I think you are right on the money about your assessment for most of the anons that hang out here. It is pretty hard to brainwash someone that is already on to the deception. Some good diggers here. Was on VOAT before it was taken down last year. Lots of research going on there. There is an archive somewhere but I have never logged on. It requires some access code that I think I have long since lost.

Yes, it is an interesting cookbook. It was compiled by the immigrant community in order to save the recipes from the old country and heritage. So yes, the target audience had a skill set in the kitchen that was vastly different from our own. They made almost everything from basic ingredients available. My family did not buy much beyond some really basic staples - like coffee and things like that. They did buy flour or bartered for it from others that had a mill. My grandparents raised sugar beets so there was no need to buy sugar. They pretty much raised or grew the rest of what they ate.

My grandmother was an awesome baker. When she cooked, she measured everything using her hand, a regular coffee cup, and a regular tablespoon. There were ten kids in the family with a couple of hands. So she never learned how to cook for just a couple of people. My relatives actually faired much better during the depression due to those skills that they had when they arrived. It was a rough first couple of years starting the farm. When seeing pics of what they left in Russia, green and beautiful, to come to Nebraska/South Dakota plains, I understood why I was told my great-grandmother cried for almost a year after arriving. I wish I had just of small fraction of what they knew to survive. At least I know I come from hearty stock.