Looking backward for inspiration

January 20, 2024 by
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As each year ticks by with a bevy of new cookbook releases, it amazes me that so many of them continue to be fresh, exciting, even groundbreaking. I excitedly bookmark recipes that I can’t wait to try, to add to an ever-growing list. However, this doesn’t mean that the older cookbooks on my bookshelves are relegated to being dust collectors. There are tomes I return to time and again because the recipes speak to me. I’m not alone in this, The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke explains why she often returns to Jane Grigson’s English Food, a book that turns 50 years old in November.

Even though the book is a half-century old, Cooke believes that many of its recipes seem fresh and innovative. Perhaps it’s because the dishes have gone out of fashion only to be “rediscovered” years later, or maybe it’s because the recipes are timeless (or a little of both). “English Food is bulging with things that, now half or even entirely forgotten, suddenly seem wonderfully new without being at all faddish or insubstantial,” writes Cooke.

I think that there are a lot of older cookbooks ripe for being “discovered” by a younger audience that might be curious about the foods eaten by their parents or who are just into a “retro” vibe. It happens with fashion all the time: I see my neighbor’s kids wearing clothes that are eerily similar to what I wore at the same age. It’s amusing and dispiriting in equal measures. Why wouldn’t it happen to foods and, in turn, cookbooks? I see glimmers of this with books like Baking Yesteryear, the HBO series Julia, and a raft of TikTok videos that discuss forgotten or vintage foods.

Books that I regularly return are not quite as old as English Food, but they are older than several of my coworkers. They include Jacques Pépin’s La Technique, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible, and Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book, among others. Which older books do you find yourself using over and over again?

Category: Antipasto

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8 Comments

  • sanfrannative  on  January 21, 2024

    I bumped into a 1962 copy of The Settlement Cookbook at my library book sale. Aside from about a billion recipes for things in a ring mold (barley! spinach! salmon! rice!) it’s got a whole section on “Grandmother’s Hot Puddings”. I have made so many gems, like a steamed bread pudding and a wonderful Indian pudding recipe (it took 20 minutes to make the base in my double boiler but it was worth it!)
    Plus my new favorite way to drink black tea–put a little flavored candy in your cup of hot black tea. (A lemon drop or two is particularly good)

  • LeilaD  on  January 21, 2024

    Currently indexing my grandmother’s Good Housekeeping book from 1949. I sometimes laugh at things like it defining pizza, the references to certain styles of entertaining that I am never going to do, or I find myself saying aloud ‘that’s not a-‘… but I have several favorited recipes from it and many more I want to try.

  • Plutarch  on  January 21, 2024

    I love cooking from “Cooking for Pleasure” by Margaret Fulton. Originally published in 1981, I was given it as a Christmas present whilst serving with my family in the British Army in what was then West Germany. Some recipes from that book are my go to favourites to this day.

  • KatieK1  on  January 21, 2024

    I don’t see it as inspiration, rather just recipes that still deliver. My mainstays are Trattoria by Patricia Wells, Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook and Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Recently I’ve seen articles online paying tribute to Edna Lewis and Flo Braker.

    That said, I love trying new things, especially recipes which combine fruit and meat. Books that open doors are inspirational, and ebook deals on great new cookbooks make them accessible.

    In short, it’s fun to look backwards and forwards.

  • sayeater  on  January 22, 2024

    I have a deep love for old “hippie food” type books. The OG plant-based eaters were using some of today’s “it” ingredients and celebrated culinary cultural diversity long before the American mainstream caught on to the deliciousness (and nutritiousness) outside our doorstep. Moosewood, Tassajara, Horn of the Moon, Laurel’s Kitchen, Feeding the Whole Family, Vegetarian Epicure and anything by Crescent Dragonwagon (although I see her as more elevated visionary than hippie) – these are some old favorites that I find myself going back to and still being inspired by.

  • demomcook  on  January 22, 2024

    Marian Cunningham’s “Fannie Farmer Baking Book” is a gem. No flashy photos, but I baked my way through it 42 years ago as a wedding gift, and the recipes are still wonderful.

  • demomcook  on  January 22, 2024

    Sayeater, I’m with you about Crescent Dragonwagon. Her vegetable book is the only one you’ll ever need.

  • bittrette  on  February 6, 2024

    KatieK1, which Craig Claiborne NYT Cookbook?

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