Betty Lives!

Helen Gurley Brown’s Single Girl’s Cookbook
1969

The Single Girl’s Cookbook is part of that subset of my collection I’ve mentioned before (written by non-chef celebrities) and yes, this is the actual name of the recipe. It is in a chapter called “Landlord Stews”, the basic premise of which is to cook delicious smelling foods in your single-girl rental apartment to get your stingy landlord to fix things and also possibly paint. Um, ok. Real estate in New York was clearly quite different in 1969 than it was in the 1990’s when I was single and cooking for myself. I could have stood naked with a cauldron of fried chicken in the hallway of my shabby apartment building in an effort to get my landlord to rid the place of mice, but he still would have ignored me. Which brings me to my point about this book. Although Gurley Brown is considered to have been a five-star general in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, liberating women everywhere from stifling domestic frustration, this book feels demeaning. First of all, she admits in the introduction that she is neither single nor a good cook. Second, the writing is painfully daily candy-ish/drag queen-y: “Did you think I was going to give you my recipes and instructions for fabulous feasts? Silly girl! I love you and want the best for you. That’s why I’ve enlisted the help of a really wonderful cook to write this cookbook with me.” I will note here that said wonderful cook is not credited anywhere but this sentence. The revolutionary general goes on to say that one of the best things a girl can do if she wants to learn to cook is to flirt with the butcher:

“Most butchers are darlings. They’ve taken out all their aggressions on the brisket of beef and will be helpful to and enthusiastic over a girl who’s making a real effort to cook something more daring than hot dogs wrapped in bacon. Take this recipe book right along to the market with you as you get your friend to help line you up just the right cut of meat. (He’s a man, isn’t he? It’s no different from asking a broker about bonds.)”

Lastly, what bothers me about the argument of this book (and I guess Gurley Brown herself) is that although she promoted the idea of single women being able to have it all, there is an underlying message that having a man is still the best of all possible worlds. Two hundred pages of the Single Girl’s Cookbook are devoted to seducing men via food. It’s almost the companion book to Esquire’s Handbook for Hosts. Many mid-century cookbooks describe women’s domestic roles in a way that’s dated but they aren’t trying to be so cutesy about it, nor are they trying to “liberate” women through better cooking skills.

I know she is touted as one of the greatest editors of all times but in her introduction to the lamb stew recipe she uses the words “greasy” and “revolting” as in, ” Lamb stew can be fat, greasy and revolting.” If I hadn’t been so intent on making lamb stew I would have just put the book down right then. It’s actually not a horrible recipe, although you need two days to make it. The first day you brown the lamb pieces, add chicken stock, water and wine, and cook it for a couple of hours at low temp. After it cools you put the whole thing in the fridge to chill until the next day at which point you quickly and easily spoon off the fat which has hardened on top. When you re-heat the lamb for serving you add new potatoes, carrots, white turnips, peas and pearl onions that have been caramelized separately. I followed the directions and list of ingredients to the letter, refusing only to turn all the vegetables in the old-fashioned French style because it’s pointlessly time consuming. The final stew is neither greasy nor revolting, but it isn’t very flavorful either and the cooking broth was way too thin. As to the title, I am confident the stew is superior to Doug’s mother’s, but only because I am 100% sure lamb stew is not even in her repertoire.