Women’s History Month Profile, Part 5: Ruth Berolzheimer (1886-1965)

March means it’s Women’s History Month again and I thought it would be fun, like last year, to profile some awesome women and their roles in American culinary history.

Culinary Arts Institute logo

We have more than a few of Ruth Berolzheimer’s volumes in our collection. In fact, hers is a name I encountered early on in my work with the History of Food and Drink Collection and one that persistently appears, if I’m hunting for recipes and publications from the 1940s and 1950s. She was a prolific editor of culinary publications as the director of the Culinary Arts Institute in Chicago. She edited a series of booklets devoted to various foods. Our holdings include:

• 250 Classic Cake Recipes, c.1949
• 250 Delicious Soups, c.1941
• 250 Superb Pies and Pastries, c.1941 and 1953 editions
• 250 Ways to Prepare Poultry and Game Birds, c.1940
• 250 Ways to Serve Fresh Vegetables, 1950
• 300 Healthful Dairy Dishes, 1952
• 300 Ways to Serve Eggs from Appetizers to Zabaglione, 1940
• 500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers, c.1949
• 500 Delicious Salads, 1940, 1949, and 1953 editions
• 500 Snacks, c.1949
• The Cookie Book, c.1949
• The Dairy Cook book, c.1941
• Victory Canning: Preserving, Drying, Smoking, and Pickling of Fresh Foods for Future Use, c.1942
• The Wartime Cookbook: 500 Recipes, Victory Substitutes and Economical Suggestions for Wartime Needs, 1942.

The cookie book, 1949

250 ways to prepare poultry and game birds, 1940

500 delicious salads, 1949

Victory canning: preserving, drying, smoking and pickling of fresh foods for future use, 1942

Among those not in our holdings are publications on desserts, fish and seafood, potatoes, meat, sandwiches, breads, and candies.

In addition to the themed publications, Ruth Berolzheimer and the Culinary Arts Institute produced a lengthy list of other cookbooks. There were multiple editions of The American Woman’s Cook Book, as well as the wartime variant, The American Women’s Food Stretcher Cook Book: Make Your Ration Points Go Twice as Far, and many editions of the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedia Cookbook.

The greater American cook book, 1940

Appetizer from The greater American cook book, 1940

Culinary Arts Institute encyclopedic cookbook, 1948

Hors d’oeuvres from Culinary Arts Institute encyclopedic cookbook, 1948

On a related note, I found this great 2008 online article about Ruth and her work, which also includes an interview with one of her nephews: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-cookbook-queen/Content?oid=1106100.

Be sure to check back next week, when the blog features publications from the History of Food and Drink Collection by Lily Haxworth Wallace!

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