Bonus: The I Hate to Cook Book with Sarah Archer (or, how to feed yourself and your loved ones even when everything is terrible)
Added 2025-01-30 19:42:38 +0000 UTCThis week, kitchen cabinet member Sarah Archer is back to discuss Peg Bracken's 1960 masterpiece, The I Hate to Cook Book--a massive bestseller of the era that has just a little bit more to say about the housewife's role in society than it does about dinner.
Also discussed: recipes including Portland Pilaff, Sweep Steak, and Maxey's Franks; whether creamed corn is a normal pantry item; Julia Child; tuna noodle casserole; a passionate defense of soup and dip mix recipes; and the perennial question: Am I the only one who's this depressed? (You're not. We're here.)
It's a hands across the pantry episode. Thank you so much for being here this month. Thank you for feeding yourself today.
Love,
Sarah and the gang
Comments
The molasses side bar makes me wonder if you know about the great molasses flood of 1919?
Betsy Lindeland
2025-02-22 01:31:55 +0000 UTCi really needed that arrested development reference of, "the fact that you call it pop pop tells me you're not ready". it's drawing me out of my depression
mish the fish
2025-02-20 21:31:42 +0000 UTCAfter listening to this episode I remembered that my late grandmother had gifted me a copy of this book before she passed away at 105 in 2019. I believe it is a first edition and am so thrilled to have learned more about it from this episode before leafing through her dogeared pages and checking for her notes! All of which are either "true" or "good" marked next to particular recipes. I'm going to do a cooking stream on twitch of some of her marked recipes and also some of the wild cards that look simultaneously delicious, insane, and completely lost to time. I think it will be a fun way to honor my grandmother, who I wish I had spent more time asking questions about her long life. Thanks again for this episode!
Queen B3atrix
2025-02-18 02:21:38 +0000 UTCThere is a modern spiritual successor to "I hate to housekeep" called "how to keep house while drowning" by KC Davis. It's not as snarky but rather an incredibly compassionate guide to keeping your head above water while struggling with life. It saved my life as a chronically ill and chronically guilty stay-at-home mom
Carrie Greenlaw
2025-02-17 16:34:15 +0000 UTCSuper late to this convo but came here to say this, for me the ultimate anxiety/depression support text
Helen Addis
2025-02-15 08:32:43 +0000 UTCI don't even have anybody else I need to feed besides myself and I feel like this. I'm listening to this while making a gigantic vat of soup so I don't have to cook for a while. I'm so tired from work, and I still have to eat a dinner. This was perfect. I'll be the third Sarah if you need one.
Sarah Beth Gardner
2025-02-13 00:19:46 +0000 UTCThis episode felt like a big hug. Thanks ❤️
Madeline Taylor
2025-02-12 22:39:55 +0000 UTCI loved this episode! I had no idea what this was about. Never knew a cookbook could send me through so many emotions.
Rose Holiskey
2025-02-10 02:05:11 +0000 UTCearly mention of girl dinner. the muffin tin flight lol
Rachel Macdonald
2025-02-09 05:21:56 +0000 UTC" to women who do like to cook, bless her and bow low. " LOL me to my husband because I am this woman I HATE cooking SO MUCH and thank fucking god my husband is a chef.
Rachel Macdonald
2025-02-09 04:28:16 +0000 UTCSo I’m just going to say, I’m not a Kay but I’m a McKay…is there anything there??? Also, my college roommate made a post a few years back asking for easy cream based sauces. We had “family dinner” when we shared an apartment once a week and traded off who cooked, and she loved my spinach enchiladas. The sauce is cheese, sour cream, and cream of mushroom soup, so I replied to the post letting her know where she’d tasted it so she’d know it was good. Her *mom* replied, “Here’s a good one that doesn’t involve condensed soup.” Roommate texted me a few days later to let me know she’d made my sauce because she’d remembered how delicious it was, and she was sorry for her mom’s response. Condensed soup is delicious as a sauce base!!!
MCKAY TALLEY
2025-02-08 20:50:30 +0000 UTCThese are my favorite episodes! Thank you for bringing the joy today!
Ally T
2025-02-08 14:27:06 +0000 UTCI am a woman who enjoys cooking but came to it late. And i fully attribute my love of it to my mother who hates to cook, who upon my dad proposing, told him she'd marry him if he did all the cooking. Being brought up in a house where dad is the cook and house work was shared equitably was great and allowed me to slowly fall in love with cooking once i moved out and lived by myself (cooking for myself!). Mum still despises cooking and dad still learns new recipes for her now 😊😅 So this episode and its discussion were wonderful for me 💜 Love it when Sarah tackles the history of domesticity, women's lib and all that comes with it.
