The Spirit of Seventy-Six!

In honor of the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, all recipes through July 4, 2026 will be from Centennial and Bicentennial cookbooks and the 1796 first American cookbook. Enjoy this look at the (gastronomic) spirit of ’76 as we head into the sestercentennial!

I’ve also published a Sestercentennial Cookery with recipes and photos.

Creamy Orange Salad: Jean Anderson’s Creamy Orange Salad, from the 1975 Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Bicentennial Cook Book.; seventies; 1970s; salad; whipped cream; fruit; oranges; gelatin; recipe; America’s Bicentennial; Fruitport, Michigan

This “salad” is a simple version of the classic gelatin fruit salad. It can as easily be a pie filling or a meringue filling. It is a great way to set off fresh fruit.

Drop in again soon for another vintage recipe! I’ll have a different recipe every Sunday afternoon throughout the year. Keep an eye on this page or subscribe to the RSS feed for further details. You can also browse past featured Club recipes as well as some of the vintage promotional cookbooks I’ve used as sources. And I collect many of these recipes in A Traveling Man’s Cookery Book.

Recipe blogging:

Originals:

Inspirations:

Archives:

Perhaps no ingredient is as important as curiosity. — Samin Nosrat (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat•)