Introduction
Health and Happiness from Whole Meal Waterless Cooking: More Nourishment, Finer Flavour, Lower Cost is a cookbook published in the 1930s that features recipes prepared with the Duro Waterless Cooker. The Duro Waterless Cooker was an aluminum cooker made in Hamilton, Ontario, and had a three-tier system that allowed users to cook multiple dishes at the same time. The cookbook's twenty pages are composed of several categories, including advertisements and general advice for the usage of the twelve quart Duro Waterless Cooker, tips on preserving food using the Duro method such as drying and canning, recipes for meals and desserts, and a guide for an estimated cooking time of the popular ingredients used in the recipes. The cookbook features a variety of illustrations, including what the Duro Waterless Cooker looks like inside and out. The advertisements advocate for the convenience of the appliance, and there is emphasis on the benefits of using the Duro, such as the retention of nutrients in low-cost ingredients. The objective of the cookbook is to advertise the twelve quart Duro Waterless Cooker and to incentivize Canadian women to purchase the cookware by addressing some common cooking concerns women may have had during that period. The cookbook includes nourishment, flavour, and cost in its title to assure women that the Duro Cooker would help them serve healthy, appetizing, and low-cost meals to their families using accessible ingredients during a time when food security and affordability were important concerns for Canadian families.