Skandinavisk Illustreret Kogebog [Scandinavian Illustrated Cookbook]. Udarbeidet for skandinaviske husholdninger i Amerika [Prepared for Scandinavian Households in America]

Chicago: C. Rasmussens Forlag, 1884. Octavo (20 x 13.5 cm.), 319 pages. In Dano-Norwegian, with some recipe titles in English and Swedish. One advertisement (page 308). Illustrated. Decorated endpapers. Table of contents. Lists of household and food-related terms, one with Danish and Norwegian equivalents, the other with English translations. Evident FIRST EDITION. An early Nordic-American cookbook associated with its place of publication owing to the high profile of Danish and Norwegian publishers in Chicago during the last decades of the nineteenth century; at the same time an exemplar of the earliest recipe anthology issued under a title that would later appear several times under the same imprint but relocated to Minneapolis (1892, 1902, and 1916), as well as under the imprint of Brynild Anundsen in Decorah, Iowa (1913). With some seven hundred unattributed recipes, compiled to reflect the interests of Scandinavian immigrants. Representative entries: Norsk Pund-Kage (Norwegian Pound Cake, with a cream-cheese glaze), Stikkelsbærkage (Gooseberry Cake), Danks Æblekage (Danish Apple Cake), Bandbakkelser (possbily Chouquettes), Russiske Pandekager (Russian Pancakes), Grønærte-Suppe (Green Pea Soup), Mi-Carême-Suppe (Mid-Lent Soup, with flounder), Chokolade-Suppe (Chocolate Soup), Koldskaal (Cold Bowl, a sweet buttermilk beverage), Kirsebær-Suppe (Cherry Soup), Gule Erter (Yelow Lentils), Æggesøbe (Egg Porridge), Rød-Grød (a mixed berry pudding), Rhabarber-Grød (Rhubarb Pudding), Sild (Herring), Plukkfisk (Whitefish), Fiske-Frikadesser (Fish Fritters), Stegte Östers (Fried Oysters), Oxesteg paa Amerkansk (Beef Stew American), Bankekjød (Mincemeat), Yankee Pork and Beans, Medister-Pølser (Spiced Sausage), Snittebønner (String Beans), Hvideroer (White Beets), Rodkaal (Kohlrabi, evidently; see below), Kartoffelbrei (Mashed Potatoes). There follows also a selection of recipes recommended for convalescents, a chapter on canning and food preservation, and a valedictory group of beverages, including Arrak and Jordbærlikør (Strawberry Liqueur). ~ Though his principal associates in Illinois were Norwegian, Christian Rasmussen (1852-1926) was a Dane, a Jutlander born in Sæby, who established a newspaper and printing firm in Chicago after his arrival in 1874, despite considerable competition. Like John Anderson (1836-1910), the Norwegian publisher of the most widely distributed Nordic news organ Skandinaven (established in Chicago a generation earlier), Rasmussen had been a printer by trade and had begun by acquiring presses and operating a network of press shops. From 1881 to 1890 he offered a general interest weekly, the Illustreret Ugeblad (Illustrated Weekly Blade) that in addition to news carried serialized novels and home advice columns for its chiefly urban readership. The field was crowded - Marion Marzolf has counted thirty-four Danish and twenty-four Dano-Norwegian newspapers across the midwest during the last decades of the nineteenth century ("The Danish Language Press in America," Norwegian-American Studies 28 (1979), 274-289, here at 278). Perhaps for this reason, in 1887 Rasmussen removed to Minneapolis, where the western expansion of the Northern Pacific Railroad was attracting a fresh influx of Scandinavian immigrants. There the newspaper continued (now simply titled Ugebladet [The Weekly Blade]), alongside Rasmussen's other publishing ventures, until 1929. ~ It is worth remarking that the news content of the papers sent to different population centers was essentially compiled from major newspapers of the day, a circumstance not irrelevant to the notion of publishing cookbooks, especially with unattributed recipes, under different imprints located in different urban centers. Another homogenizing element also deserves notice: although the positing of the construct Dano-Norwegian (after 1929 officially called Bokmål) testifies to the high degree of mutual intelligibility among dialects, books such as Skandinavisk Illustreret Kogebog also bring to the fore just how much guidance might have been appreciated in the 1880s by speakers of Danish, Norwegian, and even Swedish Americans. Examples can be supplied from the ingredients for the sample recipes listed above. According to the list of correspondences between Danish and Norwegian household terms (pages [287]-289), Norwegians conflated red cabbage with kohlrabi, and what Danes called brown sugar (puddersukker) Norwegians identified as raw sugar (raasukker). ~ Age-toned. Hinges starting; with a closed tear to the front free endpaper. In publisher's dark green boards with decorative border stamp and lettering enclosed in a gilt design; corners bumped. Still very good, and quite sharp looking. Scarce. [OCLC locates nine copies (also several copies of the later Rasmussen imprints issued from Minneapolis); not in Bitting, Cook, Brown, or Cagle].