A calendar of dinners, with 615 recipes

In Short

This volume presents a comprehensive, day-by-day culinary reference that pairs 365 daily dinner menus with 615 fully tested recipes. Writing as a domestic science expert, the author provides a complete manual of kitchen instruction, covering everything from basic cooking techniques and butcher timing charts to table carving and vegetable preparation. The collection blends traditional American hearth cooking with early twentieth-century nutritional science, positioning a newly invented vegetable shortening as the modern replacement for butter and lard. Through its systematic structure, the work preserves an exhaustive snapshot of middle-class dining habits, seasonal eating, and domestic economy at the dawn of the industrial food era.

The Story

The book opens with a technical and practical introduction designed to establish kitchen mastery in the reader. It begins by introducing Crisco, an engineered vegetable fat, detailing its manufacturing origins, its culinary advantages over traditional fats, and the physical principles governing its use. The narrative immediately transitions into foundational domestic science, laying out essential guidance for young cooks, rules for selecting fresh produce and meats, descriptions of fundamental cooking methods, and a precise carving manual complete with timing tables for boiling, baking, broiling, and frying.

From these instructional foundations, the text advances into an extensive repository of categorized recipes. The author systematically works through every course of the standard early-twentieth-century meal. Soups move from basic stocks to rich creams, while fish and meat sections outline preparations ranging from simple broiled catches to elaborate fricassee and game dishes. Complex vegetable side dishes, molded salads, and savory egg creations follow, establishing a broad repertoire of everyday cooking.

The middle movement expands into specialized baking and confectionery, providing detailed instructions for yeast breads, quick rolls, biscuits, pastries, layer cakes, and candies. The author incorporates economical substitutions throughout these sections, illustrating how modern shortening functions in delicate shortbreads, fruit pies, and rich frostings without requiring refrigeration.

The final and largest movement of the work is the Calendar of Dinners itself, which assigns an entire balanced menu—soup, entree, sides, salad, dessert, and coffee—to every day from January 1 through December 31. Embedded directly within these daily entries are specialized sub-recipes for specific featured dishes, ranging from winter roasts and heavy puddings to summer fruit ices and cold jellies. Interspersed throughout the calendar are dedicated vegetarian menus, offering complete meatless meals like grilled mushrooms, nut roasts, and bean savories. The book concludes with a comprehensive index, leaving the home cook fully equipped to plan, prepare, and execute an entire year of varied household meals.

How It Unfolds

The foundation is laid The author introduces the operational principles of domestic science, explaining how to handle vegetable shortening correctly while outlining fundamental cooking methods, food selection criteria, and precise timing charts for the kitchen.

The core techniques are masterfully established Detailed sections walk the reader through primary courses, demonstrating how to prepare clear soups, dress and fry fish, roast meats, and assemble both raw and cooked salads with wire-basket drying techniques.

The baking manual expands the repertoire A broad collection of recipes covers quick breads, beaten biscuits, intricate pastry crusts, multi-layer celebration cakes, and handmade candies, establishing exact proportions for shortening, flour, and leavening agents.

The year of menus commences in winter The calendar begins in January with rich, heat-dense meals featuring codfish balls, brown chicken fricassees, boiled roots, and heavy baked puddings designed for cold-weather dining.

Spring and summer bring lighter fare As the months progress toward May and July, the daily menus transition to fresh asparagus, fish chowders, fruit sherbets, chilled salads, and quick-fried cutlets suitable for warmer months.

Autumn returns to hearty seasonal harvest The calendar moves through September and November with stuffed garden vegetables, game dishes like Belgian hare, braised ox tails, and spice-laden baked goods featuring nuts and autumn fruits.

The year concludes with winter feasts December closes the calendar with elaborate holiday menus, rich casserole dishes, vegetarian nut roasts, and festive puddings, completing the full annual cycle of family dining.

The People

Marion Harris Neil The author and domestic science authority who acts as the reader's instructor. She tests every recipe, designs the daily calendars, and advocates for systematic, scientific methods in the home kitchen to replace guesswork with measured precision.

The Young Cook The primary student addressed throughout the instructional text. This figure needs explicit rules on food selection, kitchen safety, timing, and carving so that household management becomes efficient rather than overwhelming.

Domestic Science Authorities The institutional researchers and college cooking department instructors who rigorously test each recipe alongside the author to ensure consistent results across different kitchens.

The Housewife The practical home manager who puts the menus into daily practice. She seeks to vary her family's diet, maintain household economy, and master new industrial ingredients without sacrificing food quality or palatability.

The Procter & Gamble Distributing Co. The corporate sponsor and publisher framing the text. Operating as a polite commercial voice, the company offers ongoing correspondence with readers while promoting its new vegetable shortening as a modern culinary necessity.

In Its Own Voice

A can of Crisco is no Aladdin’s Lamp, which merely need be touched by a kitchen spoon to produce magical dishes. But any woman is able to achieve excellent results by mixing thought with Crisco.

This advice frames the manufacturer's introduction, reminding the home cook that modern ingredients still require practice and intelligence.

Every salad, no matter how plain and simple it may be, should be made to look inviting and tempting.

Here, in the introduction to the salad section, the author emphasizes the aesthetic discipline expected in everyday domestic meal preparation.

Put a small piece of Crisco on each mushroom, season with pepper and salt to taste, and squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice.

This simple direction from the March 3 vegetarian menu illustrates the book's direct, clean style when instructing the reader on quick savory preparations.

What It's Really About

Beneath its hundreds of recipes, the book is an argument for the total modernization and systematization of the domestic sphere. It presents meal preparation not as an intuitive, haphazard craft passed down orally, but as an exact science governed by chemistry, precise timing, and standardized measurements. By providing a fixed menu for every single day of the year, the text attempts to remove the mental burden of household planning from the home cook. At the same time, it acts as a cultural vehicle for industrial food adoption, working to convince traditional cooks that a commercially manufactured, shelf-stable vegetable fat can fully replace animal fats like butter and lard without compromising taste, health, or traditional foodways.

Why Read It Today

This volume offers a captivating window into early twentieth-century domestic life, food culture, and the birth of modern food marketing. Readers interested in culinary history will appreciate the sheer variety of dishes, ranging from forgotten regional specialties like Maryland beaten biscuits and "Toad in the Hole" to creative early vegetarian roasts and savory fruit cocktails. The prose is clear, businesslike, and thoroughly accessible, though modern readers will notice period assumptions regarding heavy meat consumption, long boiling times for vegetables, and the casual inclusion of ingredients like oxtail, tripe, and ox heart.

What lingers long after reading is the book's fascinating historical position at the crossroads of home economics and corporate innovation. It demonstrates how educational literature was used to transform household habits, teaching an entire generation of cooks how to navigate the industrial food landscape. Whether read as a practical historical artifact or studied as a document of early advertising history, the text remains an impressive exercise in structural organization and domestic instruction.