American Menu Maker Vintage Restaurant Cookbook Encyclopedia Screw Post Binder For Sale

Massive vintage American Menu Maker professional restaurant reference, featuring historical recipes, menu planning, food costing, buying specifications, standardized portions, and commercial food preparation.

This is a substantial early American food-service reference housed in a heavy screw-post binder with indexed sections. Weighing approximately 6 pounds, 12.4 ounces, it contains an extensive collection of double-sided printed pages covering the practical operation of restaurants and commercial kitchens.

Unlike a typical household cookbook, this reference was designed around the needs of professional food-service operations, including restaurant managers, chefs, and food buyers.

The binder includes a wide variety of professional culinary and restaurant-management material:

• Tested Food Formulas: Hundreds of numbered commercial recipes, including ingredient quantities, preparation methods, portion yields, and serving instructions.

• Menu Planning: Guidance on developing attractive menus, understanding customer preferences, and operating a profitable restaurant.

• Historical Restaurant Menus: Sample menus and meal combinations with period prices, including entrées and complete meals priced in cents.

• Food Costing: Ingredient-cost breakdowns and calculations illustrating historical restaurant pricing practices.

• Buying Specifications: Meat-cut diagrams, purchasing guidance, retail price comparisons, and technical reference charts.

• Standardized Portions: Instructions for consistent food preparation, portion control, and professional plate presentation.

• Indexed Sections: Organized categories covering meats, poultry, vegetables, appetizers, desserts, and other commercial food interesting examples include jellied chicken preparations, traditional meat dishes, vintage restaurant appetizers, and menu-planning examples reflecting American dining practices of an earlier era.

  Some illustrations are credited to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Live Stock and Meat Board.

  Research & Identification

  The binder is titled AMERICAN MENU MAKER, with matching identification throughout the interior pages.

  Bibliographic research connects the American Menu Maker publishing history to George Leonard Wenzel and professional restaurant reference works issued during the 1930s and later.

  A separately offered American Menu Maker loose-leaf binder was located with an identical printed recipe sequence, including:

  • No. 74 — Jellied Chicken

  • No. 75 — Jellied Chicken With Potato Salad and Cole Slaw

  • No. 76 — Jellied Chicken With Potato Salad and Sliced Tomatoes

  The recipe numbering, ingredients, wording, and page layout match the corresponding material in this binder, supporting identification with the same professional reference work.

  The exact edition and publication year of this particular copy have not been verified. It is not being represented as a confirmed first edition.

  Size & Construction

  This is an exceptionally substantial volume with a very thick block of double-sided printed pages.

  • Weight: Approximately 6 lb 12.4 oz, unpacked

  • Binding: Heavy screw-post binder with slotted flat-head fasteners

  • Pages: Double-sided printed material

  • Organization: Numerous indexed reference sections

  • Page count: Not individually counted or verified

  The volume appears to contain an extensive amount of material, potentially exceeding 1,000 printed pages. This is an estimate only, not a guaranteed page count.

  Please see the photographs showing the substantial thickness of the book.

  
  Collector & Research Interest

  An unusual historical resource for collectors and researchers interested in:

  • American culinary history

  • Vintage restaurant menus and pricing

  • Early commercial cooking methods

  • Historical food-service management

  • Traditional restaurant recipes and plating

  • Professional cookbooks and culinary reference books

  • Restaurant memorabilia and food-industry history

  The detailed recipes, portion instructions, ingredient costs, and historical menu examples offer a fascinating look at how American restaurants prepared, priced, and served food in an earlier era.

  The actual binder and surviving contents pictured are included in this sale.

  Please examine all photographs for the best representation of condition, construction, and contents. The book will be carefully packed for shipping.