The Ideal Cook Book

Note: This edition of the Ideal Cookbook has been updated to include Metric equivalents.


This book, by a skilled home caterer, successful housewife, and ideal mother, will prove helpful to all people. It is not radical, but suggestive, and is comprised in 3 books, bound under one cover:

BOOK 1 is intended for the inexperienced housekeeper, who has all things to learn, as well as for the epicure, whose tastes incline to rich and expensive dishes, but whose pocket-book demands economy.

BOOK 2 is devoted to various health foods—soups, without meats (more appetizing than any ever dreamed of in our grandmother’s day), to the cooking of vegetables, cereals, the making of salads without meat, etc., etc. It is an up-to-date guide in brain-building, health-building and happiness.

BOOK 3 is devoted to household economics, nursing the sick, the toilet, the care of the kitchen, laundry, etc., etc.

Thus, the book (three volumes in one) is a complete Twentieth Century Guide on all things pertaining to cookery. It teaches us, not only what to select for the table and how best to prepare it, but furnishes a concise and ready manual for all home-keepers, regardless of wealth or station. Our blessings accompany it.

Thus, dear friend, the helps and suggestions in the book have been gathered from many sources. Besides those which have been sent by friends from in and out of town, from States both adjoining and remote, there are those that have been used in my family for years. I have given credit, where it was possible to remember from whom they came. Those taken from other books, are used by the kind permission of the authors or publishers. I am greatly indebted to all who have contributed, or by their courtesy made it possible for me to use their favorites in this book.

It is not a haphazard collection, gathered at random from doubtful sources, but has been made up, sparing neither labor nor expense, from the choicest bits of the best experience of many who have long traveled the daily round of household duties, not reluctantly, like drudges, but lovingly, with heart and hand fully enlisted in the work. May it lessen the perplexities of all who use it as a guide and stimulate that just pride, without which great excellence is impossible.