"As We Are Going to a Feast." Cook Book Issued by the Ladies' Aid Society of the First Congregational Church of Ventura, California
Ventura, Ca. Free Press Book and Job Office, 1897. 116,[20]pp. Original printed cloth wrappers. Moderate wear and soiling to wraps, rear wrapper detached. Scattered manuscript notes throughout, plus manuscript additions to rear blanks. Even toning and scattered staining, other signs of use. Good. Item #6345
Extremely scarce, late 19th-century community cook book published in Ventura, California in 1897. Several hundred recipes are attributed to members of the local Ladies' Aid Society, and advertisements for local businesses are scattered throughout. One chapter prints a handful of "Spanish Recipes," which include Havana Soup, Pastel de Pescado, Spanish Liver, and Spanish Jerked Chicken. Other colorful recipes are Italian Herring Salad, Mrs. Saxby's Chicken Salad, Van Deusen's Gold Load, Eureka Sponge Cake, and Apple Pie Without Apples. The present copy contains additional manuscript recipes and notes on the preponderance of the twenty rear blank pages, dated 1917 to 1923. They contain instruction for items such as Rosa's Wonderful Coffee Cake and Mrs. Nance's Biscuit, but also comprise four pages of manuscript notes on the packing and preserving of local fruits, including apricots, strawberries, and currants. Well used, but a unique copy with numerous manuscript additions, and also extremely scarce. We locate copies at Berkeley and Yale only.
Price: $1,250.00