This Vintage Cookbook Is the 1 Thing I Asked My Grandma to Leave Me

My grandmother was far from a collector. She was known for throwing out anything that didn’t bring her joy long before Marie Kondo, even if it didn’t belong to her. My mother will never forgive her for all the Mary Quant and Rudi Gernreich fashions that ended up in a landfill. But somehow, among the four or five cookbooks she kept on her shelf was the one that outlasted practically everything else in her home. 

Each time I went to her house, from the time I was in my teens, I sat on her couch with that tome as if I had been magnetized to it. At 456 pages, it weighed me down so that I couldn’t go anywhere until I absolutely had to—usually to stake out my place in line by the cheese plate that always included chèvre just for me.

I always told my grandmother I only needed her to will me one thing: Her copy of Mary and Vincent Price’s “A Treasury of Great Recipes.” Ultimately, she gifted it to me before she passed on in 2017. She said she wanted to see me enjoy it. And I have. 

‘A Treasury of Great Recipes’ Earns Its Title

People say not to judge a book by its cover, but the Prices’ magnum opus is a worthy one. Shiny light brown with gold writing, the original edition, from 1965, is every bit as weighty as its contents’ merit. 

And the names on that cover? One will likely ring a few bells to horror fans. Vincent Price starred in more than his share of horror classics, including everything from vintage Poe-based Roger Corman joints such as “The Masque of the Red Death” and William Castle’s schlocky “The Tingler” to playing Edward Scissorhands’ creator in Tim Burton’s film of the same name. His wife Mary was perhaps less notorious, but I would have loved to spend time in the kitchen—and international dining rooms—with her. 

When I first picked up the book, it was as a film aficionado seeking to enjoy a quirky novelty. I was rewarded with the most impressive time capsule of 1965 dining in existence. Today, budding culinary historians can rely on the “Eating History” Facebook page to find vintage menus from around the world. For me in the 1990s, “A Treasury of Great Recipes” stoked my already burning desire to read every menu I could, from any era. 

What’s Inside the Cookbook?

The fact that, like the Prices, my grandmother had been an avid traveler in the same epoch made the photos of 1960s dining rooms and dishes even more of a joy. I could finally put contemporary images to my vegetarian mother’s story of being forced by a waiter to order duck at Paris’ La Tour d’Argent. I could imagine it on the menu—if only I could scrounge up a duck press, I could try replicating the Caneton Tour D’Argent at home. 

But the beauty of most of the book is that it’s approachable for home cooks. According to the couple’s daughter, Victoria Price, in a preface added to the 50th-anniversary edition of the book, Mary resisted the publisher’s wish to share Spanish restaurant Botín’s famous suckling pig recipe in favor of a modified preparation of fresh ham or leg of lamb in the same style. 

As someone who has owned too many cookbooks merely as objets d’art (I’m looking at you, “The French Laundry Cookbook”), I have a great appreciation for a book that I can actually cook from without major adjustments. I started especially simple with the tagliatelle verdi gratinate al prosciutto, or green noodle casserole with prosciutto. Who can argue with salty, meaty baked pasta?

The recipe from Harry’s Bar in Venice, a restaurant famous for creating the Bellini and carpaccio, is basically spinach fettuccine in cream sauce, baked with prosciutto and lots of Parmesan. 

Though the Prices’ travels were mostly limited to the United States and Western Europe, the book also pays visits to Mexico and Puerto Rico, only slightly problematic by today’s standards. After all, this was a time during which the Prices said, “Coconut milk is easy to come by—once you have a coconut, that is!” The definition of convenience has certainly changed in the last six decades—so has cuisine. In 1965, the New York Pierre Hotel’s Pierre Grill was considered wildly adventurous for its “best curries this side of Bombay,” wheeled out by “two East Indian boys in native costume.” But alongside it, the Eurocentric palate still craved Soufflé Pudding Pierre for dessert.

For a taste of the era (and eras long before the Prices’ own), one of my favorite sections of the book belongs to Lüchow’s Restaurant, called “The Gourmet’s Rendezvous since 1882.” There are recipes for German pancakes, sauerbraten, and herring in dill sauce, but it’s clear that Price was especially fond of the restaurant’s beef steak tartar, which he introduced with the line, “One of the pleasantest ways I know of to lose weight is to go on a raw meat binge for a few days.” So, for horror fans looking for hints of Price’s spooky side, there you have it!

But for me, it’s a different way of communing with the dead. Whenever I read or cook from “A Treasury of Great Recipes,” my grandmother’s memory lives on. And happily, she did get to see me enjoy it.