Elizabeth Baird's Classic Canadian Cooking: Menus for the Seasons

Virginia Gillham is university librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University.

One need spend only a few seconds flipping through a 20-year-old
cookbook to realize how much our eating habits have changed in the past
generation. Health-conscious, weight-conscious Canadians now limit their
intake of red meat and assiduously count fat grams. It is therefore
surprising to see a 20-year-old cookbook reissued, virtually unchanged,
in an “anniversary edition.”

The preface to the reissued edition talks at length about developments
on the Canadian culinary scene since the original publication in 1974,
and the reader is moved to hope that the recipes and menus have been
revised to reflect parallel changes in eating habits. Unfortunately,
this has not happened.

The theme of the book—the use of locally available foods in
season—is a good one. The contents are arranged by season; each
section offers menus and recipes that capitalize on the fresh produce
likely to be available in Canada at various times of the year or feature
the foods traditional to various seasonal celebrations. How unfortunate
that the execution of this valid theme might not have incorporated
healthier recipes to reflect current trends.

The reader is hard pressed to find a main-dish recipe that does not
include substantial quantities of whole milk, heavy cream, and butter.
Cheese, fowl still dressed in their skins, pan drippings, and bacon
abound. It is little wonder that the now-common practice of including
nutritional analyses with recipes has no place on these pages.

It is easy to understand why this book was popular 20 years ago.
Reissuing it in 1995 without revisions was a mistake.