„Nauka gotowania do użytku ludu polskiego”. Grudziądzka książka kucharska z 1915 roku

In the 19th century, Grudziądz became an important publishing centre, in which two high volume newspapers were published: German „Die Gesellige” and Polish „Gazeta Grudziądzka” [Grudziądz Daily], among others. Their principals, Gustav Röthe and Wiktor Kulerski made efforts to attract readers by publishing various popular publications of utilitarian character, e.g. religious books, calendars or medical handbooks. Among those publications, two cookery books deserve attention: German „Martha: eine zuverlässige Rathgeberin in der Kochkunst und in den meisten anderen Zweigen der Hauswirthschaft” published in 1866 and Polish „Nauka gotowania do użytku ludu polskiego” [Cooking education for use by Polish people] printed in 1915 . The article discusses circumstances of origin, contents and significance of the latter publication. It was elaborated on the basis of the recipes sent by local housekeepers to the competition announced by “Gazeta Grudziądzka”. The small booklet is of a great significance as the documentation of culinary habits and food preferences of those days. In the booklet, simple, practical and cheap cuisine based on soups, vegetable dishes and small quantities of meat or fish was described, as contrasted with the majority of cookery books published at that time. The range of products used in kitchen is evidence of a greater biological diversity of food, it can be seen that when it comes to flavor, there was fancy for sour flavor and blending it with sweet one. For instance, carp in gingerbread dip, described as Christmas Eve dish, bread baked with an addition of potatoes or dried cod (stokwisz) dish are especially noteworthy ones among printed recipes. All in all, „Nauka gotowania do użytku ludu polskiego” awaited three editions. The first one was published in ca 60000 copies – culinary recipes and dietary patterns expanded broadly.