Published in 1915, the Patriotic Cookbook emphasized the role that the government envisioned for Canadian women on the home front. Compiled by the Ladies of Talbot St. School Mother’s Club, this cookbook contains recipes meant to produce a large volume of food. Ideally, the recipes would feed Canadians at home, and the excess could be sent overseas for the troops by the Red Cross. Many wartime cookbooks, like the Patriotic Cookbook, were an emotional appeal to women to “do their bit” and show patriotism through food production and conservation. The Canadian home front during the war was rife with such rhetoric, especially towards women and farmers.

Patriotic Cook Book. London: The Advertiser Job Printing Co. 1915. Gift of Una Abrahamson. Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library.