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A Farewell to Housewives

A Hello to Fast-er Foods

by Bruce Tober

Copyright © 2004 Bruce Tober All Rights Reserved

Perhaps no genre of book is more reflective of the times in which they're written than cookery books. Take post-war England, for example.

During the war, women, as they often had in war-time, worked outside the home, replacing their menfolk who were soldiering away on the battle fields. They went to work in offices and factories and on the farms.

But, after the war, unlike after previous wars, they didn't all return to their homes. Instead they kept their jobs, continued working outside their homes.

And that made for problems.

It meant, amongst other things. that they had little, if any time to cook when they returned home from a hard day at the office. And publishers, always quick to pick up on trends, got their printing presses going overtime, publishing cookery books especially geared to the need to cook more quickly. The first ones off the press were in 1948.

In the US, one cook book title that year summed it up, Hazel Young's The Working Girl's Own Cook Book

Faber and Faber, not particularly known for its cookery books, brought out two in 1948. Both especially geared toward this burgeoning need for fast food.

Of the four UK cookery books listed online from 1948, for example, one is a US import, Jean Simpson's and Demetria M Taylor's The Frozen Food Cook Book. Another is Elizabeth Craig's Household Library: Cookery A time-saving cook book containing over 1000 favourite tested recipes.

The other two, the two from Faber, are Edouard de Pomiane's Cooking in 10 Minutes: Or the Adaptation of Cooking to the Rhythm of Our Time and Josephine Terry's Cook-Happy. Obviously there's a recurring theme here.

de Pomiane's Cooking in 10 Minutes: Or the Adaptation of Cooking to the Rhythm of Our Time. Not content with angering the world of haute cuisine by teaching his disciples to cook in six lessons in his previous book, de Pomiane decided next to teach them many recipes that would take them only ten minutes to prepare.

His loose, friendly and humorous writing style is a joy to behold. In his preface he notes that "Modern life spoils so much that is pleasant. Let us see that it does not make us spoil our steak or our omelette. Ten minutes are sufficient -- one minute more and all would be lost."

De Pomiane wrote several other cookery books including Cooking with Pomiane.

145pp including index and "Woodcuts after Toulouse Lautrec" - The book has very slight tanning of cover with slight bumping of front covers and some foxing and a couple of light reading creases. Inside is immaculate except for foxing.
Cooking in 10 Minutes

Cooking in 10 Minutes

Cook-Happy
Terry's Cook-Happy. In her introduction, the author notes, "...We believe that work, any work, should be reduced to a minimum. The following selection of recipes gives us the chance to raise our every-day cooking to haute cuisine."

Terry, a newspaper cookery writer, also wrote several other cookery books in the '40s, including Food Without Fuss; 200 new recipes and a few thoughts, Key to Cooking and Key to Cooking. In addition, she also "adapted" Tell Me Chef. .. Being the French Recipe Collection of The Lady Muriel Beckwith.

The covers (grey cloth) has a slightly faded "frame" around the edges and the edges are bumped. Text block is clean and tight except for some foxing throughout.

171pp including index and b&w illustrations.

Books at Star Dot Star offers Terry's Cook-Happy (item 001741) for £11.00, click here to order.