The Storybook Cookbook

by Carol MacGregor

22 recipes for foods that favorite storybook characters ate. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and bread.

Genres: Food, Childrens, Cookbooks

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, first and foremost, ANY general children's literature cookbook that ignores L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and Anne Shirley's famous (or rather infamous) liniment cake kind of makes me (at least on a personal level) rather annoyed and that Carol MacGregor sadly does this, that she totally disregards AOGG and in fact presents ONLY American and a few European children's novels (United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland) and corresponding recipes for her 1967 The Storybook Cookbook this is for me most definitely a major point against The Storybook Cookbook (the absence of Anne of Green Gables as well as the lack of diversity and globalism). And yes, while some of MacGregor's featured recipes, such as the based on Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague chicken pot pie, the griddle cakes from Ruth Sawyer's Roller Skates and the New England boiled dinner from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women have worked really well and also were really tasty when I made them (and that even my partner who is a very picky eater enjoyed in particular the chicken pot pie), for the most part, I have not been all that impressed with The Storybook Cookbook (and especially as a cookbook geared towards children) and that my three star rating is (at least in my humble opinion) pretty hugely generous (and in particular since I really do wonder why for the recipe inspired by Frances Hodgson-Burnett's The Secret Garden, the featured recipe is cold lemon soufflé and not the potatoes Dickon Sowerby, Mary Lennox and Colin Carven cook outdoors in order to fool the housekeeper and the doctor and to keep Colin's increasing convalescence and return to health a secret for as long as possible).

For one, aside from my issues regarding the missing diversity in The Storybook Cookbook (see above), I find it quite annoyingly frustrating that except for the fruit cup recipe based on Hugh Lofting's The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle there are NO recipes presented by Carol McGregor that are suitable for vegans and not to mention that a sizeable majority is also pretty high in fat, sucrose and sodium. Sure, I do not expect The Storybook Cookbook to be a healthy eating type of tome, but that far too many of MacGregor's recipes are not really healthy at all and full of butter, lard, shortening, sugar and salt is rather ridiculous (and also makes me personally hesitate to try The Storybook Cookbook with the intended audience, with children). For two, considering that The Storybook Cookbook is meant for children, why are quite a number of Carol MacGregor's recipes pretty darn difficult to make and some also potentially dangerous? For no and as examples, I certainly would not want children who are novice cooks deep-frying donuts (such as for the donut recipe based on Robert McCloskey's Homer Price) or making soft pretzels (Marguerite de Angeli's Thee, Hannah!) as submerging pretzels into boiling water and baking soda before baking them could in my opinion easily cause scalding, and just to equally point out that successfully poaching eggs in the traditional way with vinegar (which is the first recipe MacGregor provides in The Storybook Cookbook and is based on Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio) is not at all easy and requires a very steady hand.

And finally, I do think that the main reason why my rating for The Storybook Cookbook is three and not two stars is that I do not want to appear too curmudgeonly, that some of the recipes certainly present favourite types of food and that I also appreciate how Carol MacGregor shows both recipes in The Storybook Cookbook and also provides citations of the corresponding novels (but that I would probably not recommend The Storybook Cookbook as a cookbook for children and in fact not for anyone who is a novice cook).

[Cheryl]

Imo, cover is the best part. I do recommend that you take a peek on openlibrary if the book appeals to you. But none of the recipes in the table of contents appeal to me. I did look at Robinson Crusoe's bread, but apparently he had access to yeast, and I cannot get yeast breads to rise well. April 2025