Do your cookbooks go "out of date"?

Onionman

Onionman

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I was flicking through some old boxes recently and I fell upon a collection of old recipes that I had saved during the 1990s. I really don't know why I saved them without trying any of them out. But when I looked through one or two of them I noticed that some of them seemed a bit dated - a few of them were a bit too heavy for my tastes, laden with lots of dairy as well.

Are there any recipes that you've collected or cookbooks that you have that feel a bit out of date now?
 
what comes around goes around,retro food and interest in it is at a all time high,some of favourite recipe books are over 50 years old
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
and yet the stuff from WWII is now exactly what people should be eating again and the recipes are low calorie, low dairy, low sugar, and healthy!
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i was talking to a old chap last week he said they ate like kings during the war as he live in the country and had a large garden kept a pig ,trapped game and shot edible birds ,foraged ,and then scrounged sweets from the American service men waiting for the off ,food was simple and nourishing,with no additives ,healthy ,i love reading about war time meals and life style,it seemed easier in some ways
 
What's out of date? It just means older recipes. Recipes just mean copied data. It's not like the foot is outdated itself, so the recipe itself will always shine through. Even if it's not consumed/still being made, making old recipes can sometimes liven up a dead taste palette.
 
I have my grandmother's recipe box. Stuff she made for me and my father while we were both kids. I cherish her recipes because of my childhood, I fondly remember the feasts she would cook in the kitchen all day. There was so much stuff we had to set up extra tables. Even then, you could eat until you were stuffed. And then rest happily.

I think those memories help the cause, but they are not the sole reason. I just wouldn't want to lose these 'older' recipes to newer ones. Sure, newer twists can spice up life and as they say, variety is the spice of it - but the old recipes sometimes just can't be beat!
 
Berties said:
i was talking to a old chap last week he said they ate like kings during the war as he live in the country and had a large garden kept a pig ,trapped game and shot edible birds ,foraged ,and then scrounged sweets from the American service men waiting for the off ,food was simple and nourishing,with no additives ,healthy ,i love reading about war time meals and life style,it seemed easier in some ways
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Sady the vast majority of people did NOT have large gardens, could NOT shoot birds, all pig keeping was monitored by the war ags and in bomb damaged cities there was very little to forage [trips out into the country were limited to say the least]. I agree the actual diet was healthier BUT I suspect either your friend was wealthier than he let on or was remembering through very thick rose tints.
As to the OP there are two things I would say here
1 - far more people had manual jobs only a few years back and could burn off calories with no trouble [ indeed in many cases they needed them]
2 - As mentioned above it is often fashion that changes - not food. Often now people look at rose wine as some sort of joke but actually it is simply a pleasant drink with no pretensions about being 'vintage'.
As I have said before eat the food you ENJOY not what someone tells you is 'correct'.
 
sidevalve said:
Sady the vast majority of people did NOT have large gardens, could NOT shoot birds, all pig keeping was monitored by the war ags and in bomb damaged cities there was very little to forage [trips out into the country were limited to say the least]. I agree the actual diet was healthier BUT I suspect either your friend was wealthier than he let on or was remembering through very thick rose tints.
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I think it was very different for people who lived in the country and could forage and grow things. My parents were in a city and from what I can gather, the food situation was pretty bleak.It may well have been a lot healthier... but but was very bland for the most part. As I understand it, it was the war which was responsible for Britain's poor reputation in the culinary world compared to say, France. But that's all changed now! There really has been a food revolution in the UK which I've personally witnessed in my lifetime.

I don't think its entirely a matter of fashion. Recipes have evolved to include a much wider range of ingredients, some of which were not readily available in the past. Recipes have also evolved as a result of our multi-cultural heritage. The majority of UK citizens today will have eaten (and many regularly eat) some kind of 'ethnic' food such as Chinese, Indian or Italian. This wouldn't have been the case sixty years ago.
 
sidevalve said:
Sady the vast majority of people did NOT have large gardens, could NOT shoot birds, all pig keeping was monitored by the war ags and in bomb damaged cities there was very little to forage [trips out into the country were limited to say the least]. I agree the actual diet was healthier BUT I suspect either your friend was wealthier than he let on or was remembering through very thick rose tints.
As to the OP there are two things I would say here
1 - far more people had manual jobs only a few years back and could burn off calories with no trouble [ indeed in many cases they needed them]
2 - As mentioned above it is often fashion that changes - not food. Often now people look at rose wine as some sort of joke but actually it is simply a pleasant drink with no pretensions about being 'vintage'.
As I have said before eat the food you ENJOY not what someone tells you is 'correct'.
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My family saw both sides of the rationing situation , my grand father was in a town and food was hard yo come by after the ration , he was I a position of making parts for the war effort , but they got by with allotments and the out side privy made a good piggery , or a few chickens, and my father in law , lived in the middle of no where and had a good life
What intrigues me could we live with that extreme of rationing today, how many people have the skills ?
 
Berties said:
What intrigues me could we live with that extreme of rationing today, how many people have the skills ?
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Ther are a surprising number out there who would have trouble heating up a can of baked beans [and not just boys / men either - not a sexist thing just a statement that 'mummy' often spoils her little boy]]. It is a sad world.
I also believe that there has been a food revolution in most countries - mainly I suspect due to the increase in travel. Howeve I do think that in Britain we tend to forget that their ARE many good homegrown dishes that are often overshadowed by overseas exotica and fashion.
 
Berties said:
What intrigues me could we live with that extreme of rationing today, how many people have the skills ?
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There was a programme on UK TV recently "Back in Time for Dinner', where an 'average' family went back in time, starting in the 50's when rationing was in place. They then advanced by the decade. They found the 50's particularly difficult... it has your fave presenter, Berties!
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/18/back-in-time-for-dinner-tv-review-1950s-kitchen
 
Never saw that series before since I live in the US and I admittedly don't watch a lot of foreign television programs. But they had it pretty spot on.
 
I would never say that an old cookbook is out of date. I have some of my mother's old cookbooks and recipes and aside from a heavy reliance on canned cream of mushroom soup, the recipes are certainly viable today. It depends on where each individual stands on the latest trends.

In my mother's house I rarely, if ever, had fresh vegetables. She relied on canned and frozen vegetables because they were the newest trend and very fashionable at the time. People were thrilled with the new processed convenience foods in the '50s. Now the trend is for fresh and sustainable and gluten-free everything. Don't get me wrong, I prefer fresh over canned, but my mother went through the depression and WWII where food of any kind was rationed and scarce. We didn't suffer like you folks in the UK did, but we did have shortages. Being able to open some cans and have dinner was miraculous for those folks.

It's a shame that some of the younger generations have seem to lost the interest in cooking and rely on fast food. I raised my daughter at my hip, stirring pots whilst I chopped and now at 33 she loves to cook. She lives in California, so I don't know how much she relies on boxed mixes, but I like to think I had an influence on her food choices. As Shimus stated, the food is not outdated, but in my opinion, our perception of it has changed. We have so many more choices now.
 
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