Relic Tray: Confessions of a Sneaky Organic Cook

​Back in 1971, a cook had to be “sneaky” to cook for friends in some healthy fashion, since the words organic and vegetarian had none of the cachet that they have now. In fact, if a cartoon of the early 1970s depicted “vegetarians,” they was all too frequently a lanky, bearded, sandal-wearing hippie and his long-haired girlfriend who wore granny glasses and no make-up. Earthy types, you see. In other words: Squares.

Jane Kinderleher, the author of this 1971 Signet paperback, Confessions of a Sneaky Organic Cook, explains in Chapter 1 why she has to be sneaky: “Anything that smacks of ‘health’ is considered square, for the birds, or when they get sophisticated, ‘faddist.’

Jane was definitely ahead of her time. She wouldn’t cook with aluminum or Teflon (“because at high temperatures, Teflon releases a deadly gas”). She also bemoans the fact that certain healthy items are “not yet available in supermarkets.” Items like raw honey, raw sugar, whole-wheat flour, soy, sesame oil, sea salt, wheat-germ oil. Yes, a lot has changed in 39 years.

Not all of Jane’s recipes sound very enticing. Brain fritters, for example. And I’d be interested in what modern physicians might say to her advice about Vitamin E as a way to overcome “bedroom fatigue” for men who just aren’t sexually satisfying their women. Another helpful suggestion she makes for these tired-out lovers is wheat germ oil in a glass of tomato juice spiked with a generous dash of kelp.

“With this kind of cocktail,” Kinderleher advises, “you won’t need candlelight and wine.”