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Recipe for SleepEpisode 26: Sleepy Sorbets, Ice Creams, and Frozen Punches for Summer NightsThis is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. I’m going to read to you from an old cookbook full of recipes and stories, and hopefully it’s just interesting enough to keep your mind from ruminating, but just light enough that you can let it go when sleep arrives. Tonight, we are still deep in the pages of 1894’s The American Pastry Cook, a massive instructional tome written for hotel and steamboat cooks. We’ve only gotten through th...2025-07-1746 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 25: Magic Recipes for a Rainy Night.For our 25th episode, cuddle up with the sounds of rain as our host Erin Brindley reads to you from The Magic Way, a cookbook published in 1924 featuring all of the ways to use Magic Baking Powder. This is a re-imagining of our fifth episode, this time with a bed of rain underneath.
Please let us know if you like the rain, or the simplicity of the recipes read softly and sweetly without the ambient noise. We'll have a little poll going at our Recipe for Sleep Instagram, @recipeforsleep.
Our rain sounds are from Zapsplat....2025-07-0355 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 24: Ice Cream DreamsTonight on Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland, we once again visit The American Pastry Cook from 1894, a massive tome with hundreds of recipes and even more stories and advice for the professional hotel cook, steamboat owner, or, in tonight’s case, enterprising young person with an ice cream shop. Your host, Erin Brindley, will softly and sweetly read you delicious recipes for ice creams and frozen punches that will bring back summer memories, and inspire dreams of pinks and green scoops dripping onto the sidewalk. So...2025-06-1953 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 23: Drift off to Sleepy Pie RecipesThis is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. Tonight, I’ll be once again reading to you from The American Pastry Cook, published in 1894. I’ll read Jessup Whitehead’s recipes for pies, mostly, with a few ices at the end, if you’re still awake by then. As always with our old friend Jessup, recipes are interspersed with the occasional random opinion or story, which can seem a little out of nowhere, (like the story of the new night c...2025-06-0551 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 22: Fall Asleep to the Lost History of Angel Food CakeThis is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. Tonight, we’re returning to The American Pastry Cook, published in 1894, and finally, after two episodes worth of intro, we get to the meat of the book: the recipes.
Our author Jessup Whitehead does not lose his salt once the recipes begin. He peppers random history and color commentary throughout the cookbook, throwing all the 1800’s shade at women who bake cakes for their church fairs, and gossiping about...2025-05-2251 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 21: Another Lullaby of Pastry MakingIn this cozy return to a listener favorite, we’re back with Jessup Whitehead’s 1894 edition notes from The American Pastry Cook. Still lingering in the preface, we read his curious and sometimes salty responses to letters he received from readers. It’s a warm, sleepy dive into culinary history—perfect for drifting off.
If the rhythm of recipes is what normally sends you into a peaceful slumber, don’t worry—there are plenty of episodes in our back catalogue filled with them, including our last episode, Episode 20, Fall Asleep to Recipes Read Aloud Like Little Poems. But tonight, w...2025-05-0841 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 20: Fall Asleep to Recipes Read Aloud Like Little PoemsFrom your host Erin Brindley, a Chef & Storyteller: For our 20th episode, we return to one of the cookbooks that inspired this podcast, The A.A. Cookbook of 1895. It is the simplest version, where I simply guide you through a brief meditation to help you get your busy mind ready for sleep, and then read you dozens of short and sweet recipes. From Orange Baskets to Sweet Apple Pudding, you’ll drift off to the land of sugar-plum fairies to the rhythm of old-fashioned narrative recipes.
To read the original text, visit here. The AA Cookbook.
2025-04-2450 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 19_Sleepy Advice for the Pastry Chef, Part IWelcome to Recipe for Sleep, the cozy podcast where old cookbooks are your lullaby. I’m your host, Erin Brindley, chef and storyteller, guiding you to dreamland with the comforting rhythm of culinary history. Tonight, we’r e straying from the sweet world of 365 desserts and diving into something a bit more unique.
In this episode, we’re exploring the seventh edition of The American Pastry Cook from 1894, a delightful and dense cookbook written by Jessup Whitehead, a chef with a passion for large-scale cooking. While we won’t be delving into any recipes tonight, we’ll be savoring t...2025-04-0355 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 18: More Cozy Dessert Recipes to Drift Off ToRecipe for Sleep is a sleep and meditation podcast for those who love a warm and cozy kitchen. Put away anything you were doing, and snuggle deep into your sweet covers. It’s time once again to open up the butter-stained pages of 365 Desserts, and let Erin Brindley read each recipe to you, softly and sweetly, until you fall asleep. This cookbook from 1900 is full of whipped meringues and sherry-soaked sultanas, a perfect place to gently rest your mind if you find baking, or just thinking about baking, soothing.
