You may recognize this cheery couple, which seem to have become the mascots for Retro Cookbook. They kind of exemplify that happy, feel good kind of couple you expect to find in vintage cookbooks, especially from around the fifties.

Whats not to love about this fun little cookbook, chock full of barbecue recipes and tips? The illustration style is simple, yet fun, and the 20 page cook booklet has illustrations on most pages. Inside you’ll find tips on selecting meats for the barbecue (and using leftovers), an outdoor cooking equipment check list (for us guys), and a tip sheet for outdoor chefs.  Oh, and recipes, too!

The recipes are pretty straight forward, and wholesome—just like I’d expect from Kansas. There are a few recipe where they let their hair down. Orange-glazed Bologna Roll, Dixie Dogs—which are hot dogs slathered with peanut butter, then wrapped in bacon, Buckaroo Filets—minute steaks spread with mustard, and then wrapped around a strip of dill pickle, and Barbecue Frozen Vegetables.  The recipes cover beef, lamb, pork, and poultry, and there are a couple pages of barbecue sauces and marinades. I was a bit disappointed to see the Kansas Barbecue Sauce which consists of tomato sauce with “a packet of exotic herbs salad dressing mix” with a few other basic ingredients.  Ah, packets of salad dressing mix!

There are definitely a couple recipes I’ll try from this vintage cookbook.  Campfire Pot Roast is catching my eye, and I’d probably try their pork ribs recipe to see how it compares to mine.  (Of course it can’t compare to mine!) Yet another fun vintage cookbook from my collection!

This may be the only toast cookbook in my collection, and I must say it is very cool! Fantastic illustrations, page layout, and even photos. And the best part is that it is all about toast!  Mmmm… toast!

“Everyone knows how good hot buttered toast tastes at breakfast, servers just plain or with preserves! However, there are many delicious ways to serve toast for family or party breakfasts. Get the day off to a golden start with these tempting breakfasts featuring toast!”

And yes indeed you will find some fantastic toasty goodness in this fine little cookbook. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, you’ll find recipes that tempt your tastebuds. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that all the recipes actually seem decent—nothing too kitschy weird in here. Well, maybe the Apple Sausage Surprise is about as weird as it gets—sausages, applesauce, and American cheese on toast. Then again, that sounds alright too.

I love this quote, “Men take to ‘Toast Cookery’… it’s the easy way to rate high as an amateur chef.” Then there is, “Entertain often! ‘Toast Cookery’ lets you make a big impression for just a little money!” I’ve never thought about making a toast meal for guests, I just may try it some day.

This is a classic, find a copy, if you can. (Sorry, mine is not for sale, but if I find another copy, I’ll add it to the shop.)

Abalone to Zabaglione is the food recipe version of the wild drink recipe book called Aquavit to Zombie – Basic and Exotic Drinks. Ah, what a weird and wonderful party you could have if you used both of these cookbooks for your next soirée!

So what kind of unusual and exotic recipes await you? As with many of these cookbooks, the recipe are in alphabetical order, and not by category. So we begin with a basic recipe for Abalone. Abalone is a mollusk, a shelled creature of the sea, although the illustration next to it is of an octopus.

The book moves through some not so usual, but perhaps slightly exotic recipes, until we get to Bird’s Nest Chicken Soup. Yes, it actually uses a small bird’s nest in the recipe.  Sound odd? Just wait. Bird’s nest soup is actually a delicacy in China. It uses the nest from the cave swift, which are renowned for building saliva nests. Okay, now that is usual.

After that we find a few more normal recipes, then a recipe for Eel, en Matelot, (which actually looks good). There is Gogl-Mogl, which only has an unusual name, as the recipe is just egg yolks, sugar and Rum or Cognac. Things don’t really get weird again until we hit the “R’s”, and then we find a recipe for Roast Reindeer. Well, perhaps not really odd since many people hunt and eat regular deer.  Perhaps the whole indoctrination of Rudlolf the Red-nosed Reindeer makes this recipe feel a little more unusual than it really is.

Following the Roast Reindeer, we stumble upon Shark Fins, Trussed Squabs, Turtle Soup, and a bunch of more normal recipes in between. Does hearing “Trussed Squabs” make you feel like taking like a pirate? Or is that just me? The book closes with one more unusual sounding recipe, Zabaglione, which is another egg & booze recipe, this time with Marsala wine.

Abalone to Zabaglione – Unusual and Exotic Recipes is definitely a must have for anyone’s collection.  Aside from the unusual recipes, it has a good number of decent exotic recipes.  And of course it has very cool illustrations and fonts.

The cookbook series from Peter Pauper Press stands apart from many of the other vintage cook booklets out there. They are actual hardcover mini books with kitschy illustrations, and an easy to read type size. While the illustrations are as kitschy as many other cookbooks from the 50′s & 60′s, something about the style of these screams Peter Pauper Press.

