April Test Kitchen

Front cover, The I Hate to Cook Book, in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor

This month's Test Kitchen honors Peggy Bracken's The I Hate to Cook Book, currently on view in the library's exhibit "The Objects of Our Affection: Wonderful Characters from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor."

Grape Cream

The book is included in the Kay Thompson display case because it features drawings by Hilary Knight, illustrator of Thompson's  well-known Eloise books, but Bracken is also a very funny writer and the recipes I followed from her cookbook were chosen more for their verbal wit than for the potential tastiness of the dishes. Having said that, two of the three dishes prepared were heartily consumed by our taste-testing staff. Hellzapoppin Cheese Rice is a "kitchen specialty" in the chapter "Good Cooksmanship: or How to Talk a Good Fight," which opens with the quip: "Now once in a while you'll find yourself in a position where you have to talk about cooking. This is usually a sitting-down position with other ladies hemming you in so you can't get away."  Elevator Lady Spice Cookies are named to reflect their origin--an elevator attendant who gave Bracken the recipe. Grape Cream, consisting of grapes, sour cream, and brown sugar mixed together and chilled overnight, was recommended as being "good with cookies;" in truth, it was kind of weird. Only one of our taste testers enjoyed it, commenting that the grapes reminded her of eyeballs; the rest of us politely let it sit and ate our cookies creamless.

The original 1960 edition of the book is in the exhibit, but you can borrow the updated and revised edition from the library and try some of these recipes yourself.