Cookbookaholic

Big Red One

If you remember back to last year, I was so thrilled when I found a first edition/first printing of Charleston Receipts from the Junior League of Charleston. Had a slight hiccup, in getting the right one, but it did finally get here.

 

But did you know there was another cookbook that the Junior League published before that famous green one? I didn’t. At least, not until The Lee Bros. wrote about it in one of their amazing cookbooks.

 

It was ultra rare from 1949, and it was only printed once. First edition…only edition.

 

And it’s called Charleston Recipes…which feels more natural than Receipts.

 

As you can imagine, once I learned about this cookbook—I put it on my list. Don’t assume it went straight to obsession (hello, original Paula Deen Lady and Friends cookbook).

 

Not too long after, the Junior League of Charleston actually re-released a new printing of that original red cookbook. Here’s how they listed it on their website:

 

Virtually lost for decades, Charleston Recipes was recently rediscovered in an attic by Josephine Humphreys, a former JLC member and daughter of the original editor Martha Lynch Humphreys. “Only one year separates the two cookbooks (Recipes and Receipts), but they can almost be seen as representing different decades,” says Humphreys in her introduction. “The 1949 book seems spare and frugal, still in the shadow of the depression and wartime privations, while the 1950 book is exuberant, celebratory, even sometimes downright lavish. And yet there are tempting and delightful recipes to be found only in the red book.”

 

Amazing! And the proceeds for purchasing this reprint went to their charity work. And yes, I did buy one. So that scratched that itch….until.

 

I logged on to ebay and went through a search for Junior League cookbooks from the Carolinas. And deep in a “Buy It Now” section was an original. THE original….the Red One. It was part of a private collection of a professional chef who collected rare and antique cookbooks. He was choosing to sell off a few from his personal library and I knew I had to act fast. I couldn’t afford the Buy It Now price, but it did have a “make an offer” option. I submitted my best offer and waited.

 

The next morning, I got a notification that the offer was accepted. Woo-hoo!!!!

 

I thanked the seller and told him that Red was coming to a good home and she’d live right beside the first edition/first printing Receipts. And a few days later, she arrived:

 

 

So thrilled!

Dee-Luxe Betty

I always keep an eye out on eBay for any good Betty Feezor auctions. I’ve had some luck recently with getting a Carolina Recipes Volume I for less than $8. That’s a phenomenal find when you see some auctions start off northward of $60.

Understand that sometimes those auctions can get a little nuts and end up at a high price, but mostly, they sit there and languish when the starting price is outrageous.

About two weeks ago, there was an auction of one of the hardbound editions of Betty Feezor’s Best. As you know, that’s the very first one from the late 1950s. I actually have one that I found during a lunchtime excursion to an estate sale. It had been tucked away in a stack of cookbooks in a very cluttered kitchen; and without a cover, it was hard to decipher the title written down the edge of the spine. But this auction actually has the cover!

The cover! WOW! That would be nice to have. It has the right image, but of the Betty’s Best I’ve seen, there’s been a red cover and a green version. The description mentions that the cover may have some issues. But even if it’s about to fall off, I don’t think I’d mind. I can always put it in a plastic bag to help preserve it.

I placed my bid and waited several days for the auction to end. I don’t know if anyone was confused by the hardcover version? But, when the auction was over, it only cost me $8.50. Now the waiting game…

When it arrived, I was very careful about opening it. When I freed it from the package, I found it completed encased in plastic kitchen wrap.

If this cover is in delicate shape, would the saran wrap stick to it and cause further damage? I’m not really sure if I should even try to unwrap it? It’s sealed up so tight and I don’t see an edge to begin unraveling it!

I do a little more careful searching and eventually get two layers of saran wrap off. It’s amazing: the cover has a gold shimmer to it.

I open it up and find that it’s autographed and then personalized. This was a gift from a husband to his wife:

That is really touching!

As I’m flipping through the rest, I stop on a page that has an old newspaper clipping.

I turn the book to get a better look and find a Stroganoff recipe with a Helen Moore byline. She retired from The Charlotte Observer a few years back, so this is a neat find.

And then I take a look at the copyright page.

I see that the cloth bound version is what Betty called the “Deluxe” edition. It only cost a few cents more but over the years, I’ve found more with the plastic spiral spine. I don’t have a real understanding of how much $3 would’ve meant to a household in the late 1950s. Would that have been an expensive cookbook to own? And would that extra cost put the hardback version out of reach for most penny-pinching housewives?

