Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Kokbok för Husmödrar

I am filled with geeky excitement! I just received a neat book in the mail. It was found by an acquaintance's mother (thanks to Laureen and her mom!) at a rummage sale - and of all things, it's a late 19th century Swedish cookbook. Here's what the first page says:


Gustafva Björklunds
Kokbok för Husmödrar

innehållande beskrifningar öfver
mer än 2000 anrättningar.
(Jemte 100 anvisningar för tillredning af Svamprätter.)
Med 106 gravyrer.


Obviously this isn't medieval (misses the mark by a scant 400 years or so), but still it's filled with awesome - in fact, 512 pages of Swedish awesome. The last recipe (Tätmjölk) is numbered 2081!  I plan on transcribing the book to text (or more likely HTML given the number of letters like å and ö) and eventually translating it to English.


Oh, as best I can tell the text on the title page translates to something like:
Gustafva Björklund's Cookbook for Housemothers, containing observations and more than 2000 recipes. (Plus 100 instructions for making Mushroom dishes.) With 106 engravings.




2 comments:

Steph said...

Oooh, that sounds fantastic! I love that it specifically points out the abundance of mushroom dishes. I'm extra curious about those since I was just wondering what to do with a large container of mushrooms the other day. I made a soup, which, while not very creative, was quite tasty.

Anonymous said...

That translation is correct :-)
I'm into old Swedish cookbooks myself (as I am Swedish and live in Sweden). I have a handful, which I use quite often in my daily cooking.