[Grace Episcopal Church (Ravenna, Ohio). King's Daughters]

Cook Book: Tried Recipes. Compiled and Edited by [the] King's Daughters, Grace Church, Ravenna, Ohio.

Ravenna, Ohio: Ravenna Republican Press, 1913.

Octavo (23 x 18 cm.), [viii], 241 pages. Includes index. Advertisements interspersed, in footers, and (for Knox Gelatine) in running headers. FIRST EDITION. A generous and ambitious recipe collection, described – unfairly – in April 1914 as "not particularly economical" in the Cleveland Public Library's acquisitions list. While it is true that the King's Daughters in Portage County evidently dabbled in "fancy cooking," the Nesselrode Pudding, Baked Alaska, and Boudin à la Reine appear alongside a fair number of entries on the order of Peanut Butter Sandwiches (the last appearing on the same page as Caviar Canapes). Economical solutions abound. Cottolene (a lard with cottonseed oil) is called for on at least a dozen occasions, and kornlet (canned green corn pulp) makes no fewer than six entrances. There are surprises scattered among roughly one thousand entries: Deviled Chestnuts, with cayenne and pickle; Stuffed Egg Plant, with English walnuts; a Raddish, Carrot, and Nut Salad, with olives; an Irish Moss Blanc-Mange; an Orange Cebolia (Cebolla?) Salad that apparently wandered in from Spain. And a mere sampling of the evidence for an Ohio preoccupation with fillings in a pastry shell: Lemon Maple Pie, Elderberry Pie, Rice Pie (with nut meats), Grape Pie, Rhubarb Date Pie, Pumpkin Raisin Pie, Sour Cream Pie, Apple Sauce Pie. ~ The Order of King's Daughters was founded in New York in 1886 by Margaret Bottome (1827-1906) as "a sisterhood of service" whose early members had Episcopal, Methodist, and Presbyterian affiliations. Within a decade it had become the International Order of King's Daughters and Sons with branches in twenty-six states and a dozen foreign countries. Individual chapters operated independently. The women of Grace Episcopal Church in Ravenna–still known locally as "the church with the red front doors"–raised funds not only by selling the Cook Book but also through sponsored sales of cooking equipment, if the advertisement on page 199 is any indication. Text block solid and pages clean and tight, save for several corrections to the text in ink. In slightly soiled and shelf-worn grey oilcloth with navy blue lettering. Very good to near fine. [OCLC locates three copies; also four copies of a second edition published in 1920; Brown 3831 lists the second edition; not in Cagle].

Price: $250.00