Gourmand or Glutton?

The Rector Cookbook
World Famous Recipes
by George Rector
Rector Publishing, 1928

From the introduction:

I can affirm and testify, after looking over the books of that dim era, that Diamond Jim was the best twenty-five customers I ever had. Diamond Jim never smoked or drank. But how he ate! He loved to be surrounded by handsome men and beautiful women at the table and it was no unusual thing for us to lay covers for eight to ten guests of Mr. Brady. If they all kept their appointments, fine! If but two or three guests were to be present, fine! And if nobody showed up but Diamond Jim, fine!. Mr. Brady would proceeded gravely to eat the ten dinners himself.

Thus the table was set for this: a book of recipes which are somewhat schematic in form—it assumes the reader has knowledge of food preparation as well as a healthy (unhealthy?) appetite. Most of the recipes are quite rich: it has ten pages of sauces and two pages of various prepared butters. The bulk of the recipes are for fish, meat and poultry, with heavy use of the aforementioned sauces and butters. Suet is an essential for several dishes. The book’s author, George Rector, was a bit of a celebrity: son of a famous New York restaurateur, a radio and film personality (he even appeared in a Mae West film) and newspaper columnist.

The cookbook was evidently a perk from The Milwaukee Road rail line, the back of the book has ads for various train routes with a level service that would be unthinkable today.

Let’s eat!