If this podcast is helping you fal...2025-03-2055 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 17: Sleepy Sweet Recipes from 1900Recipe for Sleep – A Sleepcast is a cozy place to put your thoughts when it’s time for your mind to rest. We’ve got a library full of very old cookbooks, 1850-1925, at our fingertips and we’re going to read each one to you, sweetly and slowly, one recipe at a time. Recipes are simultaneously full of beautiful imagery, (particularly for those of us who thrill in delicious food,) and soothingly dull. Host Erin Brindley’s gentle narration and the nostalgic allure of Victorian simplicity create a calming atmosphere that eases you into a restful sleep. A perfect wa...2025-03-0656 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 16: Sleepy Spring Recipes from 365 DessertsTonight, Host Erin Brindley continues reading, softly and sweetly, from “365 Desserts: A Dessert for Every Day of the Year” from 1900. Each of these little narrative recipes reads like a little poem. Snuggle deep into your sweet covers. You’ve made it. To the cozy, quiet time of day, where all you have to do is listen to Erin read you old recipes until you fall asleep.
To read Erin’s own recipes and stories, (or listen to her read them in an audio version,) visit her Substack.
To support this sleepy podcast in...2025-02-2051 minRecipe for SleepEpisode 15: Fall Asleep to Recipes that are like Little PoemsYou’ve made it. To that cozy, quiet time of day, where there’s nothing to do but listen to Chef Erin Brindley read you old cookbooks until you fall asleep. Tonight, we jump back into 1887’s A Book of Cooking and Pastry. All you have to do is snuggle deep into your sweet covers, and listen to Erin read about Macroni in Crust Cups, Croquettes of Potatoes, and Fondus until you drift off to dreamland.
To read Erin’s own recipes and stories, (or listen to her read them in an audio version,) visit her Substack.
T...2025-02-0633 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 14: A Book of Cooking and Pastry to Fall Asleep ToThis is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. Tonight I’ll read from A Book of Cooking and Pastry from 1887. This is my favorite kind of old cookbook where the recipes are barely recipes at all, just tiny little narratives. It is written by C.F. Fau, a caterer and cooking teacher. It is a deeply practical, simple tome. I find this kind to be the most comforting.
The book is almost a hundred dense pages, so t...2025-01-2349 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 13: Bread Making and Bread Baking to fall asleep to.This is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. Happy 2025, I’m so glad to be back in your ears after a short break for the holidays. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. If you’re new to the podcast, I read old cookbooks, mostly from the late 1800s and early 1900s, softly and sweetly until you fall asleep. I launched this drowsy little project in 2024, weekly, but in fits and starts.
We’re changing things a bit for 2025…we’ll have a new episode...2025-01-0855 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 12: More Literary Yule Recipes for the Longest Nights
Recipe for Sleep is a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us to dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller, and I’ve got a library full of old recipe books from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and in this podcast I read them to you to give your mind an easy, sweet place to spend some time. And if you fall asleep mid-recipe, all the better. Tonight we’re tucking back in to 1906’s Books and My Food (With Literary Quotations and Original Recipes for Every Day in the Year).2024-12-1959 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 11: More Sleepy Yule RecipesTonight we slide right back into “Books and My Food,” a curious cookbook that couples literary quotes and recipes. We started this book last week, in honor of the season, and the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod, or Yule Book Flood, where families exchange books on Christmas Eve, and spend the rest of the evening reading together. So this whole month is our own cozy homage, with a cookbook inspired by literature. Luckily this book has 365 recipes, plenty to put us to sleep for the whole month.
The recipes are particularly poetic, which makes them the perfect thin...2024-12-1256 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 10: Sleepy Yule Recipes
Recipe for Sleep is a podcast where I read you old cookbooks until you fall asleep, and for the rest of this holiday season we have a special theme. There is something so quiet and soothing about the idea of cozying up under a blanket on a dark night, reading silently with people you love, each in your own world but together.
As I was looking through all the old cookbooks, trying to find the perfect, seasonally themed one to read you to sleep, I found “Books and My Food”. A curious cookbook written by a pai...2024-12-051h 00
Recipe for SleepEpisode 9 - Dreamy Dinners Part III: Holiday MenusRecipe for Sleep is a podcast where I read to you from very old cookbooks until you fall asleep. The holiday season can be both a time of wonderful recipes, and sleepless nights. So this week we slide back into Fannie Farmer’s 1914 tome “What to have for dinner.” Two episodes in, and we still have eight more menus to go in the Family Dinner section. Tonight, in honor of the holiday season, I’m going to skip ahead to page 101 where we’ll begin Dinners for Occasions. How much has Thanksgiving changed in the last hundred and ten years? A l...2024-11-2855 min
Recipe for SleepDreamy Dinners Two: More Culinary LullabiesThis week’s episode of Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we read you to sleep from very old cookbooks, we dip back in to Fanny Merritt Farmer’s vivid recipes. We’re still in the first section of "A Book of Good Dinners for my Friend, or, What to Have for Dinner.” Tonight, we continue to read from the first section, family dinners. Like good stories, each menu has a beginning, middle, and an end. From Huntington Soup, to Mashed Sweet Potatoes served in their shells, to Cheese Salad, (the best kind of salad, in our humble opinion, to Orange...2024-11-2145 min
Recipe for SleepDreamy Dinners: A Culinary Lullaby with Fanny Merritt FarmerWelcome to this week's episode of "Recipe for Sleep," where Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller, reads from timeless cookbooks to gently lull you into dreamland. Join our community at thanksalt.com for more recipes and stories.
