Old favorites keeping up with the times

Of the thousands of cookbooks published each year, only a few have staying power.

Among them are multiedition corporate cookbooks from such enduring brands as Good Housekeeping, Betty Crocker and Better Homes & Gardens, which have all released updated versions in the past few years, the latest of which is the “Better Homes & Gardens 100th Anniversary New Cook Book.”

These are handed down for generations, with recipes that reflect a slice of American home-cooking history and its evolution over more than a century. Before Amelia Simmons wrote what is considered to be the first American cookbook, “American Cookery,” in 1796, cooks in the United States had access to only European cookbooks.

“In the late 19th century, you start to get these American kitchen bibles that were larger than one person’s voice,” food historian Laura Shapiro said. “These were, above all, teaching cookbooks. They were educational (and) were supposed to lead you right from the first step of your life in the kitchen. The first one that you could call ‘corporate’ was the ‘Fannie Farmer Cookbook’ (originally called ‘The Boston CookingSchool Cookbook’) back in 1896.”

These huge books peaked during the 20th century. The “Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook” was published in 1903, with recipes described as “the meals granny used to make,” including buttermilk biscuits and meatloaf. “Better Homes & Gardens” and “The Joy of Cooking” published their first editions in 1930 and 1931, respectively, followed by “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook” in 1950. (The original Better Homes & Gardens cookbook was released 93 years ago, but because its 10-cent, 56-page recipe pamphlets began a century ago, the latest book celebrates 100 years of recipe publishing.)

Recipes, simple techniques

Technological advances, such as access to running water, packaged food, and gas and electric stoves, revolutionized home cooking. As American women became more mobile, many moved away from their mothers and grandmothers who used to pass down techniques and recipes, Shapiro said.

“Suddenly, you needed a book, you needed printed recipes, which, over time, became the way a lot of people learned to cook,” she said. “People were not only cooking from what was in season or grown in the backyard.”

Certain common features of these books are timeless: They are approachable, with easy-tofind ingredients and simple techniques.

These cookbooks are “for the person that’s graduating, who is getting married,” said Jan Miller, editor of the 17th edition of the “Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book.” “Sometimes, people don’t even crack it open and start to use it until they have a family and they feel they really need to step up their cooking game.”

Striving for inclusivity

One thing that’s changed about the books is the voice in which they are written. In its early incarnations, the “Good Housekeeping Cookbook” featured a fictional teenager called Susan.

“I remember I took that book away with me when I moved from home,” Shapiro said. “And when I started cooking in the ’70s, it was already a big, authoritative bible — if already dated in terms of the food — but there was something so comforting, so reassuring about the tone of voice. They would say, ‘This is Susan’s meatloaf; this is how Susan makes her cookies.’ ”

In 1921, Betty Crocker was created for a contest by a flour milling company now known as General Mills and went on to become the most famous fictional cookbook character. For more than a century, she has represented the American housewife. But while the first cookbooks were written in a white woman’s voice, today they strive for a more institutional and inclusive tone.

What these books still have in common is that they teach cooking and offer basic information, such as temperature charts, chopping primers, culinary terms and proper techniques.

“For a period of time, we were losing our skills,” Miller said. “There was a generation that learned to cook from Mom; then we skipped a generation, and now so many people are taking their food content from TV shows, from the internet. I want to answer all of their queries and needs on that page.”

Chances are that if you are familiar with this category of books, it’s because you have a history with one of them. You may have a favorite — probably the first one someone gave you.

For Shapiro, it’s the “Good Housekeeping Cookbook” her mother passed along. For food scholar Anne Amienne, author of “Eat Feed Autumn Winter” (under the pen name Anne Bramley), it’s the “Better

Homes & Gardens Cook Book,” which became her kitchen companion. The only child of a single, working mom, she often found herself alone in the kitchen.

“It’s where I learned that I could make a cake that didn’t come from a mix,” she said.

Amienne owns several editions of the book, spanning the 1960s to the ’90s, and she still reaches for them because of the “good, stable recipes that are not fancy — they just work.”

“I always use the pancake, the waffle, the cornbread and the dumplings recipe,” she said.

Recipes stand the test of time are essential, but the editors also continue to work to address changes in American society. While the cookbooks are still aimed at inexperienced home cooks, they have expanded their scope beyond white women to reach men and people of color, and to reflect the changing demographics of the United States.

“I think appetizers are great metrics for how culture changes,” Amienne said. “In the ’60s you get those pineapple-nut balls, and then in the ’80s and ’90s you see more global things. And even though there was guacamole in the ’60s edition, it had mayonnaise.”

By the ’90s, the mayonnaise was edited out and cilantro added.