2010

Marie Johansen

Info 669 Special Collections, Professor

Reed

6/12/2010

Recipes for Life – Early American Cookbooks and the Women who wrote them

CONTENTS Preface .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Label 1: ‘American Cookery’ ............................................................................................................................................... 6

Label 2: ‘The American Frugal Housewife’ ................................................................................................................... 8

Label 3: ‘The good housekeeper’ ..................................................................................................................................... 10

Label 4: ‘The ladies’ new book of cookery’ ................................................................................................................. 12

Label 5: ‘The American woman’s home’ ...................................................................................................................... 14

Label 6: ‘Common Sense in the Household’ ................................................................................................................ 17

Label 7: ‘The Practical Housekeeper’ ............................................................................................................................ 19

Label 8: ‘The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook’ ..................................................................................................... 22

Label 9: ‘The Cook’s Own Book’ ....................................................................................................................................... 25

Label 10: ‘The Virginia Housewife’ ................................................................................................................................. 27

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................ 30

American Cookbooks ...................................................................................................................................................... 30

Other Sources ..................................................................................................................................................................... 31

PREFACE

The following paper contains an introductory essay, exhibition labels, and images of exhibition ob-

jects – all for the exhibition ‘Recipes for life: Early American cookbooks and the Women who wrote

them.’ An exhibition is, however, more than the objects displayed and the texts accompanying them,

so I’d like to preface the paper with a brief outline of the exhibition I envision.

- The cookbooks will be displayed in display cases along with the exhibition labels. They are

not displayed chronologically, because I want the audience to make up their own mind as to

what and how these books are related, so I do not want to forefront their temporal relation-

ship. Moreover, there shouldn’t be a ‘right’ way of walking through the exhibition as would

be suggested by the timeline of temporal ordering.

- In addition to the original cookbooks, which will be in display cases, a facsimile will be made

available for each of the exhibited books. By providing a facsimile of the book, the patrons

will be able to turn pages, browse, and look at the text more closely and freely than if the

books were only in display cases.

- The exhibition includes a brochure, which is a pamphlet containing sample recipes and

quotes of advice on how to be a good housewife from the exhibited books.

- A three minute video narrating and illustrating how the industrialization of the printing

business made the explosion in published women’s literature and magazines possible will

be available on a screen with accompanying headsets.

Overall, it is my hope that the audience will engage in three sorts of reflections from this exhibi-

tion: first, an understanding of how the genre of the cookbook is a window into the way of life of

the time and place for which it was written; second, a sense of the universe and way of life of

the Early American household; and, third, that the audience will reflect on how the ideals and

roles of that time is the background for the ideals and roles of the present.

INTRODUCTION

To study the cookbooks of a given geographical or historical location uncovers a wealth of detailed

information about the way of life and the ideals of the way of life of the society in which the cook-

books were published. Most obviously, the study of cookbooks can serve as a source of information

about available foods and ways of preparing it, diet, the social setting of the meals, gender-roles,

and women’s literacy. But cookbooks can also serve as sources for identifying trends and changes in

society, and they can give insights into the values and ideals of a society – of what is proper and fit

for the various social stations that the audiences of the cookbooks occupy. Cookbooks are almost

never mere lists of recipes. Through the content chosen and presented by the author as well as the

instructions provided by the authors they prescribe ideals for their audiences; ideals of social roles

and duties and how these are best fulfilled. A cookbook is, in short, a view on the society it ad-

dresses. And if we compare several cookbooks from the same time and place, we get many perspec-

tives on a society. In this manner, cookbooks can provide a holographic image of a way of life.

