This is my most beloved cookbook of all time. There's a lovely squiggles inscription from my then 2 year old son, and we cooked out of this for many many years. Moosewood too. But this one, was a treasure. She cut up oranges for her husband to pack in his lunch! She also made zucchini crusted pizza which my kids loved, and taught me how to think about alternative protein back in the early 80s when I was delving into such things as a 20 something, and this is where I first learned about Chillaquilles which my kids also adored. Sadly, I have lost this book ... it must be in a box somewhere. None of my kids have it and I would NEVER had given it away but I can't find it. To this day I think about it and am trying to recall it ...
On this side of the pond we had the arrival of the Moosewood cookbook. The original edition was similar in that it had no glossy photographs but focused on healthy and nutritious vegetarian fare based on the collective of local "chefs" who ran the vegetarian restaurant the Moosewood in Ithaca, NY (still in operation). It inspired more than one generation of vegans in the kitchen here.
This book was essential for my friends and I, young girls who were looking for a way forward back in the 80s when nobody we knew thought vegetarianism was sustainable. “It’s just a phase,” our mothers said. “If you want to eat that way, you will cook for yourselves.” So, we did. We got our mothers to drive us to the hippy store and we bought Laurel’s Kitchen. The housewifey stuff went in one ear and out the other, in most of our cases. We just took what we needed from it and ignored the rest. I stuck with the book for about eight years, until I transitioned to veganism which was only possible because I already knew how to cook so well by then, and also because I was so adept at ignoring the constant stream of negativity from others about my food choices (which were none of their business). It’s hard sometimes to be the one who breaks ingrained generational food patterns, but I did it with the help of this book. My offspring grew up eating much differently than I did.
In a similar vein, I still have my dog-eared copies of Diet for.a Small Planet and Recipes for a Small Planet, that I cooked from all the time in Canada in the 1970s. So many garbanzo beans! (I used to fly Laker as well.)
What a trip down memory lane! I grew up in the 80s in California, and this was my mom's favourite cookbook. She very much raised us in the atmosphere of children playing around her feet while she baked cookies. We weren't strict vegetarians, but we mostly were, and relied heavily on produce from our big backyard garden. Laurel's philosophy dovetailed perfectly with my parents' Mormon ideology about women in the home. My mom actually put her own cookbook together a few years ago, and her introduction (heavy on the virtues of "homemaking") was the spiritual successor to Laurel's. The whole thing was pretty idyllic, I guess, right up until I almost drove myself insane trying to replicate it as a young mom, before finally exiting Mormonism and its view of womanhood. I still own several of the associated cookbooks, but the only thing I regularly cook out of Laurel's Kitchen is the (excellent) apple crisp.
Oh how lovely! I know that recipe too, we call it apple crumble over here. Thank you for letting me know. I have treasured the book, but the message never stuck with me.
This is great, Sarah - and what lovely illustrations! But I feel similarly wary about those cooking/ traditional/ heart of the home tropes, in how women are expected to provide all that. Just re-reading The Victorian House by Judith Flanders and amused by how Mrs Panton's advice book suggested the 'sensible woman' wouldn't bother her husband with ‘petty domestic troubles and annoyances.’ Even to admit you had trouble with your cook was a failing in those days!
Laurel's Kitchen, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and the Tassajara Kitchen were mainstays for me back in the 1980s, and extremely popular with my children who were all mesmerised by the description of Laurel's husband's packed lunches (& fully aware of the extremely problematic division of labour in Laurel's kitchen!)
Enjoyed this so much! We need to eat better but has to be tackled a different way. Eating well, and having the time and money to do so, is so often a status symbol.
My parents both enjoyed boiled ox tongue. I did not. Those were the days (in the 60s) when one ate what was put on the plate, or one sat with said plate until one could bear to force the contents down one’s throat. The massive tongue would simply be boiled in water and then plonked on an oval serving dish. Covered in pimples and prickles and with its gristly connecting parts writhing about at one end as the grey boiling water pooled around it. It smelled horrible.
Watching my father cutting it in thin slices my own tongue would cringe and shrivel behind my clamped lips. It still does exactly that at the very thought.
The hideous slices would be served with boiled potatoes and a thin sauce made from some of the grey cooking water and some flour. No dismembered tongues have passed my lips since I left home (though a few still attached to their owners may have done so, a very long time ago 😉).
I thoroughly endorse the swilling of gin though, generally accompanied by a respectful murmur of …”blessed are the pure in spirit”…
Love it but have to agree irony was never a strong suit when it comes to the reception of complicated messages like this! I suspect the house wife always was and will be some sort of fantasy figure. Incidentally I made a loaf of bread today.
This is my most beloved cookbook of all time. There's a lovely squiggles inscription from my then 2 year old son, and we cooked out of this for many many years. Moosewood too. But this one, was a treasure. She cut up oranges for her husband to pack in his lunch! She also made zucchini crusted pizza which my kids loved, and taught me how to think about alternative protein back in the early 80s when I was delving into such things as a 20 something, and this is where I first learned about Chillaquilles which my kids also adored. Sadly, I have lost this book ... it must be in a box somewhere. None of my kids have it and I would NEVER had given it away but I can't find it. To this day I think about it and am trying to recall it ...
