In 1931, with the United States deep in an economic depression, German American housewife Irma Rombauer (1877–1962) faced a bleak future. Her husband had committed suicide, leaving her little money to support a family. But Rombauer came up with a clever moneymaking scheme—she would gather recipes from her family and friends and publish a cookbook. That cookbook, called The Joy of Cooking, went on to become one of the best-known cookbooks in American kitchens.

Rombauer was not known for her cooking skills, and those who knew her were unsure about the project. She imagined a cookbook designed for inexperienced cooks like herself, middle-class women who had been raised in homes that employed cooks to prepare food for the family. With the financial hardships of the Great Depression (1929–41; see entry under 1930s—The Way We Lived in volume 2), few families could afford servants any...