The slip of paper with my mother's recipe for baking powder biscuits fluttered from the batter- and lard-smeared cookbook and I was ecstatic. A family favourite, the recipe is from a 1920s cookbook that was my late mother's kitchen bible and helped her through years raising and feeding a brood of eight children.

Feelings of nostalgia and sweet memories of food that gave us comfort and pleasure are behind the growing trend toward seeking out heritage cookbooks and recipes, says culinary historian Liz Driver of Toronto.

As program officer for Foodways at Montgomery's Inn, a museum in Toronto's west end, she is cooking in a 19th-century kitchen using cookbooks of the era.

"I had been handling historical cookbooks as artifacts instead of using them," Driver says. "Now, using them, I hear the voice of the women behind the words.

"You can relate to how they cared about their families and how they wanted to make food that was delicious. They took great pride in what they were doing."

Dorothy Duncan, former curator of Toronto's Black Creek Pioneer Village and an expert on Canada's culinary heritage, says "it is maddening" when she hears that so little of the country's culinary history has been recorded.

And even though most people aren't cooking as their mothers or grandmothers did, she still sees families returning to their roots on "special-occasion holidays and holy days when they want their traditional foods."

In her studies of food history, Duncan has been amazed "at how self-sufficient families were raising their own food and bartering for it" in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Tracking down a cookbook or treasured recipe from another time is happening because people find comfort in things they recognize, says Robert McCullough, publisher at Whitecap Books, a cookbook publishing company in North Vancouver.

The company acquired the rights to the recently re-released Five Roses guide to good cooking published in 1915. This is part of the Classic Canadian Cookbook Series launched by the company with historical notes provided by Driver.

Norma Bidwell, 88, a food writer for more than 50 years, says she receives hundreds of letters from readers asking for their mothers' and grandmothers' recipes.

"And people ask for commercial recipes all the time," says Bidwell, who writes a weekly column called Stoveline for the Hamilton Spectator. These might be for a favourite cookie made at a bakery long since closed or for a dish created by a commercial manufacturer more than 30 years ago and no longer in existence.

"Sometimes when I can't find a recipe requested by readers, I turn to other readers and they are wonderful and I get a flood of replies."

Things historic are happening at the university level as well. One of the most extensive culinary collections in Canada can be found at the University of Guelph.

There in the Archival and Special Collections Library is the Canadian Cookbook Collection, which now stands at 2,000 cookbooks. These have been donated by individuals interested in preserving Canada's culinary past.

As well, the library holds the cookery collections of three well-known writers. The late Una Abrahamson, former editor and writer for Chatelaine magazine, donated her collection of cookbooks and social histories ranging from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Edna Staebler, the 97-year-old author of many books on the food and culture of the Mennonite communities in Waterloo County, donated her literary papers to the library. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1996.

The Helen Gagen Collection is made up of scrapbooks, photographs, books and manuscripts. Her career combined home economics and stints as food editor for the Canadian Home Journal, Toronto Telegram, the Globe and Mail and Toronto Life magazine.

McCullough reasons that the growing appeal in historical foods, cookbooks and recipes comes down to comfort and nostalgia.

HERITAGE COOKBOOKS

Here are a few Canadian heritage cookbooks to be found in book stores:

- Nothing More Comforting by Dorothy Duncan (Dundurn)

- Traditional Quebec Cooking: A treasure of heirloom recipes by Micheline Mongrain-Dontigny (Les Editions La Bonne Recette)

- Five Roses A Guide to Good Cooking, with historical notes by Liz Driver (Whitecap).

- The Home Cook Book --Canada's first community cookbook first published in 1877 (Whitecap)

OATMEAL JAM-JAMS

3/4 c. (180 ml ) butter

( 1/2 c.) 125 ml sweet milk

1 egg

1 c. (250 ml) sugar

1/2 tsp. (2 ml) baking soda

1 c. (250 ml ) flour

2 c. (500 ml) rolled oats

1. Mix all ingredients. If not stiff enough, add a little more flour and oatmeal, maintaining proportions.

2. Turn a large dripping pan upside down and roll mixture out on the bottom covering the whole pan and bake in a quick oven. When done, cut in halves and spread jam between the halves.

3. Then cut in squares. Date or raisin or fig fillings may be used instead of jam, if desired. These are really delicious.

Note: A quick oven is not defined. But try 205 C (400 F) and watch carefully.

Source: Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking, with historical notes by Liz Driver (Whitecap).

ELDERBERRY PIE

Serves 6 to 8

Pastry for 2-crust pie

3 1/2 c. (875 ml) washed, stemmed elderberries

1 tbsp. (15 ml) lemon juice

1 c. (250 ml) sugar

1/4 tsp. (1 ml) salt

1/2 c. (125 ml) flour

1 tbsp. (15 ml) butter

1. Spread elderberries in pastry-lined 9-inch (23-cm) pie pan.

2. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

3. Combine sugar, salt and flour; sprinkle over berries. Dot with butter.

4. Cover top with pastry and seal.

5. Cut vents in top crust. Bake at 400 F (205 C) 35 to 45 minutes or until juices show in vents and crust is golden brown.

Source: Nothing More Comforting by Dorothy Duncan (Dundurn).