I have a feeling that cost may have played a huge role and that’s why these hardback versions are so rare. And how about that, more than 50 years and $8.50 later, I’ve got a Dee-luxe Betty!

Down Home Cookin

So, I was recently going through an eBay search for Moravian cookbooks. I’m always on the lookout for a Moravian cookbook for my collection! This time around, I’m seeing ones from churches in the Midwest. As you may remember, I had to make a tough decision to stop collecting from Moravian churches outside of North Carolina. It was getting out of hand…as you can imagine.

Anywho…I was looking through the current auctions and found one called Down Home Cookin from Providence Moravian Church in Winston-Salem. Do I have that one yet? The cover design is very unique and lighthearted. It’s a woman in a long dress and apron chasing after a chicken. (I’m assuming to make a fresh Moravian Chicken Pie?) I’m not 100% certain, but it doesn’t look familiar.

The opening bid wasn’t too outrageous, so I decided to try for it. It was a long, agonizing week—but I won the auction!

A few days later, it arrived:

Down Home Cookin (Providence Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC)

Nice addition to my Moravian church cookbook collection! I wonder if anyone over at the Southern Provence has a list of all the cookbooks (past and present) from North Carolina Moravian churches? Could a list like that exist? If it did, I wonder if I could get a copy. That would certainly be helpful! I’d use it as a checklist of sorts. Let’s be honest, there’s who-knows-how-many Moravian churches in and around Winston-Salem. It could be a full-time job tracking down and buying cookbooks just from that area!

But for now, I’m happy to welcome Down Home Cookin to my home.

Ned's Bag of FREE

Okay, so you know I have several different but specific cookbook collections going on, right? The other week, I was looking through my saved searches on eBay. I’ve taken a long break from eBay, not really because of anything specific, just haven’t been on there in a while.

Anywho, I did a search and found an auction that had a couple of Moravian cookbooks that I don’t think I have. Now, I can’t tell you for certain—but I don’t think those are in the collection. I waited a few days and finally put in a bid—the minimum. That starting bid was a little on the far end of what I was willing to pay, so no tears if I ended up not winning.

Good news—I did end up winning the auction. A couple of days later, my box arrived. The seller, Ned, had packed a sandwich sized Ziploc bag with a free mini flashlight and his business card as an extra freebie! Here’s what I won:

The three Moravian cookbooks that sealed the deal for me: The Hopewell Dinner Bell (Women’s Fellowship Hopewell Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC),Christ Moravian Church Cook Book (A.R. Carr Sunday School Class, Christ Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC), Pine Chapel Moravian Church Cook Book(Women of the Church, Winston-Salem, NC) and Centenary Cookbook (Centenary Methodist Church, Winston-Salem, NC). 

“Let Us Thank Him for This Food” Centennial Cookbook (Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina, Inc., Thomasville, NC), Seasoned with Love (Christ Temple, Winston-Salem, NC), Our Favorite Recipes (AFL-CIO, Raleigh, NC) and Favorite Recipes of The Carolinas.

Ground Beef Cookbook (Favorite Recipes Press, Inc.), Taste of Home’s Family Favorites: “Clip & Keep” Recipe Collection, Cooking with Soup & Rice (Campell’s Soup Company and Uncle Ben’s) and New Metropolitan Cook Book (Metropolitan Live Insurance Company).

So, all in all, some are great, some are not as thrilling…but I’m happy to welcome them. Then, I notice a larger gallon-sized Ziploc bag with the word “FREE” on it.

Did this seller send me a bonus cookbook?

I open the bag and find a bonus of three cookbooks! They’re not in great condition, but perhaps he thought I’d appreciate them.

Untitled Cookbook (Pine Grove United Methodist Church Cookbook, Winston-Salem, NC) with no back cover, Yadkin County Extension Homemakers Clubs Cook Book with torn off cover and no back cover, and Grace Pentecostal Assembly (Harbor City, California) with missing corner of cover.

Okay, so that was nice. They’re a little tattered, but they were free and that’s awesome. I flip through the yellow one and notice something interesting: there’s a bio of famed North Carolina food editor and cookbook author, Beth Tartan.

 

That’s interesting, I wonder if she had a connection to this branch of the Extension Homemakers Club? I flip through a few more pages and the same thing is written in the header on every page:

Beth Tartan’s Cook Book

Oh boy. I really do appreciate Ned’s bag of FREE! And, I don’t think Ned realized what he has just given me. It’s a copy of a revised, second edition of Beth Tartan’s Cook Book! Granted, it doesn’t have a front or back cover—but there it is.

