What a 1956 Bavarian kitchen cooked for someone in bed
This cookbook was a 1956 wedding gift to my mother. She's gone now, but her recipes aren't. Volume 16, the last in the series, comes from the Krankenkost chapter of Bayerisches Kochbuch: the sickroom cookery of a 1950s household, when a family member laid up in bed was fed from the home kitchen. It collects ten of the chapter's simplest dishes and drinks: tea made for the sickroom, a fig and barley drink, egg beer, an apple drink, almond milk, a long-simmered Kraftbrühe (beef broth), scraped beefsteak, eggs steamed in a jar, a quark pudding and an old-fashioned cream of eggs whisked with rock candy.
This volume is shared as food history. Nothing here is medical advice, and no health claims are made.
Each recipe has its original German name and number from the book, two headnote paragraphs, a historical note, US measurements with metric equivalents, a step-by-step method and a five-day meal grid. Instant PDF download on Etsy. No physical book.
The ten recipes
- Tea Preparation for the Sick Room (Teezubereitung für Kranke)
- Fig & Barley Drink (Hustentrank)
- Egg & Beer Restorative (Eierbier)
- Apple Convalescent Drink (Apfeltrank)
- Almond Milk (Mandelmilch)
- Restorative Beef Broth (Kraftbrühe)
- Scraped Beefsteak (Geschabtes Beefsteak)
- Steamed Eggs in a Jar (Rührei im Glas)
- Quark Pudding (Topfenpudding)
- Rock Candy Egg Cream (Hustencreme)
Full recipes, with ingredients, method, historical headnotes and a week-of-meals grid, are in the Invalid Cookery, Vol. 16 PDF on Etsy. Instant PDF download. No physical book.
26th edition · Birken-Verlag, Munich · 1956
Originally given to Erna Paul as a wedding gift.
English edition by E. Paul.
Cover art and first-draft translations were made with AI tools; every recipe was then checked and edited by hand against the original 1956 pages.
