Welcome to Cook Book Time Machine

About a year ago while visiting my family's cabin, we came across a cook book that looked to be interesting.  It belonged to my mother's aunt (great-aunt?) who lived in Thief River Falls, Minnesota and was published in 1951.  My impression of Thief River Falls is that it is a hockey town out on the prairie without much to do except ummm... play hockey, have a farm, and not freeze to death between October and April.  Having looked through old cook books in the past, I expected to find some pretty atrocious recipes.  I was not disappointed.  The use of gelatin, mayonnaise, and the latest and greatest industrial foods are found throughout the book (Molded Tuna Salad, anyone?).  But at the same time, there are quite a few good looking recipes in there too.  So after mulling it over for a while, I've decided to create a blog where I will work through the cook book and make these dishes for my family.

So, please meet the cook book that belonged to my great (great?) aunt Marlys Carlander.

Is that bit on the top torn off so when the book is brought down to the church basement that it is clear who the book belongs to?

Now in order to do this blog properly, it would probably be a good idea to do some research on the role of churches in small-town America during the middle of the 20th century.  It would also probably be good to research gender roles and expectations.  Additionally, I should do some reading on the development of the industrial food industry after World War Two.  Maybe I'll get around to that.  Suffice it to say that all of these things make an appearance and inform this cook book to one degree or another.  For now, I will likely operate with my caricature knowledge of the time and its influences.



As a church cook book, of course it is going to have plenty of scriptural references and connections to the church.  In time, I will have to make some Scripture Cake (and it might be interesting to see if the results would be different based on which version of the Bible I read).  But for now, I think it is nice to start the blog with the first page of the cook book which has this classic table prayer.  Though I am not religious, I think I will always enjoy hearing people sing this prayer, especially in 6-part Minnesota liberal-arts college harmony.

I would be remiss in neglecting to thank the women of the Zion Ladies Guild for this book.  Though I will likely poke fun at the recipes and other things in the book, there can be no doubt that these women showed dedication to compiling and publishing this book and were very proud of the food they made for their friends and family.  Though they used more cans and mayonnaise than I generally care for, surely their motivation in the kitchen is little different from my own when I am chopping, sauteing, and baking.

Mrs. Helen Wedul, were you some liberated woman?  Did your listing your own name instead of your husband's name create any dissension among the Ladies Guild?

Lastly, as this is was a church cook book, I must include the last page of the cook book with information about Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls.  Based on the website, I have no doubts that the church is today as lively and thriving as it surely was 60 years ago.

If you want to get in touch with the church, try the website.  The phone number here has probably changed.

Next time, I will talk a little more about how the blog will likely work and will make my first jump into 1950s cuisine.