An old cookbook from Merritt gives a glimpse of the past for some new holiday recipes
If you’re looking for a new holiday recipe you might want to try some historical cookbooks.
There are hundreds of old cookbooks available online with some delicious recipes, and some suited for more adventurous cooks. Two historical cookbooks with some interesting recipes enjoyed in the Okanagan are the Kelowna Hospital Women’s Auxiliary Cookbook from 1936 and the Merritt B.C. Personal Recipes book from the 50s.
Many community cookbooks would have advertisements in them to help pay for the printing costs. These cookbooks are more than collections of recipes, they offer insight to what daily life was like.
Some of the recipes in these old cookbooks are pretty similar to what people cook today, and some might not be the most appealing for the holidays.
For those determined to try some vintage recipes that previous generations in the Okanagan enjoyed there are dozens of old cookbooks online.
“Personal Recipes” from Merritt B.C. by the Catholic Women's League has several recipes which may seem strange to the modern person, like the “Mounted Police Salad.”
The Catholic Women's League was fond of combinations people today might find odd. The "Baked Fillet with Cream" is exactly what is sounds like; a fish fillet doused with cream and baked in the oven with some cheese. The "Miracle Doughnuts" are a semi-savoury doughnut made out of potatoes, tomato soup, and a cup or so of sugar. The "Sour Cream Pie" is similar to a custard pie except it's sour cream and raisins.
“Mounted Police Salad” is half a pound of pork, 2 apples, 6 pickles, an egg, 8 potatoes, a beet, all diced and tossed together with half a head of lettuce and some spices.
Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson University, published some highlights from its collection of community cookbooks including a section from The Kelowna Hospital Women’s Auxiliary Cookbook from 1936.
The book is chock full of interesting recipes, including one for suet pudding which is essentially beef fat, flour, and raisins.
The Kelowna Hospital Women's Auxiliary was a group that started in 1904 as the "Ladies' Aid" to assist doctors and nurses at the hospital and gradually became a fixture in the hospital performing a range of necessary tasks.
The university’s collection of 250 community cookbooks come from all across the country, but the collection is not readily available online.
If you want to learn a bit about culinary history, or just make a weird recipe, check out some of these old cookbooks. If any readers make any of these recipes, please send us an email because we'd like to hear how it turned out.
Check out the university’s collection here.
Try the Merritt B.C. Personal Recipes here.
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