I have a number of old cookbooks, some from my grandmother’s collection and some that I have purchased. They crack me up. Here are a few things that I find the most humorous (or perplexing):
The Dallas Jr. League Cookbook (1976) actually has a menu for “Lunch on a Private Jet.” It reads, “Texans need little reason to plan extravagant entertaining. Perhaps your excuse is that the turbos of the family jet are gathering cobwebs or maybe there’s just an uncontrollable urge to rent one of those jazzy stratostreakers.” Really? Can this sound anymore like a Sue Ellen Ewing outing? “Bobby, bring that copter around, would ya’?”
San Francisco A La Carte (The Junior League of San Francisco cookbook of 1979) boasts menus for “Teen-agers Dance” and “After Tennis Luncheon.”
Thoughts for Festive Foods (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966) includes “Hints to Help-Less Housewives.”
And, Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls (date unknown b/c the first 8 pages are missing) is beautiful with glossy color pictures of Easter Hat Cakes, Pigs in Blankets, and Fruit Gelatin molds.
I just picked up the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cook Book at a library sale in Taos. I haven’t had a chance to peruse through it yet.
