My Challenge When Cooking Vintage Recipes

There are a few ingredients that were LOVED long ago, that frankly I will not use. Since my journey into vintage recipes started, I have collected quite a few cook books as well as cooking pamphlets. I love the retro graphics and photos that occur in most of them, but I draw the line on some of the ingredients. For the most part I will NOT cook a recipe that contains the following or I will substitute it for something else. Red meat is a no-no in our house, so you won't see any of that here (Beef, Lamb or Pork). Well maybe every so often if I find some organic beef or pork, although my husband won't eat it regardless. I WILL try ground beef recipes and substitute ground turkey. Not exactly the same for sure but it might be tasty.

There was also an influence in the 40's and 50's to use convenience or prepared foods. This has always been a bit of a no-no for me as well. My husband and I like whole fresh food and think our bodies like it better as well. It will be a challenge for me to prepare some of these recipes to maintain their taste and feel and not compromise what they are~Vintage.

As I gander through the 1500 page Encyclodedia of Cooking I am already feeling challenged. We don't eat red meat or pork and try to cut down on too much fat in our diets. As I go page by page, it is becoming harder to find a recipe for dinner without one of these in it. Let's be frank. Dinner in the 1950's consisted of Meat~Potato (starch)~and Vegetable (canned or frozen). Even most of the pasta dishes contained meat of some sort. Oh look here, the chapter on chicken. Looks good.

My husband also loves dessert. When he was growing up, he tells me they always had dessert after every meal. This is SO foreign to me. We rarely had dessert as my mother was not a baker. Scott's mother was and from what I have heard, rather terrific at it. He still loves something sweet to have with his tea each night, so dessert will be a good choice for recipes.

So far the list includes:

Canned meat-Forget it. Never. Nope. Not in this lifetime for me. The thought of it turns my stomach yet it was so popular in many of the recipes.

Shortening-I don't use hydrogenated fat. If possible I will switch it out with butter or if I feel I MUST use shortening, I will use the newer non-hydrogenated.

MSG..Aka Accent-they loved it, but nope.

American Cheese-Sorry I am a snob. What IS that stuff anyway? Not real cheese in my opinion.

Canned Foods- Such as mushrooms~mine will be fresh. Soups~will be organic or home-made.

So as you see this might be challenging, but I am always up for a challenge. Stay tuned next week as I turn the heat up on the stove and do some cooking.