The first secret is I have no idea what group decided to produce this book. I only know it was done in Bremerton, Washington in about 1950. I can guess a woman named Grace Hagan was involved and it was certainly done by a professional cookbook printing house.
The first thing in the book is the Miller Reynolds Funeral Home ad. This ad is how I can date the book. They were established in 1928 and this ad states they’ve been in business for 21+ years at the time of printing.
This slim unassuming volume has a lot of ads in it. Including one company you will meet later that through some arcane secret is mentioned again and again in the recipes. There is also an ad for Hagan & Peel Goodyear Tires.
Next you’re greeted with this a quote. You may think our new friend Grace penned this while making her own dill pickles. But it’s not so. It’s a quote from Haryot Holt Cahoon, one of the three founders of The Woman’s Chronicle founded in 1888 in Little Rock, Arkansas, a weekly paper promoting suffrage.
I found all these bits in the first 3 pages of the cookbook secretly mysterious. Why would Grace imply she wrote this? Why not say what group this was a fundraiser for? Why is half the book a household organizer with a Christmas card mailing list, car maintenance record and phone book? Also do you need a “Game Warden” in your phone book in Bremerton? Maybe that’s the edible part of the secret?
Like a lot of these community cookbooks there is a section on household “facts” about general cooking times and serving sizes. This is the most distressing part of the book….
Do you SEE THAT SHIT? If you cook asparagus for 20 minutes in boiling water you’d need a crime scene analyst to tell you what they used to be. Even my mother, remembered even now as “Bone Dry Mary” for her talent for turning proteins into building materials never did that.
Just wait till be talk about the recipes.