Festive Buffet Cookery gets straight to the point with the recipes, and doesn’t have any tips or other banter like many cookbooks have. No table of contents, no index, just 56 pages of tasty recipes. With the easy-to-read type, this cookbook basically has one recipe per page, give or take.

On average, the recipes don’t look too bad, but there are a few where you might think “ewww!” Tongue with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce (okay, I’ve never tried beef tongue, but it seems like “ewww”). Cherry Noodle Casserole—noodles, 8 eggs, cottage cheese, and, um… cherry pie filling. Sliced Maraschino Lamb. Really? Ruin a good pieces of lamb with those nasty bright red cherries? I’d imagine their drink suggestion with this dish would be a Kiddie Cocktail. Their “Boeuf Bourgignon” recipe uses minute tapioca. Hmm… yeah, I’m not so sure about that one.

As I mentioned, this book has fun illustrations as you can see from the cover. No photography, just kitschy cool illustrations. The font used on the cover is kind of cool, and inside they use “Hobo” font as the headline font. (I personally think Hobo was overused, just like Papyrus is overused these days.)

All-in-all a fun little vintage cookbook, and perfect for anyone’s collection.

Before we get to the recipes, lets talk about the coolness factor. As you can see from the cover, this booklet has rather nice photography, cool fonts, and a there is a hint at what fun illustrations may be inside. While there isn’t a ton of food photography inside, what is there matches the retro goodness that you see on the cover. There are also quality B&W photos documenting the various parts of the oven. The illustrations are simple, yet have that fun hip feel which cookbook illustrations of the fifties often conveyed. The page layout is clean and simple, yet still has a bit of style as you see with this image. And the fonts… classic scripty fonts from the fifties. Whats not to love?

On to the recipes! The recipes look pretty average, and probably fairly good for the most part. There is a fair share of MSG being tossed in some recipes. Why fried chicken needs MSG, I don’t know. There aren’t too many odd sounding recipes, but here are a few:

Steak Cups – ground beef in a muffin tin, the meat pressed to the sides to make a cup, and then filled with catsup.

Feathered Rice – pretty much just rice, with boullion, so who knows where the “feathered” part came from

Asparagus Daffodil, and Daffodil Cake – hmm, no clue on the “daffodil” reference in these two recipes.

French Fries – Ah, they were already ahead of our modern & lazy society. “2 packages frozen French fried potatoes… bake at 375°.”  Sigh, no secret recipe for making great home-made fries.

While there are recipes in this book, it is more of a resource which describes cuts of meats, poultry, game and fish, as well as their preparation. The soup section discusses the varieties of soup stocks, and types of soups, tips on serving soup, and more.

There are time tables for cooking times of various cuts of meat, and great diagrams and photos of the various cuts of meat.  The poultry and fish sections even have details on dressing poultry and fish, along with nearly step-by-step photos.

There is nothing kitschy about this book. It offers real information for the homemaker or chef. And while it was apparently geared toward women back in the 1920′s, I’d say it is a fine book for us men who enjoy cooking, as well.

As you can imagine, the recipes in this little cookbook use a wide range of French’s seasonings. Luckily they don’t go overboard with cramming tons of their products in each recipe, like some dairy cookbooks do.

The little cook booklet has all the cool factors of classic cookbooks from the 1950′s—fun food photography, cool fonts, and of course some interesting recipes. Many of the recipes actually sounds fairly decent (and normal), but there are some weird ones to keep you grinning. Grapefruit Piquante is one odd one.  I’m not so sure about grapefruit with ketchup and Worcestershire Sauce. Then in their Lunchbox recipes, Lunchbox Special III must’ve been a sure hit with the kids—chicken giblets & bacon with mustard and mayo on whole wheat bread. Frosted Ham Loaf, anyone?  Yum!

I love how one previous owner of this cookbook penciled in some notes on a recipe. The Ham and Spaghetti Casserole is noted as “good“, and where the recipe called for dried onion flakes, pepper flakes, and parsley, the cook made notes that using fresh was an option too!

Yes, this is another fine addition to anyone’s collection of vintage cookbooks.

250 Ways to Prepare Poultry and Game Birds is a great little cookbook for anyone who loves to cook chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pigeon & squab. But wait, there’s more! Looking for recipes for grouse, prairie chicken, partridge, pheasant, quail, guinea hen, snipe, or woodcock? Need a recipe fro gravy of stuffing? You can find it in this awesome little cookbook!

Not only will you find tasty recipes in this cookbook, but it also provides tips on cooking times, boning, trussing, and other tips.  This is a good one, and I’m glad to see more wild game recipes, since they are often forgot these days.

If you’re looking for a copy, check our shop, we just might have one!