Robin Hood Cook Book: Recipes by Mrs. Rorer, Historical Notes by Elizabeth Driver

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

By 1915, advertising cookbooks were well established as a tool for brand
promotion. Robin Hood Flour joined the trend, but with a difference.
Rather than print an inexpensive collection of recipes gathered from
miscellaneous sources, Robin Hood Flour went first class by publishing a
coherent, well-thought-out recipe collection by a celebrity cook,
accompanied by original artwork on the Robin Hood theme. Part of the
quality strategy was the first colour printing to be used in a Canadian
cookbook. The production cost “$10,000” and was promoted as
comparable to a book that would retail for as much as $1.50. The
strategy worked: Robin Hood Flour became a household name across Canada
and the cookbook a valued possession of Canadian homemakers for at least
half a century.

This reproduced edition makes evident what all the excitement was
about. The delicately coloured artwork is beautiful. There are several
full-page plates of Robin Hood Flour products, plus 21 illustrations of
scenes from Robin Hood’s life. Never mind that smaller sketches of
16th-century merry maids and men are linked by art nouveau swirls to the
20th-century Robin Hood Mills in Saskatchewan. It all blends
beautifully.

The famous Mrs. Rorer, who was paid a “handsome fee” for her work,
provided recipes that the publisher boasted of as “complete and
perfect in every respect.”

While there is no reason not to try the recipes today, nearly a century
of changes in the availability of ingredients, terminology, and
nutritional preferences consign most of the collection to the
fun-reading category.