Tom Martin and The Landis Valley Cookbook

Last month Tom passed away, and on August 17th, Landis Valley Museum, where he worked for over 30 years, will host a celebration of his life. He knew so much about brick bake ovens and Pa. Dutch foods, and was always willing to share, and yet always researching to learn more.

The Drunken Botanist

This entertaining and well researched book details how all alcoholic beverages are composed of plants.  Actually, it is the focus on each plant and how it is made into different drinks, instead of the usual writings on the composition of beer, wine, etc., which makes this an interesting read.  Beer is generally barley, wheat, and flavored with hops.  But going from plant to drink - barley is also for whiskey; wheat is in vodka, whiskey and Maker’s Mark bourbon.

In Meat We Trust

The meat industry changed radically from the colonial farm to the corporate giants of today. Along the way railroads and their stockyards took over walking the cattle to market; town butchers were replaced with precut frozen pieces of meat.

Charles Darwin and... rice??

Emma Darwin kept a small handwritten recipe book, and about fifty of her recipes with modern interpretations are in Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book which also contains a lengthy information section.   Several of the recipes had differences from others in contemporary cookbooks, such as almonds replacing chestnuts in the Nesselrode ice cream...

Madeira

This engaging and thoroughly researched (150 pages of endnotes) work delves into all aspects of Madeira from the growing of the grapes on the Portuguese island of Madeira to the merchants, shippers, and consumers.

Scraping By - Conferences, symposiums, exhibits 2009

14 events in 2009

Long titles for historic cookbooks

Early cookbooks had lengthy and informative titles so the potential buyer could readily see what the book contained. My favorite part of Simmons’ introduction is about the difference between “old people” and young - in 1798.

300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles by Linda Campbell Franklin

300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles is a must for any museum or cook. The almost 900 pages are filled with detailed information, period illustrations, modern photographs of items, and excerpts from historic books, magazines, trade journals, patents, and more.

Landis Valley Cookbook

The Landis Valley Cookbook: Pennsylvania German Foods and Traditions is back in print! The first edition in 1999 was terrific, and this is even better. The 2d edition contains over fifteen additional recipes, more of the pictures are in color (88), and the spiral inside the hard binding allows the book to lay flat when in use. ...