Originally Posted by Owlchick

I love cookbooks, too. Don't remember catching anything particularly egregious, although it's always amusing to see old cookbooks calling for up to 1/2 teaspoon of MSG in a recipe

BamaVol, back in the day folks used to cook pork for long, long times, well past the point where we'd do so today, in order to kill pesky pork germs.

Originally Posted by clarence5ybr

Back in the day, pork also used to be much fattier than what you'll find today at anyplace other than a specialty purveyor. The high fat content made the meat much more forgiving of longer cooking times.