Mother Lode of Cookbooks # 6 ~ New Bedford Times and Mrs. Beeton's

New Bedford Times Homemaker's Cook Book, published in 1930. Massive cookbook with 369 pages of 1,000+  recipes contributed by the women of New Bedford, Massachusetts and the surrounding vicinity. The recipes are the usual type found in all community cookbooks with the contributor's name AND address are printed below each dish they submitted.  The recipes are simple and require only 6-8 ingredients.  Quite a few of the salad recipes feature marshmallows including a Waikiki Salad made with pineapple (natch) topped with a simple syrup with melted marshmallows and maraschino cherries. The most used recipe, judging by the stains on the page,  is for a Jelly Layer Cake.

The former owner wrote a few of her favorite recipes in the blank pages found at the back of the book in the most beautiful cursive handwriting - see photo below.

Mrs. Beeton's All About Cookery, published in 1923. A another massive book with 2,000 practical recipes, 12 color plates and 250 illustrations, filling its 640 pages. The book is a compendium of household management and cookery for which  Mrs. Beeton was universally known in her home country of Great Britain. Although she died at the young age of 28, Mrs. Beeton is celebrated for the being the first and best cookery writer after the publication of her book "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management" in 1861. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called her the "Finest Housekeeper in the World"!

In addition to the recipes, the household chapters touch on a myriad of subjects including duties of the cook and kitchen maid. It is suggested that the cook rise at 6am during the summer months and at 7am during the winter in order to keep on schedule. Other household topics discussed are the kitchen layout, equipment, utensils, the order of washing dishes & clean-up, laundry work and tips on marketing (AKA grocery shopping).

The recipes are written in a narrative style and cover soups, stocks & broths, gravies & sauces, vegetables, pastry making, tinned foods, herbs & condiments, entrees, desserts, jams/preserves and breads. A few of the unusual subjects include Farinaceous preparation (basically pasta and the shortest chapter with only 4 pages), homemade wines, chafing dish cookery, invalid cookery and Australian cookery. The last few chapters cover the art of carving and menu making.

Page from Mrs. Beeton's - Invalid Trays:

Page from New Bedford - Former owner's handwritten recipes: