The Woodstove Cookerybook
On a cold, gray day in Truckee, 40 years ago, what could you do for warmth and comfort? You could light your wood stove, enjoy seeing the flames through the window, and cook a yummy meal in an iron pot on top.
Even if the power went out, as it often did in winter months in those days, no problem. You could be warmed and cheered by the fire from the stove, along with smelling a delicious recipe your mom used to cook.
In 1977, I moved to Truckee into a house that was built in 1878, learning in time that people chose to move here because of the surrounding natural beauty. In 1974, my husband Tom and his friend Tim Ward had bought the house on main street, a block from the downtown businesses, for $11,400.
Our friends also lived in inexpensive old houses, worked hard, and cooked at home. The simplicity of the “good old days” offered us time to share our beautiful outdoor setting and the stories of our pasts.
Tom and I were raised in the 1940s and ’50s in the Midwest, by people whose lives were simple and only survivable through hard work. Our parents lived on what they earned, and eating well (not expensively, but well) was always a priority. Recipes passed down from parents and grandparents were an important part of living and enjoying food.
When Tom and I decided to write The Woodstove Cookerybook in 1980, it wasn’t for money. Tom taught skiing in the winter, and I worked at a local downtown store and restaurant, so we had the time and thought it would be fun to create a cookbook and test recipes to choose which ones to include.
Our house, in the heart of downtown, 100 feet from the railroad tracks, had a ground-level to store old stuff, a main level with a small living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a room we converted to Tom’s office. The top level was two bedrooms and a bathroom that we had installed. Back in the old days, people bought the old houses because of the low prices. We were never allowed to remodel the exterior, due to the historic preservation code for our 100-year-old town.
Other than the frequent train whistles, old Truckee was quiet, and the warmth came from feeling safe and having nature’s beauty and good friends nearby. A popular store downtown, Robert’s, provided useful and unique household items, some of which we bought for cooking on our wood stove. In December 1980, the owner of Robert’s agreed to sell The Woodstove Cookerybook and displayed it at the checkout counter.
Soon, the book gained popularity. Reviews were published in the Sierra Sun (twice), Tahoe Daily Tribune, and Lodi News Sentinel. (Tom was raised in Lodi.)
But the real fame came in December 1981 when we received a call from a man who said he recently bought a copy of our book at Robert’s while visiting Truckee. “My name is Merle Ellis,” he began, “and I write the food column for the San Francisco Chronicle. I would like to write about The Woodstove Cookerybook. Is that okay?” he asked.
I was stunned. “Of course!” I answered.
On December 29, 1981, his story appeared in the Chronicle, titled Old-Fashioned Cooking on a Wood Stove, and featured two of our recipes, one entitled Montana Beef Stew and the other Tom’s Never Twice the Same Beans.
Oh, and Ellis had ended our phone conversation with the comment, “My column is syndicated in 130 newspapers.”
After the article ran, checks poured in, and, over the years, we sold thousands of copies of our little cookbook, always for $3.95, plus 70 cents for shipping. An obsessive bookkeeper, I wrote down the number of letters I sent to libraries, museums, prospective dealers, magazines, book clubs, and distributors. I also kept Merle Ellis’s handwritten letter to Tom, “I’m glad you’re getting some results from the column,” it read. “Hope it continues. Neva and I are going to try to take advantage of your offer to do a little skiing before the snow melts. We’ll be in touch.”
In April 1983, The Woodstove Cookerybook was also included in another column in the San Francisco Chronicle, titled Cooking with Wood by Jane Benet, a food editor, with our address and phone number included.
The story goes on from there, but I’ll just end with this — cookbooks never get old, nor do most good books. Keep reading, keep cooking, and keep enjoying the past and the future in your present.