This episode takes us on a culinary journey through "What to Have for Dinner" by the legendary Fanny Merritt Farmer. This century-old cookbook is divided into three sections: family dinners, dinners for occasions, and company and formal dinners. Today, we'll delve into the first section, exploring multi-course family dinners that evoke the charm of yesteryear.
Imagine a serene...2024-11-141h 03
Recipe for SleepAttractive Menus to Fall Asleep ToAt Recipe for Sleep, we find old cookbooks to be a restful place to put our minds as we fall asleep. Not only do we get to peek into the kitchens of the past, but sometimes, like this week, we get to imagine a life completely different from our own. Where our greatest concern is how to create a menu for a fancy breakfast with our friends that does not bore, even without the help of a caterer or a maid. Attractive Menus by Harriet Warner, published in 1916 addresses these and other pressing issues, such as the importance of...2024-10-171h 01
Recipe for SleepEpisode5 The Magic Way to Fall AsleepTonight, host Erin Brindley will read The Magic Way. The Magic Way was published by Magic Baking Powder and has a charming preamble before it gets to the recipes, lots of tips on baking cakes, and why Magic Baking Powder is the best baking powder. Really, sometimes you do choose a book by its cover, and this third edition, published in 1924, has the most darling cover, from the typeface to the flapper holding a chocolate cake. We’ll put a picture of it up on the Recipe for Sleep Instagram page, but don’t look at that now…I think...2024-10-1054 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 4: 300 Tested Recipes to Sleep to from The A.A. Cookbook, 1895Recipe for Sleep is a sleep podcast in which we read to you from very old cookbooks until you fall asleep. In this episode, host Erin Brindley lulls you to sleep with the first section of The A. A. Cookbook by Miss A. Alden and Miss A. Adams, published in 1895. This tome contains 300 recipes contributed by “Very Good Cooks,” and each one reads like a little poem. Fall asleep imagining steaming griddle cakes, whimsical desserts like “Apple Porcupine,” and “Blanc-mange to Please the Children.” Erin has adapted one of the ginger snap recipes, “Alice’s Ginger Snaps,” which is unique and very mol...2024-10-0357 min
Recipe for Sleep365 Desserts to Sleep To - The First Two MonthsIn this episode, Host Erin Brindley is going to send you to sleep with dessert. Reading from the first section of 365 Desserts, published in 1900, you will drift to sleep to dream of tartlets, parfaits, pies and puddings. So many puddings. Chicago Pudding, Paradise Pudding, and Little Princess Pudding. But it was February’s Chocolate Soufflé recipe that inspired the recipe we’ve published at Thank Salt, a light as air and deeply rich dessert. You'll find that at ThankSalt.com
Published in 1900, the full text is available here: 365 Desserts
Evan Mosher is our sou...2024-09-2651 min
Recipe for SleepOne Hundred and One Sandwich Recipes to Sleep To.High up on the shelf of the Recipe for Sleep library is One Hundred and One Sandwiches, and we’re going to read from it, softly and sweetly, until you fall asleep. From giving butter a “violet bath” to making your own peanut butter “with a little sherry or port,” the recipes in One Hundred and One Sandwiches are an oddly soothing set. Host Erin Brindley will read you 101 variations on the sandwich, with themes of Fish, Egg, Salad, Meat, Sweet, Nut, and Cheese sandwiches. Published in 1901, author May Southworth’s details the nearly infinite variations of sandwiches. Inspired by the recip...2024-09-1941 min
Recipe for SleepEpisode 1: 100 Good Apple Recipes to Fall Asleep ToIn this sweet and homey first episode, Erin Brindley will read you to sleep from 100 Good Apple Recipes, an expansive compendium of all things Pomological. Written in 1915. Published by the Agricultural College Extension Service of Ohio State University, you will fall asleep to cozy recipes for apple puddings, pies, cakes, sauces, and why you should use Ohio apples above all others. You can find the original text here: 100 Good Apple Recipes
Erin has created a recipe inspired by all the amazing apple recipes: Apple Custard Meringue. It has all the things: Buttery pie crust, firm a...2024-09-1050 min