On this side of the pond we had the arrival of the Moosewood cookbook. The original edition was similar in that it had no glossy photographs but focused on healthy and nutritious vegetarian fare based on the collective of local "chefs" who ran the vegetarian restaurant the Moosewood in Ithaca, NY (still in operation). It inspired more than one generation of vegans in the kitchen here.
This book was essential for my friends and I, young girls who were looking for a way forward back in the 80s when nobody we knew thought vegetarianism was sustainable. “It’s just a phase,” our mothers said. “If you want to eat that way, you will cook for yourselves.” So, we did. We got our mothers to drive us to the hippy store and we bought Laurel’s Kitchen. The housewifey stuff went in one ear and out the other, in most of our cases. We just took what we needed from it and ignored the rest. I stuck with the book for about eight years, until I transitioned to veganism which was only possible because I already knew how to cook so well by then, and also because I was so adept at ignoring the constant stream of negativity from others about my food choices (which were none of their business). It’s hard sometimes to be the one who breaks ingrained generational food patterns, but I did it with the help of this book. My offspring grew up eating much differently than I did.
In a similar vein, I still have my dog-eared copies of Diet for.a Small Planet and Recipes for a Small Planet, that I cooked from all the time in Canada in the 1970s. So many garbanzo beans! (I used to fly Laker as well.)
What a trip down memory lane! I grew up in the 80s in California, and this was my mom's favourite cookbook. She very much raised us in the atmosphere of children playing around her feet while she baked cookies. We weren't strict vegetarians, but we mostly were, and relied heavily on produce from our big backyard garden. Laurel's philosophy dovetailed perfectly with my parents' Mormon ideology about women in the home. My mom actually put her own cookbook together a few years ago, and her introduction (heavy on the virtues of "homemaking") was the spiritual successor to Laurel's. The whole thing was pretty idyllic, I guess, right up until I almost drove myself insane trying to replicate it as a young mom, before finally exiting Mormonism and its view of womanhood. I still own several of the associated cookbooks, but the only thing I regularly cook out of Laurel's Kitchen is the (excellent) apple crisp.
Oh how lovely! I know that recipe too, we call it apple crumble over here. Thank you for letting me know. I have treasured the book, but the message never stuck with me.
This is great, Sarah - and what lovely illustrations! But I feel similarly wary about those cooking/ traditional/ heart of the home tropes, in how women are expected to provide all that. Just re-reading The Victorian House by Judith Flanders and amused by how Mrs Panton's advice book suggested the 'sensible woman' wouldn't bother her husband with ‘petty domestic troubles and annoyances.’ Even to admit you had trouble with your cook was a failing in those days!
Laurel's Kitchen, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and the Tassajara Kitchen were mainstays for me back in the 1980s, and extremely popular with my children who were all mesmerised by the description of Laurel's husband's packed lunches (& fully aware of the extremely problematic division of labour in Laurel's kitchen!)
Enjoyed this so much! We need to eat better but has to be tackled a different way. Eating well, and having the time and money to do so, is so often a status symbol.
Agreed. I wish they still taught kids to cook at school, boys as well as girls. And thank you for the restack, greatly appreciated!
Amazing essay. I went from laughing out loud (the tongue) to feeling chilled (the tradwife movement).
Would love to send you an essay from my edited collection, Eating in Eden. Laurel’s Kitchen is featured in it. ❤️
Will DM my email address!
I believe I still have it!! Now, to find a moment for this task. . . .
My parents both enjoyed boiled ox tongue. I did not. Those were the days (in the 60s) when one ate what was put on the plate, or one sat with said plate until one could bear to force the contents down one’s throat. The massive tongue would simply be boiled in water and then plonked on an oval serving dish. Covered in pimples and prickles and with its gristly connecting parts writhing about at one end as the grey boiling water pooled around it. It smelled horrible.
Watching my father cutting it in thin slices my own tongue would cringe and shrivel behind my clamped lips. It still does exactly that at the very thought.
The hideous slices would be served with boiled potatoes and a thin sauce made from some of the grey cooking water and some flour. No dismembered tongues have passed my lips since I left home (though a few still attached to their owners may have done so, a very long time ago 😉).
I thoroughly endorse the swilling of gin though, generally accompanied by a respectful murmur of …”blessed are the pure in spirit”…
How fascinating! I know and have baked from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, but I didn't know about the orginal - or the backstory.
I was a bit worried when her friend described her as a perfect Vermeer woman...
It's funny isn't it, that both the radical left and the far right are so fond of sending the women back to the kitchen!
The famous common ground…
Fascinating, Sarah. I wonder whether Jolene Handy of @timetravelkitchen Substack has come across this book.
Love it but have to agree irony was never a strong suit when it comes to the reception of complicated messages like this! I suspect the house wife always was and will be some sort of fantasy figure. Incidentally I made a loaf of bread today.
This is one of my favorite cookbooks! I'm all in for a Laurel revival!