“Still Another” Cook Book [Cover title]

Walnut Creek, California: The Woman's Club, 1920. Very good. 6 ” x 4½”. Stapled thin card wrappers. Pp. 60. Very good: light wear and spotting to wrappers; faintly toned with a few spots to fore edge.

This is a rare book of recipes and culinary expertise issued by the Woman's Club of Walnut Creek, California, the town's first service club.

Organized in 1911, the club secured a Carnegie Foundation grant for the town library in 1916, among other volunteer efforts. They sold their clubhouse in 1997 (now in the historic registry) and disbanded in 2000.

This book offers 229 recipes in ten categories, each with the name of the woman responsible for its inclusion. Sweets were the star, with separate sections for “Cakes,” “Cake Fillings and Icings,” “Cookies and Doughnuts” and “Pies, Puddings and Desserts.” It also instructs on meats, breads, breakfast and “Luncheon Specials,” with entries for fried chicken, “Brain Cutlets,” “Old English Mustard Pickles” and a “Tomato Surprise Salad.” A few poems are interspersed, and one page has “Household Hints” on how to remove oil and grease spots, “toughen” up a new broom, store fresh fruits and “strongly flavored food.” The book also holds nine ads for local merchants such as the San Ramon Valley Bank and W.E. Mauzy & Son, plumbers for “Happier Homes – Happier Wives.” Our research revealed the founding of the latter in Walnut Creek in 1913, and others operating in the 1920s, allowing for our date attribution.

Rare culinary efforts from a California women's club. OCLC shows one holding, at the California State Library.