cookbook history
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New York Times Cookbook and the Origin of Recipes
I recently received this New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne (1961). Although Claiborne is given credit as author, many of the recipes were developed under Jane Nickerson‘s editorship. Jane was the NYT food editor from 1942 to 1957. Claiborne replaced her in 1957. A review by Anne Mendelson of a new edition of the cookbook, noted Nickerson’s contributions to the book. I was curious about what Claiborne wrote about Nickerson in the first edition of the cookbook. From the Preface:“There are many people to whom full credit is due for the quality of The New York Times Cook Book. First of all Jane Nickerson, my esteemed predecessor, the first…
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Cookbook Dedication: Day Four
Arizona Republic food editor Dorothee Polson wrote the 1971 cookbook, Pot au Feu. (It’s a French term meaning “pot on the fire.”) This is her dedication page: Lovingly, for my mother. With special thanks:– to Paul, who helped with all the testing;– to Paige, Dorian and Paul, Jr., who helped with all the tasting. In the book, she revealed that she and her husband, Paul, gained 14 pounds as they worked on the recipes. It also includes some of her columns.
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Happy Birthday to Irma Rombauer
The National Women’s History Museum included this post on its Facebook wall today:“Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer! She first published the “Joy of Cooking” in 1931; she changed the face of American cookbooks by including an ingredient list, detailed step-by-step directions, and personal anecdotes. The “Joy of Cooking” is one of the most-published cookbooks in the country–today, it has sold more than 18 million copies.” A.P. food editor Cecily Brownstone became a good friend of St. Louis, Missouri resident Irma Rombauer. Their friendship pre-dated Brownstone’s wire service career. Cecily was a food editor at Parents Magazine when the cookbook first came out. She traveled to St. Louis to meet Rombauer. As…
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Women’s Clubs, Academia & Social Media
I have spoken several times about the need for academics to use social media to promote their research. Below is an example of how social media and the real world came together. In the Spring, I answered a Tweet from NPR’s the Salt about the cookbooks produced by Junior League organizations as fundraisers. That led to an interview with an NPR reporter and this story. A few weeks ago, I received an email from the president of the Daytona Beach Junior League who had heard the story on the radio. Last night, I spoke to the organization in honor of its 80 year anniversary:“Women’s Clubs: Well Behaved Women Who Helped…
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Second Helping Cookbook
I recently received a copy of the Second Helping Cookbook – a publication of the Women’s National Press Club. It was a follow up to the group’s earlier book, Who Says We Can’t Cook! It was so popular that the initial 5,000 cookbooks were sold in the first week. Included in the Editorial Committee for the second cookbook (published in 1962) was Washington Post women’s page editor Marie Sauer.
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Cookbook Author Myra Waldo
In researching newspaper food sections, I came across cookbook author and newspaper columnist Myra Waldo. Here is a section from her obituary:“Starting in the mid-1950’s, Ms. Waldo wrote more than two dozen travel guides and cookbooks, which she periodically updated. Her ”Serve at Once: The Soufflé Cookbook” of 1954, for instance, was revised as ”The Soufflé Cookbook” in 1961 and, reissued in 1990, remains in print. A book she wrote in 1955 with the actress Gertrude Berg, ”The Molly Goldberg Cookbook,” based on Ms. Berg’s famous television character, was reissued most recently in 1999.” Here is a link to one of her syndicated food columns which ran in the Milwaukee…
