[First Presbyterian Church (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Women's Society]

Choice Recipes. [Compiled by the] Women's Society, First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colorado Springs: [The church, between 1931 and 1933].

Octavo (20 x 14 cm.), 84 pages. Advertisements. "Index" is actually a table of contents. Cover title. Publication date surmised from advertisements for Swans Down Flour and Walter Baker Chocolate (both 1931) and Ball Brothers Jars (item depicted 1933). FIRST EDITION. A somewhat rustic memento of a trying time in El Paso County, from a congregation that was already forming before the name Colorado Springs had been chosen (1872). A Lima Bean Loaf promises to serve twelve, a Boston Roast appears as a "meat substitute" (with navy beans), and a Mock Chicken will suffice for "about 15 people". There is, too, an abundance of cakes, puddings, pies, custards, and ices for those with the means–and at least four recipes that alert readers to the necessity of an "electric refrigerator" or "frigidaire" for cold dishes. More than five hundred very short attributed recipes, gathered in a church collection that almost certainly was compiled under austere, if not desperate circumstances. It is recorded in the ledgers of the First Presbyterian Church that, in 1932, the Great Depression had found accounts in arrears, and some families of the congregation so bereft that children could not attend school for want of shoes. In the same year, women were called for the first time to leadership positions on the Board of Deacons. Little wonder, then, that a new Women's Society enacted a fund-raiser at the very moment when the sale of a cookbook might raise between a quarter and half a dollar, roughly the early Depression-era price for a child's pair of shoes. Shelfworn; stapled in faded green wrappers with black lettering; spine partially perished and corners chipped. Several pages splatter-stained, and a few markings in pencil. Good or a bit better. Scarce. [OCLC locates three copies; in neither Brown nor Cagle].

Price: $45.00