This exhibition is about printed 19th century American cookbooks, and how they promoted

ideals for women and set standards for domestic life. Ten examples of women authors and their

works are on display. These remarkable women span the century. Their books went through hun-

dreds of editions and the authors reached millions of households through their books, articles, and

cooking classes. Not only were they in their time recognized as authorities in all matters domestic,

but they were also reformers and active in all the major social and cultural events of their day: ab-

olition, women's rights, education, suffrage, social welfare, temperance, prison reform, poverty al-

leviation, immigration, child welfare, health and nutrition, medical reforms, and contemporary reli-

gious and moral questions. They shared a major concern for the role of women, for their duties and

responsibilities, as well as their rights, and for ways their workload could be "improved" and eased.

They were writers, poets, philosophers, educators, editors, and business women.

Cookbooks were, of course, also published in America prior to the Independence. But these

were always written by British authors and reflected the British experience and way of life more so

than the emerging American identity. This exhibition will focus on cookbooks that are written by

Americans, for an American audience, and published by American printers. Prior to independence

there were a strong tradition of manuscript cookbooks, that is, cookbooks written in hand and

shared in families and local communities, in the U.S., but there were no cookbooks produced for the

wider, American audience till after the Declaration of Independence. It is the goal of this exhibition

to zoom in on what the authors of cookbooks were seeking to communicate to their audience and

how these cookbooks contributed to and engaged with 19th century Early American life.

These ten books provide ten different and sometimes even conflicting views on what the life

of the family and the role of women in society should be. In this manner, they provide us with an

image of the Early American way of life. And, by providing a view of our recent past, also provide a

resource for reflecting on the present.

LABEL 1: ‘AMERICAN COOKERY’

American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of

making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the im-

perial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life.

By Amelia Simmons

Hartford: Printed for Simeon Butler, Northampton, (1798)

The importance of this work cannot be overestimated.

Its publication (Hartford, 1796) was, in its own way, a

second Declaration of American Independence. It was

not the first cookbook printed in America, but it was the

first written by an American for Americans. All earlier

American cookery imprints were reprints from the Brit-

ish repertoire. Not much is known of the author Amelia

Simmons. She calls herself an ‘American orphan’ as a

metaphor for the young American Republic that needs

care and guidance. From a sociological standpoint this

book is interesting, because it is the first attempt in the

genre at defining an American identity. From a culinary

standpoint the book is interesting, because it is the first

to include recipes that use the foods that were available

in America: corn, cranberries, turkey, squash and pota-

toes, all uniquely indigenous to the New World.

Figure 1: American Cookery. Title page. I. American Cookery. Title page.

Simmons’ cookbook was quite popular and was printed, reprinted, and pirated for 30 years after its

first appearance. There are at least three 18th-century printings and there are at least 10 editions

or variants between 1804 and 1831, published in several cities in New York, Vermont and New

Hampshire.

Figure 2: American Cookery, 1796. Preface II. American Cookery, 1796. Preface

LABEL 2: ‘THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE’

The Frugal Housewife, Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy.

By Lydia Maria Francis Child

Boston: Carter and Hendee, 1830.

Lydia Maria Child (February 11, 1802-Oct. 20, 1880) was

a New England novelist, editor, journalist, and scholar

who produced a body of work remarkable for its bril-

liance, originality, and variety, much of it inspired by a

strong sense of justice and love of freedom.

Lydia and her husband began to identify themselves with the anti-slavery cause in 1831. Child was

a women's rights activist, but did not believe that significant progress for women could be made

until after the abolition of slavery. She believed that white women and slaves were similar in that

white men held both groups in subjugation and treated them as property instead of individual hu-

man beings. Despite the fact that she worked for the equality for women, Child made her opinion

known that she did not care for all-female societies. She believed that women would be able to

achieve more by working alongside men. Child, along with many other female abolitionists, began

campaigning for equal female membership in the American Anti-Slavery Society, a controversy

which later split the movement.

The American Frugal Housewife was first published in Boston in 1829 and was reprinted at

least four times in the next two years. The book went through at least 35 printings between 1829

and 1850 when it was allowed to go out of print because of the publication of newer, more modern

cookbooks, but also because of Mrs. Child's increasingly public work in the cause of anti-slavery.