This is quite a find! Thanks Ned!

Birthday Present to Me

Okay, I was cautious when the auction showed up on eBay. I was quietly optimistic when I won the auction and then prepared for disappointment waiting for the package to arrive from England.

And it finally arrived….and it’s amazing!

It’s The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge! And this one is the real deal antique. I love the stickers all over the package: “Royal Mail” and the Customs Declaration with the description of “Old Book” written on it.

I’ve been collecting this cookbook as long as I have known about it. There have been many different printings over the past hundred years or so. I’ve always been on the lookout for the original, but never knew what it originally looked like. That’s the hard part—how do you know what to look for when you don’t know what it looks like?

The Carolina Housewife was published by “a Lady of Charleston” in 1847. No name was written but apparently it was an open secret that it was written by Sarah Rutledge, daughter of the Declaration of Independence signer, Edward Rutledge. The first two versions have it titled “House and Home” but by the time the third version rolled around, they switched it to “The Carolina Housewife.” It’s been published several times over the past hundred plus years, most notably by the University of South Carolina Press. I’ve got several versions, let me walk you through them.

It started out with this one:

This paperback version with the blue spiral spine is from 1963 and is a facsimile reprint of the original 1847 publication. It has a postscript by Anna Wells and menus compiled by Mrs. Hillyer Rudisill.

Then I had this 1979 hardback version…

This is the first version of the cookbook from The University of South Carolina Press. It has taken Anna Wells Rutledge’s postscript and turned it into an “Introduction” and added in a list of South Carolina cookbooks that were published before 1935.

Then I was able to find this paperback second printing version from 1980.

There are a third (1987) and fourth (1991) printings but I haven’t come across those yet. I was able to find a nice fifth printing from 1999 with a dust jacket.

And I’ve got this one, but I’m not sure when it was printed. It’s smaller and has a golden yellow cover. The address for additional copies is for a post office box in Mobile, Alabama. I guess this was before the University of South Carolina Press? I’m not sure how it could’ve been at the same time? Or after?

Anyways, that brings us to my newest one…the oldest one yet!

And here it is!

The first two pages have been torn out, so no clue there as to what this particular publication date could be. The title page does say, “Third Edition, corrected and enlarged” and it’s written right above a publication date of 1855. So unless there were no additional printings of the third edition, this is probably a good eight years after the first one…but still firmly in the nineteenth century.

There's an inscription on the inside cover that says "Catherine Mckeone is book new York" and is dated 1866. By this time, our country had already gone through the Civil War so it's interesting to see it placed in New York a year after it had ended. Not to mention finding it from a rare book dealer in England more than a hundred years later. How does that happen?

I’m not sure if I’ll ever find an original 1847 version, but this is a pretty good one to get for my birthday!

Bidding on a Birthday Present for Myself

As you know, I collect many cookbooks. Ha-Ha-Ha…that made me laugh. By “many,” I actually mean a colossal amount. I love Junior League, Moravian, Betty Feezor and Paula Deen just to name a few. I try my best to get ones from North and South Carolina. But then again, I do like cookbooks from Savannah and New Orleans…okay, the entire state of Louisiana.

A few years ago, I found a very specific cookbook from my home state of South Carolina. I had never heard of it before, but I knew I had to get a copy.

After doing some research, I found that it has been published several times since it was first written. Ever since, I’ve been slowly acquiring copies of each incarnation.

Now, I’ve finally found an eBay auction for the first one. It’s not a first edition, first printing—but it’s an old one, antique even. I’m a little apprehensive because the seller is a rare book dealer in England. I’m thrilled that they’ve opened up the bidding to include bids from across the pond. I just hope that they don’t change their mind.

Plus, I’m obviously hoping no one bids against me. I’m willing to spend some money, but I don’t want to go crazy outbidding another cookbookaholic (like me). Woo-boy, could you imagine that kind of showdown?

Just a little ways to go. I’ll keep you posted.

The Holy Grail

It’s been quite a year since I left the radio station and moved on to Bottom Dollar Food. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt more valued as an employee. I promise you, the difference is like night and day. And I’m very, very thankful and grateful every day.

As you know, I lubs me some Paula Deen. I have many of her cookbooks—some of them are even autographed from when she visited the Bob & Sheri studio. But I’ve always kept an eye out for one particular cookbook of hers. It’s the first one. Not the Savannah Country Cookbook that everyone has. I mean the very first one—her self-published cookbook.

