Vintage Cookbook Harvest of American Cooking

Harvest of American Cooking by Mary Margaret McBride 
 
Bound in a beautiful bright red hard back cover with Gold gilded print you can tell just by the quality of the cover that this is a serious cook book filled with way more than just a list of recipes. I am always impressed with the amount of wonderul content in vintage cookbooks. They mark time and history and give countless reference to geographical and cultural traditions as they teach practical application of culinary skills, science and mathmatics in every day terms. Eating is something that every human can relate to. 
 
This vintage cook book by Mary Margaret McBride is 453 pages including Index. The first 220 pages are filled with colorful history and stories of states and regions and their culinary history and diversity. The second half of the book is a collection of 1000 selected recipes from those regions. The curated selection comes from the culinary experiences of Mrs. McBride who has dedicated the book to her dear friend Stella, who as she states, "Taught me to eat in 28 languages". It is a delightful read as she also speaks of doing a television show from the 1956 Kitchen of Tomorrow.
  It reads, "I found myself dialing for a recipe that was promptly flashed on a small screen in front of my eyes, drying dishes by sound waves, measuring ingredients by a magic eye, viewing a push button refrigerator which obligingly turned one side of itself to the outdoors so as to be convenient for the delivery boy. Later I saw an electric oven that bakes a layer cake in three minutes and cooks a five pound roast of beef in thirty. And we are all bombarded constantly with news of dehydrated steaks, faster mixes, even food squeezed from tubes for the nurture of helmeted adventurers rocketing into outer space.
   So you may ask: Why a cookbook at all in such times? Well I recently came on a consumer survey which reported in the midst of this mad whirl of no-hands cooking, the sale of baking powder had increased substantially! Which proves what I have always believed- that nothing will ever surpass light-as-air biscuits made from scratch, served hot from the oven with butter melting in their tender little hearts, just as no satisfaction will ever equal the joy a woman finds in setting those biscuits and other delicious products of her own skill before her family.
   So in the twenty-first century I predict that women will still be swapping recipes and pridefully bringing to their tables magnificent pies or cakes, at the sight of which families and guests will gasp, "And to think you made it all yourself"
*MM McBride - introduction
 
  The pages in this book are in excellant condition. Very clean and a soft cream color. The interior has a vintage checkerboard graphic print in red and white. The hard back cover cook book is 9 1/2 inches tall and 7 inches wide and 2 inches thick. This is a wonderful kitchen reference book and would make a lovely addition to a house warming gift basket.
 
* I have only copy of this vintage cook book for sale at the Time Keepers Cottage.
 
*The flat rate Price of $14.99 includes the $7.00 shipping to anywhere in the US.