Mary A. Wilson

Readers can appreciate Modern Cooking: Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions on two levels: as a commentary on its time and as a cookbook. It succeeds on both levels.

Mrs. Mary A. Wilson, for so she styled herself, was a cooking-school instructor, a cookbook author and a leader in the home economics movement, a movement to decree that what women did was important — as important as what the breadwinner husband did. After all, did she not bring up the children to be future show more citizens? Did her decisions not impact on the children’s health and intelligence? Added together, were not these educated women not changing the world?

As you can see, home economics began as a not-too-threatening way to urge the education of women and their treatment as full human beings.
You can see it from the cookbook’s preface, where Wilson urges “scientific cooking” in its very first paragraph: “The influence of well-cooked, palatable food upon the health and general well-being of the family is as that of chances of temperature and more serious in its consequences of lasting good or ill.”

Later Wilson states: “Scientific cooking means the elimination of waste, the preservation of edible resources and conservation of their potential energy through the preparation of attractive, vitalizing food with minimum cost and labor, thus providing in wide, deep measure, for harmony, personal comfort and domestic peace.” See? Educated women save the family money in the long run and provide a smooth, happy household!

Now, you might think that the “present economic conditions” of the title might refer to the Great Depression, but it was first released in 1920. The fact that it’s still in print shows the voluminous cookbook’s usefulness to the 21st century cook. Sure, this 580-page cookbook contains recipes using sour milk, meringues made of one egg white and apple jelly, macaroni to make “cutlets,” cheese to make “cutlets” and rhubarb for a cocktail. Modern cooks would also take a pass on such recipes titled “Just a Pig’s Head and Set of Feet,” “Baby Lima Bean Croquettes” and “Live Dumplings,” I’m pretty sure. That said, there’s plenty of great recipes any cook would love. show less

A Complete Collection of Original Recipes and Useful Household Information. Illustrated. 2nd ed. 1st 1914. 1860 -1924. Earlier work pseudonym Mollie Huggins, 1897, Tried & True. Tennessee Model Household Guide. Nashville, see entry & Good things to Eat, 1909.

Excellent condition.