itchen
itchen
A recent comment from Bryan made me realize that cooking a recipe is only one part of my food related interest. Other aspects of this interest include my collection of recipes, cookbooks, and food and kitchen related books. There are also the tools and equipment and the gadgets and gizmos. I enjoy food preparation including prepping food for recipes, for storing in the freezer, for juicing and for other uses. I even enjoy washing dishes while staring out the window watching the clouds and the birds.
My favorite places to shop are the local restaurant supply store and any store that specializes in kitchen items. Some old style hardware stores used to have a good kitchenware section. I have purchased several items in hardware stores including some cast aluminum Magnalite baking pans that I still use. I have also found some great kitchen items in thrift stores. Some of these, like a Revere ware stock pot are brand new, probably gifts that were never used.
I started seriously digitizing family recipes,
pictures and other materials around 2002. I had decided to add p
ictures, recipes written by family members and other images to the
2003 edition of the family recipe book. Among other things, I scanned
recipe cards, parts of various books and photos.
To document and keep track of everything has been another part of my ongoing food and cooking hobby. I have documents and spreadsheets related to the creation, organization and structure of the Family Recipe Book. I have created a whole set of documents to store the recipes picked up from internet sources. The documents are created for various types of food such as appetizers, vegetables, and shellfish. I can write these documents to PDF which makes them accessible on my tablet and for use in other ways. I have created spreadsheets for the recipes so I can keep track and sort things according to various criteria.
The highlight of my documentation process has been
the creation of the
Leipper Family Recipe book. This project started with an
off-hand comment from Mother. With Bryan’s support and technical
expertise, we created the first “edition” in 1983 as a Christmas
present to family. Other editions followed. The last print 
edition
was motivated by Janet Smith. She requested a copy as a wedding
present for her daughter, Brittany in 2003. This edition included
pictures and other materials that I had been scanning and preserving.
I have made a PDF
copy by chapters of this edition of the book. I have imported the
original text into html documents. I have also created a website
using the 2003 edition as the basis and have augmented that with
additional materials. This is an ongoing project. The link above goes
to the web based version of the family recipe book.
I not only have my own recipe books and recipe collections, I have inherited, the collections of my mother and both grandmothers as well as some from other relatives. I have over 350 books on recipes and food preparation, cooking, home management and related topics. In addition, I have a lot of brochures, pamphlets, recipe cards and other such documents. My Mom often bought cookbooks as souvenirs from various places she traveled. The earliest book in the collection dates from the late 1800’s. The most recent is The Food Lab written by J. Kenji López-Alt in 2015.
I have picked up books from internet sources such as the Gutenberg Project including one from 1881 titled Culture and Cooking or Art in the Kitchen. Another is from 1840 titled Miss Lesley Cookery. I have newer ones such as a book titled Spice Histories for Grocers and another titled All About Apples. I have also browsed Kindle recipe booklets and picked up recipes from Scwhans and other sources.
This link goes to some samples of the recipe books in my collection
A s with cookbooks and recipe collections, I have
inherited kitchen tools and equipment from family in a
ddition to what I have of my own. In regards to my own purchases, I
realized early on that having good quality equipment that is geared
for the job it needs to do greatly enhances the enjoyment of
“playing” in the kitchen. To me, good tools and equipment are an
investment. They pay for themselves over time and use.
Probably my biggest investment was in the early 1980’s when I purchased a set of Wearever Cookware and Cutco knives. This came about from Anita and I visiting the Nevada State Fair and stopping by the Wear-Ever booth display. This was a very expensive purchase for me at the time and I had to pay it off in installments. It was worth the effort though as I still use the cookware and knives over 40 years later.
One of the things I inherited from my Grandmother Harrison was her cast aluminum Guardian Service Cookware. She had passed it on to my Mother. Grandma’s Guardian Service is post WWII as indicated by the glass lids. Prior to WWII the lids were metal. This is great cookware and I still use it today.
The cast iron cookware that I have is again, from various family members as well as some that I have purchased over the years. It is still the best cookware for certain jobs.
I still have and use the electric roasting pan Mother bought in the early 1960’s. I have another heavy aluminum pot that Mother used for just about everything. Tupperware used to be the greatest thing for preparing, storing, and serving food. Between my Mother and I and a few contributions from other family, I have a pretty good collection of Tupperware of all shapes and sizes and purposes. Some of it goes back to the 1960’s. Then there are the cooking utensils, wooden spoons, bowls, crock pots, and a host of other things that have been used by family over the years.
