Rochester Junior League Cookbook Applehood and Motherpie

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I love old cookbooks, especially community cookbooks. I have a collection of old church cookbooks, each recipe is neatly typewritten, quite the feat when I consider the amount of times I use the backspace key. I also have cookbooks compiled by schools, such as nursery and private schools, those are fun because they often feature artwork from kids.  A few general vintage cookbooks round out my collection, just because they can be fun to read. But my favorite by a landslide is the Rochester Junior League Cookbook Applehood and Motherpie

Ask any cookbook collector and they will tell you no cookbook collection is complete without some Junior League cookbooks.  Junior League cookbooks are considered the golden standard of community cookbooks. Created by Junior League chapters all over the country the cookbooks are used to raise money for churches, schools and other various nonprofit community programs, that feature tried and true recipes with a focus on local tastes and trends.

If you walk into any bookstore you will find a ton of newer cookbooks all with highly styled gorgeous photos.  Applehood & Pie’s focus was always on the job at hand:  providing you with a book full of amazing recipes with local ties. There are no full-page glossy photos, but the recipes enough. I find myself reaching for this book again and again.

Junior League cookbooks become beloved in the communities they were created. I grew up in Wayne County which lies within the Rochester area, and is also the biggest apple producing county in the state of New York,  Applehood and Motherpie was almost required reading. The appeal was twofold for us, many of the recipes feature apples, and it was put together by our neighbors down the road, or New York State Route 104 to be exact.

Almost all my friends mother’s kitchens had a copy of the Applehood and Motherpie. Usually the book was proudly displayed on a shelf, easy to spot sporting an  apple– green vinyl cover that bends partway so that the book cover can also serve as book stand, which by the way is truly a genius idea. The book was first published in 1981, but is still in print, and you can get the vinyl stand book cover version directly from the Junior League of Rochester, and I even have a $5 off coupon code for you! Just use the coupon code HomeinFLX .

Want to take a peek into Applehood and Motherpie? These are a few of my favorite recpies:

• McCurdy’s Department Store Apple Spice Cake
• Sauerkraut Salad
• After-School Applesauce Cake