I recently received an unexpected gift from a thoughtful friend. The gift is quirky, which is perfect because I am quirky and my friend is quirky. She gave me a cookbook written by Vincent Price, titled Cooking Price-Wise, A Culinary Legacy.
Yes, that Vincent Price. But wait, there’s more. There are two other Vincents Price, and wait until I tell you what they were known for doing. But I get ahead of myself.
The fact that Vincent Price had written a cookbook fascinated me. My experience of Price was, like most people my age, as a character actor in a string of B-horror movies I watched growing up, on the local TV stations on Saturdays.
I opened to the preface, written by Price’s daughter, Victoria. There she reveals that the cookbook is a companion piece to a low budget, short-lived cooking series Price made in England for Thames Television in 1971. He was pleased to make the show because, in Victoria’s words:
“…it matched his life philosophy: Anyone can see and taste the world without ever having to leave their hometown. All the ingredients for both an extraordinary life and an extraordinary meal must first be discovered within our own imaginations.”
Also mentioned in the preface is “the Price family’s culinary legacy”, where Victoria mentions including recipes from her great-grandfather’s cookbook. More on that in a minute.
When I went in search of the Cooking Price-Wise companion TV show, I found YouTube links galore, of people cooking from the cookbook, appearances by Price on various television shows, and a link for a whole YouTube channel, “The Vincent Price Legacy”. Unfortunately, I did not find any surviving episodes of the cooking series.
I turned back to the Table of Contents, to get a look at what sort of recipes Vincent Price might offer, and once again found something unexpected. Rather than the common format of Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Main Dishes, Desserts, etc, there are six recipe sections, titled Potato Recipes, Meat Recipes, Bacon Recipes (A whole section just for bacon??), Rice Recipes, Cream, Milk and Yogurt Recipes, and Section Six: Part One, Cheese Recipes and Part Two, Coffee.
In the Introduction, written by Vincent Price, I discovered this was not his first cookbook, as he lists all those that have come before: A Treasury of Great Recipes (1965), Mary and Vincent Price Present A National Treasury of Cookery (1967), and Mary and Vincent Price’s Come into the Kitchen Cook Book: A Collector’s Treasury of America’s Great Recipes (1969), all written with his second wife, Mary. It seems there was no shortage of self-confidence here, particularly since he points out none of the recipes are his. He has simply “collected” them. Not one of them is credited to its creator, something that would never get by an editor these days, when food writers continually debate when someone should be credited, and how much a recipe should be changed before you can call it yours. Although he is frank about this, I wonder why it didn’t occur to him to mention the names of the people who cooked for him, and passed on their recipes.
The recipes he “collected” reflect the skill and experience of the cooks who created them. They are brief, without much explanation of unfamiliar ingredients or methods, and some are simply a list of ingredients without measurements, and a cursory description of the method, where you then find the ingredient amounts. My mind reeled, imagining trying to create a shopping list from such recipes.
As I dug into each section, it became clear that the Prices sometimes played fast and loose with these categories. It appears the criterion for a recipe being part of the Cream/Milk/Yogurt section was simply the inclusion of one of those ingredients in the dish, not that any of those were the primary ingredient. In reading the recipes in the Bacon section, I realized that American bacon was not the main ingredient; rather the term “bacon” was being used to refer to smoked/cured pork cuts in general. The audience was initially British, so that’s understandable, but those recipes will take a bit of cultural translation before I can cook them.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the insert of photo pages, some in color, some black-and-white. They are exactly what you would expect if you are a fan of the various ‘70’s food photo social media accounts. It is obvious the styling was done by Vincent, and all the color photos have that quintessential yellow tinge that seems to be present in all food photography from that time. The black-and-white photos are…unfortunate. Let’s leave it at that.
At last, in the final section: The Culinary Legacy of the Price Family, is where the real treasures are buried. It’s here where the prolific use of the word “legacy” is justified. This section features recipes from Vincent’s grandfather, for baking with his innovative ingredient: cream of tartar baking powder, and two of Victoria’s favorite Price family recipes.
Vincent’s grandfather, Dr. Vincent Clarence Price, is said to have invented the world’s first cream of tartar baking powder, as well as vanilla and lemon extracts, and a breakfast cereal. He held several patents for his inventions. Price Baking Powder Co. was started by Dr. Price in 1884, and was sold to Royal Baking Powder Co in 1899. They continued to sell baking powder using Dr. Price’s name, with cookbooks on how to use it, until 1917. (Source)
Price’s father, Vincent Leonard Price, was President of the National Candy Company in St. Louis, MO. The National Candy Company was formed of several smaller companies in 1902, and was eventually sold to Chase Candy Co. in 1948. (Source)
I feel like this adventure would not be complete without me picking a few recipes to try, and reporting back to you on my results. Stay tuned!!
If you’re interested in joining me in my rabbit hole, check out the links I’ve included in the story, where you can browse a remarkable collection of all things Vincent Price. And to my wonderful, quirky friend, a huge thank you for such an unexpected gift.