Books like Bull cook and authentic historical recipes and practices by George Leonard Herter

"In the lumber camp days and pioneer days the cooks learned from each other and the old world cooks. Each taught the other his country's cooking secrets. Out of the mixing came fine food, prepared as nowhere else in the world. I am putting down some of these recipes that you will not find in cook books. Each recipe is a real cooking secret. I am also publishing for the first time authentic historical recipes of great importance"--Page 5. Readers say: " ... a wonderful, mixed up collection of recipes, which seem to be second to a world history according to THE authority, George Leonard Herter" ; " ... the strangest and zaniest collection of recipes, remedies, survival tips, philosophical musings, diatribes, out-and-out historical flights of fancy ..." ; "Remember Cliff, the postman in 'Cheers'? ... the know-it-all barfly who, even if he DID know something about a subject, managed to mangle it into unwittingly hilarious non-sequiturs? Cross that character with a travel & food writer of great enthusiasm and woefully limited skills, and you might end up with something like this. Part cookbook, part very dubious history, part polemic and 100% personal. It is refreshingly blunt and opinionated, even if his opinions are howlingly off base sometimes ... to use another TV analogy: which would be more interesting, a beer with Archie Bunker or a sherry with Felix Unger?" ; "This is hilarious, and I am sure it is unintentional. The author (the book lists husband and wife as joint authors, but I am sure it was the Mr. who wrote the cookbook, and the Mrs. who typed it) claims to know the only correct version of numerous recipes, as if he had talked to the creators of the recipes in person. However, the funniest part of all is near the end, in a recipe for homemade soap. The author sneers that modern women are too good to make their own soap, but a hydrogen bomb would take care of that! The text is so dense, and full of information, that reading it is like mining - and you never know when you'll come across another priceless nugget" ; " ... many bizzare blends of ancient history and rustic American home cookin'. Some recipes, ostensibly from original, ancient sources, use such things as ketchup and luncheon meat ..." ; "Where else could you read that 'it's a well-known fact' that the Virgin Mary's favorite food was spinach? The authors even include Mary's favorite method of preparing it, a recipe called 'Spinach Mother of Christ.' And the chapter on preparing for surviving a nuclear holocaust is indispensable" ; "purple prose and ... hyperbolic certitude" ; "This is man's book and not for those who wear leotards and balance tea cups on their knees."--Amazon.com (5/30/2007).

First publish date: 1960