Northern Cookbook
Illustrated Reference Food History Canadiana Regional Cooking Wild Game Cooking Vintage Cookbook Outdoor & Camp Cooking
Vintage Canadian cookbook collectors hunt for Eleanor Ellis’ 358-page “Northern Cookbook” because it is the definitive snapshot of mid-century prairie and bush-country cuisine. First published when Canada’s northern territories were still opening up, this illustrated paperback preserves 1,000+ field-tested recipes that work when the nearest grocery store is hundreds of kilometres away—think bannock baked over an open fire, caribou stew, wild-rice hot-dish, and choke-cherry preserves—each one triple-tested by home cooks who depended on the results. James Simpkins’ charming line drawings of log-cabin kitchens, ice-fishing shacks, and trap-line camps give every page the feel of a scrapbook you might thumb through in a remote lodge, making the book as much a piece of Canadiana as it is a working manual.
What makes this copy extra desirable is the gift inscription on the front flyleaf: a handwritten note from the era of its first printing, untouched for half a century. The scribble is not from the author, but it anchors the book in a specific Canadian kitchen and instantly turns it into a conversation-starting artifact. Despite cover scuffs and edge water marks that attest to its journey north and back, the binding remains tight and every recipe page is fully legible—perfect for actual use or for display in a cottage, hunting camp, or heritage kitchen.
Cooks who want authentic northern flavour, food historians cataloguing regional Canadian cuisine, and collectors chasing well-illustrated vintage cookbooks all converge on this title. Add “Northern Cookbook” to your shelf and you’ll own both a trusted reference for game, fish, and foraged foods and a nostalgic window onto the days when sour-dough starter was more valuable than gold.
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