You can find a wealth of information in old cookbooks. If nothing else they are really interesting to see how trends have changed between what used to popular and what we eat now. The OldCookbooks.com Blog talks about old cookbooks they have come across and what is unique about each one. One that I actually have at home, although I can’t recall where I got it from is the Country Fair Cookbook which was published in 1975 and contains interesting information on cooking to win a country fair ribbon. I also have another interesting book with old English recipes such as pig trotters, I'm not sure how popular that would be today.