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Collecting Vintage Cookbooks

© Barbara Bell

I've been reading old cookbooks most of my life, as my mother collected them. Early in my own collecting life I picked up a number of them cheaply at yard sales, and within a few years I had a reasonably eclectic collection. In recent years I've moved around quite a bit and seem to have lost some significant members of that collection, although I hope to unearth them in those few unpacked boxes still in storage.

Still, with the ones I still have, and the addition of several of my mother's collection that I inherited, there are some very interesting volumes. For many people, myself included, the real pleasure of a cookbook is in the reading. Most of the recipes will never be tried, the pages may never receive a splotch of food or a dusting of flour. But the joy of sitting back with a cup of coffee and a brand-new (to me) cookbook is one of the great satisfactions of life.

One could divide cookbooks into a number of categories if putting together a collection, although there are broad criteria for you to consider no matter what kind of cookbook you prefer: Is it in good condition for its age? Are there interesting illustrations? Is it a type of cooking you enjoy? Is it unlike any others you already own?

Some categories of vintage (anything older than 10 years, probably) cookbooks include

• Regional (i.e. New England, Texan, New Orleans, Alaska)
• International (the cooking of France, China, Italy, Germany, etc.)
• Ethnic (Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese as written for someone unfamiliar with that cooking)
• Food Manufacturers (Rumson Baking Soda, Betty Crocker, Jell-O, Campbell's Soup, Bisquick, Pillsbury's Bake-off)
• Appliance Manufacturers (Cuisinart, Rival Crock-Pot™, Magic Chef stoves, Waring Blender, George Foreman)
• Church and/or charitable organizations, ladies' auxiliaries
• Famous chefs (Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher, James Beard)
• Newspaper and magazine food columns (The New York Times Cookbook, Better Homes & Garden, Gourmet, Bon Appetit)
• Famous Restaurants
• Special diets (Vegetarian, Diabetic, Atkins, Weight Watchers)
• Certain kinds of food (Soups, Desserts, Chocolate, Vegetables)
• Humorous (the I Hate to Cook Book, Keeping the Wolf from the Door)
• Radio/TV Cooks (The Mystery Chef, Emeril, The Barefoot Contessa, Galloping Gourmet)

There are others, but you get the idea!

My particular favorites include a complete set of Time/Life Foods of the World (1968), a 1971 Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School, the 1955 New California Cook Book by Genevieve Callahan. If you can find a copy of Samuel Chamberlain's Clementine in the Kitchen in good condition (not the paperback reprint), snap it up! His account of his family's French cook and her effect on their sojourn in Paris in the 1930's is priceless.

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