The Encyclopedic Cookbook Recipe Series- Crab & Tomato Bisque

If you follow my Instastories you might know the backstory of this book. For those that don’t, I’ll explain.

One day, I was cruising the thrift store as I often do, and a book caught my eye.  All I saw was the spine but the color and style just instantly drew me in. 

 I pulled it off the shelf and chuckled that it was a cookbook “The Culinary Institute of America Encyclopedic Cookbook” to be exact.  Even crazier was that when I opened it I saw that it was from 1966…..1966 you guys!

So, what’s so significant about 1966?  Well, first of all I’m obsessed with all things mid century to begin with.  I love the style, the history, the pop culture...all of it!  But 1966 has specific significance because that is the year our house was built.  I had told The Boy I wanted a collection of periodicals and books from that year to fill our coffee table and built ins as a nod to the history of the house.  So of course this meant Goodwill got my money REAL fast!

I was showing the book to The Boy and as we admired it’s great condition and the odd recipes in it (Calf’s Brain Fritters anyone?) when he came up with a great idea.  Why didn’t I do a Julie & Julia style series where once a month I cook and blogged one recipe from the book for the whole year of 2019.

The Encyclopedic Cookbook Recipe Series was born!

The rules:

1.Cook one recipe a month

2.Must follow the recipe to the T. No adjusting allowed!

That’s it!

First recipe up…Crab & Tomato Bisque.

So here’s the thing.  I was already taken aback by the simplicity of the recipes as a whole.  They have so few ingredients and it sort of blows my mind!  Like this soup contained no garlic at all…. say whaaaaaat?? But I followed the rules and it was….meh 

Not bad per say, but bland.  And I was really surprised at how PINK it was. Like that is not a filter...it's really that pink. The ratio of dairy to tomato is different than what I would have done that it looks like your slurping down a big bowl of Pink Squirrel 

I look forward to sharing 11 more vintage recipes with you.  The weird and the good (I hope! lol)