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Antique Recipes

Alice B. Toklas Spinach Daisy: One Vintage Recipe

Alice B. Toklas Spinach Daisy: In The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, in the “Treasures” chapter, Toklas wrote, “When treasures are recipes, they are less clearly, less distinctly remembered than when they are tangible objects. They evoke however quite as vivid a feeling–that is, to some of us who, considering cooking as an art, feel that a way of cooking can produce something that approaches an aesthetic emotion. What more can one say? If one had the choice of again hearing Pachmann play the two Chopin sonatas or dining once more at the Cafe Anglais, which would one choose?”

Here is a great vintage recipe from her “Little Known French Dishes,” chapter, Browned Spinach Daisy.

Spinach Daisy from Alice B Toklas Cook Book, 1954

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, written by Alice B. Toklas and illustrated by Sir Francis Rose was published in 1954 (first American edition) by Harper and Brothers, New York. Hard cover, with dust jacket, 288 pages. This book is a true artifact of American history, as Miss Toklas lived with Gertrude Stein on Paris’ Left Bank, as a member of the Lost Generation. Many anecdotes–and recipes–come from Toklas’s and Stein’s adventures with the American Fund for the French Wounded during World War II, traveling the French countryside in their car, Aunt Pauline. Other recipes come from their travels in the United States, from hotels and restaurants around the world, well as from famous and not-so-famous friends. It is an excellent cookbook, with recipes and stories all told in charming detail! Toklas gives us more than 350 recipes for meals that you can serve, garnished with her juicy bits of literary history!Alice B. Toklas Cook Book

 

We’ve started posting one great recipe from the most notable cookbooks in our huge inventory of antique, vintage, and rare cookbooks, along with some historical background, to give you some flavor (bad pun) from the cookbooks.  Just for fun and our mutual education!