I was at the used book store the other day and as usual I was br
owsing in the old hard cover book section. Not only do you occasionally find some treasures of literature, but the book itself, how beautifully it’s made, it’s history.. I just love it and love seeing them on the mantle. .. Anyway this one book caught my eye. It had that red criss-cross striping like the old kitchen table cloths or the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It was a book from 1937 called the Country Kitchen. Originally copyrighted in 1935 this particular book was printed in 1937. And purchased by Alice L Sawyer who signed the first page with a fountain pen and dated it “Nov. 2-1937″.
Bottom line is that I love the book. A great story of Della Lutes’ childhood growing up on a farm. They didn’t have a lot of money (actually she states that they were poor but didn’t know any better so she was happy and felt herself pretty well taken care of). Then there’s the description of the cooking. Old school cooking, with some recipes of how her mother made certain dishes. Now Della says what my father has said many times (who also grew up poor on a farm), they didn’t have much but the quality of the food was outstanding. Real food, ultra-fresh, scratch cooking, excellent quality that most people today have never tried. Whether fresh eggs, churned butter, homemade bread and stews, head cheese etc. … All I know is that people would demand a higher quality if they only knew. You know it’s like the Cajuns in Louisiana. Very poor, made do with what they had but they cooked it right. No one with money would touch the stuff. Now all of a sudden the lowly Crawdad or Shrimp Etouffe is a delicacy that people stand in line for. .. Same thing.
Needless to say the book doesn’t call out for Organic Ingredients because when she was a little girl that’s all there were. Everything was organic, everything was ultra-fresh. For pest control they relied on “Old Wart” the toad, the Stri-pud family “who had their own chores of ridding the earth of moles and toads..” and also “the robbins and jays who, in spite of much maligning, did earn their salt, -and-cherries, -”.
Anyway this book is a nice light read of what life was like and I believe some hidden gems of recipes buried within it’s pages. One of these will be tried by us and if great we’ll pass on Della Lutes’ recipe. This is for the Apple Dowdy. Here’s an excerpt .. “Aunt Hanner may have been just an average hand at soup, but she was a master of the Apple Dowdy. Apple Dowdy is not a dumpling, a pudding, or a pie -deep dish or otherwise. It is just a dowdy – sort of common, homely, gingham-like, but it has character.” .. “When done it will be delicately brown on top, a rich fruity red on the inside, and delicious withal.” … My mouth is watering just reading this! 
Anyway, good book, recommended as a very nice winter read. … And if you get a chance, please share this post if you like it. I would LOVE for the blog to continue to grow so I could do this full time and make it even better. Thanks.
Theo–It was very nice to read your review of The Country Kitchen. My copy is from 1937 and given to me by my grandmother, Lyndal, in 1970 which she has received from her mother, Elizabeth, who was a school friend of Della T Lutes. I remember loving it when I read it at that time, even taking the time to make copies of all the recipes since they sounded so good. You make excellent comments: The book is very timely now as we are increasing our awareness of where foods are from, how foods made and a little more respect for the persons that grow and prepare our foods. Susan L
I was lent this book (1943 edition) by an American friend recently. She said it had belonged to her mother in Winsconsin and had been a treasured possession since her mother’s earliest housekeeping days. I totally agree, it is a gem. I love the measuring-by-eye method of cooking used and the degree of self-sufficiency they had in those days. Thank you for your excellent review. Rosalie F
Della Lutes is my great grandmother and I have copies of almost everything she has written! I also hold the copyright to several of her books, including The Country Kitchen… I am always delighted to f ind other people who are discovering her… have always thought it would be fun to compile a cookbook using her recipes, updated for “modern” cooking methods… You might be interested to know The Country Kitchen won the National Book Award for “Most Original Book” in 1936, the same year Margaret Mitchell won “Best Novel” for Gone With the Wind…
9/8/11 My 1936 copy of The Country Kitchen belonged to my grandmother and then my Mother and now me. I am 67 now and my daughter and grand daughter after her will inherit this wonderful cookbook when I’m gone . I have read andreread this threasure so many imes and followed the recipes over and over again as my Mother and her Mother before her did. I too, grew up poor and my Mother baked cookies in an old cast iron stove with legs that was in horrible condition but as a child I did not know I was poor. I remember that my Mother made my childhood like magic and know now how she struggled and yet her cooking was like Della Lutes remembered along with the feelings of warmth and the heavenly smells of honey nuggets chocolate chip cookies baking. The Country Kitchen is my island of comfort that I escape to often and then I go cook something. It is the oldest book I own and the most loved.Marianne
Hi Marianne, I loved reading your beautiful comment. It sounds as if you grew up poor in the financial sense but wealthy with everything else. My father side was extremely poor but he always said the food was real, scratch, homemade and people today with all their money don’t have any idea of what they’re missing. Thanks again and I would love to hear from you as to a few of your favorite recipes from this wonderful book. We’ll give them a try and try not to mess them up too badly. Best, Leo
I still have a copy of The Country Kitchen, and I recall hearing about it just after it was written. My great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Imogene Palmer, had grown up in the area and knew of Della Thompson Lutes and the family. She read the book and sniffed a bit about how the Thompson family, particularly the father, was portrayed. In her eyes the farm and “lije,” were not among the elite in the county. My great-grandmother was also an excellent and bountiful cook and, if I recall, had issues with some of the recipes. Nonetheless, the book was and still is a delightful read and unsurpassed in the detail of everyday life in a farming community in southern Michigan in the late 19th Century. In picking it up just now, I noted the page where Della’s father called doughnuts “friedcakes.” That was exactly what they were called when I grew up on a farm in Jackson County in the 1930s.