Exploring Old Cookbooks
by Shannon Butler Do you enjoy cooking and baking? Are you getting ready to make some old favorites for Thanksgiving? Or are you looking to try something new this year? Many of us are rethinking the way we celebrate this old holiday in a new way because, well... 2020 (need we say more?). Here in the Local History room, we decided to dig into some of our collections of cookbooks and menus to see if we could find some inspiration. The cookbooks that we have stretch back to the early 19th century and some of the recipes sound quite familiar, while others have fallen out of fashion. Typical items on a Thanksgiving menu included turkey or ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls, and pies. The first menu on the right from the book Recipes of Yesteryear, compiled by the Antique Study Club of Poughkeepsie, shows a pretty standard Thanksgiving in the early 20th century. Flipping through a cookbook from 1913 published by the Ladies Aid Society of the First Baptist Church of Poughkeepsie, we find how to properly roast a turkey and a recipe for Oyster Dressing (see right). Interested in trying something new (but actually old?). In our collection is the [...]