.for those who savor the look and flavors of yesterday's kitchen.
April, 2009
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1. Welcome! Mama's Kitchen is a free newsletter about kitchen collectibles. This newsletter is designed to be entertaining and educational, but also a dialogue among those who have a fondness for kitchen items of all kinds. I hope you'll join us for a few memories, giggles, laughs and some useful information about kitchen collectibles. I am not an expert in any field, but I have been buying and selling kitchen items for over 9 years and loving them for a lifetime. Remember collecting anything should be fun. This is especially true when you can use your collection on a daily basis. Please let me know if there is a particular item you would like featured in upcoming issues.
People collect cookbooks for different reasons. Some just like to use the recipes, others find them humorous. Cookbooks are like history books. They record culture and history from a kitchen point of view. Older cookbooks hold valuable information. They are a testament to the era and lifestyle of the American home.
Collectors may specialize in one particular type of cookbook like food company publications. The Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooks are very popular. Early Jell-O cookbooks are actually comic books featuring celebrities. Advertising cookbooks or booklets are enormously popular and for good reason. Usually given away free, these slim, often lavishly illustrated volumes are worth anywhere from $4 to $100 today.
People also collect cookbooks for their colorful, artistic covers or the graphics used in the illustrations. Some may focus on a particular category of food or cooking method like baking or vegetarian recipes. You might favor church cookbooks, celebrity penned cookbooks, cookbooks for children, professional chef-written cookbooks and even recipe books devoted to a singular subject. Most book collecting experts agree that a specialized collection has more intrinsic value than a generalized assortment. In other words, the whole is worth more then the sum of its parts. The average cookbook collector has little concern for value. They just seem driven to have every single recipe ever published.
Slice cooked and peeled sweet potatoes lengthwise and arrange in a well-buttered casserole. Top with a layer of chopped apples. Mix 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 teaspoon of salt and sift over the apples, then dot with butter. Continue with layers until the casserole is filled. Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
Kate Smith's Company's Coming Cookbook, Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1958.
If you have a favorite recipe to share, please send it to mamas@tias.com and we'll pass it along.
4. What is it?
This is a collection of pamphlet cookbooks. They were usually premiums and given to customers in order to promote a product. Sometimes you had to mail in a small fee. These are fairly easy to come across and inexpensive as well. Prices could range anywhere from $.50 to $100.00. Yes, I said $100.00. The 1904 Jell-O booklet with a mere 14 pages commands a cool $100.
Bedtime Reading -- Cookbooks
Believe it or not, a lot of people read cookbooks on a regular basis. I have a stack at my bedside. Recipes may never get made, but I like to think I might make them some day (this is in spite of the fact that I avoid cooking like the plague). Below are four examples of types of cookbooks people collect. I don't know the book value of any of them. The market value also goes up or down. You might pay 200% more for a cookbook in California than you do in Missouri. You can also still find them at estate and garage sales. Age and condition is a big factor. Handwritten Receipt Books from the 1800's will cost a lot more than one published in 1950. Retaining the original dust jacket adds value. Being a book club edition can sometimes lower or raise a price. Hardcover books market higher than Softcover books unless it is something rare. The first is a church cookbook. Churches would collect recipes from the membership, publish a cookbook, and use it to raise funds for the church. They are usually easy to find and very affordable. They usually market for $5-$10. The second is a celebrity cookbook and one of my favorites. These cookbooks came into fashion with the advent of Radio & TV. The Kate Smith Cookbook is not easy to find, but that doesn't make it rare. It markets for $25-30.
The third is a Cooking School cookbook. This school was in Chicago and this is very sought after in the Midwest. It markets for $25-$28. The last is a set of one of the most popular cookbooks in the 1950s. Meta Given was a home economist who wrote a column which was syndicated in Newspapers. She was considered one of the foremost authorities on food in America. Her books can be found, but the trick is to find both of them together. This set markets for $40-$60. They can be found cheaper, but you have to be in the right place at the right time and be very lucky.
6. Mama's Kitchen Stories When I was a new bride I was a terrible cook. I even burned frozen food. Part of it may have been the old gas stove in the apartment or the fact that I worked nights and was usually walking around half awake. Whatever the reason, beyond frying hamburgers, I was lost. I felt inadequate and felt so sorry for my poor husband. No matter how burned it was, he would bravely eat every bite. On the trip home I spent a lot of time complaining to my Mama about all my failed attempts. I also made a great point of telling her that she should have taught me to be a better cook. She sat there patiently and never said a word. When I finally stopped talking, she got up, opened the cabinet door, and took out her big thick green cookbook. It was one of Meta Given's books and it weighed about 3 or 4 pounds. She came back to the table and threw the book across the table (luckily, it landed right in front of me). Now my Mama had a way of making a point. All she ever said was "Linda, if you can read, you can cook!" On the way home I bought my first cookbook, "365 Ways To Cook Hamburger." After all, my food budget was only $20.00 a week.