Lauren
2025-02-07 05:27:34 +0000 UTCI absolutely loved this episode. I’m a dietitian who doesn’t really like to cook and now a mom of 2 who doesn’t really like to cook and all of this was really validating.
Meghan Womack
2025-02-06 19:06:34 +0000 UTCLooking up “kitty foreman crashing out” on Tik tok pairs fabulously with this episode btw
Ella Oprandy
2025-02-06 01:50:46 +0000 UTCI came back to say that tonight I will have Sweep Steak. With carrots and potatoes.
Candi Risk
2025-02-06 00:26:28 +0000 UTCIt’s on the internet archive
Abijah
2025-02-05 18:54:42 +0000 UTC“Viciousness in the kitchen. The potatoes hiss.” - S. Plath
Nancy Jean Ross
2025-02-05 09:14:45 +0000 UTCYes!
Nancy Jean Ross
2025-02-05 09:05:42 +0000 UTCSarah, I liked how you wondered if Sylvia Plath would have read The I Hate to Cook Cookbook. (My mom, born 1931, mother of four children, had this book. I wish I still had her copy. )
Nancy Jean Ross
2025-02-05 05:10:49 +0000 UTCIf you like this episode, the book/podcast Struggle Care by KC Davis might be for you
Isabel
2025-02-04 20:56:55 +0000 UTCOooh ooh, do How to Cook a Wolf, by MFK Fisher next! (I didn't read the other comments first, possibly this has already been said.)
Valerie
2025-02-04 20:39:15 +0000 UTCThis is a lovely spiritual ancestor of Ruby Tandoh’s Cook As You Are which is full of “it doesn’t matter” and “here’s a recipe for when you’re tired” and “recipes with no chopping” - and, in her author’s bio, says she loves podcasts about maligned women of the 90s 🫶🏻
Victoria Tang
2025-02-04 20:34:32 +0000 UTCI cooked every recipe in this cookbook ala Julie & Julia. It was great fun, and a lot of the recipes were actually pretty good. I am the proud son of a Peg Bracken sort of cook. They were of the same generation, and she did all the housewifey things of the time, but also enjoyed lunch with her girlfriends, drinking a can of beer while playing bridge, and was an enthusiastic reader. She also had a Peg Bracken sense of humor, and served us lot of stuff made from recipes that she ripped out of magazines at the beauty parlor (where she went every Friday Morning of her adult life)
Dan Langdon
2025-02-04 19:54:06 +0000 UTCsarah squared chats are my favourite. I didn’t expect to tear up in this episode but i did
Kitty Lloyd
2025-02-04 01:20:20 +0000 UTCMy mom makes molasses cookies all the time! In the spirit of easy recipes, a great smoothie can be made from soy milk, bananas, and molasses. Enjoy!
Lauren West
2025-02-03 22:55:20 +0000 UTCLoved this episode. It was exactly what I needed to hear today. Thanks Sarahs!
Libby M
2025-02-03 21:21:48 +0000 UTCThis is a great episode! Cheerful banter and a delightful topic! Listening to the Sarahs is so pleasant, this is my new favorite episode to fall asleep to. I've played it at least 5 times already! ❤️
Mary (and Ben)
2025-02-03 18:40:11 +0000 UTCthank you for the text of this sweet episode description, too — it would have made the younger version of myself (who was very bad at feeding herself for many reasons) feel very seen ❤️
alexa 🌼
2025-02-03 18:10:20 +0000 UTCThis is so sweet, thank you for this bit of joy and community. It’s so hard to find joy and have energy for community, but both are soso important
Maggi Reedel
2025-02-03 17:05:55 +0000 UTCThe throw away of “the fact that you call it pop pop…” ♥️
SROK
2025-02-03 16:21:22 +0000 UTCSingle woman here who hates to cook and clean. I loved this and immediately sent an apology message to my mom. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to put a meal on the table every night when I can barely feed myself.
SROK
2025-02-03 16:19:50 +0000 UTCLoved this! Would also love a Ms Piggle Wiggle episode!
Thea Stokes
2025-02-03 15:05:41 +0000 UTCSarah, pretty sure most iterations of tuna noodle casserole have cream of mushroom or another cream of soup in them. Keeps in line with the canned theme!
