Time Travel Kitchen

A Toast to ‘Mrs. Joy’ - The Joy of Cooking, Part Three

“Most cocktails containing liquor are made today with gin and ingenuity. In brief, take an ample supply of the former and use your imagination.” — Irma Rombauer, 1931

I love these opening lines.

Written on the very first page of the 1931 edition of The Joy of Cooking, it’s funny and cheeky that Irma Rombauer starts her book with a cocktail recipe during Prohibition. She’s the wise-cracking friend with the can-do spirit. She’s in the kitchen with you saying ‘take what ya got and make it work.’

And this is what sets the book apart. With the introduction of her ‘action method’, the recipes were written out like a story and she lead you step-by-step through it—you weren’t left on your own. In fact, the title page reassures the novice or nervous cook immediately with the words that the book is ‘A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat’.

Julia Child is one of those who reported she learned to cook from The Joy of Cooking . She charmingly referred to Irma as ‘Mrs. Joy’. People have a connection to this book — it’s passed down through generations. Everyone has what John Becker, Irma’s great-grandson and co-author of the latest 2019 update calls ‘their’ edition. For me it was the 1975 edition, the last one edited by Irma’s daughter Marion Rombauer Becker. She was the visionary who expanded on her mother’s original work and gave us the 1963 and 1975 editions that continue to be built upon today. The latest edition is beautifully done and breaks its own new ground with the inclusion of new recipes for dishes that have become part of everyday cooking in America. These recipes reflect the broader cultural representation in our country and in our kitchens today.

There have never been any photos in any of the editions, including the latest. John Becker has said that both Irma and Marion insisted on no photos, feeling it would give a timelessness to the book. When I made the Peach Cake last week, I did wonder, ‘Is this how it’s supposed to look?’ But then I thought it looked pretty and tasted great, so did it really have to look any way but how it did?

(Full disclosure: I caved later and did look for pictures of similar peach cakes online and experienced ‘The Joy of Kuchen’ when I felt mine held its own.)

Last week I had dinner with my brother and I asked the bartender if he knew the name of a cocktail with the ingredients in Irma’s recipe, attached below. He didn’t, but a few minutes later he unexpectedly and very sweetly came back to us and had concocted one for me. He added a little apricot syrup, but the effect wasn’t overly sweet, and the crispness of the gin came through. It’s a great summer drink (pictured above). I’m calling it ‘The Irma’, however there is an updated version in the new edition that has the much hipper name ‘Irma’s Gin and Juice.’

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series about the The Joy of Cooking as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

To ‘Mrs. Joy’ and her family— I raise my glass and thank you for all you’ve done for generations of cooks.

Here’s the cocktail recipe with some other ideas for its use. Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Scribner Books and the authors of 2019 Edition of The Joy of Cooking for allowing me to reprint it here.

More Joy: I want to share some nice news that Time Travel Kitchen was featured on the home page of Substack last week. Thank you all for coming along with me each week, and sharing with your friends and family, it means a lot. Cheers! 🥂 Jolene

Sources:

The Joy of Cooking, 1931, Irma S. Rombauer, copyright Simon & Schuster, Inc. (Scribner imprint)

The Joy of Cooking, 2019, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker, John Becker and Megan Scott, copyright Simon & Schuster, Inc. (Scribner Imprint

Photos: Jolene