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| The Good Brothers on stage at Music On The Barge. The 2013 season begins June 23rd. - Photo By Fred Schulz |
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH HANDWRITTEN RECIPES?
Long before there were published compilations of recipes, which of course dates back many centuries, advise on cookery, when not orally passed from cook to cook, was imprinted in some fashion on some article suited for permanent record.
Compilations had to come from some place, and it was thusly in the form of these passed-on and passed-down records (recipes in written form) that eventually made it to such bound editions for eventual public consumption. Although we are a long way from cookery historians, and make no challenge to the authority and record that exists, it would have been hard to have any compilation, any recipe book, without an abundant and re-generating source, which obviously could be both oral and written.
Once the compilation cookbook took individual recipes, and lumped them together for the meals of the day, (standby fare recorded from popular roadhouses, hotels and taverns to homestead mainstays) the lowly handwritten pieces became immediately irrelevant, except if you couldn’t afford the cookbooks. And even when these inaugural compilations were published, they were unlikely, due to limited supply and expense, to make the required reading lists of the general population; the cooks in these household units still very much dependent on their humble and plain collections of heirloom recipes, passed down through the generations.
In fact, they had been so relied-on for so many centuries, that they were folded up and otherwise inserted in the cookbooks that were published and cheaply obtained. Which of course, was clear evidence that they were still a trusted and relied-upon kitchen helper, regardless of being ripped, stained, gnarled and greasy. And afterall, you didn’t dare throw out Grandma’s special recipe for Christmas cake or pudding, because everyone in the family knew full well, it was a seasonal milestone revered by the generations. Certainly not to be equaled regardless of another parallel recipe‘s prestige stature, even if gayly bound between fancy cover stock, in the very next blockbuster cookbook to make the rounds. That’s why we can still find hundreds of recipes folded into published cookbooks, obviously showing the home cooks reluctance to adopt the new without consultation with the old, tried and tested.
When you study the handwritten recipes, on cards, backs of calendar sheets, reverse sides of product labels, cardboard, invoices etc., you wonder about all the important life events and milestones passed, that these cookery helpers assisted in the cause of sustenance. How many family gatherings were fed with the assistance of these same dog-eared remnants of cookery once? How many daughters and grand-daughters were ecstatic to receive these hand-made recipe compilations, in loose-leaf binders and other ramshackle coverings from cloth to board, from mothers and grandmothers in the name of good and healthy housekeeping.
These home crafted, home tested compilations, were considered precious survival necessities, back a few decades. Heirlooms of generations in respective family histories. They were coveted. Loved, adored, and called upon constantly to sort out a good meal to suite an occasion. The reliable selection of main courses to feed the masses, to honor the special person of the day, and engage the festival of the season. With the kind of food that inspires full and total consumption with nary a morsel leftover. How many times had that cookery bible been open at stove-side to save the day?
We have found recipes written in beautiful script, the penmanship flawless, dating back to the mid 1800's, to the hastily scribbled notes made on the back of brochures, tickets and maps, by travelers, having exchanged recipes on layovers or in hiatus calms, after, for example, a fine dining experience. When for example, a charitable cook may have shared a guarded family recipe. We have found recipes scribbled onto the margins of daily newspapers, and beside published recipes, cut from broadsheets and magazines; recipes penned neatly onto menus scoffed from restaurants, cookery notes on memo pads, appointment cards, cereal box cardboard, hydro, water and telephone invoices, as well as cash register receipts. And many others actually written on the inside cover pages of published cookbooks, including a wide assortment of recipes, penned onto the front and back covers of both fiction and non-fiction, titles that have nothing at all to do with food or cooking. These old books were just convenient at the time, space was needed to copy down an important recipe. Even in phone books, we have purchased in box lots, from auction sales, these same recipes appear, imprinted in all kinds of strange locations. Printed or written out during phone calls with friends and family. Honestly, if these examples were creatively framed, they would be ranked as culinary "folk" art, and revered as visual treasures of our past.
We have discovered artist sketches with recipes on the back, the reverse side of store coupons, legal notices, photographs and greeting cards, that we suppose were just handy open spaces to write upon when a recipe somehow, or from someone, came into conversation. We can find many advertising message sheets that have recipes scribbled onto them, from phone conversations between culinary artists. We have examples of recipes written onto the corners of otherwise full letters, and so many other misshapen box lids, torn paper and newspaper sheets that were used in emergency circumstances, to jot down the ingredients of a hastily passed-along recipe. Maybe exchanged in haste, on an evening trip home, between riders on a streetcar, written down between stops. Recipes were so important, they needed to be conserved by any means possible it seems. And that makes them fascinating to us who collect them.
I will have lots more to come, on the amazing provenance and unique place, handwritten recipes have, in culinary heritage both in this country, and around the world.
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