Spatulas have got to be one of my favorite
gadgets. Other than fingers, these are the best tool for scraping
every last 
bit
out of bowls and other containers. Over the years I have gotten and
used a variety of different types of spatulas.
At one point in her life, a cousin really got into cooking and baking. She had all sorts of tools and gadgets. When she changed her eating habits, she got rid of the majority of her collected kitchen items including a lot of cookbooks. Most of these came to my Mother and then to me.
I have a lot of duplicates, especially gadgets. When Mother would run across something she thought I would like, she would buy one for herself and one for me. I often did the same thing. I have kept most duplicates as I have found it is usually helpful to have more than one, especially since they were already in the family stuff I inherited.
A
s with many things, kitchen gadgets have changed over the years. Can
openers go from a simple tool that you had to punch and move around
the can to hand cranked can openers to battery operated openers that
work without your hands touching the device. The same evolution
applies to a host of other kitchen gadgets. Using my own collection,
there are several items I could probably run a time line from early
models through more current models.
Newer tools and gadgets have been added to the inventory in recent years include a vacuum food sealer, an electric jar opener, an electric citrus juicer, an electric and a battery operated can openers, and a mini food processor. In 2019 I purchased a small counter-top oven. I wanted something I could use for small batch baking so I didn’t have to use my big oven. This counter-top oven has been a very useful addition.
I have found it interesting in scanning through my
books to see the changes and evolution of cooking 
utensils,
cooking methods, ingredients, and food preferences. You can see the
changes refrigeration made, both in being able to transport foods not
locally available and also in home refrigeration. Canned goods also
made it possible to expand the variety of foods available. Canned
goods overcame a lot of the seasonal availability issues of certain
foods. More modern farming techniques and transportation systems have
greatly expanded the types and varieties of food available
essentially on a global scale. We’ve gone from cooking on open
fires and wood burning stoves to microwaves and induction cook tops.
Many of the earlier techniques and recipes that were a matter of
necessity and the only option, we can now indulge in for fun and
nostalgia.
Like many things there are trends and fads related to cooking. I have tried several things when they were the latest and greatest. Some went by the wayside. Others I still use. When I was in college in the 1960’s, electric frying pans were a “must have” item. Between my electric frying pan and electric popcorn popper I could cook just about anything in my dorm room. For example, I made brownies and grilled cheese sandwiches in the frying pan and soup and hot chocolate in the popcorn popper. I think it was the 1980’s when crock pots were the newest fad. I still have mine and also my Mother’s. Microwave ovens hit the market in the 1980’s although they didn’t come into widespread use till the 1990’s. It took me a while to realize that there were some advantages to using a microwave oven. I am now on my 3rd or 4th microwave. Now in the 2000’s it seems induction cooking is one of the latest trends. Induction cooking requires special cookware so I have no plans to try it out.
O
ne of my favorite memories was visiting friends in New Mexico in the
early 1970’s. They had a Great Majestic wood burning stove. It was
a beautiful stove that has ship medallions on the back that folded
down so you could set your coffee pot on one to keep the coffee warm.
I used to build up the fire in the morning and put on a pot of beans
to simmer for several hours. I really liked that stove!
Another interesting kitchen I had was when I lived in Verdi, NV in the mid 1970’s. I was renting a section of the old Donner Trails Guest Ranch. None of the units had been lived in for a while. One of the bathrooms in the space I rented was converted into a “kitchen”. All it had was a stove and a sink. I used to put anything I wanted to keep cool in the north facing window. Sometimes I put stuff in the natural spring in the back. Horses were pastured out there so the spring wasn’t always a safe place. Eventually I got a used refrigerator that worked just fine.
It has been a little disconcerting to discover that some of the kitchen stuff that I bought new is now in the vintage category. Some things are no longer manufactured. Some companies have been sold and even resold and original products either discontinued or reinvented. The particular model of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer is one of the products that is considered vintage. The original Maganlite like mine has morphed into something new.
I n the last 10+ years my job has been to deal
with family belongings including kitchen stuff. I have
donated boxes of kitchen items and dishware to a local thrift shop. I
have used Craig’s list to sell or offer various items for free. I
gave all my canning equipment and boxes of jars and lids to a friend.
I gave several cast iron pots to another friend. Some items were sold
by an Auction company. Other items have been dispersed in other ways.
Despite that, it seems I have barely made a dent in the inventory.
For the time being, I just enjoy what I have and little by little as
the appropriate situations come up, I’ll keep dispersing things.