The Military Chapter I.O.D.E. Cook Book

The Military Chapter I.O.D.E. Cook Book

The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire was founded in 1900 to support the British Empire during the Boer War. The Military Chapter of Calgary was formed in 1914 (Glenbow, “IODE”). Likely published around 1927 (Driver 1054), this cookbook includes such notable recipes as “Ham Funeral,” making a ghoulish use of leftovers, and “Marmalade and Vermicelli Pudding,” perhaps adapted from the popular Indian dish. Prohibition ended in 1924 in Alberta, making the recipes for beetroot and parsnip wines an acceptable addition to the repertoire.

Like many cookbooks, this I.O.D.E. volume opens with a poem. Its last two lines are frequently repeated in community cookbooks:

We may live without poetry, music and art
We may live without conscience and live without heart;
We may live without friends, we may live without books—
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.

Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, Military Chapter

[1927?]