The pocket-sized notebook he used to write down his recipes is bound in red leather, tough enough to keep his writing largely intact for over a century. Being a soldier in wartime required you to be practical and resilient in every facet of your life, so it’s hardly surprising that Sgt. Schluter chose a sturdy notebook like this, even as a chef. The pages between the leather bindings are yellow and withered, with stains of liquids and a shiny gold trim. The inside cover holds his name and rank with a home address in case the notebook was ever lost, along with a reference to a Mrs. R. E. Schluter. 

Sgt. Schluter’s old pocket book records recipes for every kind of baked good a soldier could ask for in the middle of a World War: biscuits, corn bread, fruit bars, pie, and something called “war bread” among 60 recipes in total. Sgt. Schluter also included savory meals like chicken dumplings and beef à la mode, but these are rare. As a cookbook intended to feed entire platoons of American soldiers, every recipe has massive quantities of ingredients — up to 40 pounds of certain staples like flour and chicken. Moreover, the recipes come with hardly any instructions beyond their ingredients. Sgt. Schluter appears to have written his cookbook for his eyes only, which makes it particularly puzzling why there’s a single recipe for “Do-Nuts” written in someone else’s hand sandwiched between the 80-some blank pages in the back of the pocket book. Clearly, there’s a lot to discover about Sgt. Schluter minimalistic little red recipe book.