Tucked away in the manuscript collections housed in the Bridgeport Public Library Historical collections is a cookbook. Entitled “The Post-Telegram Prize Recipe Cookbook” and subtitled “a thousand and one good things to eat,” the orange covered cook book was written by our own Fairfield County residents.
In 1934, the Bridgeport Post-Telegram published a cookbook featuring prize recipes contributed by readers throughout Bridgeport and the neighboring communities. Many of the recipes in the collection reflected the psyche of the American public and the economics of the times. The recipes showed thrift and the lack of our modern day products.
The Great Depression,which covered the years of 1929 to the start of World War II, effected all of the households in Bridgeport. The Post-Telegram newspaper covered many of the effects of the Depression. The Post-Telegram also sponsored cooking classes for local women.
The classes were held at the Pyramid Mosque Temple, located on 1035 State Street. The cooking classes helped women learn some of the newest gadgets and cooking techniques. Many of the women were immigrants who did not know how to use the stove or other tools.
The result of this cooking school was a cookbook that boasted “A Thousand and One Good Things to Eat.” Recipes covered many ethnic groups now living in the city; a German baked dinner, Irish stew, and apple fritters, shepherd’s pie, southern fried chicken and suet pudding with sauce.
A recipe that would give heart doctors of today a scare was the one given by Adelaide L. Spall of Clarkson Place in Stratford. Adelaide gave her recipe for Pork Cake, a concoction which had as its first ingredient “one cup of salt pork, all fat.” That was mixed with vanilla, cinnamon, sugar eggs, and molasses, along with a variety of other ingredients.
Before the advent of our modern kitchens, recipes did not give exact temperatures, but rather gave instructions such as”bake in hot oven,” or “bake in moderate oven.”
I have not tried to make Adelaide’s pork cake, but if someone wants to try to make it…I can give you the recipe! And if you do make it, I also know the name of a great cardiologist!
–Mary K. Witkowski, Bridgeport City Historian
I recently purchased a lot of old cookbooks at an estate sale in Athens Ga. Among the books was the one published by The Bridgeport Sunday Post. I wish I had more information on the estate and how this book ended up in Ga. You are right, there are some interesting recipes.
Comment by Joy Jones — April 7th, 2010 @ 7:00 pm