Cookbook News

We have been pretty cool here in Michigan and I have been enjoying baking and cooking, so much easier to do in the house than in the motor home. Yesterday I wanted to make muffins for breakfast. Couldn't find a recipe I liked, had several cookbooks spread out in the kitchen and chose one from my old Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook. In fact, it might have been Aunt Katie's book. Anyhow, when comparing recipes I noticed that for a dozen muffins in the old book I needed 2 tablespoons of sugar while the newer books called for a half cup of sugar for a dozen.

They were good, not overly sweet but when you add butter and jelly, who can complain? Later I saw an article in a woman's magazine that you cut calories if you use cookbooks from before the 1970s. Newer cookbooks have up to 63% more calories. Older cookbooks use real full fat butter, meat and eggs, but smaller amounts and have smaller servings. They used the Joy of Cooking to do this comparison. My version is 1974 and had the lesser amount of sugar.

Ha! the conspiracy to make America fat continues.