Josie McCarthy's Favorite T.V. Recipes
Josie McCarthy’s Favorite T.V. Recipes, published in 1958 by Prentice-Hall. Yes, it is an honest to goodness hard-cover cookbook in my vintage collection, not just one of the kitschy booklet types!
Word is that Josie was a famous cook and had daily appearances on WRCA-TV back in the day. I had never heard of her until I picked this book up, and sadly have yet to find any video clips from her cooking show. If you know of video footage of her show, let me know!
This cookbook is filled with “more than 250 of the mouth-watering dishes her fans most frequently requested.” It has such favorites as: Italian Easter Sausage Pie, Beef Tongue Oriental, South American Lemon Dessert Pancakes, Meatballs in Egg and Lemon Sauce, and the list goes on!
All in all this actually seems to be a fairly good old cookbook. My gripe, as with most vintage cookbooks, is that herbs and spices are minimal in these recipes. I guess that is how it was in those days, or maybe I’m just more of an herb & spice junkie.
Stay tuned for recipes from this gem!
Gigi said:
I remember Josie from TV back in the old days and had her cookbook. The best cheesecake recipe I’ve ever tasted and/or made came from her cookbook. It was called Million Dollar Cheese Cake (p 198) and I highly recommend it! I still have the recipe in my file and am just entering it in a recipe reader that I am organizing my favorite recipes in.
As for you finding some footage, I remember that she often appeared on the Dave Garroway “Today” morning show on NBC! Don’t know if they kine-scoped (is that the word for back then?) the shows, but maybe knowing she appeared on that morning show will be of some help to you. Her segment was called Josie’s Kitchen!