Here is the introduction to the vintage booklet The Enterprising Housekeeper from the sixth edition (1906). If you’d like to follow along and browse through more pages of the book, I’m filing them in the Enterprising Housekeeper Category.

This is just the beginning of my efforts, so not much in there just yet!

Here is a scan of the two pages, you can click it to view a larger image.

Introduction
To Women The World Over
(pages 2 and 3)

In presenting the sixth edition of this book of recipes to the women of all the world, we desire to thank them for their countless expressions of praise and appreciation. The widespread popularity of the recipes given here is due, we believe, to the fact that all of them are practical, tested and economical. By economical we mean that they do not call for expensive ingredients merely for the sake of novelty, a charge that has been brought against many more pretentious cook books.

Some of these recipes are new; many of the best of them are old–gathered from many sources, including the old family, pen-written cook book, made precious by years of service.

Of especial value to the “Enterprising Housekeeper” are many recipes here given for utilizing “left over” food in preparing dishes that are often more savory and more nutritious than the original dish–at a saving that is fully appreciated by the housewives of all lands. It is proof of their endorsement that they have quickly exhausted five editions of this little book, amounting to over three million copies.

At the same time there has been a steadily increasing demand for the labor-saving household devices described herein: Food Choppers, Coffee Mills, Cherry Stoners, Fruit Presses, Raisin and Grape Seeders, Wine and Jelly Presses, Ice Shredders, Spice Mills, Meat Juice Extractors, and the celebrated Enterprise Cold Handle Sad Irons.

The famous Enterprise Food Choppers are of two general types; simple Food Choppers, having a feeding screw which presses the substance to be cut against a revolving knife; and the more elaborate Meat Choppers, in which the meat or food is forced into holes in a steel plate, after being cut by the revolving steel knives in contact with the plate. This latter type of machine will last a life time, after which the knives and plates belonging to it can be sent to our factory for re-sharpening, where the work will be done properly and promptly at small cost, making the machine practically as good as when new.

With the hope that our friends will appreciate our efforts to constantly improve, and perfect, all the devices bearing the “Enterprise” trade mark–and please note that the many improvements are presented to the public without any increase in prices–we submit this revised booklet to all “ENTERPRISING” Housekeepers in the hope that they will find in it suggestions for “living better at less expense.”

We make a large variety of Patented Hardware Specialties, not all of which are described in the following pages. To anyone interested we will mail a complete illustrated catalog containing much valuable information. All of the “Enterprise” articles are made in our own great factories, in Philadelphia, of the best materials and by the most skilled labor obtainable, and back of each article produced is the valuable experience of over forty years, during which period Enterprise goods have maintained their leading place. Our goods (bearing the “Enterprise” trademark) are sold by hardware dealers and at house-furnishing, department and general stores the world over, but should you be delayed in getting any desired article from your dealer we will forward it to you on receipt of the price.

The Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pa.
PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.