Publication Details: The Culinary Arts Institute, 1955
1955's The Ground Meat Cookbook is a terrific example of a fifties cookbook that is now, at least in part, great campy fun.
The cookbook's byline across the top is "204 intriguing ground meat recipes". Intriguing indeed! Many of the entries stretch the very boundaries of taste. The 'Corned Beef Salad', 'Layered Loaf' and 'Ham Ring' are among the many that come to mind.These are gloriously awful and are accompanied by remarkably unappetizing photography.
At the same time, however, there are lots of recipes worth revisiting or that with a few creative modifications we may yet try on this blog would likely be quite delicious. I rather like the BBQ section, with its many takes on the burger. The burger recipes -- of which there are a few in different sections as well -- actually hold up rather well, though few people now use MSG as an ingredient (sadly). If all of the scientifically unsubstantiated anti-MSG claims have driven you away you can substitute a few dashes of Soy or Worcestershire sauce (or both).
I also find the opening introduction that proclaims "ground meats deserve a cookbook of their own" to be charming in its tone and its earnest sense of a need to fill this great cooking void.
Yes, ground meats do deserve their own cookbook. And maybe in 1955 they even deserved this one.
(Click on images to enlarge)
No comments:
Post a Comment