If you get a longing now and then for the clean sure beauty of a New England town, for the rest you find there among simple things, for the feeling that New England soil holds the roots somehow of all the America we love... this belongs to you and to us... Rumford Chemical Company

{HISTORY}

This vintage cookbook is fun on so many different levels, for it tells the story of five unique aspects of culinary history. Let's look...

First, there is the story of  Count Benjamin Thompson Rumford (1753-1814) who revolutionized cooking in terms of ability and efficiency. He invented the first oven, tea kettle, and boiler. He was the first to recommend that holes be drilled in the handles of pots and pans for hanging storage and he created an air-tight oven door through scientific studies of heat, airflow, and fuel analysis. 

Then there's the story of Eben Norton Horsford (1818-1893) who reconfigured the components of baking powder to include calcium biphosphate in place of the previously used cream of tarter. Eben opened his own baking powder factory in Providence, Rhode Island in 1854 called Rumford Chemical Works, which was named after Count Rumford. 

Rumford Complete Cook Book was first published in 1908 - a combined effort of Boston Cooking School founder Fannie Merrit Farmer (1857-1915) and British-American Home Economics Writer and Lecturer Lily Haxworth Wallace. Just like Eben Horsford and Count Rumford, Fannie and Lily took a scientific approach to cooking and household management thinking of both in hygienic, professional, and nutritious terms. 

You might suppose that a cookbook published by a food product company would solely focus only on recipes that called for their specific brand of food. Not so in the case of the Rumford Complete Cook Book. It includes recipes for all meals of the day, the majority of which do not call for baking powder.  Rumford was a forerunner in producing cooking booklets that taught American home cooks how to prepare better meals. Whether that was regarding equipment, nutrition, products, or cooking efficiencies, Rumford cooking booklets became a trusted reference for 19th and 20th-century households. In 1908, they combined many recipes and helpful advice into one hardbound book - the Rumford Complete Cook Book. By the time this edition was published in 1945, the cookbook was in its 37th printing and had sold over five million copies. 

This 1945 edition printed during WWII contains fewer meat recipes, most likely because meat was severely rationed during the war years and includes many recipes featuring ways to sweeten baked goods with natural fruit juices in place of sugar (which was also rationed). 

As a beloved kitchen companion with each printing special consideration was taken in revising recipes that evolved as kitchen modernization evolved throughout each decade. A lovely throughline to each cookbook edition though, most noteably in the baking section is the appearance of Rumford Baking Powder.  A tried and true staple since 1857, when it was discovered that calcium biphosphate replaced natural minerals lost in the process of milling flour, Rumford Baking Powder was deemed a more nutritious product. 

So much interesting history lives inside this unassuming book!

Photo of Lily Haxworth Wallace courtesy of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 11th, 1937

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- 37th Printing published in 1945

- 210 pages

- All recipes call for whole food ingredients and from-scratch food preparation

- Contains a series of black and white photograph plates 

- In addition to recipes, this cookbook includes various charts and diagrams related to meat cooking temperatures, pressure cooking guidelines, carving techniques, etc.

- Interesting recipes include Pilau of Flowl, Turkey Souffle, Crabmeat Ravigote, Cheese Patties, Escalloped Cauliflower, King George's Pudding, Rhubarb Fluff, Hot Maple Nut Sandwiches, Baked Apple Dumplings, Huckleberry Breakfast Cake, Steamed Brown Bread, Cheese Waffles, Grandmother's 1-2-3-4 Cake, Washington Pie, Potato Flour Sponge Cake, Pecan Sticks, Oriental Sandwiches, Scotch Shortbread, Southern Spicy Gingerbread, Orange Rock Cakes, Crullers, Butterscotch Parfait, Eggs Benedict, Boston Sandwiches, Mint-Grapefruit Temptation Punch and so many more. 

{CONDITION}

In lovely vintage condition. Clean and bright throughout this cookbook is in great shape. There are a few minor light cooking spots on a few pages but nothing that interferes with reading the text. A previous owner's name is written in pencil on the inside cover and a few pencil notations (check marks) appear next to a few recipes indicating that they were good ones. 

{SIZE}

Measures 7.5" inches (length) x 5" inches (width) x .75" inches (thickness) and weighs 9 oz

 {FOR THE 1940s KITCHEN LOVER}

Find more vintage kitchen heirlooms from the 1940s era in the shop here.