Hunyady, Erzsébet

[HUNGARIAN] [DOMESTIC SCIENCE] A JÓ HÁZIKONYHA; IGY KELL FÓZNI!

Budapest: 1926. Hardcover. 466 pages. 24 x 17 cm. A well-used Hungarian cookbook turned personal archive, this copy contains more than seventy-five pieces of laid-in ephemera reflecting its owner’s lifelong devotion to cooking. From the assortment of newspaper clippings, it appears the original owner was a Hungarian émigré who settled in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Among the papers preserved within are clippings from the Washington Post, Washington Star-News, New York Times, and The Sunday of Catholic Hungarians, dating from the early 1950s through the late 1970s.

Also included are numerous typed recipes—some in Hungarian, others in English—alongside notes on expenses, a decorative Christmas card from a sister, three airmail stamps, a General Mills Home Meal Planner, and a money order receipt. Many of the baking recipes bear signs of repeated use, their stains testifying to a cook who clearly loved her craft. Of particular note is a clipped review of George Lang’s The Cuisine of Hungary, offering a glimpse into a Hungarian-American homemaker continuing to cherish the flavors of her homeland. More than a cookbook, this volume served as a deeply personal keepsake, a domestic record as intimate as a family bible. Covers worn; title page missing; interior otherwise clean. Cream cloth covered boards. Good. Item #4191

Price: $175.00