We thought we should take a moment to figure out who this “B. Dylan Hollis” fellow is (because his book is our lead-off title this week), and well, it’s an hour later now and we’re still watching YouTube videos. We blame Hollis’s infectious enthusiasm for margarine, wooden spoons, and recipes from the ‘70s. So, yeah, brace yourselves.
Hollis, as you may know, is an internet influencer who discovered a batch of old cookbooks during the pandemic. He filmed himself making a few recipes, found that other folks enjoyed his efforts, and built himself a media empire. Baking Yesteryear is a collection of some of his favorite recipes from the last hundred years, showcasing some of the wild, wacky, and wonderful home techniques of the mid-20th century.
We appreciate his affection for home cooking, but we should note that while it is clever to dig into historical recipes and period-appropriate ingredients, please don’t use any actual ingredients that have been sitting on your shelves since then. Even that can of Spam is probably dodgy.
—A Good Book, Sumner, WA
Genuinely tickled to finally have this one in the bookstore! If you haven’t discovered this delicious, delightful twig of a boy on the interwebs, DO. Trust me, B. Dylan Hollis is funny and sweet, like the rediscovered recipes he makes, now gathered up in Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s, out now from DK. Did not know you needed Jell-O Poke Cake, did you? Well, you do!
–Brad Craft, University Book Store, Seattle, WA