During at discussion over the Christmas holidays, I was talking about some of the unusual recipes from my family’s cookbooks. I have two from my grandmother (paternal) as well as one from her mother. We also have two from Stan’s mom and grandmother. The two below were my grandmother’s and the one the lower row was my Great-grandmother’s. The ‘My Recipes’ book has blank pages under headings for the owner to write in their own recipes. The Lawyer’s Diary has half pages with dates that my grandmother used as a blank pages. The “Corona Club Cook Book” has recipes, but lease several black pages at the end of each chapter for you to ad your own. I thought it might be interesting to post some of the most usually recipes from these books.

I thought I’d start with one of the recipes that I never sampled, but that I find interesting. It’s called Spring Tonic and it’s described as being Mary William’s recipe (my Great grandmother). Which means it must date from the late 1800s

The ingredients are 10¢ Sarsaparilla Root, 10¢ Dandelion Root, Stick of Licorice, 1 Qt of Water.

The instructions are Boil to Pint, Strain, Add one Teaspoon Epson Salts. Shake Well. Take wine glass morning

I have trouble imagining the value of such a concoction and even more trouble wondering about its flavor. I also wonder how much 10¢ of the two roots would have been. The non grammatical sentences must have been a form of shorthand for my grandmother, since she never spoke this way. Although some recipes in the book have only ingredients (an issue I’ve had to deal with before). But for today – Spring Tonic.