A calendar of dinners, with 615 recipes

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A Calendar of Dinners, with 615 Recipes (1913) is a promotional yet comprehensive household cookbook written by Marion Harris Neil and produced in close association with the Crisco shortening brand. The book opens with an extended marketing narrative for Crisco before moving into practical culinary instruction, covering meat selection, cooking methods, carving, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, salads, sandwiches, pastries, breads, cakes, eggs, candies, and vegetarian dishes. Its central organizing feature, and the source of its title, is a day-by-day calendar of dinner menus spanning an entire year, from January through December, each offering complete multi-course meals with starred recipes for detailed preparation. Vegetarian menu days are interspersed throughout. The book reflects early twentieth-century American middle-class formal dining conventions, with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients, elaborate presentation, and the promotion of Crisco as a modern, versatile, and superior cooking fat. Modern readers will find it a useful window into period foodways, kitchen technique, and the commercial forces shaping domestic cookbooks of the era. It is at once a recipe collection, a practical kitchen manual, and an advertising vehicle, blending instructional content with brand promotion throughout its pages.

The book begins with introductory material (section 1) consisting of Crisco promotional narrative and a guide to selecting meats and poultry, followed by a broader discussion of cooking methods, carving, and stock preparation (section 2). Sections 3 through 8 present topical recipe chapters in sequence: soups, fish, and meats; vegetables, salads, and puddings; sandwiches and pastries; breads and the start of cakes; more cakes and the start of vegetarian dishes; and vegetarian dishes, eggs, and candies. From section 8 onward, the book shifts into its titular structure, a Calendar of Dinners organized by specific calendar dates running from January through December (sections 8 through 15), each day offering a full menu with soup, meat or fish course, vegetables, salad, and dessert, with select recipes marked and elaborated in full. Vegetarian menu days are marked and interspersed throughout the calendar.