Cooking back

With Waukegan celebrating its sesquicentennial, there are many people yearning for the good old days, when life was simpler.

But there is one aspect of life that definitely wasn't easier back then: cooking.

With the help of Beverly Millard and a 109-year-old cookbook, the News-Sun recently explored exactly how people cooked and prepared their food more than a century ago. Millard is the head librarian at the Waukegan Historical Society. You could use the cliché that she has forgotten more about Waukegan than most people will ever know, but Millard seems to remember everything.

On the week Waukegan officially celebrated its birthday, Millard took it upon herself to unearth a 1900 cookbook and follow a few recipes exactly as they were printed. The verdict: "These things all took longer than it does now," Mallard said. "It's a lot of work."

The source of her cooking frustration was "The Waukegan Cookbook," a compilation of recipes from the ladies at Waukegan's First Congressional Church.

The worn book features a handful of advertisements for local businesses around the turn of the century, including a full-page ad from First National Bank of Waukegan.

There are also dozens of recipes. Millard tried her hand at three of them: muffins, cream of tomato soup and chicken salad.

A few things stick out right away when looking at the recipes. For one thing, many of the meals featured are quite liberal in the amount of butter and fat needed. And cooking instructions aren't as precise as modern-day cookbooks. Because everyone used coal stoves, no cooking temperatures are listed, and no cooking times are given.

So how did Waukegan women know when to pull something out of the oven?

"They would watch them closely," said Mallard, who admits she grew impatient with the muffins. "I had to cheat because I got tired of watching ... I looked in (another) cookbook to get the time."