A recipe is not just a list of ingredients and instructions. It’s a memory … a memory of tastes and smells, people and, at times, special gatherings and holidays. Recipes remind us of family dinners and our own attempts to, successfully or unsuccessfully, replicate a tried-and-true favorite.

Likewise, a cookbook is not just a book filled with recipes. It’s a book filled with memories. More than four decades ago, the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association (PREA), the statewide advocate for the 14 cooperatives in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ventured into something a little different: cookbook publishing.

The result was “Country Cooking,” which was advertised as “recipes from the women of the rural electric cooperatives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.” The book was so popular, two volumes were developed by what was then the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Women’s Task Force. Several years later, the group followed up that success with their third and final cookbook, “Recipes Remembered,” another featuring tried-and-true recipes from co-op members.

“When you have a recipe of a family member and you make it, the smells and the taste bring you back to family,” says Anita Leitzel Stambaugh, who before retiring from PREA/Allegheny was responsible for marketing and selling the cookbooks. “People talk about memories of when you last ate the recipe, who used to make it, and how the recipe has been tweaked through the years. It brings back thoughts of home and community.”

Just like grandma used to make

The first volume of “Country Cooking” featured popular recipes of the era, including multiple versions of molded gelatin salads — remember those?! — as well as cooking hints, such as “Use a thread instead of a knife when cutting a hot cake.” Low-calorie recipes for everything from deviled eggs to tuna salad were printed alongside those for “Jimmy Carter’s cheese ring” and eight varieties of fudge.

"Country Cooking" Vol. 2
 

Leitzel Stambaugh recalls 10,000 copies of the original “Country Cooking” were printed, and they sold quickly, as did the next 5,000 copies. In 1988, the Women’s Task Force decided it was time to start collecting recipes for volume two.

In a possible indication of economic challenges, this volume of “Country Cooking” featured recipes for Poor Man’s Cake, Mock Lobster and Mock Salmon Loaf. Recipes for fingerpaint, treats for dogs and birds and bubble bath also made it into this edition.

By 1994, the women’s organization had changed its name to the PA/NJ Rural Electric Community Service Network, which still exists today, and wanted to publish a third cookbook, with a defined focus on individual cooperatives.

Leitzel Stambaugh says this book, “Recipes Remembered,” was divided into sections by cooperative and included a brief history of each. It also included recipes from PREA/Allegheny staff as well as from cooks across the country with ties to electric cooperatives.

“History is so important,” she notes, “because as time goes by, we sometimes lose those stories.”

While the third cookbook was popular, Leitzel Stambaugh says co-op members continued to request its sister publications. “We would get calls every year saying, ‘My grandmother’s recipe was in the book. Do you have any left?’ ” she says. “Families still wanted copies of favorite family recipes.”

The cookbooks are a look back at the history of rural Pennsylvania as well as the cooks who submitted the recipes, Leitzel Stambaugh notes.

“When you look at the recipes, you can tell if the person who submitted it had hunters or anglers in their family,” she adds. “You can tell how they were doing economically.”

Leitzel Stambaugh has favorites from each one.

“I am not someone who does a lot of baking, but there is a cheesecake recipe that is wonderful,” she says. “It uses four 8-ounce packages of cream cheese. It’s so good that I have made it and given it as a gift. (See recipe at right.)

“Over the years, you got to know who submitted really good recipes and you knew you wanted to make their stuff.”

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Editor’s note: PREA has copies of “Country Cooking” (Vol. 2 only) and “Recipes Remembered” in stock, both of which would make great holiday gifts. The cookbooks are available as a set for only $12. For more information about ordering, see page 27.