God, I Love the 1930s and 1940s

I am into history for a reason, and when two of my favorite things combine, I get all teary-eyed and awed.

For instance, here is a cookbook I picked up at a local used book store for $3.00 a month or two ago. Anything like this catches my eye!

Meatless Meals by Jean Prescott Adams (Leona A. Malek), Home Economics Lecturer, Editor and Consultant. Albert Whitman & Co, Chicago. Published in 1931, reprinted in 1943.

The illustrations in this book had me giggling. Look at the front cover--pretty sure that's a baked potato being sacrificed. They're so adorbs, but some illustrations really show the age of the book. Case in point with these two:

{RAD! It's a smoking onion! The 30s/40s were awesome.}

{Angry little tomato...awwww}

The first section of the book contains a bunch of meal plans for different situations, which is the bulk of the updated version of 1943. Here's one of my favorites, "Company Dinner Menu:"

{I want to try hot grape juice!}

There is also some good information on vitamins/minerals and how beneficial a meatless diet can be. And this is coming from two times of desperation: The Great Depression and World War II, which would account for the overall purpose of this cookbook. But it doesn't just say, "Don't eat meat because we need to save it for soldiers;" it says this:

{Hey, this looks similar to what nutritionists tell us today,

except this is from decades ago!}

The actual recipes in the cookbook are somewhat heavy on dairy and eggs, which is to be expected. But some sound cool. And some sound just plain Y.U.C.K.Y.

{Mmm, nothing like spinach in gelatin;

not sure what they made gelatin with back then...}

{Hey! Don't we see this stuff at state fairs?? So it's NOT a new concept.}

{Nom Nom! Baked bananas sounds freaking yum-tastic. I'm totally trying this.}

{I was kind of intrigued by this recipe, which was in the candy section.}

What kinds of unusual or old cookbooks do you have? I am thinking of doing a post on an etiquette book that I have from the 1950s.

You can glance over some other super-wicked old recipes here.

Enjoy your weekend!

Jes