I collect cookbooks.
There aren't many things I truly hoard, but books are one of them, and cookbooks are a tidy fit in that category since I enjoy reading, cooking, and eating.
Recently, a friend turned me on to Sandwiches of History on the 'gram, and he's got a super fun feed full of vintage sandwich recipes that he makes, tries, and improves upon. It inspired me to pull out my own vintage cookbooks and start actually making some of the recipes found therein.
Many odd and wonderful recipes in a vintage cookbook, let me tell you.
Will I be making a shrimp mold at some point in the future? Yes. Will I be making pumpkin cookies with milk caramel frosting? Also yes.
One of the cookbooks, put together by the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania, is called "York County Farm Women Go To The Kitchen" and it "contains 600 recipes tried and tested by Farm Women of York Co., Pennsylvania."
There are quite a few names I recognize in these pages, either extended family members or common surnames in the area, but indeed -- many matriarchs live on in here. Disappointingly, many names aren't written as their own, but as their husband's names. For example, the pineapple puff cookies recipe was shared by a Mrs. Chester Myers. What was her first name, I wonder? To tie one's own identity so closely to your husband seems such a sad thing. Maybe she was an Ida? or a Betty? or perhaps her friends knew her as a nickname, similar to my own paternal grandmother, whom everyone called Dutch? We'll never know.
At the beginning of the book is a map of York County:
I grew up at #28, in Seven Valleys, or Das Siebenthal as it was once called in the not-so-distant past; currently I live just southeast of #9 (not to be confused with the Beatles "Revolution 9") in Red Lion -- not proper. I'm out of town in the country, on two acres nestled between a cattle pasture and goat/sheep farm.
I never once thought I'd be 40 years old and still living in York County, but here I am, living on a little slice of heaven in the midst of a whole lot of old time religion and conservative politics.
Anyway, pineapple puff cookies.
Thank you for this recipe, Mrs. Chester Myers.
Interestingly, there were three cookie recipes in here using canned crushed pineapple, and I don't think I've ever before had cookies with pineapple in, but I'm telling you it works, it really does.
These cookies were fast and easy to whip up in one bowl, and there's no fuss with rolling them or anything. You just scoop and drop and bake and repeat a few more times.
The end result reminded me much of PA Dutch-style sugar cakes; they were light and fluffy, cakey and moist, with a wonderful sweetness that wasn't too over the tope. I think sprinkling some pearl sugar on top would add a nice textural addition next time.
Here's the recipe! Let me know if you make it, and tell me what you think.
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