Cooking with a Touch of Class

Margaret Bremmer was an artist and illustrator in Chesterville, Ontario.

Here is one person’s collection of favorites — and it’s a good collection. It could well be called “Cooking with a Touch of Classics,” since many of the recipes are just that. There’s everything from Egg Salad Sandwich Filling to Crab Fondue, from one form of Peking Duck to 20 quarts of Stewed Tomatoes.

All measurements are in imperial measure, and, although a metric conversion chart is provided, it is inaccurate; so stick with your old cup-measures with this book. Including the cover there are nine superb color photographs by Peter Bolli. The index is really more of a detailed table of contents. You can’t look under “Muffins” or “Fondue” and see what there is, and you won’t find Cabbage Rolls unless you can remember “Holubtsi.” You have to know the exact name of the recipe you want.

The book is printed in dark blue ink, which is a nice touch, and the pages are nicely set up with a line border and a small drawing at the bottom. Everything is hand-printed; unfortunately, the calligrapher has a tendency to a back-hand slant and should have printed on a grid to correct this. It’s not serious in the text, but the titles give the entire book an unprofessional feel.

In this wide variety of recipes there really is “something for everyone” — from simple, basic dishes to complicated, time-consuming ones. The directions are clean and the dishes are tasty — and that’s what’s important in a cookbook.