Little Cookbooks from the Michigan State University Library

Do you ever look for the original recipe or the old fashioned way of making something?  Sometimes recipes get so manufactured or low fatted, sugar freed and skinny that it in no way resembles the original dish. 

In my quest to become MSG free and eliminate nearly all processed foods, I am constantly looking at vintage recipes.  It's back before Cream of Mushroom soup that the cook in the house made everything from scratch.  (Obviously that's not entirely true, but it's certainly easier to find an entire cookbook with everything made from scratch from that era.)

For example, lately I've been looking for a cake recipe to take to one of my monthly potlucks.  Just a plain cake to add to make an "easy" dessert.  Those ubiquitous dump cake mixtures are pretty good, but I can't have the regular cake mixes anymore.  I have found plain cake recipes, that aren't vintage, but they aren't in the middle of an old cookbook.  I'm having more fun looking at the old photos, I bet. 

Front cover of Kate Smith's book

All the photos in this post are from the MSU Library - Kate Smith's Favorite Recipes.  It's one of the small cookbooks, just 48 pages long, from the Brocker Collection.  

Lately on Pinterest I have been finding a bunch of vintage cookbooks and many of them have linked back to Michigan State University.  MSU has an extensive digital library of cookbooks and I keep finding more and more of them.  The books have been scanned from the front cover to the back.  If the books aren't useful to you, they sure are an interesting look at life in that time period.  I've been entertained for several hours on the ins and outs of how to dig cellar and store crops for winter.  After reading that one, I know for sure that I wasn't cut out for that life! 

Back cover of Kate Smith's book

sponge cakes

Brownies, economical cupcakes and more

If you would like to see what other digital subjects are available at the MSU digital library, you can search here.

I haven't found the perfect cake mix yet, but I'm sure it won't be long.  I'll be sure and tell you all about it when I do.  For now, I keep all of my vintage handwritten recipes and vintage cookbooks on my Recipes board in my Pinterest.  You are more than welcome to peruse and pin at your leisure.  

If you have any leads on some awesome digital cookbooks let me know!  

Have a great day!

Kristin