It’s called Favorite Recipes of The Lady & Her Friends Cookbook and she had 5,000 printed. The story goes that an editor for a major publishing house vacationed in Savannah, ate at her restaurant and purchased a copy. That editor then approached Paula about publishing the cookbook under her banner at the publishing house. Paula asks one of her sons if he’s ever heard of the publishing company and he tells her to go for it. The rest is history…

So, in essence, the Savannah Country Cookbook is a more mass-marketed version of her original self-published version. The thing is, this original one…which I call The Holy Grail…has become this deified, rarified, elusive artifact. I have seen them come up for action on eBay, but not very often. I’ve even watched them consistently sell for more than $300!

I actually won an eBay auction for one of these a few years back, but my winning bid didn’t meet the seller’s requested minimum. When I contacted them directly, the seller had some outrageous $500 minimum. They must have been smoking something because that was almost three times the amount of my “winning” bid.

And then the diabetes controversy hit the news. I’ve slowly watched as the value on this cookbook has come down. A few of them showed up in rapid succession on eBay. “Buy It Now” auctions, with price tags north of $300, were hoping to squeeze out a big payday; but ended with no buyers in sight. I even saw one opening bid go for days without any takers to only get marked down a hundred bucks before ending with a buyer.

I figured I would keep waiting to see if the prices would level out to a more reasonable amount.  A few days ago, I noticed an auction had just started. I kept watch over the next few days. When it was time for the auction to end, I sniped it at an even lower price than the first one I “won.”

I couldn’t believe I actually got the winning bid. I figured some email would soon arrive to, again, tell me that they had really hoped for more money. But then, the invoice showed up in my inbox. This is the real deal! They sent the bill!

Cut to the end of my one year anniversary and I’m walking through the door at home. I look on the kitchen countertop to see a box with a return address in Savannah. It’s here! What an amazing anniversary gift…to myself.

It’s almost pristine; the pages still have that stiff crisp sound when I turn the pages. I’m finally holding The Holy Grail….The Holy Effin’ Grail!  Was this ever used? I seriously doubt it. There is some slight discoloration on the top inside corner of the back cover, but other than that—it looks like it has just been sitting on a shelf. Now, it can sit on my shelf!

So, now that I’ve found The Holy Grail, what’s this cookbookaholic to do next? I mean, didn’t Indiana Jones move on to another great adventure after he’d discovered the Ark of the Covenant? Maybe for my next adventure, I’ll plan a trip to Savannah and get it autographed by The Lady herself? 

 

eBay Bonanza!

As I was doing a recent eBay search, I came across three amazing cookbook auctions. I say amazing because they were “lots,” which means they are selling a bunch grouped together. Both “lots” had more than ten cookbooks in each sale! And I’ve got my eye on several cookbooks in each auction.

Both auctions already had bidders but they ended very early in the morning so I needed to get up early and try to snipe them. Luckily, I was able to get them! And since both auctions were from the same seller, they shipped all of them in one box.

Here are the ones I was hoping to get and a few that I’m glad to have found:

Friedberg Cook Book (Friedberg Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC), Friedberg Cook Book (Friedberg Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC), Beth Tartan’s Cook Book (Elizabeth Hedgecock Sparks), Receipts of Yesteryear 1976-1976 (Forsyth County Extension Homemakers) and What’s Cookin’? (The Woman’s Club, Winston-Salem, NC First Edition, 1948).

And these….

The Cook’s Book (Telephone Pioneers of America, Old North State Chapter No. 79), Your Cook Book (Telephone Pioneers of America Hobby Committee), Coastal Carolina Cooking (Women’s Auxiliary to the Ocean View Memorial Hospital, Myrtle Beach, SC), Favorite Recipes (Fraternity Church of the Brethren, Winston-Salem, NC) and Fine Foods from Fraternity (Young Adult Class, Fraternity Church of the Brethren, Winston-Salem, NC).

And then this looked interesting…

 

The Hand-Me-Down Cookbook (Cherry Parker, Frances Bradsher) And look, it’s autographed!

And then this one…

Pages from Old Salem Cook Book (The Dorcas Co-Workers of The Salem Home)

As you can see, I got some great old Moravian cookbooks to add to my collection. Plus, I got a copy of Beth Tartan’s Cook Book. I haven’t seen too many of those, so I’m glad I was able to snag it. (As an interesting side note, I was going through the Receipts of Yesteryear cookbook and I see that they thank Beth Tartan for reviewing the recipes.) Very exciting! Looks like my early morning sniping brought me an eBay bonanza! 