Rhonda had this story to share:
Your story about watching the meat come out of the grinder reminded me of going to a neighbor's house when I was a child, about 1960. She'd make what she called "ham salad" out of meat, pickle relish and miracle whip ... the meat, unfortunately was baloney and the resulting salad had such a strong flavor it would almost blow your head off! (I think baloney was different in those days.) This same woman apparently loved mocha anything, and was always putting coffee in all of her cakes and cookies, resulting in what I considered at the time to be an extremely bitter baked goods! After being "the victim" several times of things that didn't taste like they looked, I gave up eating at her house whenever I was there. Regarding the grinder: my mother always ground up her leftover roast beef, mixed it with pickle relish and Miracle Whip and it made wonderful sandwiches! I still do the same thing today, but I used a chopper attached to my blender, rather than dragging out the grinder. (Miracle Whip, by the way was considered mayonnaise at our house when I was growing up, and it wasn't until I went to college that I discovered the was another kind of mayonnaise out there!)
Dorothy remembers this one:
My mama was a good cook - not a gourmet cook - but a cook and baker that steadily served our family well-rounded meals: i.e. meat, potatoes (or rice, pasta, etc.) bread or biscuits, and a vegetable or two. Occasionally, we had desserts and when we did, they were healthful.Freezing food was unheard of, but she spent many an hour canning vegetables, fruits, preserves, from her summer garden yield, and very few spoiled.But I can remember very vividly our family going 'nutting' out in the country on Saturday. Mama had the patience of Job, and her favorite was the Black Walnut, which we picked up by the handfuls and put into paper bags, brought them home to spread on newspapers in the basement by the warm furnace, expediting the outer shells to dry and crumble off. Mama spent many a winter evening listening to the radio, cracking the nuts and it seemed like she picked those little tight tunnels clean - 'all the way to China' - (with the patience of Job) - separating the hard shells from the nutmeats. With her fingers stained black and brown, she dropped them in a big jar with a tight lid, and then baked the most delicious black walnut cookies for the holidays. The kitchen was full of wonderful aromas when we came from school and every cookie crumb was out of this world!
My mama was a good cook - not a gourmet cook - but a cook and baker that steadily served our family well-rounded meals: i.e. meat, potatoes (or rice, pasta, etc.) bread or biscuits, and a vegetable or two. Occasionally, we had desserts and when we did, they were healthful.
Freezing food was unheard of, but she spent many an hour canning vegetables, fruits, preserves, from her summer garden yield, and very few spoiled.
But I can remember very vividly our family going 'nutting' out in the country on Saturday. Mama had the patience of Job, and her favorite was the Black Walnut, which we picked up by the handfuls and put into paper bags, brought them home to spread on newspapers in the basement by the warm furnace, expediting the outer shells to dry and crumble off. Mama spent many a winter evening listening to the radio, cracking the nuts and it seemed like she picked those little tight tunnels clean - 'all the way to China' - (with the patience of Job) - separating the hard shells from the nutmeats. With her fingers stained black and brown, she dropped them in a big jar with a tight lid, and then baked the most delicious black walnut cookies for the holidays. The kitchen was full of wonderful aromas when we came from school and every cookie crumb was out of this world!
Do you have a kitchen memory to share. Please send it to Mama at mamas@tias.com
7. Kitchen Tips
Dab a bit of oil of clove, peppermint or eucalyptus on a cool light bulb. When you turn on the light, the scent will drift throughout the room.
Jim has this tip for you:
Tired of cleaning the dust out of your keyboard. Don't spend money on a special cover, Just put a spare placemat over it.
Have you got a great kitchen tip or question, please send it along to mamas@tias.com
8. What's New at Mama's Treasures
Joining my mailing list at Mama's Treasures makes you eligible for promotional coupons and advance notice of sales. New items coming to Mama's Treasures include: Mirro Aluminum Cookie Presses, Federal and Hazel Atlas Nut Grinders, Tipp City Windmill Salt & Pepper Shakers, Pyrex Teapots & Double Boilers, Wesson Oil Mayonnaise Beater Jar, Japan Christmas Cardboard Houses, Feemster Peeler, Boxed Hankie Sets, Pyrex Friendship, Gooseberry, Autumn Wheat and Butterprint Refrigerator Dishes, Aluminum Sieves, Molly Goldberg, Granddaughter's Inglenook, Modern Family, Chicago Daily News, and American Woman Cookbooks, Hazel Atlas Red Stripe Salt and Pepper Range Shakers, Stop Ice Drink Aid, Mirro Cookie Cutters in Package, Aluminum Pie, Loaf, and Muffin Pans, Grease Cans, Advertising Jars, Krank's Shaving Cream Jar, Mentholatum Jar, Flower Frogs, Insect Sprayers, Kodak Cameras and Flash Holder, Griswold Patty Mold Set, Nativity Figures, Swanky Swigs, Pincushions, Darners, Tap Icer, Rare West Bend Anodized Copper Tobacco Canister, Punch N Covers, Durham Duplex Razor Set, Wearever and Frigidaire Aluminum Refrigerator Boxes, Wood Bowls, Wearever Juicers, Aluminum Soap Dishes, George Briard Enamel Cups, Kilgore Plastic Picnic Set in Box, Commodore Elves, Corning Blue Cornflower Teapot and Casserole, Swans Down Measuring Cup and Muffin Pan, Aluminum Egg Cups, Fire King Modern Tulip 4 Qt. Splash Bowl, Springerle Rolling Pins, Aprons, Utensil Lots, Texasware Mixing Bowls, Pyrex Double Boilers and Teapots, Bakelite Utensils, Foley Forks & Choppers, and so much more!!!!!
Drop by and visit me at www.tias.com/stores/mamas I love to chat, answer questions and I always consider reasonable offers.
9. Helpful Resources
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