III. Lydia Maria Child

The cookbook has a strong emphasis on the virtues of thrift, self-reliance, and frugality, “the art of

gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost… fragments of time, as well as materials.

Nothing should be thrown away so long as it is possible to make any use of it…” These themes, of

the simple, frugal, and self-reliant household, is one that appears throughout the Early American

cookbooks. Child also emphasizes the importance of education of women:

“There is no subject so much connected with individual happiness and national prosperity as the education of daughters. … One great cause of the vanity, extravagance and idleness that are so fast growing upon our young ladies, is the absence of domestic education.”

Child also offer opinions and advice concerning

the relationship between men and women, hus-

bands and wives:

“If men would have women economical, they must be so themselves. What motive is there for patient industry, and careful economy, when the savings of a month are spent at one trip to Nahant…?”

Collecting household hints, remedies and practical

information on buying, cooking and storing food

in an easily transportable format made this a con-

venient and helpful volume for pioneer families to

carry on their westward migration.

IV. The American Frugal Housewife. Title page

LABEL 3: ‘THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPER’

The Good Housekeeper, or the Way to Live Well and to Be Well While We Live.

By Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Company, 1839.

In Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) we have another remarkable and in-

fluential 19th century American woman. She filled the position as editor

of Godey's Lady's Book, one of the most successful and widely circulated

19th century women's magazines, for 40 years; and as such she was the

arbiter of national taste. Mrs. Hale is also called “the Mother of the Amer-

ican Thanksgiving”, because she is the person who persuaded President

Lincoln to declare an annual day of Thanksgiving in 1864.

Mrs. Hale authored novels, poems, short stories, essays, plays, children's books, etiquette manuals

as well as cookbooks. Hale authored a number of cookbooks which were published in more than

thirty editions and printings in America; some were also published in England.

The Good Housekeeper is Mrs. Hale’s first cookbook. When she wrote

it in 1839, the number of original American cookbooks published

was quite small, fewer than thirty. She felt there was a need for a

new American cookbook, a cookbooks that took a more principled

approach to housekeeping. In the preface she wrote:

‘One purpose of mine is to show that the knowledge of Household arts is of indispensable importance in the life of women. By this knowledge wisely applied, they enhance the best gifts of their nature, and make their intellectual acquirements of higher use.’

Figure 2: The Good Housekeeper - front cover

V. Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

VI. The Good Housekeeper. Front cover.

She explains that those who wanted to learn the art of "good living" could turn to Dr. William Kit-

chiner's Cook's Oracle while those who wanted to learn about "cheap living" could consult Lydia

Maria Child's Frugal Housewife. Mrs. Hale's aim was to "select and combine the excellence of these

two systems, at the same time keeping in view the important object of preserving health and thus

teach how to live well, and to be well while we live."

LABEL 4: ‘THE LADIES’ NEW BOOK OF COOKERY’

The Ladies' New Book of Cookery: A Practical System for Private Families In Town And Country; With

Directions For Carving, And Arranging The Table For Parties, Also Preparations Of Food For Invalids

And For Children.

By Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

New York, H. Long & Brother, 1852.

This is the second of two books by Mrs. Hale included in the exhibi-

tion. This volume is much larger and more extensive in its coverage

than the other book by Mrs. Hale, The Good Housekeeper. A lengthy

introduction, called both The Science of Cookery and The Philosophy

of Cookery, makes interesting reading. As an editor of women’s mag-

azines and as author Mrs. Hale worked to raise the standard of wom-

en’s reading. She cut back on the dreamy poetry to concentrate on

enlightening the “female intellect.”

In The Ladies New Book of Cookery we find much of Mrs. Hale's philosophy of the importance of the

role of housekeeping: "Domestic Economy includes everything which is calculated to make people

love home and feel happy there." Clearly, her intentions are not merely to provide good recipes, but

rather to provide the principles of good housekeeping, since “it promotes health and happiness,

moral and social improvement, and adds the charm of contentment to everyday life.’

