Out of the Inkwell

Another artifact from Springfield's past


I couldn't help but want to spend a buck on this item when I found it this summer. No it's not a cook book neither for the creation of food for pets or using pets as ingredients – wise guys – but a 1937 fundraiser item for the friends group of the MSPCA in Springfield.

As you can see members of the group submitted recipes, drawings and photos.




And the book was supported by local advertisers.



I haven't tried any of the recipes, but I love the fact they are much more intuitive than today's cooking instructions. There are phrases such as "a slow oven." There are recipes that instruct to bake something but give no idea at what temperature. I suppose cooks then simply knew such things. There's one page in which the previous owners penciled in his or her own amendments about temperature for ginger wafers with the warning "watch!"