The Dish Calendar
A dish for every day of 1908 — find today's, or look up your birthday dinner.
From 365 Dishes of All Nations, 1908
Special Features
The toys we couldn't resist building: oracles, daily readings, dinner wheels, telegrams and other machinery made from old books.
The World Map of Dishes
Every nation in the 1908 book, mapped — see how the Edwardians ate their way around the globe.
From 365 Dishes of All Nations, 1908
The Uninvited Guest
A grand dinner for every Sunday of the year — and the odd corners of a year spent feeding the family. The pick here, each linking to its menu.
From 52 Sunday Dinners, 1913
1915 Kitchen Converter
Translate 1915 kitchen measures into modern cups and teaspoons.
From 52 Sunday Dinners, 1913
The Midnight Menu
Clarence Edwords’s 1914 tour of San Francisco’s restaurants and characters is full of things you won’t find on a menu. The strangest here, each linking to its chapter.
From Bohemian San Francisco, 1914
A Night in Old Bohemia
Build an evening from the book's real restaurants and dishes — Coppa's to the Cliff House — and send the itinerary card to your dinner companion.
From Bohemian San Francisco, 1914
Ask the Bon Vivant
Ask where (or how) to dine and the 1914 book answers in period style.
From Bohemian San Francisco, 1914
The Back of the Cupboard
The 1877 housekeeping bible fed the Midwest — and its shelves held remedies, warnings and household chemistry as strange as any recipe. The oddest here, each linking to its page.
From Buckeye Cookery, 1877
Kitchen Converter
Pecks, gills and butter the size of a walnut, turned into modern measures.
From Buckeye Cookery, 1877
Sealed and Forgotten
Putting-up knowledge from 1914 — and the stranger corners of a summer spent turning fruit into a winter’s worth of jars. The oddest here, each linking to its page.
From Canning, Preserving and Jelly Making, 1914
Kitchen Converter
Old preserving measures — gills, pecks, pounds of fruit — in modern terms.
From Canning, Preserving and Jelly Making, 1914
The 1912 Kitchen Converter
Gills, teacups and butter the size of an egg — Cassell’s measures in modern cups.
From Cassell’s New Dictionary of Cookery, 1912
All Recipes A–Z
Every recipe in the dictionary, Aberdeen Crullas to Zwiebach, in one alphabetical index.
From Cassell’s New Dictionary of Cookery, 1912
The Green Room Pantry
The biggest names of 1908 gave up their personal recipes — and their kitchens were as theatrical as their stages. The strangest here, each linking to its page.
From Celebrated Actor-Folks' Cookeries, 1908
Which Star Are You?
Six questions to find out which celebrated actor-folk of 1916 you cook (and live) like.
From Celebrated Actor-Folks' Cookeries, 1908
The Dinner Wheel
Let a 1904 Creole cookbook decide tonight's dinner. Spin, accept your fate, cook.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
Send a Creole Dinner Invitation
Compose a 1904 menu and send a friend a proper Creole dinner invitation.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
The Old Measures, Converted
Gills, wineglassfuls and butter the size of an egg — the 1904 kitchen decoder, with modern equivalents.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
Plat du Jour
Today's recipe from the 1904 Creole kitchen, fresh every day.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
Songs & Pictures
The plantation songs and pictures printed with the 1904 book.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
The Lagniappe
Songs, proverbs, and the strange corners of a Creole kitchen — the little something extra.
From Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904
The 1879 Kitchen Converter
Translate old Virginia measures into modern cups and teaspoons.
From Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879
Weird & Unusual Recipes
The 1906 kitchen cooked things no modern table would recognize. The strangest dishes in the book, each linking to its recipe.
From The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906
1906 Kitchen Converter
Gills, teacups and butter the size of an egg — translate 1906 measures into modern cups.
From The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906
The Mountain Receipts
A 1905 mountain-resort community cookbook, full of the odd, the regional, and the improbable. The pick here, each linking to its page.
From The Catskill Cook Book, 1905
The Church Supper Planner
Assemble a supper from the village's own signed receipts — soup to Snow Pudding — and share the menu card, 1911 style.
From The Catskill Cook Book, 1905
The 1896 Kitchen Converter
Translate Oscar's Gilded Age measures — gills, teacups and wineglasses — into modern cups.
From The Cook Book by “Oscar” of the Waldorf, 1896
The Astonishing Table
Ranhofer’s treatise on Delmonico’s occasionally stops being a cookbook and becomes a cabinet of marvels. The showpieces here, plus forty more ranked oddities — each linking to the recipe or chapter it came from.
From The Epicurean, 1894
The Curiosity Counter
A 1911 grocery stocked a great deal more than groceries: muskrats under other names, pickled unicorn plant, Holy Ghost wine. The strangest finds here, plus forty more ranked oddities — each linking to its entry.
From The Grocer's Encyclopedia, 1911
The 1906 Kitchen Converter
Delmonico's measures decoded — gills, wineglasses and butter the size of an egg.
From The International Cook Book, 1906