Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Food: Recipes, cookbook reviews, food notes, and restaurant reviews. Unless otherwise noted, I have personally tried each recipe that gets its own page, but not necessarily recipes listed as part of a cookbook review.

All Mimsy cookbook reviews

Jerry Stratton, June 20, 2009

Also, check out All Mimsy recipes.

The Art of Korean CookingHarriett Morris1959; 104 pages5Buy it!•
The Art of Syrian CookeryHelen Corey1962; 186 pages6Buy it!•
Life, Loves, and Meat LoafCarl Randall1964; 176 pages9Buy it!•
Bull Cook Historical RecipesGeorge Leonard Herter1969; 380 pages8Buy it!•
The Casserole CookbookMyra Waldo1963; 158 pages4Buy it!•
Cavalier CookingWilliam Butler1987; 348 pages3Buy it!•
Classic Chinese CuisineRosemary Moon1995; 252 pages5Buy it!•
The Complete Bread CookbookJean Siris Kaufman1969; 254 pages5Buy it!•
A Concise Encyclopedia of GastronomyAndre L. Simon1952; 816 pages7Buy it!•
Southern Living Cookbook for TwoAudrey P. Stehle1981; 266 pages6Buy it!•
Cooking the Bahamian WaySylvia Laramore-Crawford1992; 40 pages3Buy it!•
A Fifteenth Century Cookry BokeJohn L. Anderson1962; 92 pages5Buy it!•
Country Commune CookingLucy Horton1972; 240 pages6Buy it!•
Larousse Treasury of Country CookingMarie Maronne1975; 512 pages7Buy it!•
Crockery CookeryMabel Hoffman1975; 288 pages6Buy it!•
La Cuisine Française1982; 511 pages7Buy it!•
The Fannie Farmer CookbookFannie Merritt Farmer1990; 874 pages7Buy it!•
James Beard’s Fireside Cook BookJames Beard1949; 322 pages5Buy it!•
French Bistro CookingJohn Varnom1988; 128 pages7Buy it!•
French Cooking Simplified With a Food ProcessorRuth Howse1977; 144 pages5Buy it!•
The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates ChristmasJeff Smith1991; 297 pages7Buy it!•
Good Food From MexicoRuth Watt Mulvey1950; 253 pages7
The Healthy Cuisine of IndiaBharti Kirchner1994; 286 pages7Buy it!•
Heritage of America Cookbook1993; 288 pages6Buy it!•
In a Persian KitchenMaideh Mazda1960; 175 pages8Buy it!•
In Good Taste1992; 166 pages6Buy it!•
The Indian Spice KitchenMonisha Bharadwaj1997; 240 pages6Buy it!•
The Italian Ingredients CookbookKate Whiteman1999; 256 pages6Buy it!•
Japanese Country CookbookRuss Rudzinski1969; 200 pages5Buy it!•
The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the FeastJeff Smith1995; 302 pages6Buy it!•
The New Larousse GastronomiqueProsper Montagné1961; 1,064 pages9Buy it!•
Laurel’s KitchenLaurel Robertson1976; 641 pages5Buy it!•
Lebanese CuisineMadelain Farah1974; 156 pages7Buy it!•
The Natural Foods CookbookBeatrice Trum Hunter1961; 296 pages6Buy it!•
The Northwest Cartoon Cookery1995; 26 pages7Buy it!•
The Complete Book of Oriental CookingMyra Waldo1965; 246 pages7Buy it!•
Pains Spéciaux & Viennoiseries1993; 173 pages7Buy it!•
The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking1968; 262 pages7Buy it!•
Popular Greek RecipesLadies Philoptochos Society1957; 218 pages7Buy it!•
A Russian Jew Cooks in PeruVioleta Autumn1973; 191 pages8Buy it!•
Our Favorite Hometown Recipes Vol. II1994; 102 pages6
Saucepans and the Single GirlJinx Kragen1968; 176 pages4Buy it!•
Soul Food Cook BookBob Jeffries1969; 116 pages8Buy it!•
Southern CookingHenrietta Stanley Dull1968; 384 pages6Buy it!•
The Tassajara TrilogyEdward Espe Brown1970; 693 pages7Buy it!•
The Cooking of Vienna’s EmpireJoseph Wechsberg1968; 206 pages7Buy it!•
Whole Earth CookbookSharon Cadwallader1973; 120 pages5Buy it!•
The Wok: a chinese cook bookGary Lee1970; 176 pages6Buy it!•
May 18, 2022: A Decade of Jell-O Joys: 1963-1973
Cranberry Squares

These gelatin—whipped cream squares are a better-than-cheesecake cheesecake.

One of the joys of old cookbooks is watching food change over the years. At the October New Braunfels Library Book Sale, I found a copy of the 1973 New Joys of Jell-O; on a quick browse it did not appear to be merely a copy of the old, circa 1963, Joys of Jell-O so I bought it.

As it turns out, I was wrong. There are many duplicate recipes; what changed were how they were presented and even their names. The Peach and Banana Mold has become the Peach-Banana Dessert. Everything is the same except it uses twice as much peach and it’s not a mold: it’s put in dessert cups.

Molds are still used in some recipes, but they’re not as universal in 1973 as they were in 1963.

The Under-the-Sea Pear Salad is displayed as a simple loaf instead of an ornate 1-quart mold. The recipe itself hasn’t changed, only the shape, and even that not much: while the first shape suggested is an 8x4 loaf pan, the second is a 4-cup mold. I chose to split the difference and make it in a less towering ring mold.

There’s more of an emphasis on convenience in the new book. If I had made it as a loaf, it would have tasted the same but would have been styled differently. It would also have been easier to unfold. The new Peach-Banana Dessert doesn’t even need to be unmolded—it’s eaten from the dessert cup it’s made in. You can take servings from the refrigerator as needed.

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