Focus on Form
Cooking With Soup
As the 20th century progressed, cookbooks were published for specific social gatherings and events, and for lifestyle choices. There came an influx of cookbooks for Christmas and Thanksgiving, for cocktail parties and church potlucks, for low-calorie eaters and vegetarians. Whereas cookbooks had traditionally been hardcover or coptic-bound, they were now being published in paper leaflet, ring-bound, and comb-bound formats. Various types of paper and a plethora of different fonts and font styles and sizes began to be used, as well as color. The binding and presentation of cookbooks began to depend on their intended use or purpose. These are trends that continue today. The mid-20th century also brought the widespread practice of accompanying recipes with illustrations or photographs. One such cookbook is Campbell's Soup's 1976 book Cooking with Soup. As with The Settlement Cook Book, this book has a table of contents (in the front of the book) and an index of recipes (in the back of the book). Its recipes are in the same standard, modern format, and now they are accompanied by illustrations and color photographs. Another interesting added element is the short descriptions of some recipes and categories of recipes. This is something still seen in many cookbooks today.