OP: Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices

$60 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters · No longer available

Herter's, Waseca Minnesota, 1967. Hardcover. Very Good. Outrageous, preposterous, bombastic, chauvinistic, outlandish, and dismissive are all words used to describe George Leonard Herter (1911–1994). The New York Times called him a “surly sage, gun-toting Minnesotan and All-American crank” and an “oddball know-it-all.” We rather like to think of this expert raconteur with the qualified affection one might have for an occasionally racist, frequently misogynist, and most certainly unhinged distant relative. Herter, an outdoor goods store owner and operator by day, was also a prolific writer. An appreciation for culture and good eating led to his self-published cookbook, Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices (1960). By 1966 Herter claimed that over a million copies had sold, “more than any other cookbook ever published.” Though his calculations are specious, the book was indeed a massive hit and had been reprinted fifteen times by 1970. He followed with two additional volumes. The series is now something of a cult classic. To call Bull Cook a recipe book, however, would be a disservice. Herter is an opinionated storyteller first and foremost, and nearly every recipe is preceded by a purportedly historical account that may—or may not—have any relationship to the dish that follows. Fact checking at random, we are surprised at how many truths are to be found, though the distance between them might be filled with conjecture and hyperbole. The recipe for burro sand

• Printing: later
• Binding: Hardcover

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