Robert W. Surridge D.ed.

Butter Size of a Turkey Egg: the Foodways and Social World of the Ladies of the Presbyterian Church of Kingston, Pennsylvania in 1907. Including over 450 of Their Everyday Recipes. Robert W. Surridge D.ed.

Using a 105 year-old church cookbook as background, Butter Size of a Turkey Egg revisits the lives and times of the most important families of a Pennsylvania coal mining town at the turn of the 20th century.  Families that had Anglo-Saxon surnames like Dorrance, Hoyt, Vaughn, Welles, Goodwin, Pierce, Butler and Loveland.  Today these names are still known to local residents because they are the names local landmarks and streets in Kingston, Pennsylvania.

Ruth Reichl, Culinary Editor, Modern Library says that to fully appreciate a historic cookbook, the challenge is not to just cook the recipes, but to "read through the recipes to the lives behind them."  To meet this challenge, the author, presents readers with delicious details about the ladies who collected and published the original cookbook.  Using information from U. S. Census records, newspaper articles, and historic publications; the book contains specific details about each of 75 ladies who contributed to the original cookbook, plus over 450 of their everyday recipes.

The ladies who contributed to the 1907 cookbook represented the middle and upper income classes of Kingston.  Compared to their immigrant neighbors these ladies were economically and educationally advantaged.  Because of their advantages, they were able to address community needs through participation in civic organizations and by supporting reforms such as women's suffrage and prohibition.  However, the growth of the Anthracite coal industry and the unprecedented influx of immigrants speaking a variety of languages and bringing new traditions from the "old country" made life exciting and stressful for the 1907 residents of Kingston.  Similar to today, there were palpable differences in responses to these great changes.  Certainly, some of the ladies recognized the plight of the immigrant and worked to help them improve their situation.  However, others were likely convinced that all they valued was being destroyed by the large influx of legal immigrants, which the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper labeled as "foreigners".  Dr. Michael Barton, director of Penn State's Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies commented "The humblest, simplest documents from the past can sometimes tell us more about a people than their most articulate spokesman will.  If you are a long-time Pennsylvanian, Butter Size of a Turkey Egg provides many clues to the ways of your ancestors.  And, admirable of lamentable, it's the way we were."

The book is divided into five parts.  The first part provides background information about the United States during the Progressive Era (1890-1920). The second part describes local events during the early 1900's in Luzerne County and Kingston. The third part provides details about the lives of the ladies.  The  fourth part contains information and advice  helpful to cooking these vintage recipes.  The final part contains the complete text of the original cookbook and includes over 450 recipes.