“Just think, Elsa – one day our culinary toils will be immortalized in a downloadable PDF.” Students prepared food in a UW-Stout class in the early 1900s.

Everyone knows that grandma’s food is the best. But when grandma’s cooking isn’t an option, you can visit UW-Stout’s online cookbook and look up her old recipes ... or at least something in the ballpark. University Archives and Area Research Center recently posted online 15 olden days cookbooks from the early years of the university’s domestic science and home ec education programs. The database includes over 1,100 recipes ranging from 1890 to 1925. The project was spearheaded by recently retired UW-Stout archivist Kevin Thorie. Several of the cookbooks were written by some of the first faculty of UW-Stout’s domestic science department and include hand-written notes and suggestions. So, whether you’re looking to emulate a recipe from the past or simply want something tasty for dinner, navigate your way over to UW-Stout’s Cookbook Archive and fire up ye olde stove.