Watkins Hearthside Cook Book

      Since "wear, stains, bent cover" are common descriptions of this charming 1952 book on Rarenonfiction.com, Etsy, and Ebay ads, a simple deduction is that cooks of the time made good use of the little spiral-bound text. My mother's copy fell into my hands about a year ago, but I hadn't looked through it until recently, at which time I fell headlong into a time warp.

     Perusing Watkin's book, it is easy to comprehend the beginning effects of consumerism, modern food storage and prepackaged food items as they combine with and emerge from the 'totally from scratch' cooking of pre-war generations. Even the illustrations demonstrate a change from the traditional - there are a few full color photographs of menu selections but many more of the stylistic two-color graphics.
     Despite the evolution of cuisine and its preparation,  I like to believe that a statement in the preface of my old Hearthside Cookbook probably is timeless, "the heart of the home is in the kitchen".

      A note about the Watkins Company: J.R. Watkins began selling liniment door-to-door in the mid 1850's, later he added baking products such as spices and vanilla. Housewives must have approved because the direct-sales company boomed by the 1940s. Economic shifts caused Watkins to file bankruptcy in the 1970s but some of the products are still carried by stores like Walmart, Schnucks and Target.