Michelle Medved
2025-02-03 07:10:28 +0000 UTCTwo merch saying ideas from this episode and the Alice Kyteler episode: “Holding hands in (/across?) the pantry” and “If you don’t have dead fingernails, live ones will do.”
Jen Leedom
2025-02-03 06:52:54 +0000 UTCI have so much more to say about Peg and Julia than can be reasonably be put here. So I'll just say this: My parents lived on a USAFB in N. Dakota in 70s. For fun they went Outdoors a lot. And they made a lot of Julia Child recipes. Minot ND was not a great going out town. They also formed an international food dinner party club where they'd get together with other couples and make borscht or sushi or whatever once a month. They have a scrapbook of menus. They tell a lot of stories about cooking from that time, and I think their experiences of becoming middle class educated people from very working class families are situated in Child's books. That, and the military stationing them overseas. It's a fascinating part of their lives. (And contrasts a lot of my mom's experiences as an educated woman that are very Peg Bracken aligned.) This was wonderful. Thank you!
kathleen costello
2025-02-03 00:00:44 +0000 UTCI love to cook, and I'm from a family that loves to cook. Tons of from-scratch meals have I prepared in my lifetime. Last year, work consumed me to the point where I'd just hit the wall, too tired to cook. One day I stumbled across a 2-ingredient chicken dinner. Chicken breast (or thigh. It doesn't matter) and a can of cream of celery or mushroom soup. Put the chicken in a baking dish, cover with the undiluted soup, and bake. Folks, this was so delicious. Thanks, Campbell's soup!
Candi Risk
2025-02-02 22:19:28 +0000 UTCEveryone loves the “this is a lot of things I wanted to talk about” episodes!
Nicole F.
2025-02-02 20:28:46 +0000 UTCI'm looking forward to the Sarah Squared Peg (all yours!) episodes where we learn how delicious these recipes are!
Amanda Johnson
2025-02-02 17:47:04 +0000 UTCcould we please get a sylvia plath episode? i would be eternally grateful!!
virginia
2025-02-02 15:47:24 +0000 UTCIf y’all wanted to read this for Christmas I would perhaps adore that!! Loved listening to this while building a home in the sims after a state regulated edible because I’m sick but I’ve been asleep all day so it’s 3am.
Abijah
2025-02-02 08:08:29 +0000 UTC😂😭
Abijah
2025-02-02 08:03:35 +0000 UTCLol “hopefully 2025 is off to a good start” hurts a little bit
Chloe Dubisch
2025-02-02 01:25:48 +0000 UTCI inherited the "I hate to cook" and "hate to housekeep" books from my grandma and enjoyed reading the humor and vintage kitsch when I was 20. I assumed that my grandma who loved to cook had them for the humour but now that I have kids and my unpaid job before and after my paid workday is to feed my family every day, I realize that enjoying cooking as a hobby is an entirely different beast. I still remember the advice that my grandma used was to go out and have fun with your friends and then rush home and start cooking onions right before your husband comes home so it smells like you've been cooking for ages.
Renee
2025-02-01 18:15:14 +0000 UTCDelighted by this episode which made me turn away from the news for an hour and was the perfect pocket of joy and affirmation of women being in it together 🤌
Solveig Ferlet
2025-02-01 14:18:58 +0000 UTCsarah and sarah are one of my fav host combos for this show. along with sarah and blair 🥹
red halverson
2025-02-01 14:16:31 +0000 UTCThis reminded me of another fascinating cookbook to read, but not necessarily use. A friend recently showed me Salvador Dali's 1973 cookbook Les Diners de Gala and it is wild!
Anjali
2025-02-01 12:19:49 +0000 UTCI can legally change my name to “Kay” … just sayin’
Shoshanah
2025-02-01 04:33:46 +0000 UTCI think this is one of my favorite episodes of all... and I've heard them all :)
Treisha Peterson
2025-02-01 01:37:32 +0000 UTCObsessed with the prospect of a Sarahs & Peg follow up of y’all cooking your way through this book.
Trevor
2025-01-31 21:11:14 +0000 UTCI grew up eating from this book! My mum used it all of the time. The cockeyed cake was my birthday cake until I moved out of the house. I still make soup over meat all the time. Thank you for this deep dive!
Mary Harrison
2025-01-31 20:09:47 +0000 UTCSM your arrested development references are the best!!
