Cookin' With the Oldies
Posted 01-11-2009 at 01:57 AM by enelkay
[COLOR="SeaGreen"]“Every year the number of new cookbooks increases, but in spite of them the progress made in this most useful of the arts is not ever overpowering. On the contrary, we must regretfully admit that nowadays people no longer prepare the fine and nourishing dishes that our mothers used to make.” -- Anna Dorn, Cookbook Author[/COLOR]
My mother collected cookbooks the way Imelda Marcos collected shoes. And because she got married in 1932, the ones she bought as a bride used none of the pre-prepared, pre-processed foods that are blots on today's foodscape. Instead they were filled with recipes using fresh meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables and fruits. Probably eight out of every ten of them were well-suited to today's low-carb way of life. They called for good ol' high-fat whole milk and real cream. Margarine wasn't yet a gleam in some food chemist's eye, so they used real butter, as well as lard and bacon grease. It was hard to find high-carb recipes in them, except for the cakes, pies and cookies that were mostly served as very infrequent treats. Which may be the reason so few people were overweight back then, and true obesity was very rare.
I was the beneficiary of my mother's cookbook hoarding, and when my husband and I started on low-carb I found scores of delicious recipes in her cookbooks and in the notebooks she had stuffed with recipes cut from old magazines and newspapers. So right from the start of the induction phase we enjoyed varied and tasty meals and never knew what it was to be bored with low-carb.
About 350 of those recipes formed the basis for the low-carb web site I designed ten years ago and maintained for about two years. It was quite popular, and I still occasionally see recipes from it on other sites featuring low-carb recipes.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a bunch of early 20th century cookbooks stashed away in a closet, but most libraries have at least a few of them available to borrow. So if you're looking for good low-carb recipes that don't rely on contrived combinations of chemicals, check for them at your local library.
And try "Cookin' with the Oldies." Just like "Dancin' with the Oldies," it'll help you lose weight, stay healthy, and enjoy doing it!
My mother collected cookbooks the way Imelda Marcos collected shoes. And because she got married in 1932, the ones she bought as a bride used none of the pre-prepared, pre-processed foods that are blots on today's foodscape. Instead they were filled with recipes using fresh meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables and fruits. Probably eight out of every ten of them were well-suited to today's low-carb way of life. They called for good ol' high-fat whole milk and real cream. Margarine wasn't yet a gleam in some food chemist's eye, so they used real butter, as well as lard and bacon grease. It was hard to find high-carb recipes in them, except for the cakes, pies and cookies that were mostly served as very infrequent treats. Which may be the reason so few people were overweight back then, and true obesity was very rare.
I was the beneficiary of my mother's cookbook hoarding, and when my husband and I started on low-carb I found scores of delicious recipes in her cookbooks and in the notebooks she had stuffed with recipes cut from old magazines and newspapers. So right from the start of the induction phase we enjoyed varied and tasty meals and never knew what it was to be bored with low-carb.
About 350 of those recipes formed the basis for the low-carb web site I designed ten years ago and maintained for about two years. It was quite popular, and I still occasionally see recipes from it on other sites featuring low-carb recipes.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a bunch of early 20th century cookbooks stashed away in a closet, but most libraries have at least a few of them available to borrow. So if you're looking for good low-carb recipes that don't rely on contrived combinations of chemicals, check for them at your local library.
And try "Cookin' with the Oldies." Just like "Dancin' with the Oldies," it'll help you lose weight, stay healthy, and enjoy doing it!
Total Comments 4
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I enjoyed reading about your moms cookbooks, and have saved the recipe for the sardines in cucumbers. I subscribed to your blog, hope to read much more
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Thanks for coming, and for commenting. I love to blog about all sorts of stuff, but it gets a bit lonely when you're not sure whether anyone at all is reading it. I hope you'll enjoy it and get some useful information from it.
Nadine |
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Hi Nadine,
I'm very interested, your Mom's ideas seem very in line with what I need right now. I believe my mom lived far beyond her genetic promise because she was a huge believer in whole foods and in home prepared foods. She did yogurt when yogurt wasn't cool . I do think she along with most of the world was seduced by the margarine and the low fat mantra. But her basic knowledge and skills were awesome. She was 84 when she died, but most of her family hardly hit 50. |
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Keep an eye out here, Su. One of the things I plan for this blog is recipes from her collection. And other recipes I've collected over the years.
I firmly believe that every meal should be created with a little imagination. Usually the only time we eat meal bars or drink shakes for meals is for convenience when traveling. And not very often then. I know I couldn't stay on a diet that included only the same things over and over again, and I strongly suspect that doing that is the reason so many people fall off the wagon. |
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Recent Blog Entries by enelkay
- A Red-Letter Day! (01-12-2009)
- Cookin' With the Oldies (01-11-2009)
- January is Fat-Free Living Month! (01-09-2009)
- Introduction (01-07-2009)