 

Jackpot!

Yep, there really is no other way to describe this Saturday garage sale adventure. The morning started off without finding any cookbooks for the first few sales. I decided to head down early to an 8am sale a little further out of my usual area. I think it had mentioned books in general, but I remember it also it focused on homeschool material. Who knows, maybe I’d find a cookbook or two tucked in there somewhere.

When I arrived and caught first glimpse of the driveway I could not believe it. The long driveway was lined deep with boxes and boxes of books.

I could not believe what was in front of me. So many boxes! I took a look in the first few…they were all cookbooks. I swooped down and began to put my hands on a Junior League from Louisiana here, a Savannah church cookbook I’d lost in an eBay battle over there.

My hands couldn’t keep up with my eyes glimpsing amazing cookbook after cookbook. Plus, I wasn’t the only one there…I was scrambling to eyeball every box while also outgrabbing anyone else there for cookbooks as well!

I literally had no idea how to conquer the more than 5+ rows of boxes in warp speed timing. I just went as quickly as I could and as my piles grew taller and taller, the family would take them up to the checkout desk and put them in boxes for me. 

I’d look in one box and spot three Junior Leagues. Walked over to the next aisle and spotted a Betty Feezor…hello!

There’s a Betty Feezor sitting here in front of God and everybody—and no one had grabbed it yet? What else was waiting for me in the next box or the boxes two aisles over? Would I get there fast enough?

The family at this sale was just the nicest. I told them about collecting cookbooks and writing the blog. The mom, Lynda, was super amazing. She said that she had collected all sorts of books and cookbooks from second hand stores and yard sales and had been selling them online. I would seriously check out her eBay store—but she said she stopped selling them. They’d been sitting in one of those outside storage units for a while now.

I was just glad to have a shot at taking some of these—who are we kidding, as many as I could get my hands on—home with me! The husband mentioned that he had kept some of the more valuable ones and would still try to sell those later. But no one would tell me the online store! Oh well…I need to concentrate on the task at hand.

After about thirty minutes and backbreaking lifting, I had almost three full boxes. I paid and had a little bit left over. What? Something was still bothering me…like I had not looked over everything carefully enough. We put the boxes in my car and then I said I’d come back and look the boxes over again more slowly.

This time around, I went over the boxes much more carefully. I started at the first box at the beginning of the driveway. As I was going through this first box, I noticed a cookbook that was placed on the edge of the next box over. Guess what it was…the original Little Church on the Lane cookbook that I’d missed out on last week. How’s that for ya?

Plus, as I was going through the boxes again, all the family members (Lynda, her husband and two daughters) would help find community cookbooks and bring them over to me! How nice was that? I ended up buying about fifteen additional cookbooks that way!

 Seriously, how could any other word than “jackpot” describe this day?

Here’s the haul…forgive me for not naming each and every one of them.

Two Tiny Bettys

Remember when I lost out on the Holy Grail eBay battle? While still on the site, I did a search for Betty Feezor items. I came across two auctions for small, thin pamphlets. During her more than two decades on television, all of Betty’s recipes were available to the public through mimeographed copies as well as her self-published cookbooks. Tucked in the middle of the daily show and the new cookbooks that would come out every few years, station advertising clients would sponsor and distribute small pamphlets with a collection of her recipes.

These were limited runs and are now very hard to find. When they do go up for auction on eBay, they can get out of hand for a 12- to 15-page publication. I should know, I’ve bid on a few!

There was only one bid on one pamphlet and no bid on the second one. I put bids on both and was the highest bidder. A few extra bids did come in and bumped the prices up quite a bit—but in the end, I got both of them!

So, a few days later and here they are:

The white one is “Betty Feezor Southern Biscuit Recipes” lots of recipes for cookies, cakes, fritters and dumplings. This one was published and distributed by Midstate Mills (Newton, NC) and Mooresville Flour Mills (Mooresville, NC).  The brown one is called “Country Cookin’ goes Modern.” It reminded me of Betty’s early beginnings as a home demonstrator. She’d go out to the less-developed areas and show them more modern cooking techniques for preparing meals. This one is published by Piedmont Natural Gas, Carolina Natural Gas Corp. and Public Service Company of N.C.

And they’re both is pristine condition, these were either forgotten on a shelf or very carefully cared for by a fan. Or, maybe both?