Made-Over Dishes

Rorer, S. T., 1849-1937Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 85K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Made-Over Dishes by S. T. RorerAuthor: Rorer, S. T., 1849-1937,Language: English, Class: TX: Technology: Home economics, Release Date: Nov 1, 2004

Editor's review

S. T. Rorer was an influential late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American writer on home economics and cookery. Made-Over Dishes focuses on reusing leftovers and economizing in the kitchen, and belongs to the practical domestic-economy genre. Its value lies not in costly ingredients or elaborate presentation but in its systematic account of how a household kitchen of the period arranged the table with limited resources: leftover food from a previous meal was recombined, seasoned, and reshaped to reduce waste and maintain variety in the diet. The contents echo the contemporary development of home-economics education and the discipline of domestic science, and remain relevant to readers today concerned with food waste, household budgets, and vintage recipes. Readers should note that stove conditions, food supply, and food-preservation methods differed considerably from those of the modern kitchen; some procedures should not be followed directly and should be judged in light of modern food-safety knowledge. The Project Gutenberg public-domain electronic text makes it easy to search for specific dishes and methods, and it serves well as supplementary reading on food history, domestic history, and sustainable living, as well as for home cooks who enjoy finding inspiration in old recipes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Home cooks concerned with using leftovers and reducing food waste
Readers interested in American domestic and food history from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century
Students and enthusiasts studying home-economics education, household economy, and everyday life
Casual readers who enjoy browsing vintage recipes for kitchen inspiration

Not a good fit for

People seeking modern nutritional meal plans or precise gram-based recipes
Readers expecting professional restaurant-level techniques and plating
Beginners unwilling to adapt old methods to contemporary food-safety standards

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and choose entries by ingredient category or meal occasion that suit your own kitchen conditions.
Convert old measures and oven-temperature wording into modern units, then test in small batches and record adjustments.
Compare preservation and reheating steps with modern food-safety and refrigeration advice, and remain cautious.
Distill the book's economizing ideas into a checklist for planning a week's menu of recombined leftovers

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can the recipes in this book be followed directly?

Not entirely. The book addresses household kitchens of a century ago, where stoves, measures, food supply, and preservation differed from today's; some wording needs conversion, and preservation and reheating methods must be adjusted to modern food-safety standards. Treat the book as a source of ideas, test in small batches, and record your changes rather than using it as a modern operating manual.

What exactly does "Made-Over Dishes" mean?

Judging from the title and the author's background in domestic writing, it means reprocessing already cooked food or leftover ingredients into new dishes to save materials and vary the table. The recipes are organized around this idea, reflecting resource management in household economy rather than the specialized technique of a fixed cuisine.

What use is it to readers today?

Most directly, it offers inspiration for reusing leftovers and ideas for economizing, helping households reduce food waste and control budgets. For readers of food and domestic history, it presents how a particular era organized its kitchen and thought about household economy. Read it alongside modern nutrition and food-safety knowledge, taking the ideas rather than copying the steps.

Is the Project Gutenberg edition convenient to read?

This free public-domain electronic text is easy to search in full for specific ingredients or dish names, and passages are easy to copy for notes. The layout is mainly plain text, without the step-by-step illustrations common in modern cookbooks, so readers must organize the entries themselves. It suits quick reference on electronic devices and printing selected passages to use in the kitchen.

Comments

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About the author

Rorer, S. T., 1849-1937 Author

S. T. Rorer (1849–1937) was an American recipe writer known for practical home cooking. Public information about her life is limited, and she is chiefly known through a series of small, practical booklets. Six of her works are held here, all focused on convenient everyday dishes: sandwich combinations, many ways of cooking eggs, quick soups, made-over dishes, and oysters alongside ice creams, water ices, frozen puddings and refreshments. These titles show her attention to time-saving, economical and easy-to-follow recipes for the family kitchen. Her plain, clear instructions are typical of early practical cookbooks, offering ordinary readers workable everyday cooking solutions and reflecting the common fare of American households of her time.