Out of Old Ontario Kitchens
Christine Bates
Pagurian Press Ltd. 1978, 190 pages, out of print
My local used book shop, besides being supervised by one of the coolest felines ever and occasional guarded by Thor the Thunder Poodle, is a treasure trove of cool old stuff, and the food writing shelf almost always contains something that just has to come home with me.
I grabbed Out of Old Ontario Kitchens thinking is was the Upper Canada version of Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens, a cookbook that I grew up with in Halifax. While it’s similar, the Nova Scotia book is straight-up recipes, while the Ontario book also has bits of history and anthropology that offer explanations of the many dishes included.
Christine Bates, at the time that she wrote this book in the late 70s, was a senior historical interpreter at Montgomery’s Inn, a historic museum just outside of Toronto. Bates began a search for pre-Confederation recipes and food references in conjunction with her work at the museum which boasts a working Victorian-era kitchen, and besides hosting tours, also hosts a variety of food-related events throughout the year.
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