In this cookbook Mrs. Hale introduces a chapter on the philosophy of cookery:

‘… the more knowledge a woman possesses of the great principles of morals, philosophy

and human happiness, the more importance she will attach to her station, and to the name

of a “good housekeeper”. It is only the frivolous, and those who have been superficially edu-

cated, or only instructed in showy accomplishments, who despise and neglect the ordinary

duties of life as beneath their notice.’

VII. Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

Figure 3: The Ladies' new cookery book VIII. The Ladies' new cookery book

LABEL 5: ‘THE AMERICAN WOMAN’S HOME’

The American Woman's Home: Or, Principles Of Domestic Science; Being A Guide To The Formation And Maintenance Of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, And Christian Homes. By Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York, J.B. Ford And Company; Boston, H.A. Brown & Co.; 1869.

The Beecher sisters, who coauthored this book, were two of the 19th

century’s most influential and powerful social reformers; both wom-

en had profound influence on the shape of American domestic life

and educational reform. They agreed on the importance of education

for women and the dignity of women’s labor; but they disagreed as

to the extent women should engage in political affairs. Harriet

Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, approved of suffrage for

women and was active in the abolitionist movement. Catherine E.

Beecher, although she never married, felt that women’s domain was the

home and her duties were to the family.

The American Woman’s Home is an extensive piece of work, both physi-

cally and philosophically. It is dedicated "To the women of America, in

whose hands rest the real destinies of the Republic" and offers a guide to

the formation and maintenance of “economical, healthful, beautiful, and

Christian homes.”

The book offers aesthetic and practical considerations about house design, fireplaces, stoves, and so

on. The Beecher sisters were pioneers in scientific kitchen planning. They recommended specific

work areas for preparation and clean-up, continuous work surfaces, standardized built-in cup-

boards and shelves - all ideas taken for granted today. It was obvious to the authors that with new

IX. Catherine E. Beecher

X. Harriet Beecher Stowe

processed foods beginning to come into the marketplace and with their expectation that most

homes would soon be servant-less, they concentrated on teaching contemporary homemakers how

to cope with newly invented ranges, stoves, refrigerators, and other utensils and gadgets.

Healthful food and drinks, good cooking , the value of fasting and eating less meat - all of these top-

ics are covered in this volume. Furthermore there is much on care of the sick, and medical recipes;

and on gardens, plants and animals. This volume is a most influential 19th century culinary item, as

well as an important social history resource.

XI. American Woman's Home, Beecher & Beecher. Titlepage and illustration

XII. American Woman's Home, Beecher. Introduction.

LABEL 6: ‘COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD’

Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery.

By Marion Harland (pen name)

New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1873.

Marion Harland (Mary Virginia Terhune, 1830-1922) was a very

popular cookery author of her day, with at least fifteen titles to her

credit. Although she was a renowned Southern novelist from Vir-

ginia with many regional recipes in her cookbooks, her appeal was

national. One might say that Marion Harland was, for many readers,

the Julia Child, Danielle Steel, and Dear Abby of her day.

This volume begins with a “Familiar Talk with my Fellow-Housekeeper and Reader,” which exempl-

ifies the author's writing technique - a very personal contact with each and every reader. She tells

the reader that she wishes she could bring her the volume, in person. She explains that she shares

the same concerns and experiences. A wife and mother herself, she managed a full time career as a

writer while running a household, assisting her husband's ministry, and directing charities. Marion

Harland was not a feminist. In fact she was briefly allied with the anti-suffrage movement. Never-

theless she promoted an ideal of womanhood that was strong, intellectual, and capable of indepen-

dent living. She acknowledges that housekeeping is the lot of women – although it may not hold a

particular interest for them. In the introduction she writes:

“…how you often say to yourself, in bitterness of spirit, that it is a mistake of Christian civi-

lization to educate girls into love of science and literature, and then condemn them to the

routine of a domestic drudge.’ … ‘If you have not what our Yankee grandmothers termed a

“faculty” for housewifery – yet are obliged, as is the case with an immense majority of Amer-

ican women, to conduct the affairs of a household, bills of fare included – there is the more

reason for earnest application of your profession.”

