Telling Alaska’s Story: Cooking up vintage Anchorage recipes

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - It paused during the pandemic, but now it’s back — the Archives and Special Collections section at the University of Alaska Anchorage/Anchorage Pacific University Consortium Library hosts the culinary event each year, selecting a historical document centered around food which volunteers use to cook up a dish.

“You can’t understand living in 1920 unless you eat like somebody who’s living in 1920,” Arlene Schmuland, head of the archives, said.

This year’s dishes give a glimpse into what types of foods were available in Anchorage 102 years ago — mostly a lot of canned goods, and cooking directions that show wood stoves were the primary method of baking.

Recipes in the cookbook range from jellied chicken to bean loaf and “Mock Scotch Woodcock.”

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