OP: The Antisocial Cookbook

Madison Laboratories, 1968. Paperback. Good.

A tongue-in-cheek cookbook produced by and for the promotion of Binaca brand breath freshener, The Antisocial Cookbook (1968) encourages heavy use of particularly odiferous ingredients—alliums, cheese, and fish. The premise, of course, is that eating such delicious but pungent dishes will make you an unappealing companion unless you have Binaca handy to salvage the occasion.

The gimmickry ends with the humorous illustrations and headnotes, making way for serious and appealing—at least for those of us who find strong flavors enticing!—recipes. You’ll find a garlicky and oniony eggplant caviar appetizer, stinky roquefortburgers, and a fishy kipper souffle. 

The recipes are wide-ranging with only their olfactory offensiveness—and a slight upper middle class bent—to unify them. All in good fun.

Ours is a slightly shelfworn copy with some soiling to the wrappers. Clean and unmarked inside. The glued binding is pulling at the front hinge, and the paper wrappers are beginning to become disbound. Issued only in paperback. 7” x 4”, 127 pages.