A Piece of Butter the Size of a Hickory Nut?

Oh, how lucky we are to be living in the 21st century!

Love, love, love these two recent antique cookbook finds — they are fascinating to read and would make a great addition to any collection.  But to cook from them?  Maybe not.

Letters to a Young Housekeeper, 1892, by Marie Hansen-Taylor advises the new bride that “our forefathers, the Anglo-Saxons, knew in the dark ages that vegetables by themselves are poor food.  They like them best accompanied by milk, butter and cheese.“  Hmmm, perhaps that explains the life expectancy of 50!

Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, 1891, by Mary F. Henderson is similarly heavy on the high calorie foods and also incredibly vague with the instructions.  One recipe for wafers instructs the cook to start with “a piece of butter the size of a hickory nut and a scant teacupful of flour”.  If you make it through the entire recipe, then you get to “bake it until done in a hot oven“.  Good luck!

Going, Going, Gourmet!

After nearly 70 glorious years of extraordinary recipes, menus, restaurant reviews, gorgeous photography and so much more, Gourmet magazine will no longer be published after November 2009.   Tears were shed in kitchens around nation.

But wait!  BuenaVintage has years of “new” content just for you!  That’s right, dozens of back issues from the 70s and 80s, complete with lovely blue Gourmet binders.  Six full years in lovely blue Gourmet binders are already up for auction on eBay, ending Sunday, October 25, and several more years will be listed this Sunday and next.

So stop crying in your soufflé and clean up your Cuisinart, all is well.

Love and Knishes

Last weekend, I stumbled across an estate sale featuring the belongings of a retired book dealer.  In the basement — 10,000 cookbooks!!  Yes, 10,000 cookbooks, most in mint condition!   My heart skipped a beat!  As I may have mentioned, cookbooks are my personal favorite to sell, buy, keep.

After about two hours of rummaging through this woman’s basement, I came up with three boxes of what I deemed to be the best of the best.  I’m in the process of sorting, but this week I listed a few just to pique your interest. Watch for many, many over the next weeks and months. If you have a personal request, post a comment or send me a note and I’ll let you know if I have it or add it to my “lookout” list.

Right now on eBay I have up for auction 19 really great specialty, regional and specific ingredient cookbooks, including one book that features beer in every recipe!  With the upcoming Jewish holiday season, I also listed four superb Jewish / Kosher cookbooks.  Love and Knishes anyone?  Click on the link at the right to see them now!

L’Chayim!

Mary & Julia

I looove old cookbooks!  I buy some, keep some, sell some — can’t get enough!  Over the past few years, I’ve sold at least a dozen copies of Julia Child’s classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, including a first edition and an edition of Volume II signed by Julia and her husband Paul.  Julia has been a consistent performer on eBay for years.  Depending on condition, Mastering the Art of French Cooking will usually sell for between $20 and $60.  The signed version fetched almost $100!   Until now…

Enter Meryl Streep and her starring role as Julia Child in this summer’s hit movie, Julie & Julia.   Mastering the Art of French Cooking is now selling for at least $100, with first editions and signed copies going for up to $900!!!!    That’s a lotta Boeuf Bourguignon!

Anyway, I searched through my entire stash of cookbooks (boxes!) and although I did not find another copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I did find another lovely cookbook by Julia entitled The French Chef Cookbook.  With over 400 pages, it is a complete collection of all the recipes demonstrated on her 1960s PBS television program.  Will it fetch $100? Probably not.  But it’s a great cookbook with most of the same recipes, and it will be available from BuenaVintage on eBay this Sunday, August 30.   It’s in excellent condition with the original dust jacket too.

I’ll also be listing this Sunday a very nice 1960s verion of Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking, a very interesting Saudi Arabian cookbook (in English) and several other cookbook finds of the week.

Bon Appetit!