Does anyone read "Old style Books" for fun?

Hermia

I used to spend many a happy hour at my nan's house howling with laughter at the books she was given as a wedding present. I don't think any woman could have reached the standard of housekeeping the book suggested and as for the 'marital advice' section - ha ha ha! Apparantly a woman who does not submit to her husband will suffer from mental health problems and end up in an asylum. And as for the medical advice; most of it would kill you before the illness did!

carol_a_3

Mr_Proctalgia wrote:

"
Put a 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb in the boiling water if you really want weapons grade nuclear sprouts!!!!!!

My nan used to do that...it totally destroys the last vestiges of any vitamin C left after boiling!

liney

Add the sprouts to the water when it starts boiling, not before, and they should stay green...er.

Jo_anne_2

Becles wrote:

My Grandma used to give us a mixture of butter, vinegar and sugar on a spoon if we had a cough.

It worked really well, as you were terrified to cough again in case you were given another spoonful :rolleyes:

Oooohh, that brings back memories! I can remember my mum giving me that mixture. Foul stuff, but I seem to remember it worked - if only for the reason you said!

black-saturn

My nan used to put a cold kipper round my dads neck with some greaseproof paper keeping it on as a cure for a sore throat!!!

nabowla

I love reading my grandmother's 'French Cookery for Ladies' cookbook. The menus are quite incredible and each one includes enough dishes to feed a small army for a year. The idea seems to be that the staff cooked huge amounts of food when the range was fully heated and then either fed the servants on the leftovers for several days or served the better cuts of cold meat for lunches. This might sound quite obvious but it would have required a lot more organisation in the days when no-one had fridges.

My favourite recipe is the one for Russian salad - will have to dig it out, but from what I remember it featured five or six types of game, quail's eggs, lobster etc. Just imagine having that as 'leftovers'!

filigree_2

I'm not an avid collector but I do like to look for bargain cookbooks when I'm in a charity shop. I read cookbooks for enjoyment even if I don't use the recipes, and old-style cookbooks have some unintentional humour. I like the bit in the Pauper's Cookbook about cooking a meal for "Johnson from the office and his dolly bird" :snow_grin You couldn't print that now!

Sweet_Pea_2

An Old Style book which is not a cook book is the Tightwad Gazette. Im sure loads of MSE'rs have read this. I love it, if I've gone a bit off track with the spending I can dip into this book and I feel all inspired. Its the kind of book you can dip in and out of due to the short articles.
I would love to save enough for a New England Farmhouse and attached barn but I guess it just aint gonna happen.