Review: The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook

The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook
HB 1963
Library of Congress Card Catalog 63-17862
Illustrations by Erik Blegvad

Contents:
Part One
Childhood

Part Two
Country Life

Part Three
Pepperidge Farm

Part Four
Cooking from Antique Cookbooks

Part Five
Ireland

This is one Mom picked up for me a few years ago when her and Dexter went to a
nearby flea market. She had planned to save it for my birthday coming
up in June that year, but she enjoyed it so much that she couldn't wait to share
it with me so gave it to me early. I'm glad she did as it sure was a
great find and I've enjoyed reading it.

Sample recipes from each section are:

Childhood -- Cornmeal mush -- My grandma used to make this often when I
was growing up and my mom hated it but my sis and I loved it so we'd go
to her house a few feet from ours and have some with her when she'd
make it. We'd often ask mom to make it and she'd tell us she didn't know
how and besides she didn't like it to go get grandma to make us some.
Grandma didn't put the sugar in hers like in this recipe though.

Country Life-- Bean and bacon soup; Pease Porridge Hot; Peanut Butter
Bisque

Pepperidge Farm -- Saffron Buns; Apple Danish; Cheese Crescents

Antique Cookbooks -- Frog legs; Cherry Tart; Banbury Cake

Ireland -- Irish Stew; Sweet Yorkshire Pudding; Beef and Kidney Pie

This book has cute color and black and white illustrations on almost
every page. It is a thick book, 440 pages. Very interesting reading about
the authors childhood and how the Pepperidge Farm products came to be.
This book is filled with family recipes.

Inside flap: ".... is really three books, all bound together in a
single volume. First of all, it is a working cookbook that gathers together
more than 500 mouth-watering recipes, from soup to nuts....... It is
also an intimate autobiography of a charming and adventuresome woman
whose enthusiasm has given her the vitality to rear three children, manage
three homes and develop a multimillion dollar business. And finally, it
is a valuable treasury of early recipes from Mrs. Rudkin's fabulous
collection of antique cookbooks, which she has updated with her own modern
present- day ready-to-use translations....."

In her epilogue she says " perhaps I shall keep looking for more
recipes for the next book." I wonder if there ever was a 2nd book? This book
is not a book that pushes the Pepperidge Farm products even though they
are used in some of the recipes. There are a few recipes that use the
pepperidge farm stuffing mix, several of which are studded meat, fish,
poultry or veggies. Also included are several great sounding stuffing or
dressing recipes that would be great for Thanksgiving. We always use
PFS mix in our Thanksgiving stuffing but it's Mom's recipe and so good
we'd never think of trying a new one then, but maybe a smaller batch
another time of year.