XIII. Marion Harland

Mrs. Harland’s appeal was most successful; the book sold over a million copies and had at least 10

printings (sometimes, revised) from its first in 1871 to 1892.

XIV. Common Sense in the Household, 1873. Introduction.

LABEL 7: ‘THE PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPER’

The Practical Housekeeper; A Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy. By Eliz-

abeth Fries Ellet, New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1857.

Ms. Ellet was an American writer, historian, and poet. She was the first

writer to record the lives of women who contributed to the American

Revolutionary War. Her cookbook is a comprehensive encyclopedic

treatise on all aspects of homemaking. It captures American culinary

arts just prior to the Civil War. It is a handsome volume containing

"5000 Receipts & Maxims" and 500 wood engravings. This work is very

sophisticated and obviously addressed to middle and upper class

homes. There are detailed discussions of the home, its equipment, and furnishings. The book offers

advice on managing servants and guests, table setting and napkin folding, childcare, and the adulte-

ration of food. The author reflects on the role of women: “On her due performance of her part rest

the comfort and social peace; while misery and ruin follow her neglect.” Furthermore, Ellet does not

appear to agree with the suffrage movement when she writes the following:

“There is much talk nowadays, about the “rights” and “mission” of woman. Without entering

into the merits of the subject, we would only say, that if women from the highest to the low-

est, were systematically educated to wield properly the great power they indubitably posses

[...] they would have little reason to complain of the want of influence; and were they so

trained to enter actively and energetically into domestic employments and affairs, that none

could deem it a pursuit unworthy of them, they would find ample scope for the exercise of

their faculties, and the acquisition of means to live.”

And then, there are the recipes. Recipes with names like Cod Sounds-Ragout, Crimped Salmon-a la

Creme, Salmon-To Pickle Undressed, Chetney and Quihi Sauce, Beef Tremblant, A Fresh Neat's Ton-

gue and Udder, Cutlets a la Victime, or Victimized Cutlets, Tipperary Curry, and Cheese-Cake Stock

That Will Keep for Several Years. The author tells us she offers an unusually large variety of receipts

for soups, sauces and meats because "the want of variety in such preparation is generally com-

XV. Elizabeth Fries Ellet 1818-1877.

plained of in American cookery." Thus she includes some recipes from very recent French and Eng-

lish works in addition to the many from American housekeepers of long experience and tried skill.

XVI. The Practical Housekeeper, 1857. Title page.

XVII. Ellet's 'Practical Housekeeper’ – woodcut illustrations.

LABEL 8: ‘THE BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL COOKBOOK’

The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook By Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston, Little, Brown And Company (1896).

Fannie Farmer, the author of this book, is perhaps the best

known of the great American culinary authorities of the turn of

the 19th to the 20th century. And this book is arguably the best

known and most influential of all American cookbooks. It has

been in print from its first appearance in 1896 until the present

day, although the newer editions are updated and revised to the

point where Fannie might not recognize them. From its first print-

ing it was a bestseller.

Fannie Farmer studied cooking under Mary J. Lincoln at the Boston Cooking-School (which at the

time primarily was aimed towards training professional cooks). The rising middle class and the rise

in the number of women who wanted to treat homemaking as their domestic profession proved to

be a hungry market for cookbooks. Fannie Farmer graduated from the cooking school in 1889 and

became the director of the school in 1894. In 1902, Fannie Farmer left the Boston Cooking School to

open Miss Farmer's School of Cookery, aimed not at professional cooks, but at training housewives.

