Bringing Old Cookbooks Back To Life

I've written quite a bit on my blog about bringing out-of-copyright cookbooks back to life, perhaps as recipe collections. There's such a strong interest in whole foods and all natural cooking these days that it seem like some recipes from simpler times would have a audience. Since cooking is hardly one of my strong points, I'm hoping to drag me niece into the business, which is one of the reasons I'm using the New Deal Press domain rather than my regular publishing site. Besides, the name is somewhat fitting, since the idea is to give old cookbooks a new life. I'm also trying to give an old domain names a new life, so if your were looking for a restaurant rather than a cookbook, that would explain how you got here:-)

I've read cookbooks going back two hundred years an more, thanks to the collection of the Smith College library. To actually do the work of republishing, not to mention the excessive handling the cookbook is likely to see in the process, I'm going to stick with cookbooks I can actually buy. There's an auction this coming Tuesday that includes old cookbooks, so I'm hoping to purchase a nice selection.

The first step will be republishing recipes online, and waiting to see if there's any interest. If there is an interest in particular recipes or styles of cooking from dares of yore, I'll plan on bringing out a print-on-demand cookbook to see if that demand translates to paper. There's always the issue of illustrations with print on demand, but I've been very impressed by the use of black and white line drawings of food items and preparation in old cookbooks I've seen, which will work fine with basic printing.

So this page, and site, are a work in progress that I've just begun. It's two bad there's now way to open an online restaurant instead of limiting the site to recipes, maybe I should look into Second Life.