Artifact: The Joy of Cooking, 1964 edition

In the 50s and 60s, my grandfather worked for Bobbs-Merrill Publishing in Indianapolis, where he was editor of the United States Code, Annotated. (For you legal folks who are familiar with this title, he did it without computers. Oh. My. God.)

Grandpa brought a lot of books home from work that I assume he got for free because they were damaged or defective. We have a lot of Bobbs-Merrill books spread throughout my family that have the wrong cover, were printed upside down, or something. Bobbs-Merrill had some serious quality-control issues in their printing plant, apparently.

My copy of The Joy of Cooking is one of these defective books, stamped “corners bent.” It’s defective in a lot of other ways, too: there are recipes calling for cyclamate sweeteners and MSG, it advocates dangerous methods of home canning (botulism, anyone?), and is filled with plenty of tips on how to please your husband with food (no, that’s not what I meant…you guys sure have filthy minds).

This copy of The Joy of Cooking came to me from my mother when I graduated from college and moved into my first apartment. It predates saccharine, NutraSweet, non-gringo Mexican and Asian cuisines, and most obviously feminism.

“Millions of brides have been given JOY OF COOKING as a one-volume insurance against any and all kitchen crises.” Ugh.

The illustrations are little simple line drawings, so fortunately we’re spared those supersaturated-color recipe illustrations of yesteryear. (More pictures of food disasters here)

There’s a lot of good stuff in here too, however. For example, if you hunt or fish, this book contains everything you need to know about cleaning, dressing and preparing all sorts of wild game. This is good for me to know, because if my unemployment continues for much longer, I’ll be eating squirrels, pigeons and raccoons for dinner. (Of course in 1964, you’d be cooking whatever dead animals your husband brought home, right?)

I mostly use this book as a reference, to look up things like cooking times and temperatures for various foods. If you know little or nothing about cooking, you can find all the basic information you need here – the kind of information that never goes out of date.

In the News: Cooking Secrets

(soundtrack to this post: “The Key The Secret” by Urban Cookie Collective)

10 techniques every cook should know (SF Chronicle)

Making the perfect chocolate chip cookie (NY Times, may require registration)

More news: I heard on Science Friday today that vegetable and herb seed sales at Burpee have doubled this year. Apparently people are trying to save money on produce by growing their own.

Psssst…..wanna buy a pram?

In true San Francisco fashion, one of my neighbors got rid of this vintage British pram by leaving it out on the street. It’s a Wilson Silver Shadow, at least 40 years old. These were common in the UK and Europe, but relatively few were sold in the US. A similar model is available brand-new for $2,995.00. Ouch.

Anyway, I’ve started restoring it, but you are free to buy it from me at any time. Just contact me and make me an offer! Photos below — it’s not fully assembled because the leather suspension straps have rotted away.

Here’s what a fully restored Silver Shadow looks like.

Weird Gadget of the Week: Egg Tools

I don’t eat eggs much, but these little gadgets from MSC International of Montreal are too cute to pass up. The mini-whisk pictured above scrambles eggs much more efficiently and is easier to clean than my regular-sized whisk. See the entire product line here. Available locally at Cole Hardware and Bed Bath & Beyond.