She was a frequent lecturer on domestic topics, and wrote several more cooking-related books be-

fore she died in Boston in 1915. The school continued until 1944. Her story is one of determination

in teaching the public that one did not have to be a professional chef to live an ideal life in the kitch-

en and around the house.

The Boston Cooking School Cookbook differs greatly from cookbooks published earlier in the 19th

century. It promotes a new ideal of healthy living through the “science” of cooking and housekeep-

ing:

XVIII. Fannie Merritt Farmer

“I certainly feel that the time is not far distant when a knowledge of the principles of diet will be an essential part of one’s education. Then mankind will eat to live, will be able to do better mental and physical work, and disease will be less frequent.”

Accordingly, the book provides a thorough introduction to the chemistry of food and the bi-

ology of the human being and nutrition.

“Water constitutes about two-thirds the weight of the body, and is in all tissues and fluids; therefore its abundant use is necessary. One of the great errors in diet is neglect to not take enough water [...] The chief office of the carbohydrates is to furnish energy and maintain heat. They contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and include foods that contain starch and sugar.”

Earlier cookbooks had science content, but this book took the science and the professionalization of

the recipes and housekeeping to a new level and this was the first cookbook author who included

very specific and accurate measurements in the recipes. In earlier cookbooks ingredient lists were

estimates, but after this book, recipes became accurate.

XIX. The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook. Preface.

LABEL 9: ‘THE COOK’S OWN BOOK’

The Cook's Own Book: Being A Complete Culinary Encyclopedia: Comprehending All Valuable Receipts For Cooking Meat, Fish, And Fowl, And Composing Every Kind Of Soup, Gravy, Pastry, Preserves, Es-sences, &c. That Have Been Published Or Invented During The Last Twenty Years. Particularly The Very Best Of Those In The Cook's Oracle, Cook's Dictionary, And Other Systems Of Domestic Economy. With Numerous Original Receipts, And A Complete System of Confectionery. / By A Boston Housekee-per. By Mrs. N. K. M. Lee Boston, Munroe and Francis; New York, Charles E. Francis, and David Felt, 1832.

This book is generally considered the first alphabetically ar-

ranged culinary encyclopedia in America with woodcut illustra-

tions. This was a very popular cookbook in 19th century America.

It went through at least a dozen printings before 1865. Not much

can be told about the author Mrs. Lee and it has not been possible

to find a photo of her. But from her work we can get an impres-

sion of her views and what she wanted to communicate:

‘We have fortunately, in this country, but one class of people: all

are free, and all are politically equal. Our domestics are in New

England designated as help, to indicate that they are the equals,

and assistants, rather than the inferiors of their employers.’

The author wish to promote frugality as an ideal for American

families: “…sound judgement and correct taste in a private family

that place it on a footing of respectability with the first characters

in the country.” Clearly the author is influenced by the fact that

the Independence was a recent event, and that she is articulating what characterizes ‘the American’.

She also gave the health of the family and the conduct of women some thought:

“More than health depends on the proper preparation of food: our very virtues are the crea-tures of circumstances, and many a man has hardened his heart, or given up a good resolu-tion, under the operation of indigestion.”

XX. Illustration - Cook's Own Book

Her sources for recipes were mostly British, including Dr. William Kitchiner's Cook's Oracle, Dol-

by's Cook's Dictionary and probably the works of Mrs. Rundell and Mrs. Raffald. The author ac-

knowledges her borrowings, but claims that she has added numerous original recipes.

XXI. Cook’s own book. Preface.

LABEL 10: ‘THE VIRGINIA HOUSEWIFE’

The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook.

By Mary Randolph

Baltimore: Plaskitt, Fite, 1838 (1838)

Mary Randolph (1762– 1828) wrote The Virginia House-Wife in 1824.

This cookbook is considered the first truly American regional cook-

book and was soon followed by the Kentucky Housewife and the Caro-

lina Housewife and many more such ‘Housewives’. Randolph's influen-

tial housekeeping book was an immediate success and went through many editions until the 1860s.

