The Canadian Cookbook

This cookbook was a wedding gift in 1962, from a recent U.ofT. Household Science Grad. As a collector of cookbooks for many years, I still find it my best resource for numerous topics, often getting calls, from both new and experienced cooks, looking for info. I recently tried to purchase a copy at an estate auction, but was outbid. Our youngest (of 3) daughters, all of whom learned to cook from this book, has requested it, as she is soon to be married. I am delighted that it is still available for me to purchase for her, as I cannot yet part with mine.

I received this cookbook as a gift when I was first married in 1955. I had no idea how to prepare a basic meal of meat and vegetables but I learned very quickly thanks to the basic, simple instructions in the Canadian Cookbook. This book is a must for the novice cook as it covers everything from how to set a table, to cooking for a crowd. I have yet to find another cookbook that measures up to this one. Several years ago I gave a copy of this book to a new bride and she still thanks me for it. She says she doesn't know how she would have managed meal preparation without it. I am so pleased that the Canadian Cookbook is still available as my copy is falling apart and needs to be replaced. As far as I am concerned, this is the ONLY cookbook for the basic cook and no home should be without the Canadian Cookbook.

The Canadian Cookbook has been in my parents kitchen for as long as I can remember, which is over 45 years. My mother used it for many of these years. With the onset of Alzheimer's, it has been my father who has taken on the responsibility of meal preparation (and everything else). In an effort to assist, and with his permission, my sister and I spent our last summer's vacation simplifying their lives (i.e. cleaning and sorting through 50 years' accumulation of "stuff"). Little did we know that The Canadian Cookbook had become his right hand in the kitchen. We picked out a few that we thought he could use and donated The Canadian Cookbook, along with others, to a well deserving charity. When he realised it was gone, my father became quite upset. I was happy to find it is still in print, and am buying him another copy so he can find his favourite recipes again. The Canadian Cookbook is obviously timeless.

My mother graduated as a dietician from McGill University in 1936. This cookbook had been one of her text-books. When I married in 1962, my parents gave us a new copy as a wedding present. We still use this book. It is the one cookbook that every home should have. We are now using it to teach our 9 year old grand- daughter how to cook. It is simply written, contains all kinds of useful hints and information, has conversion and substitution charts. It is amazing that his book is still in print after all these years. My experience is that really great books are hard to replace: not so in this case. Better get one!