a roux with milk and a little cream. Further suggestions are to make it a "Sauce A la Cadillac" with the addition of diced ham and asparagus spears. I chose this option as i had everything on hand and it was a great meal, really so simple and tasty.

The book also noted you could make a lighter sauce by omitting the cream, forward thinking I thought for the time, and gave several other substitutions and suggestions such as replacing the chicken with 2 cups of sliced celery or adding eggs or curry.

I served this over steamed rice and everyone really enjoyed it. We got six servings from this, with enough for leftovers for lunch.

I felt like I took a step to the past. Next dish will be Chop Suey II, I'll let you konw how that turns out, sounds great too.