[.ca] Mennonite Community Cookbook (ISBN 083613625X)

One of the greatest cookbooks:
I love this cookbook from the Mennonite Community. The meals are hearty and delicous. I much rather take the time to make these meals then to eat processed and store bought foods.

Great book for beginners and seasoned cooks:
I bought the original publication of this book at an auction in Phillipsburg, Ohio. It was the summer of 1980. The property and all the household goods of an Mennonite family were being liquidated. The book was a signed gift dated September 21, 1950. Upon opening the book, I discovered it was loaded with clover leaves. Those weren't the only treasures in the cook book. It was loaded with lots of easy recipes that could be used to create home style meals. I am buying another copy now so I can retire the book I have come to depend on. The only regret I have is that I didn't buy the old applesauce pot and the recipe file. The recipe for apple sauce read.. "fill the pan with apples", "cover with water", "cook until the sauce reaches the mark on the stick"... there was no stick to be found.. I wish the cook knew how much her recipes mean to me.

From childhood:
I have known this cookbook ever since I was a child. I can't imagine not having this cookbook in my house.

Excellent general cookbook for any one:
This cookbook often gives more than one recipe for a given dish, some simpler, some more difficult. That makes this a great cookbook for a beginner, as well as for those looking for good old-fashioned recipes. I was a vegetarian from the big city when a college roommate introduced me to this cookbook. Even though this is not a vegetarian cookbook, there is a wider variety of meatless recipes, particularly soups than one might expect. Not only are there many terrific recipes, there are also helpful household hints - my favorite being a list of what to cook for a barn-raising. Not that I expect to need that, but it is very interesting.

A classic!:
OK, it's a little old-fashioned, but it's a relic of a bygone age, and many of the recipes deserve to be given new life. The weaknesses are mostly in some of the main-course recipes that, by all appearances, can be extremely fatty and greasy. Speaking as someone who just lost 30 pounds, I don't need that! But they're probably good for an occasional indulgence. The cookie, cake and pie recipes are the book's strongest point. Saucepan Fudge Cake is easy and unbelievably good, and Rochester Cake (also labelled as Grandmother's Favorite Cake) is outstanding, a layered spice cake with a raisin filling and topping. It's a great favorite of mine for parties. The recipes for pickles, jams and jellies will probably interest a lot of people in reviving the dying art of home canning. There are recipes that probably don't work at all in today's world, or are probably not up to modern tastes. A Russian "birthday cake" is pumpernickel bread, sliced and spread with cottage cheese, and the recipe is probably presented more as a historical curiosity than anything else. Another recipe, for a "Pork Cake", is something like a cross between a fruitcake and a meatloaf and will probably make modern cooks gag. Still, there are many good good good recipes in this book. Hearty old-fashioned fare, not something to base one's diet from, but a great addition to a cook's library.