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PAGE 10 HOME & LIFESTYLE IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • APRIL / MAY 2021
The Old and New
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS COOKBOOKS
BY SUZANNE WARING
When the pandemic struck, many fami-
lies started eating meals at home when they
hadn’t before. To prepare those meals, they
also started cooking from scratch.
Items such as flour, yeast, and sugar
disappeared from the grocery shelves when
suppliers weren’t prepared to meet the
new demand. People pulled out the classic,
red-and-white checked Better Homes and
Gardens (BH&G) New Cook Book to make Three Better Homes and Gardens red-and-white cookbooks. From left to right: 1) Fourth Printing of De
Luxe Edition, November 1943. 2) 1963 edition, and 3) 1968 edition. Photo Courtesy Anne Baack, Carter, Mont.
nutritious meals.
The latest, 17th edition of the New Cook
Book (September 18, 2018), however, looks dropped, and recipes resulting in fewer it may serve as a cook’s “first and basic”
nothing like the first edition, which was portions for smaller families were featured. cookbook.
published in 1930. By the 1990s, cooks were always short on “I received mine from my mother
Every edition since then has reflected a time and wanted to know how long it took as a gift when I married 56 years ago,”
response to the times. For example, the early to prepare a recipe, so preparation times said Anne Baack of Carter, Mont. “I still
1940s edition featured a section called “For were included. use it, and I occasionally consult the two
War Time Meals, Save Time and Points,” The New Cook Book’s distinctive cover that were passed down to me from my
which helped cooks stretch ration stamps makes it easy to find on the shelf. Its mother-in-law.”
for sugar, meat, cooking oil, and canned five-ring binder allows a cook to lay the It is easy to identify how the cook in
goods during World War II. book down flat while following the recipe the household has used a BH&G cookbook.
The 1950s fad in cuisine was entertain- directions. Most likely the cover becomes faded, and
ing at home, especially with barbecues. That The rings allow one to sort and add the corners become frayed. Those pages
edition provided a guide to make those out- pages, and a little coil of plastic beneath with favorite recipes become sodden with
door events successful. Among the recipes the rings keeps ingredients from dropping smudges and dabs of dried ingredients and
was the famous “tossed salad,” a term the onto the spine. become torn around the binder rings and
company coined. The cardboard sectional pages with need reinforcement labels.
The 1960s found cooking at the table alphabetical listing of the recipes included As the years pass, the cook may have
fashionable, so people relied on the red- also has tabs for food categories, essentially added a comment or two about a particu-
and-white checked cookbook to learn how creating a recipe box within a book. lar recipe, giving the book a personalized
to entertain with fondue for entrées as well The latest edition has over a thousand quality, especially when the book is passed
as for desserts. recipes and a colored picture for each one. down to the next generation.
Also, as more women who were working For consistency, the recipes call for a level The classic BH&G New Cook Book has
and raising families acquired the new, con- amount of an ingredient in measuring cups sold more than 40 million copies over the
venient appliances of the decade, they relied or spoons instead of the way Grandma years and will continue to make cooking
on the New Cook Book for microwave and cooked. This makes new recipes trustworthy easier and enjoyable. Just ask those who find
slow cooker recipes, to get meals quickly for anyone. themselves back in the kitchen. ISI
on the table. The BH&G cookbook has been a favorite
Meals were less formal in the 1980s, as a wedding gift over the years because
so a section on formal table settings was
Crossword
Crossword
Clues
ACROSS
1 Turning point
6 Pagoda instruments
11 Outdo
14 Big game setting
15 No-frills type
16 “Yo, Hadrian!”
17 Where the farmer relaxed
to update the books?
19 Cooper’s creation
20 Not behind
21 Long-term digs in orbit: Abbr.
22 Landscaping stones
24 Three-time Cy Young
Award winner Scherzer
26 Visibility reducers
27 Story of how the spider
monkey climbed the tree?
