Robin: I love browsing rummage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores. I don’t usually shop for anything in particular, and I often don’t buy anything at all, but occasionally I’ll come across something simple that I just love—another person’s cast-off that becomes my treasure.
Once in a great while that treasure will consist of someone’s vintage collection of recipes, whether in the form of a recipe box chock full of cards, an old cookbook stuffed with clipped newspaper recipes, or a photo album with recipes instead of pictures in the pockets.
Given that most people today don’t cook from scratch like so many of our mothers and grandmothers did, these items tend to be rather un-sought-after and usually sell for very little money. My heart twinges terribly to think of all the love and years that went into the assembly and care of such a recipe collection, just for it to be offered to strangers for cheap. So I buy it, tellling myself that at least these recipes will be looked through and loved for one last time before they fade into oblivion.
It makes me deliriously happy to be able to share a selection of my “rescued recipe” collection with you. Please keep in mind, though, that unless otherwise noted, I have not tried these recipes and can’t really give you any additional information about them. I don’t know who wrote them, where the recipes came from, or what book or magazine they might have appeared in. (If you own the copyright to any of these items, please let me know asap!) Any handwritten names (such as in the “From the kitchen of …” section on a card) have been obscured for privacy
Also, I’m unable to help decipher the handwriting on a particular card, tell you when or where it was written, or give information about the accuracy of an ingredient amount or the omission of a step. Basically, what you see here in the photographs is all I know, so please don’t contact me with questions about these things. Feel free to have lively discussions about all this amongst yourselves, however, and share the links to these pages with other people who might be interested! If you actually make one or more of the recipes, please do contact me with how that went; with your permission, I might even add your comments on the page next to the recipe.
Note: Also except where otherwise indicated, all images are my own, so please do not copy or use any of these photos/scans unless I grant you express permission in writing. Thank you!
Now choose a link below and get started on your culinary journey down memory lane! (Look for more categories in the coming weeks as I’m able to scan more wonderful vintage recipes.)
Latest update: 26 June 2024
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