Free, Old, Down-loadable Cookbooks - Literally Thousands of Them

[Rozzer]

Antilope very kindly posted a notice in this forum about a 1962 school cookbook available at archive.org, of which I'd never heard. I went there and wandered around. They have (this is not a misprint) 1,987 free, American cookbooks alone! Not including British or European or International cookbooks! All for nothing!

The archive.org books include but aren't limited to: A. Lyman Phillips' A bachelors cupboard; containing crumbs culled from the cupboards of the great unwedded (1906); Mary Louise Barroll's Around-the-world cook book; the culinary gleanings of a naval officer's wife (1913); Clarence E. Edwords' Bohemian San Francisco, its restaurants and their most famous recipes; the elegant art of dining (1914); and Virginia Richmond's [Was that really her name?] Confederate receipt book. A compilation of over one hundred receipts, adapted to the times (1863).

And archive.org led me to openlibrary.org, which has 1,097 free, downloadable cookbooks! There you can find Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife (1836); Procter & Gamble's The Story of Crisco (with 615 recipes)(1920-16th ed.); Louise Bennett Weaver's A thousand ways to please a husband with Bettina's best recipes ("the romance of cookery and housekeeping")(1917); and Mary J. Lincoln's (no, not Mary TODD Lincoln) Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book (1902).

I guess I really don't have to actually buy old, used cookbooks. I'll leave that to Mrs. Gates. For all human purposes, and considering the fact that available, free, old cookbooks online will only increase in number, we really have everything we'd ever need or want available free on the web. Thank you again, Antilope!!!

[Rozzer]

Here are two recipes from some of the books I found yesterday at openlibrary.org:

This one's from The Confederate Cookbook, (Richmond 1863):

"Nice Buns.

"Take three quarters of a pound of sifted flour, two large spoonfuls of brown sugar, two spoonfuls of good yeast, add a little salt, stir well together, and when risen work in two spoonfuls of butter, make into buns, set it to rise again, and bake on tins."

This one's from Dixie Cookery by "Mrs. Barringer of North Carolina (1867)"

"Squirrel Soup.

"Cut up two young squirrels and put them in a pot with five quarts of cold water. Season with salt and pepper. Let them boil until the meat is very well done, and remove it from the liquor, and cut it up into small pieces. Put in the soup a quarter of a pound of butter mixed with a little flour and a pint of cream. Throw in the cut meat, and just before you serve it add the beaten yolks of two eggs and a little parsley. Chicken soup is nice made in the same way, with the addition of a pint of green corn cut from the cob, and put in when it is half done."

[briarbowl]

Hm. And I just happen to have a yardful of squirrels. I bet it would work for rabbits, too.

BTW, I have eaten squirrel before and they are very tasty. Tough, though, very tough.