(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Garage Sale Cookbooks are the best in the world. Often times they are really old, which, with food knowledge and changing diets, would mean just 20 years older or more. In those cookbooks you get recipes that you can’t find anymore, anywhere… Recipes with all the fat … PLUS, or even ’shortening’ which I am fairly positive my 18 year old has never even seen. Wait, I did use it for the frosting for my Wilton Cake Decorating Classes… but I digress.

Anyways, the best ones have notes in them from the previous owner(s), or even full blown, tried and true recipes hand written on the front the back cover.

I have a few such books, but one of the best in my posession, with lots of notes and full blown hand written recipes in the ‘notes’ section in the back, is one I found for .50 cents titled “A Campbell Cookbook MOST-FOR-THE-MONEY main dishes”.

This particular book has no publisher page, but I googled it and it was written in 1975… 33 years ago. I won’t say how old I was, but now you know I am older than 33. And I have an 18 year old. Little clues… Priceless.

Note: I love Campbell’s. I grew up on Campbell’s soups. I still eat Campbell’s. I love many of the Campbell’s recipes today. That being said, and knowing that all cooking is a reflection of the times, this cookbook was published at the same time that ‘The Joy of Cooking” received a revision and reprint, and in 1997 they reprinted the 1975 revision of ‘The Joy of Cooking’ without changing anything…!

Pretty sure the Campbell’s cookbook never saw a revision or a reprint.

Here’s the thing; I can’t imagine that Campbell’s ever went for the really broke, really poor people of this country. I can’t imagine that they would ‘brand’ themselves as the product to buy if you ‘ain’t got no money’. So… I have to come to the conclusion that real, regular people ate this way!

Of course it is a MOST-FOR-THE MONEY cookbook… but… Really?

Today, on the Campbell’s website they use ingredients like Fennel. They poach things. They are actually very solid, fairly health concious recipes.

Here is one, for instance, copied today from their website:

From: Campbell’s Kitchen
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 15 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 whole bulb garlic
2 2/3 cups Swanson® Chicken Broth (regular, Natural Goodness™ or Certified Organic)
5 large potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces (about 7 1/2 cups)
2 tbsp. chopped chives OR green onion tops (optional)

Directions:

CUT off top of garlic bulb. Drizzle with about 2 tbsp. broth. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 350°F. for 1 hr. or until softened.

PLACE broth and potatoes in saucepan. Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over medium heat 10 min. or until tender. Drain, reserving broth.

MASH potatoes with 1 1/4 cups broth, 2 or 3 cloves roasted garlic* and chives, if desired. Add additional broth, if needed, until desired consistency.

TIP: *Leftover roasted garlic is perfect for garlic toast, meat gravy, soups, etc.

My two cents? Sounds like a really good, healhy rendition of mashed potatoes and I am going to try to boil my next batch of Mashed Potatoes in Chicken Broth. Makes sense to me.

To “Dr. It Up” I could easily add any herb that went with the main dish. Rosemary for pork; Thyme with chicken… I could make it low sodium by using low sodium broth… I could make it really, absolutely, sinfully delicious by adding sour cream, or I could make it low fat and creamy by adding plain yogurt.

This is a good sensible side for todays times.

Compare that to the following examples which might taste good (I have to admit I haven’t had the nerve to try them) but are totally White/African American/American Indian/Asian/Peruvian/Columbian/I don’t give a hoot who you are… Ghetto!

How about this one:

This recipe is called ‘TOMATO-MUSHROOM RABBIT’, and it is copied here EXACTLY like it is in the book. (I say this because I don’t know why they capitalized some words and not others.)

1 can (about 2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained.
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 can (11 ounces) condensed Cheddar cheese soup
1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup milk
Toast
Tomato slices

In saucepan, brown mushrooms and cook onion in butter until tender. Blend in soup and mustard: gradually add milk. Heat; stir occasionally. Top toast with tomato slices; pour sauce all over. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

That’s it. That’s all they wrote.

Um… first off, where is the rabbit in any of this? Why did they include the name ‘Rabbit’? Cuz it was served over white toast, the same color of a rabbit? And may I ask… why you gotta brown cooked and canned mushrooms? Finally, where is the protein? The cheese soup? This was a DINNER!

How about this one:

SPANISH CHICKEN

2 pounds chicken parts
2 tablespoons shortening
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup raw regular rice
1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas
1 cup cut-up canned tomatoes

In skillet, slowly brown chicken in shortening (about 30 minutes); pour off fat. Remove Chicken. Stir in remaining ingredients except peas and tomatoes; top with chicken. Cover; cook on low heat 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add peas and tomatoes. Cook 10 minutes more or until done. Makes 4 servings.

These are my questions:

Where are the spices? What makes this Spanish… The tomatoes? Is everyone truly getting 1/2 pound of chicken parts? What are chicken parts? Are they whole? Do they have bones in them? What the H-E double hockey sticks is ‘regular rice’? Can you imagine what the texture of ‘chicken parts’ baked/steamed/suateed for 55 total minutes would be?

Tomorrow, perhaps, we will meet again. Until we do. Happy cooking!