It included both culinary instructions and advice on household supervision. Her recipes used Vir-

ginia produce but also showed influences from African, American Indian, and European cultures,

and thereby created a cuisine unique to Virginia and the South.

This author came from a prominent Virginia family with close relations to the Jeffersons. Mrs. Ran-

dolph and her husband, who had a tobacco plantation and was appointed the U.S. Marshall of Vir-

ginia, held sparkling social gatherings that quickly made Mary Randolph a celebrated hostess,

known for her well-set table and her knowledge of cooking.

Mary Randolph was not a reformer. Her approach to the role of women was of a rather conservative

nature:

“The prosperity and happiness of a family depend greatly on the order and regularity estab-

lished in it. The husband, who can ask a friend to partake of his dinner in full confidence of

finding his wife unruffled by the petty vexations attendant on the neglect of household du-

ties – who can usher his guest into the dining-room assured of seeing that methodical nicety

which is the essence of true elegance, - will feel pride and exultation and exultation in the

possession of a companion, who gives his home charms that gratify every wish of his soul…”

XXII. Mary Randolph

The book offered a replacement of English cookbooks which had been the standard in America, The

Virginia Housewife became a very influential American cookbook of the nineteenth century. It of-

fers a broad range of recipes that draw on American produce and offer insights into the elegant life

of upper class Virginia. Not surprisingly, the book's regional emphasis made it especially popular in

the South.

XXIII. The Virginia Housewife. Titlepage

XXIV. The Virginia Housewife. Preface.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AMERICAN COOKBOOKS

Beecher, Catherine E. & Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1869): The American Woman’s Home: Or,

Principles of Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Eco-

nomical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes. New York, J.B. Ford & company

Child, L.M. (1830): The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Afraid of Econ

omy, 21st edition, Samuel, S. &William Wood, New York.

Ellet, Elizabeth Fries (1857): The Practical Housekeeper; A Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy,

New York; Stringer & Townsend.

Farmer, Fannie Merrit (1896): The Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Boston; Little, Brown And

Company

Hale, S.J.B.(1839): The Good Housekeeper, or the Way to Live Well and to Be Well While We Live.

Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Company, 1839.

Hale, S.J.B. (1852): The Ladies' New Book of Cookery: A Practical System for Private Families In

Town And Country; With Directions For Carving, And Arranging The Table For Parties, Also

Preparations Of Food For Invalids And For Children. New York, H. Long & Brother, 1852.

Harland, Marion (1873): Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1873.

Lee, N.K.M (1832): The Cook's Own Book: Being A Complete Culinary Encyclopedia: Comprehend ing All Valuable Receipts For Cooking Meat, Fish, And Fowl, And Composing Every Kind Of Soup, Gravy, Pastry, Preserves, Essences, &c. That Have Been Published Or Invented During The Last Twenty Years. Particularly The Very Best Of Those In The Cook's Oracle, Cook's Dictionary, And Other Systems Of Domestic Economy. With Numerous Original Receipts, And A Complete System of Confectionery. / By A Boston Housekeeper. Boston, Munroe and Francis; New York, Charles E. Francis, and David Felt.

Mary, Aunt (Mary Hodgson) (1855): The Philadelphia Housewife – Or Family Receipt Book, J.B.

Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia

Randolf, M. (1993): The Virginia Housewife, or Methodical Cook, A Facsimile Of An Authentic Early

American Cookbook, With A New Introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone, Dover Publications, INC.,

New York

Rutledge, S. (1847): The Carolina Housewife, Or House And Home – By A Lady In Charleston, W.R.

Babcock & Co., Charleston, South Carolina.

Simmons, A. (1796): The First American Cookbook: A Facsimile of ‘American Cookery,’ 1796 by Ame-

lia Simmons; with an essay by Mary Tolford Wilson, Dover Publications, New York

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