As we reach the end of summer, I’m beginning to feel nostalgic for the hot days I grumbled about. Thinking about the past months, I’ve noticed that there are some foods I eat exclusively (or at least in a much higher quantity) in the summer: BLT sandwiches, corn on the cob, and hot dogs, to name a few. These personal seasonal menus made me curious about what people in the past might have eaten in the summer, especially as the technology to keep food cold changed. Luckily, the Library has extensive cookbook and newspaper collections I could consult. I quickly discovered that authors across time had plenty of suggestions!
The Library’s general collection includes cookbooks and household aids published specifically to help readers plan weekly or monthly menus. These books included helpful information about what food was in season or available for little cost. These cookbooks and manuals helped readers anticipate what ingredients would be available and what they might want to do with them. For example, “The Housekeeper’s Year-Book” published in 1883, was divided by week. Each entry included an inspirational quote, a suggestion for a chore, a tip about in-season food, and one suggested menu.
Take a look at the image above. Notice the “Marketing” section, which here means shopping rather than advertising. This section included helpful tips about what meat was cheap, and how to best use the least expensive options. Advice like this would be helpful for a reader on a budget, although I’m not sure a hot stew would be best enjoyed in the heat of July. However, as a fan of a good summer brunch, I appreciated the author’s suggestion of a “summer breakfast party.” Some of the items on the menu, also shown in the image above, such as melons, poached eggs, and sliced peaches might still end up on my plate today. Fans of a good breakfast potato might be interested to discover “Saratoga potatoes” are today known more commonly as potato chips – something you might eat at lunch rather than breakfast today! This might not be the only difference if you were to plan a brunch menu today. Consider the similarities and differences between your menu and this one from 1883. Are there dishes or ingredients listed here that have gone out of style?
Another book, “The Story of Crisco,” while largely an advertisement for the Crisco brand, also included 615 recipes and a complete calendar of dinners. Unlike “The Housekeeper’s Year-book,” which only suggested one menu per week, “The Story of Crisco” included an option for every day of the year. Continuing their promotional attempts, one recipe in every menu required the use of Crisco. Despite the difference in format, and a publication date of almost 30 years apart, I noticed some similarities in menu suggestions. Take, for example, the suggested menu for July 4th in the image below.
Can you find the similarities in the suggested meals between “The Story of Crisco” and “The House-Keeper’s Year Book?” Although these menus for July were published decades apart, both feature veal. Before reliable refrigerators, perishable goods had to be purchased and used quickly when they were at their best. This meant that seasonal recipes looked very similar for decades.
Eagle-eyed readers of these types of cookbooks might continue to spot similar suggestions across both manuals and decades. For example, summer recipes in “The Housekeeper’s Year-Book”, “The Story of Crisco”, and another cookbook from 1914 called “The Pure Food Cookbook,” all included using tomatoes and suggestions for “clear soup.” If you, like me, hadn’t heard of clear soup before, it’s normally a vegetable soup made by simmering for a long time, and then strained to make a broth. Although having a hot soup in the summer might seem counter-intuitive, clear soup would’ve been a lighter appetizer to start the meal.
Besides the clear soup, are there any recipes on here that look familiar to you? Are there any that you and your family would be interested in cooking?
Cookbooks aren’t the only place to find recipes in the Library’s collection. Newspapers found through Chronicling America also provide summer inspiration. For example, Josephine Gibson in the Waterbury Democrat suggested that the perfect campfire dinner in July 1932 would consist of “Hot steak sandwiches with onion and chili sauce, fresh cucumber pickles, oven baked beans or corn on the cob, cup cakes with peanut butter frosting, fruit, and coffee.” While this menu sounds delicious, if a lot of food to pack in, her follow up suggestion of “peanut butter, chili sauce and broiled bacon sandwiches” made me a little more cautious. Other suggestions for summer lunches included this one from Wilmington North Carolina in July 1946, which suggested that the reader might consider a fruit Jello mold with strawberry salad dressing and a cracker sandwich if they were hosting a summer party.
As seen in the examples above, some recipes show passing fads while others stood the test of time. Take, for example, menus from June 1950 and July 1951, which suggested “tomato aspic ribbon loaf” and “bananas baked in ham jackets with cheese sauce” respectively. I found some now-outdated recipes intriguing, such as the “Pineapple Cheese Pie,” which was described as “a glamorous dessert that will rate encores.” Pineapple appeared several times, including as the main ingredient in the “Frosted Mint Delight.”
The chilled dessert recipes found in these newspaper articles pointed me to a final resource for summer meals: cookbooks focused on “dainties.” Cookbooks in this category included “Housewives Favorite Recipes for Cold Dishes, Dainties, Chilled Drinks, ETC,” “Light Entertaining: A Book of Dainty Recipes For Special Occasions,” and the simply titled “Dainties.” This new-to-me category included recipes for appetizers, salads, sandwiches, candies, cold drinks, and desserts of all kinds. These seemed perfect for hot weather entertaining. Take, for example, the drink recipes in the images below. Even the author suggests drinking them on a warm day!
The various cookbooks, newspapers, and household manuals found at the Library of Congress are a treasure trove of interesting and delicious recipes. As we wrap up the final weeks of summer, think about what recipes you and your family make. Do you have any traditional seasonal meals? Are they similar or different to recipes older generations of your family might have enjoyed? How have refrigerators and air conditioning changed what you plan on cooking? Perhaps the menus included in this blog can inspire you to try something new!
Additional Activity:
- Make a list five recipes foods you eat in the summer. Next, search for them in Chronicling America or the Library’s digitized collection. What can you find?
- Pick one of the recipes highlighted here or discovered in your research and make it. Do you have to adapt the recipe for a modern kitchen or current tastes?
Additional Resources:
- Explore the Library’s collection of Community Cookbooks using this Research Guide.
- Learn about additional warm weather recipes in these blogs about Ice Cream Soda, Lemonade, and Lemon Pies.
- Discover international cookbooks with these blog posts about the first Italian cookbook, and Latin American and Hispanic Cookbooks at the Library.
Comments (3)
Thank you! That was absolutely fascinating.
Thank you! We can tell so much about a country &/or a culture by their food & drink. With appreciation for highlighting the many diverse & interesting resources in the Library of Congress.
Thankd