Episode 19_Sleepy Advice for the Pastry Chef, Part I

Welcome to Recipe for Sleep, the cozy podcast where old cookbooks are your lullaby. I’m your host, Erin Brindley, chef and storyteller, guiding you to dreamland with the comforting rhythm of culinary history. Tonight, we’r e straying from the sweet world of 365 desserts and diving into something a bit more unique.

In this episode, we’re exploring the seventh edition of The American Pastry Cook from 1894, a delightful and dense cookbook written by Jessup Whitehead, a chef with a passion for large-scale cooking. While we won’t be delving into any recipes tonight, we’ll be savoring the charming and sometimes hilarious annotations, including Whitehead's passionate defense of the word "receipt" over "recipe" (the "aristocratic trisyllable," as he calls it), and his gentle wisdom for the home cook—like this gem: “An attempt to do too much is very apt to end in weariness.”

If the rhythm of recipes is what normally sends you into a peaceful slumber, don’t worry—there are plenty of episodes in our back catalogue filled with them. But tonight, we slow things down with advice, reflection, and the gentle hum of another era.

So, settle in and prepare for a soothing journey to rest. Put away all that you’ve been doing, close the cupboards of yesterday and tomorrow, and let the words of this vintage cookbook guide you into sleep.

Links:

• Erin’s Substack
• The original text for tonight’s episode