[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, Colo. [The Church, between 1931 and 1933].

Octavo (20 x 14 cm.), 84 pages. Advertisements. “Index” is actually a table of contents. Title from cover. Date of publication determined from external evidence. ~ Evident FIRST EDITION. An attractive if modest church cookbook from El Paso County, from a congregation that had formed – in 1872 – before the name Colorado Springs became attached to it. More than five hundred short attributed recipes, gathered almost certainly under austere, if not desperate circumstances. Not altogether unusually, economy surfaces as a matter to be addressed: 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 are surprises, too (entries for Turkish Mousaka, Black Walnut Pie, and Watermelon Relish deserve notice), and for those with the means, an abundant selection of cakes, puddings, custards, and ices. At least four recipes alert readers to the necessity of an “electric refrigerator” or “frigidaire” for successful preparation. ~ Advertisements supply the span of dates for likely publication: that for General Foods products (page [44]) bears the copyright date 1931; that for Ball Brothers Jars (page 74) depicts a label introduced in 1933. ~ 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. ~ Lacks the Swan's Down color advertising insert, which would appear as pages 37-38. Internally clean and sound. In publisher’s green wrappers, titled in black; two closed tears to wrapper at spine; faint staining and slight crease to front fore-corner. Very good. Scarce. [OCLC locates three copies; not in Brown or Cagle].

Price: $75.00