| matter, period advertisements, or a variety of illustrations that are interesting in themselves. The cultural context of cook-books is also importantwho publishes them, for what audience, at what time period? For this volume, that context is clear: members of Chapter M gathered their best recipes to present to Knoxville and proudly illustrated their book with pictures of the community. |
| Early cookbooks also provide information about the home economics of their time. At least two recipes in this collection seem extraordinarily thrifty: Pressed Chicken for Fifty requiring three large, fat hens and Creamed Chicken from four chickens to serve forty people. These cooks express measurements in what now may be unexpected comparisons: they specify butter the size of an egg for Creamed Shrimps or butter the size of a hickory nut in Veal Loaf and require alum the size of a walnut in Cucumber Mangoes. Their directions are sometimes very general, recommending a quick or brisk oven or suggesting that Pumpkin Pie be baked rather slowly. But they can be quite specific: preparation for Graham Bread demands that the baker sponge one yeast cake at noon. |
| This particular book has an additional historical Iowa connection. On January 21, 1869, seven students founded the P.E.O. Sisterhood in the Music Room of Main Hall at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Mary Allen, Alice Bird, Hattie Briggs, Alice Coffin, Suela Pearson, Franc Roads, and Ella Stewart could have joined other associations already on campus, but Hattie Briggs spoke for the group when she said, "Let's have a society of our own." From that beginning the P.E.O. has grown to a membership of more than 240,000, with chapters across the United States and Canada. Although the meaning of its initials is secret, the P.E.O. is a philanthropic educational organization with international, state, and local projects. |
| The University of Iowa Libraries and the University of |
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