Kate
2025-01-31 18:25:32 +0000 UTCoh. this wrecked me a little ♥️
rumireads
2025-01-31 16:47:48 +0000 UTCListening to this while doing my own household chores was perfection. As a gal who likes to cook I volunteer to be the K ✋🏻
Katie Frances
2025-01-31 16:27:16 +0000 UTCLmao the opening statement. Perfect.
Allison Akright
2025-01-31 14:34:14 +0000 UTCalso, i frequent local food banks which obv provide a lot of canned goods, so i love vintage recipes where u can make a whole hearty meal w like rice condensed soup n some canned veggies 🥲
peregrin tokes
2025-01-31 12:52:50 +0000 UTCwow this made me cry and also call my mom at 630 am to talk abt jacques pepin, much love from a girl who became a single stay at home mom at 22 during the pandemic 😭🩷
peregrin tokes
2025-01-31 12:48:46 +0000 UTCThis felt like sitting around the table sipping coffee with friends. It made me cry, which i desperatly needed. Thank you Sarah(s).
Laura Stenberg
2025-01-31 09:10:06 +0000 UTCyou’re right, 2025 is already off to an exciting start!… 🤣😫🫠
michelle pendergrass
2025-01-31 04:29:18 +0000 UTCWholly unrelated to the episode: here in Oz there was recently a TV show on the abc (our national broadcaster) called Kitchen Cabinet. Hosted by beloved journalist Annabel Crabbe, she would interview currently serving politicians while they cooked together. It was something else.
Sara Amorosi
2025-01-31 03:05:06 +0000 UTCHonestly, two of those I Hate to Housekeep tips are tips I would use… should I buy this book??!
Val Howlett
2025-01-31 02:25:26 +0000 UTCThis was so good,!!! What a wonderful witty and in depth discussion of a very relevant and engaging topic 💕
Catherine Thomas
2025-01-31 00:40:59 +0000 UTCThis brought me so much joy! I collect old cookbooks and (etiquette books) and found “The Complete I Hate to Cook Book” and her etiquette book “I Try To Behave Myself” years ago. I’m always on the look out for her housekeeping book. I’m so happy to see others also love her work as much as I do!
Miss Mary
2025-01-31 00:20:58 +0000 UTCI still remember from my mother’s copy of The I Hate to Cook Book (which I read repeatedly as an odd child) a line about letting something cook “while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.”
Sally Jordan
2025-01-30 23:22:56 +0000 UTCOh my god I have loved Peg Bracken ever since I unearthed a dusty old copy of the IHTC cookbook at my great aunt’s house, and every time Sarah has name dropped the book on either of her shows I’ve squealed a little bit inside. I’m SO excited to listen to this!!! I hope to hear some mention of how brilliant the subtitles of each of the chapters are (eg “Potluck suppers: ~or~ How to bring the water for the lemonade”), and how Peg’s words are so perfectly complemented by Hilary Knight’s hilarious illustrations.
Emily Hunter
2025-01-30 22:54:30 +0000 UTCPaused just to say lipton onion soup in sour cream is the best! My nana always did that in a bread bowl for potlucks to much fanfare and people go nuts when I do it now! Thank you for the love of my family staple!
Victoria Fair
2025-01-30 22:31:00 +0000 UTCI loved this episode so much I immediately started it over as soon as I finished. Phyllis Diller's book would be a very good snarky companion piece to this
James Hicks
2025-01-30 22:17:50 +0000 UTCI love Peg Bracken, too, although I was sad to read in one of her non-house-keeping/cooking-related books of essays that she was opposed to feminism. Seemed odd to me because her other books certainly had a sort of feminist tone.
Sally Jordan
2025-01-30 22:15:29 +0000 UTCThis was such a comforting listen, it's like the opposite of those "quit whining, become a badass" self-help books. I may need to go out and pick up a copy.
Fred Maxon
2025-01-30 22:11:18 +0000 UTCI love Peg Bracken so much. Years ago I bought and read her "I Hate to Housekeep" book and actually implemented two specific things she recommends and think about them semi-regularly. (She says that if you notice some random little thing that's bugging you, like a smear of jam on a wall, just take care of it immediately, if you tell yourself you'll come back with a bucket of suds and wash the whole wall you never will; and she says that if you periodically go on cleaning jags, start in a different spot each time because that way you'll deep clean different parts of your house.) What I really love is her breezy, "half-assed is good enough!" tone, though.
Naomi Kritzer
2025-01-30 19:57:40 +0000 UTCi have never clicked on anything so fast, title is a MOOD
Biki
2025-01-30 19:47:49 +0000 UTC
