Lillian’s Hot Crab Salad
A handwritten recipe for Lillian’s Hot Crab Salad, a make-ahead casserole with crab or shrimp, bread, vegetables, eggs, mushroom soup, and cheese.
The Collection
At Aunt Bertha’s Recipe Box, you’ll find handwritten recipes, typed pages, clippings and back-of-the-box finds saved through the years. Shared as originally written, they reflect the ingredients and methods of their time. Enjoy them with a smile and a sense of nostalgia.
Betty’s Tuna With Cheese Swirl
A handwritten recipe for Betty’s Tuna With Cheese Swirl, a 1950s tuna casserole topped with biscuit-dough swirls filled with cheese and pimento.
Olga’s Four Bean Salad
A handwritten recipe for Olga’s Four Bean Salad, with four kinds of beans and onion marinated in a sweet-and-tangy oil and vinegar dressing.
Jean’s French Dressing
A handwritten recipe for Jean’s French Dressing, a sweet and tangy homemade dressing with Wesson oil, vinegar, paprika, and garlic.
Nora’s Lemon Fluff
A handwritten recipe for Nora’s Lemon Fluff, a light and airy dessert made with lemon Jell-O, evaporated milk, fresh lemon juice, and sugar.
Tillie’s Buttery Canapé Shells
A handwritten recipe for Tillie’s Buttery Canapé Shells, a rolled and folded pastry dough made with plenty of butter and chilled before slicing and baking.
Grandma’s Oatmeal Bread
A typed recipe for Grandma’s Oatmeal Bread, an overnight yeast bread made with oats and molasses for hearty homemade loaves.
Irma’s Lemon Jello Cake
A typed recipe for Irma’s Lemon Jello Cake, a cake-mix dessert made with lemon gelatin and finished with a fresh lemon glaze.
Marge’s Applesauce Drop Cookies
A typed 1951 recipe for Marge’s Applesauce Drop Cookies, soft spiced cookies made with applesauce, raisins, bran, cinnamon, and cloves.
Vera’s Lemon Velvet Cake with Glaze
A typed recipe for Vera’s Lemon Velvet Cake with Glaze, made with Betty Crocker Lemon-Velvet Cake Mix and lemon Jell-O, then finished with a fresh lemon glaze.
Cheese Dip
A typed recipe for Cheese Dip that keeps things wonderfully simple—cottage cheese, cream cheese, parsley, and Worcestershire sauce, chilled and ready for the chip bowl.
Alice’s Rhubarb Custard Pie
A handwritten recipe for Alice’s Rhubarb Custard Pie, with fresh rhubarb baked in a sweet, nutmeg-spiced custard and measurements for both 8- and 9-inch pies.
Butterscotch Pudding Cookies
A typed recipe for Butterscotch Pudding Cookies, made with pudding mix and rolled oats, with raisins, dates, or nuts added however the baker pleased.
Devil’s Food Cake with Filling and Icing
A typed recipe for Devil’s Food Cake with Filling and Icing—rich buttermilk chocolate cake paired with an unexpected orange-flavored filling and frosting.
Myrtle’s Tomato Aspic
A handwritten recipe for Myrtle’s Tomato Aspic, a molded tomato and lemon Jell-O salad with shrimp, stuffed olives, and a very mid-century flair.
Tomato Aspic
A typed recipe for Tomato Aspic, a savory gelatin salad with tomato juice, lemon Jell-O, vegetables, and shrimp—a wonderfully unmistakable taste of its time.
Violet’s Coffee Cake
Violet’s old fashioned Coffee Cake made with brown sugar and nut meats, from a handwritten recipe with wonderfully brief directions.
Ruthie’s Sugar Cookies
A handwritten sugar cookie recipe made with buttermilk, shortening and a touch of nutmeg.
Ella’s Sponge Cake With Lemon Filling
A handwritten recipe for Ella’s Sponge Cake with Lemon Filling—six eggs, homemade lemon filling, and the wonderfully vague direction to simply “bake slowly.”
Nellie and Cressa’s Spice Cookies
A handwritten 1970 recipe for Nellie and Cressa’s Spice Cookies—with dark molasses, warm spices, and the choice to bake them now or chill the dough for tomorrow.
Overnight Sausage Rice Bake
A handwritten recipe for Overnight Sausage Rice Bake—assemble it tonight, tuck it in the fridge, and tomorrow’s hearty sausage-and-rice casserole is nearly done.
Alice’s Rhubarb Torte
A handwritten recipe for Alice’s Rhubarb Torte—just a handful of ingredients, 35 minutes in the oven, and rhubarb gets to steal the show.
Myrtle’s Punch
A handwritten recipe for Myrtle’s Punch—three ingredients, twenty servings, and a punch bowl ready for company.
Pumpkin Pie
A typed recipe for Pumpkin Pie—warm spices, brown sugar, creamy pumpkin filling, and one very good reason to save room for dessert.