Vintage Cookbook: The Farmhouse Cookbook, Claire Moon
Publication Details: Ideals Publishing, 1978
Ideals Magazine was an inspirational and religious magazine that started publication in the 1940's and that was especially known for its Christmas and Easter issues. The magazine aimed for a folksy charm and centered around family stories, poems, illustrations, traditional tales and the like. While the magazine ceased full publication several years ago, they still publish those two holiday issues which are available through larger bookstores and sites like Amazon.
Back in their heyday Ideals would also publish special issues and magazine formatted cookbooks of various kinds. In fact, they published a lot of cookbooks! I have seen sites where 70 or more titles are listed.
These cookbooks are often worth tracking down for their large numbers of themed recipes as well as their reflection of North American cooking in the eras in which they were published. The cookbooks run the gambit from bread to cookie to budget to gourmet to meat and on and on. Some, such as the one we are looking at today, have sections for all of these and are centred around what one supposes must be an "ideal, in this case the "Farmhouse".
As with many cookbooks from the 1970s,
The Farmhouse Cookbook swings frequently between the classic and the campy, including in its full page photography. Here the photography seeks to emphasize the farmhouse theme.
There are pages and pages of recipes broken down by type (Salads, Mains, Desserts, etc.). Most often there are 4-6 recipes to a page! These are all over the map in terms of their appeal to a 2017 palate. Classics like Beef Stroganoff, Sauerbraten or Potato Pancakes never really go out of style while others like Cheese Savory Canapes and Celebration Salad likely are too dated for all but the most adventurous to attempt.
Then are are those like the Sauerkraut Casserole that sound kind of "out there" at first, but on closer inspection have interesting flavour combinations. Whether these combinations are of interest to you or not, of course, is another matter.
Here we are going to look at only a small number of the cookbook's recipes focusing on those that had accompanying photographs. To see the rest, alas, you will have to track a copy down!
The recipes either immediately proceed or follow their picture.
(Click on images to enlarge)
(Above the Red Cabbage recipe is pictured as accompanying a pork roast)
See also: Eastern Vegetarian Cooking w. Lime Pickle, Dashi, Millet & more -- Vintage Cookbook TBT
See also: Mary Poppins in the Kitchen w. Dundee Cake, Welsh Rarebit, Yorkshire Pudding & more! -- Vintage Cookbook TBT
Vintage Cookbook TBT List
