Vintage Recipes

Every month, we whip up a handful of vintage recipes from old cookbooks. Ranging from the 1900s to the 1970s, these cookbooks run the gamut from timeless classics like Julia Child’s 1960s Mastering the Art of French Cooking to lesser-known but equally delightful niche cuisine like The Art of Greek Cookery brought to you by the ladies of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in 1950s Long Island, New York.

These vintage recipes are a passion project in the land of the Vintage Kitchen because oftentimes older cookbooks get covered up by newer, modern models. It’s true that you won’t find many gluten-free options or trendy foam-infused foods or extraordinary diet-conscious dishes like the recipes infiltrating the cookbook market today, but what you will find here in the Vintage Kitchen are meals designed around home-grown gardens, international interest, and budget savvy planning. It’s simple fare, fresh food, and seasonal eating at its most authentic when cooking had to be both fuel for the body and flavor for the belly.

You can find all these vintage recipes in one of two ways here on the blog…

by whimsically browsing the Food & Wine section of the blog which organizes each recipe by the date it was published (most recent recipes first) or
by clicking on the following recipes below for more precise browsing…

Bread

Baked Goods & Desserts

Chicken

Soups & Stews

Salads

Vegetarian, Vegetable, Egg & Cheese Dishes

Fish

Beef

Lamb

Armenian Stuffed Meatballs

Pork

Pasta & Rice

Cocktails & Beverages

Pets

Step by step instructions and photographs help you along the way and backstories about the recipe, chef, cookbook or place of origin help paint a colorful picture of what you are about to eat and why. Some recipes even contain a little event pairing like Viva La Vintage: 1960’s Dinner and a Movie (Italian Style) or the annual Kentucky Derby dinner and race menus which change every year based on the colorful names of the runners.

Throughout 2020, we are embarking on an around-the-world culinary adventure as we cook our way through 45 countries in 12 months with recipes from the 1970 edition of the New York Times International Cook Book. Those recipes are featured in the list above or you can find them all here as well.

If you have fallen in love with a particular vintage recipe yourself or find that you have tried and then tweaked one of the recipes found here on the blog, please comment below, so that we can all learn (and cook!) together.

Cheers to history! Bon Appetit to a great meal!