Does anyone else love vintage "giveaway" cookbooks and pamphlets that food producers, soap companies, and other manufacturers of home or women's items used to distribute? I remember seeing these in the kitchen drawers and bookshelves of my grandmother and some of her friends and relatives. Prominently featuring everything from a certain brand of flour to yeast brands long since absorbed, or as a promotional giveaway with certain brands of soap, they were chock-full of recipes which ran the gamut from staple to disturbing.
I found this Fleischmann's cookbook on home-made, manual bread baking at a library booksale; if I've read the "5-48" in the back cover notes correctly, it dates from May, 1948!
My early introduction to this genre was through a small Dell paperback entitled, "One Pot Cooking", which my grandmother received with a Dove soap bar purchase; as soon as I could read the title, it resonated with me on a soul level. I am now an unabashedly proud one-pot gourmand (well, as much as the sanctity of the recipe permits!). I wish I hadn't thrown it out, what an interesting re-read that would have been..
Do you have any favorite giveaway pamphelts and/or cookbooks that you are looking for or simply cannot live without?
