American Cookery, January 1942

My small stack of American Cookery magazines has been sitting and quietly crumbling in a dresser drawer for over a year. I overhauled my entire study a couple of weeks ago, and hauled them out of the dresser, which I disposed of to a friend with a new house in need of furniture.

The January 1942 issue of American Cookery would have been released to a nation of cooks who were reeling, like everyone else, from the attack on Pearl Harbor and our sudden entry into war. The first mention of the war is an article on "Eating for Defense" (page 263) with pictures of adorable moppets eating a lunch supplied by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and an elderly housewife surveying her shelves of canned fruits and vegetables. Ann interesting statistic states that American ships were daily supplying Great Britain with $2,000,000 worth of food: pork, lard, dried eggs, canned orange and tomato juices. This sounds like a staggering amount of food to produce and ship.

Other interesting tidbits are an article about the editor's prized kitchen, done in soft clover greens and featuring a view of Cape Cod (page 271.) Color pictures would have been a nice luxury here.Also, how to create nutritional broths with things like spinach, radishes and dandelions (and not much else) (page 274), creating a fig cake to lure the most stony-hearted suitor (page 276), and a "Cooks A-Calling" feature wherein the author introduces stuffed peppers to the people of Scotland. Click on each image to enlarge.

This issue featured an extra treat:: a folded cover from the magazine Capper's Farmer, July 1934, 5 cents a copy. I can see why someone tore it out and saved it, it's a charming picture.