A vintage cookbook with some intriguing tea & coffee tips

I'd learned of Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cook Book some years ago but never got around to actually searching for one. Then, I came across this copy of the 1954 cookbook in great condition for just 99 cents at a thrift shop in Rome the other day. Sold! When I got home and started reading it, I was especially intrigued by a chapter titled "The Fourth Meal." What is the Fourth Meal, you ask? According to this book, "It is the meal that people eat for fun. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, you eat the things you think you should eat. But in between, you eat the things you like."

Happily, their Fourth Meal suggestions include "Afternoon Teas," with some suggestions for sandwiches, salads, and other treats.

Now, when I got to these beverage recipes, I thought the Hot Tea recipe was pretty simple. No quibbles there. But check out the first ingredient in the coffee recipe. I was flummoxed. What on earth? Surely they didn't mean to put a raw egg in with the coffee. But indeed, that's exactly what they meant. In fact, I found this article online which rather explains the why and the how. But I'm just shocked that as much as America loves its coffee, I had never heard of this before. Have any of you? Have any of you tried egg coffee? I'd love to hear a review!

Where to find 82 free recipe booklets

My correspondent (and friend) Joy has shared a link to an amazing *free* resource, the Nicole Di Bona Peterson Advertising Cookbook Collection at Duke University's Rubinstein Library. Some 82 vintage recipe booklets are included, and of course this one caught my eye with the pretty tea wares on the cover. And just what IS The Vital Question, you may ask? It is, according to the inside of the booklet, "a discussion of the food problem and its relation to health and happiness  –… including a comprehensive treatise on the principles of cookery … with practical and economical recipes for making simple, palatable and nutritious shredded wheat dishes." Recipes include such delicacies as Strawberries in Shredded Wheat Baskets and Oyster Shredded Wheat Patties.

Like World War II–era recipes? Then you may wish to check out War-Time Cook and Health Book, with recipes for foods such as Corn Custard, Soft Honey Cake, and Apple Brown Betty.

Perhaps one of the most tempting titles is Choice Recipes, which features chocolate and cocoa recipes by a "Miss Parloa," including Chocolate Walnut Wafers, Wellesley Loaf Cake, Baker's Chocolate "Divinity" (yes, Walter Baker and Co. is apparently that Baker's Chocolate), Marshmallow Fudge, Chocolate Cream Pie, and more.

I love old recipe booklets, and when I see a new source for treats that might work at the tea table, I am always inclined to share … as was Joy!