Category:
Cookbooks

Crisco Sandwich

Domestic science consultant Sarah Field Splint introduced the world to the Crisco sandwich in her 1926 book The Art of Cooking and Serving. As the name implies, a Crisco sandwich is a sandwich made primarily from Crisco vegetable shortening (mixed with some salt, mustard, and other seasonings).

More recently, the world was reintroduced to the sandwich by Instagram celebrity Barry Enderwick (aka the "sandwiches of history" guy). He includes it in his new book, Sandwiches of History: The Cookbook.





Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 20, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Food, Cookbooks

Mock Recipes of New England

Penny-pinching New Englanders have a long tradition of creating 'mock' recipes. These are recipes in which a cheap (or easier to find) ingredient is substituted for a more expensive (or harder to find) one. So instead of making crabmeat salad with crabmeat, the mock version substitutes shredded parsnips for crab.

The recipes below are from the Sep 1989 issue of Yankee magazine. They reach a meta quality with "Mock Mock Apple Pie."





Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 01, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, Cookbooks

Cookin’ With Dr. Pepper

Take pretty much any recipe. Add Dr. Pepper to it. And then you're "Cookin' With Dr. Pepper".

Full text available at the Internet Archive.

Posted By: Alex - Tue May 07, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Cookbooks

Futurist Cuisine

The Italian Futurist movement, like the Surrealists, was fond of taking the piss out of traditional things. In 1930, they decided to overturn normal cooking and eating, publishing a MANIFESTO OF FUTURIST COOKING.

Read about it at THE NEW YORKER.


And here.


And here.


Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 07, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, Surrealism, 1930s, Europe

Ann Wigmore’s Recipes for Longer Life

Ann Wigmore believed that the secret to good health and a long life was eating 1) a lot of wheatgrass and 2) only raw food. If those appeal to you, you'll find lots of recipes in her cookbook below, Recipes for Longer Life (published in 1978, available at archive.org).

Wikipedia says that she lived to be 84, which is a relatively long life, but not remarkable. She died of smoke inhalation from a fire. So maybe she would have lived much longer if not for that bad luck?

Wikipedia also says, "many of her claims were denounced as quackery, and her qualifications were never confirmed to be genuine."





I guess she wasn't keen on melons: "eat them alone or leave them alone".

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 16, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Dieting and Weight Loss

Viva Les Crepes

Released in 1971, this album taught you how to cook crepes. Unfortunately I can't find any audio clips of it online. From the album cover:

You'll be amazed at how easy it is. In this very authoritative, informative and thoroughly entertaining album, Chef Claude takes you on a most delightful musical, educational and palate-pleasing tour of the world of crêpes. He teaches you — in record time — a simple, fool-proof technique for making these delicate, paper-thin pancakes.




Some more info from the Louisville Courier-Journal (Dec 27, 1978):

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 22, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, 1970s

48 Famous Sardine Meals

I accept that there are famous chicken, beef, and pork meals. There are famous fish meals as well (such as fish and chips). But famous sardine meals? Even after looking through the recipe book below (available via archive.org), I'm not convinced there are any.



Also, the book only lists 38 recipes. Either the authors didn't think anyone would actually count, or the archived copy has pages missing. The pages aren't numbered, so hard to know which is the case.

  1. Sardines in the blazer
  2. Sardines on brown bread toast
  3. Sardines with anchovy sauce
  4. Sardine canape
  5. Sardines a la steensan
  6. Creamed sardines
  7. Sardines fried in batter
  8. Grilled sardines
  9. Sardine snacks
  10. Sardine and asparagus timbales
  11. Hot sardine rolls
  12. Mystery sandwiches
  13. Sartuna sandwich
  14. Sardine kedgerel
  15. Sardines "my own"
  16. Fried sardines
  17. Stuffed tomatoes
  18. Pilchered eggs
  19. Sardines lyonnaise
  20. Virginian sardine sandwiches
  21. Sardine salad en mayonnaise
  22. Hot sardine sandwich
  23. Broiled sardines
  24. Sardine relish
  25. Curried sardines
  26. Sardine croquettes
  27. Baked sardines
  28. Broiled sardines
  29. Sardine salad
  30. Sardine and olive sandwiches
  31. Sardine cocktail
  32. French toasted sardines
  33. Devilled sardines
  34. Japanese salad
  35. Pickled sardines
  36. Mayonnaise dressing
  37. Thousand island dressing
  38. Sour cream dressing

Note: my wife says that 'sardines on toast' is quite famous in Britain. So my lack of sardine awareness probably represents an American bias.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 10, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, Cookbooks

Casseroles I Have Known

For some reason, this 1973 cookbook sounds rather melancholy.



Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 19, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Cookbooks, 1970s

The Prima Diner

Dinner ain't over till the fat lady bakes!

Read it here.


Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 15, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, Music, 1980s

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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