Stevenson Memorial Cook Book

The Sarah Hackett Stevenson Memorial Lodging House Association published this intriguing collection of recipes in 1919, presumably as a fundraiser. This worthy Chicago group ran the women's shelter established in 1893 by Dr. Stevenson, the first woman to be admitted to the American Medical Association. Its motto was "Help First; Investigate Afterwards." (A quick Google reveals the home was open at least through the late 1940s, and the association apparently still exists in some nonprofit capacity, perhaps in conjunction with the Chicago Child Care Society, established 1849, with which it now shares an address.)

According to the foreword by Association President Mrs. Herbert D. Sheldon: "A charge of 15 cents a night was made, and if they were without money work was given them and they were paid for it -- they, in turn, paying for their lodging. It was the principle of the organization that the actual handling of this money helped to preserve self-respect and that they might not feel themselves objects of charity. This principle has held through the years and no woman or child is turned from the door as long as there is a place to rest." At the time the book was published, the shelter, donated as a memorial to Dr. Stevenson by U.S. Rep. William B. McKinley of Champaign, was at 2412 Prairie Avenue.

We aren't told anything about the cookbook's contributors, although a few of them number among the executive committee and trustees of the association. Some recipes clearly came from well-to-do households, but it's not impossible that residents of the home contributed others.

Compiled by Mrs. William D. Hurlbut, the recipes include a few dishes that would fit right into trendy menus of today, such as Miss Agnes Sieber's prune-and-bacon canapes, Mrs. H.D. Sheldon's sun-cooked strawberries and tea sherbet from Mrs. A.H. Wagoner. Dishes less likely to appeal to present-day tastes include Mrs. W.R. McGhee's stuffed and braised calves' hearts and braised larded liver and Mrs. Hurlbut's fried pickled pigs' feet.

Mrs. Frederick T. Hoyt's recipe for frozen lemonade shows that this Chicago summer staple dates back to well before Mario DiPaolo founded his Taylor Street stand in 1953. The still-extant Midlothian Country Club contributed temperate recipes for its grape juice mint julep, black cow and "a delicious fruit cup." Those who decry Chicago's unsmoked style of "barbecue" as inauthentic may be surprised by its pedigree, exhibited in Mrs. Chase's "barbecued roast pork," cooked in the oven and basted with a sauce of vinegar, salt and red and black pepper.

Mrs. Willard Brown's shrimp wiggle, consisting of one can of shrimp and one can of green peas mixed with cream sauce and served over toast, shows that convenience foods have a long history, while Mrs. J.G. Sherer's "good imitation of Maryland fried chicken," made from rabbit, suggests the economics of groceries have changed somewhat in the past 90 years.

Mrs. Sherer is also one of three cooks contributing recipes for chop suey, all of which call for veal and only one of which uses soy sauce. (All of them contain molasses.) Far from a quick stir-fry, Mrs. C.S. Junge's version calls for three hours of cooking. Other ethnic dishes include "a Porto Rican dinner" from Mrs. G.W. Plummer, a vegetarian meal of canned red kidney beans, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, nut meats and green olives, and Mrs. Jean Wallace Butler's Indian vegetable curry, featuring cans of baked beans, lima beans, string beans, wax beans and tomatoes mixed with onions and "one heaping teaspoonful" curry powder. There are also three recipes for "Italian spaghetti," such as Mrs. C.A. Jennings', which calls for boiling the pasta for 40 minutes before mixing it with tomato sauce and grated Herkimer or American cheese.

Famous recipes include Mrs. Archy S. Corken's "glorified hoe cakes," which won a $10 Chicago Tribune prize for wartime conservation recipes, and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt's recipe for spice cake, which may give modern cooks some difficulty because it provides only a list of ingredients, and no directions.

Among other interesting desserts you'll find Mrs. Harry M. Boon's rye bread torte; Miss Katharine Orr's Southern pork cake, including salt pork, raisins, eggs, flour, nut meats, sugar, molasses, cinnamon and cloves; and Helen Collins puffed rice candy, which seems like a precursor to Rice Krispies treats.

A very sweet look back at culinary history.