Comparing Early1900's Books

I chose to read books from the early 1900's this year as my Frugal Bootcamp reading.  I started with Caroline French Benton's book Living on a Little, which was first published in 1908.  Some of the things I noted in Living on a Little were mirrored by the reading of Recreations by Grace Livingston Hill. This book was published in 1924 and is the story of a college girl going home to take care of her family and family home. I don't know if the ideas from Benton's book were just that common to the time or if Grace Livingston Hill had been a fan of Benton's book as well.  

In Recreations, one of the first things Cornelia does is take a survey of the pantry of the house.  She notes that there is half a basket of potatoes.   This is something that in Living on a Little Mary urges Dolly to do: buy potatoes in bulk when they are cheap.

That night Cornelia prepares a roast with gravy and on the following day tells her sister that 'there's plenty of meat from last night that will do for supper.  Mary told Dolly to always buy meat for two meals at one time and plan to have the same meat twice running.

Further into the book, Cornelia plans a dinner party for her brother Carey's birthday.  She plans to have spinach soup as a starter.  This is something Benton says she will do: serve a light milk-based soup at the start of a meal.  Cornelia wisely tells Louise that she will use the juices from the cooked spinach to make the soup and the spinach itself will do as a vegetable for the meal.  She also goes on to plan out the rest of the menu: round steak cut into cutlets, slow cooked, and served with gravy, mashed potatoes, a fruit cup, an aspic jelly of cabbage and carrots and they will have roasted salted nuts with coffee after dessert.  

For dessert, they will have an Angel food cake, following a new recipe Cornelia has found in which the egg whites are measured instead of simply counted out, and a mint water ice.  This is a lemonade with mint flavoring that is frozen to a scoopable slush.  

When Dolly asks Mary if she's never to have ice cream in the chapter on desserts, Mary reminds her of water ices.  This is what we might call a Sorbet these days, I think.  

When Louise asks if it will cost a lot to do the party, Cornelia assures her that they will eat lower budget meals for the week before hand, including cornmeal mush for breakfast.  Again, this is something that Dolly and Mary discussed when it came to dinner parties and luncheons, how to afford the nicer things without being too dear in price and how to balance the food budget.  Mary preferred to do it after the fact and restock her pantry with the special items she kept on hand for such parties. 

Later in this story, when Cornelia was going out for the afternoon in June, she prepared supper ahead.  Her menu was simple and easy:  Cold Meat from the fridge, Macaroni and Cheese, Roasted Apples as a side and a Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding as dessert.   

I suspect that Benton might possibly have skipped serving the cold meat, but then again, isn't macaroni and cheese a great way to expand a meal which might have just a little meat?  Benton mentions that Macaroni and Cheese is a good economical dish to serve in lieu of meat for lunch.  

Roasted Apples would have been served in season.  If the family had purchased them in bulk when they were in season, then they would have likely been using the last of the bulk purchase.  The cornstarch pudding was made to save on the cost of eggs for families that had to buy eggs.  

If you're wondering how much eggs cost at the time of the publication of both books, Benton mentions that they cost about 5c a piece, which is a substantial amount given that her total budget for the day was $1.  The price in 1920 was 47c a dozen (about $7.90 at today's prices...sound familiar?), and in 1924 they were being sold singly for about 5c each, as well.  

One of the issues Mary had discussed with Dolly was that if one resided in town, then the likelihood of paying more for dairy and eggs was going to be a restraint on the budget. 

Another thing I noted was that compared to a farming family, the town folks ate a diet more similar to what we'd serve today.  People who do not do physical labor do not require the same number of calories as those who do hard physical labor as a routine.  Farmers and those whose jobs required hard physical labor naturally needed more calories to provide the same nutritional value.  

I wish I could tell you I did more than these two books but that was all I found myself able to read.  However, it reminded me of what MFK Fisher's grandmother said to the young wives during WW1 when they were sharing recipes to save on eggs, sugar, and fat which were high in cost and in short supply.  She listened quietly before laying her knitting aside and telling them "It's surprising to me what you all think are new economies, when it's been my way all my married life..." Or something to that effect. I've not dug out the book to quote her exactly, but you get the idea.  We may do things a little differently, and even eat a little differently than people did at the turn of the century, but economies from that era are just as valid today and well worth putting into practice.  

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link: