What’s cooking in our archives! A taste of the past

The Museum’s Archives collection includes nearly 1,000 cookbooks and recipe pamphlets produced between the mid-18^th and early 21^st centuries. Many were booklets published to promote a specific product or brand. Others are compilations of recipes carefully written out by hand or assembled in scrapbooks, chronicling timeless family traditions or, conversely, the latest trends of the day.

Appealing in more ways than one, the collection offers information about changing eating habits, social norms surrounding meals, the role of women in the family home, advertising, and the development of new culinary practices.

As part of International Archives Week, Museum employees had fun revisiting the recipes from this collection.

Sandra Ferreira, a member of the Museum Foundation’s board of directors, also joined the fun by preparing a salad from the Joys of Jell-O booklet published in 1962.

For those willing to try some of the recipes, it is also a wonderful opportunity to rediscover the tastes of yesteryear!

Visit the Recipes and Food Collection to discover more recipes.

For those willing to try some of the recipes, it is also a wonderful opportunity to rediscover the tastes of yesteryear!

Visit the Recipes and Food Collection to discover more recipes.

• Punch bonne chance
• 7-Up Fluffy Baking Powder Biscuits
• Sandwiches au beurre d’arachides
• Eggs Benedict
• Casserole aux oeufs et au fromage
• Salade fusée
• Jell-O Vegetable Salad
• Carrot Pie
• Brochettes des crevettes et de fruits
• Mediterranean Layers
• Macarons
• Carrés aux fraises et à l’ananas
• Chocolate Ice Cream
• Jell-O Crown Jewel Dessert
• Tarte à la pichoune
• Bananes au Rhum
• Individual Orange Soufflés

The debate sparked by last year’s publication of the new Canada’s Food Guide is a reminder of how diet can be a very sensitive topic. Some people perceived its redesign as an attack on the country’s heritage and food traditions. If the issue raises such strong feelings, it is because how and what we eat is indeed a matter of culture and values.

To learn more about changing eating habits, social norms surrounding meals, the role of women in the family home, advertising, and the development of new culinary practices.