All sorts of helpful hints in regards to health after the jump.

{Parts one, two, three and four}

more...

Posted by: Kathy at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More incorrect health advice---including remedies for lockjaw and the New York Sun's cholera mixture---after the jump.

{Parts one, two and three} more...

Posted by: Kathy at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You can find even more incorrect health suggestions---including how to cure felons---after the jump!

{Part One, Part Two} more...

Posted by: Kathy at 01:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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More deliciously incorrect health advice after the jump.

{Part One} more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh, yeah. You know you want to read these helpful hints, which---rather refreshing in this anti-bacterial age---seem to be completely devoid of advice regarding avoidance from germs but require plenty of avoidance from common sense. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 12:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Making wine and only the finest spirits after the jump.

{Part One} more...

Posted by: Kathy at 08:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ok, so moving along from doughy stuff, I should probably make you aware this is the section where you'll find recipes---ahem---to MAKE YOUR OWN BOOZE.

Perhaps not in this installment, but maybe in the next.

Take the jump anyway so you don't feel like a schmuck when you come back for the next few. Besides, there's some early 20th Century medical benefits to drinking buttermilk listed that might interest some of you. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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More doughy goodness after the jump.

{part one, part two} more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More doughy stuff after the jump, including the Boston Brown Bread recipe from the Palmer House in Chicago, and the Corn Bread recipe from the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans.

You can find part one here. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 12:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For all manner of yeasty, doughy stuff---including how to make your own yeast---take the jump.

The husband says all you home brewers will probably want to pay attention to the bit on how to make your own yeast. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 08:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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parts one, two and three.

Take the jump for the absolute last of the facts worth knowing!

more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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part one, part deux

Take the jump for fun and interesting facts worth knowing like "how to keep out rats and mosquitoes" and helpful tips on how to prevent the creaking of bedsteads. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 01:22 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Part One is here.

Take the jump for such interesting factoids as how to "prevent oil from becoming rancid," how to deal with "troublesome ants" and---the one I'm sure you've been waiting for with bated breath---"how to cure hiccoughs." more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:54 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Sure-fire cure for "hiccoughs": One lime wedge Angostura Bitters Sprinkle bitters liberally over lime wedge. Soak it with the stuff. Have the affected party suck the entire slice of lime, bite and chew off the fruit to the rind. Chew and swallow. (You can't just suck the juice out and not chew the fruit. That is key.) Hiccoughs will be gone. Ask any bartender worth a damn.

Posted by: Margi at January 04, 2006 12:39 AM (nwEQH)

2 BTW, I am LOVING the excerpts from this cookbook. I have an old version of "The Legal Secretary's Complete Handbook" that's pretty funny but not nearly as good as this.

Posted by: Margi at January 04, 2006 12:52 AM (nwEQH)

3 I'm glad someone's liking them. Haven't received a great deal of feedback on these, except for your lovely statement.

Posted by: Kathy at January 04, 2006 10:34 AM (hbcMs)

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Take the jump if you're interested in things like "how to clean marble busts" or "a paint for wood or stone that resists all moisture." more...

Posted by: Kathy at 10:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yep. Within the "Sauces and Dressings" section there is a subsection of catsup recipies.

Not "ketchup."

Catsup

In a variety of flavors beside tomato!

Take the jump if you're interested and have mad canning skillz. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 10:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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After the jump. Replete with commentary from moi.

Just a quick note: I can't scan these pages, at least not until the binding is repaired, so I will try and get as close to how it looks by manuevering fonts, etc. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I received an interesting Christmas present this year.

Now, as you can see this cookbook isn't in the greatest shape.

I have to make an effort in the next couple of days to have it rebound. Miraculously, other than a bit of wear and tear on the title page, the pages are in great shape; it's just the binding that needs more than a wee bit of tender loving care. But it's not surprising that the binding is in such sad shape---after all it's nearly a hundred-years-old.

And, as it turns out, was my grandmother's.

I've mentioned before that I'm a late-in-life child. Well, not really. My parents were forty and thirty-eight when they had me---not so very old nowadays for reproduction purposes---it's just that since they already had seven kids it seemed unlikely at the time they'd keep going for it. I'm glad they did, but because my parents were also late-in-life children, the generation spans are wide in my family---my paternal grandmother was born in 1889, if that gives you a clue. As a result of this span, I never got to know any of my grandparents. I heard stories about them, of course, and I vaguely remember my paternal grandmother---commonly referred to as "Granny" in our household---but as she died when I was four, there's no specific memory I have attached to her. My grandfathers are long gone, and then there was my mother's mother, who seemed even further removed from the rest: she died in 1938, when my mother was six-years-old.

This is her cookbook.

I don't know much about Grandmother Kamloth. Mom doesn't talk about her. I know that I have her nose because there's an old photograph of her hanging on the wall at my parents' house. I know she was born in this country, the daughter of a florist who emigrated from Switzerland. Apparently, she came from a well-to-do family because when my Dad was researching our family tree, he went looking through old Omaha phone books and found that their residence had two lines, rather than just one---apparently one was for the servant's quarters. At some point in time, she married my Grandfather and had three daughters, the youngest of whom was my mother.

I also know that her name was Helen. Helen Haas Kamloth. A nice German girl from Omaha.

But that's about all I know.

That's why I titled this post "artifacts" because this cookbook feels like an artifact to me; something to be studied to learn more about the person who owned and used it. It's not a personal. It's just something that belonged to her. I have no emotional attachment to this cookbook because it was my gradmother's. I don't know that I will learn more about my grandmother by actually owning it, but it's quite cool nonetheless. My family is not big on handing things down. Not only do I not have any memories of my grandparents, I don't have any of their belongings, either, and neither do any of my siblings. Now, while I'm sure some of you, my devoted Cake Eater readers, are gasping at the loss of family history and are about to chastise the Cake Eater parents for not keeping better track of things, please realize that, well, there weren't a lot of things for us to inherit. Remember, I'm only one generation removed from the boat in some instances: it takes time to build up a legacy. My folks were busy looking forward and dealing with what they had on their plates; looking back and living in the past is a luxury they didn't have time for.

Anyway, I digress, as usual, but this cookbook, it turns out, is chock-a-block full of interesting things that I'm choosing to share with you, my devoted Cake Eater Readers. Yes, that's right. In a very Lileks-ish Gallery of Regrettable Food fashion, I shall be sharing excerpts from this fab cookbook, which is not only a cookbook, but rather:

"A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home"

Containing

COOKING, TOILET AND HOUSEHOLD RECIPES, MENUS, DINNER-GIVING, TABLE ETIQUETTE, CARE OF THE SICK, HEALTH SUGGESTIONS, FACTS WORTH KNOWING, ETC.

By

HUGO ZEIMAN AND MRS. F.L. GILLETTE
STEWARD OF THE WHITE HOUSE

So you see, my devoted Cake Eater readers, this shall be good fun.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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