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The Joy of Cooking

The Joy of Cooking was first published in 1931 and has been republished and updated many times since then. My copy is the 1967 version that belonged to a friend of my wifes. My mother's book was passed on to my brother. I think everyone's mother, grandmother or even great grandmother had this as their bible of cooking.

Many of the recipes have been updated as each version was republished but there are many that weren't, simply because they are fine the way they were written over seventy-five years ago and they can't be improved on. Don't forget that America was in the midst of the great depression and a very large part of the country was still rural with farms dotting the countryside.

There are so many recipes in this 845 page cookbook; they range from Creamed Potato Casserole to Truite au Bleu and Smithfield Country Ham to Fudge Layer Cake. There are many pages dedicated to how to measure, cooking conversions, descriptions of herbs and spices and even how to freeze raw vegetables. All this is a home economics course built into the cookbook. It's actually good reading! If you are serious about cooking, you will appreciate all the details. What I still like about it is that it isn't outdated.

This is one of the best American cookbooks ever written!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. This can be prepared up to the point of adding the corn bread topping; then cooled
and refrigerated until 45 minutes before serving time. Place the casserole in the oven and let it warm while you are mixing the corn bread topping.

in a lightly greased skillet:
1 pound ground beef
1 chopped onion
When the meat is lightly browned and the onion translucent, add:
1 can tomato soup
1 cup water or stock
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 cup drained whole kernel corn
1/2 cup chopped green pepper, seeds and fiber removed

Simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, sift and mix together:
3/4 cup corn meal
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Moisten with:
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk

Mix lightly and fold in: 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Place meat mixture in a greased 2-quart casserole and cover with the corn bread topping. The topping will disappear into the meat mixture, but will rise during baking and form a good layer of corn bread.

Place in oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until corn bread is brown.