Home Town Recipes of River Bourgeois w. Annapolis Valley Ham Loaf, Acadian Dumplings, Pound Cake & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook: Home Town Recipes of River Bourgeois 

Publication Details: Self-Published, c. 1979

Last week we looked at a terrific cookbook dedicated to the culinary traditions of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in our post "From the Highlands and the Sea w. Cape Breton Casserole, Hogmanay Rich Biscuits, Aspy Bay Fried Smelts & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT". This week we are featuring a church/community style cookbook from the Cape Breton town of River Bourgeois.

River Bourgeois is a picturesque little town on the south shore of the island. You can see some pictures of it and learn about the community from its website. As Wikipedia notes "Despite the name, there is an excellent harbour but no river."

I love this type of community cookbook -- we have looked at a number of them before -- which are generally published by a school, church or community group and consist of recipes submitted by people in the town and have ads from local businesses. Usually they are meant as a way to raise money. This one was put out by the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church's Women's League and appears to have been released in 1979.

As is always the case the recipes vary widely in their quality, but there is a lot of classic fare like Swiss Steak, cookies, casseroles, etc.

Here we have included a number from each of the various sections. We have also included some of the ads which are interesting in their own right.

As the books frequently did they provided blank pages for the owner's own recipes and we found one they called Yum - Yum Cake that they had penned in. We have, of course, included it along with a recipe for All Bran Muffins on a small piece of paper that was inserted in-between some pages.

 (Click on scans to enlarge)

From the Highlands and the Sea w. Cape Breton Casserole, Hogmanay Rich Biscuits, Aspy Bay Fried Smelts & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT

Vintage Cookbook: From the Highlands and the Sea

Publication Details: McCurdy Printing, 1973

This wonderful cookbook that was compiled by the Ingonish Women's Hospital Auxiliary in 1973 is a look at recipes from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Done in a classic community cookbook bare bones, ringed style, there are dozens of recipes grouped into sections like Soup & Chowder, Breads, Desserts, etc. There is also, needless to say, a fish section and a lot of seafood based dishes in every applicable section. Lobster, scallops, shrimp, cod (and codfish tongues), smelts, salmon and others are all represented in the book. The Festive Oyster Pie below is quite spectacular.

A lot of this is very hearty, old-school Eastern North American fare. The book even opens with a section devoted to porridge and gruel! There are recipes for rabbit, beef tongue, seal, baked beans, turnips, etc. as well as a wide array of casseroles and stews and recipes like Mother's Corn Fritters and Jessie's Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies.

Here we have included a real cross-section of what the book has to offer as well as highlighting many that had local place names like Aspy Bay or Englishtown attached to them. We have also added a biscuit recipe meant to help celebrate Hogmanay (Scottish New Year).

For fans of the drink there are also a couple of those, including the delightful sounding, whiskey based Aberdeen Welcome.

(click on images to enlarge)