Search Results: American Cookery 19th Century from Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink

New York; Boston: James Miller, Publisher, 779 Broadway; [copyright H.M. Francis, 1864. Octavo (21 x 13 cm.), xlviii, 300, 37 pages. Printed in two columns. Illustrated with a chromolithograph frontispiece and five tipped-in plates. Engraved line drawings throughout the text of the carving section. FIRST EDITION, thirteenth printing (after Cagle). Originally published by Munroe & Francis in 1832 under the title The Cook's Own Book; the following year the work was combined with Miss Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts, and all subsequent editions have offered the two works together. The 1833 issue also adds a date to the Preface, "Boston, March 1832" and a credit for much of the introductory matter, "The articles that follow, on Roasting, Boiling, etc., are selected from The Cook's Oracle" (this credit was, however dropped in subsequent printings). While subsequent printings exhibit slight variations in pagination regarding illustrations or the placement section titles and short features (i.e. weights &… Read More

Utica, N.Y.: Converse & Co., Job Printers, 38 Arcade, 1884. Octavo (20.8 x 13.7 cm.), 49, [3] pages. Advertisements. FIRST EDITION. A slim but very enjoyable community cookbook, issued by a woman's church group from Utica, in Central New York State. The recipes, in narrative form, are often but not always attributed. Most pleasing is the array of typefaces used throughout, in the recipe titles and especially in the advertisements. Advertisers include S.S. Converse - "Dropsy Treated Free!", A.L. Owens' Dairy Parlors, Ferrill's Ladies' Oyster Parlor, E.E. Corliss' Human Hair Goods, Geo. Clark's Glove and Mitten Factory, and The Casino! amongst many more. ~ "Dame Durden" was a sort of shorthand for "housewife", with origins deep in English folk songs and tales. Dickens' Esther in Bleak House was referred to as Dame Durden and a song about her was sung by Gabriel Oak in Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. The song was sung to celebrate spring and the fecundity it brings. "Dame Durden" was used as the nom… Read More

[Chicago, Ill.]; Philadelphia: John C. Winston; Standard Publishing Company, 1905. Two works [the complete book:] small octavo (19.5 x 13 cm.), vi, 338 pages. Illustrated with [8] leaves of plates. Index. [WITH the salesman's dummy:] small octavo (19.2 x 12.8 cm.), specimen pages with various pagination and ruled pages for recording subscribers' names at end. ~ FIRST EDITION under this title, though this is an exact reproduction, perhaps a stereotyped edition, of an earlier work published in 1875 under the title: Cookery from Experience... Despite being a re-issue (the running title retains the original title), the dummy includes an ad for the book that states that, "Most of these recipes... have never appeared in print before". The Economical Cook Book also appeared in 1905 with the imprint of The Evening World. The author indicates that many of the recipes within are her own, or those she uses often, and she has marked these (indeed most) with an *. A bit of age-toning to both text blocks; dummy… Read More

Indianapolis, Indiana: Indianapolis Journal Company, Printers, 1873. Octavo (22 x 14 cm.), 64 pages. Advertisements. Evident FIRST EDITION. One of the earliest recipe collections associated with the Hoosier State, and the first church cookbook known to have been published in Indianapolis. With one hundred sixty recipes, most of them attributed (at least with initials), including: Gumbo Soup (made with young "ocher"), Cream Toast, Sugar Biscuit, Oyster Salad, Chicken Croquettes, Spiced Beef, Potato Rissoles, Salsify, Cucumber Sauce, Martemans, Hodge Podge, Pear Pickle, Tomato Preserves, Crab Apple Jelly, Indiana Pudding, Apple Custard Pie, Gooseberry Tart, Hickory-Nut Macaroons, Almond Cake, Ma's Blackberry Wine. ~ A society and vestry having been formed in 1837, the cornerstone of the original Episcopal Church of Indianapolis was laid in May 1838, very near the center of Indianapolis. The graceful Gothic Revival edifice that stands on the site today was initiated in similar fashion twenty years… Read More

Evansville, Ind: Journal Co., Printers and Binders, 1885. Evansville, Ind.: [The Church; Printed by] Journal Co., Printers and Binders, 1885. [St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Evansville, Ind.); Ladies of the Church]. Octavo (21.5 x 14.75 cm.), 81 pages. Illustrated head- and tailpieces. Advertisements. Index. Cover title: The Perfect Cook. ~ Evident second edition (by inference). An early church cookbook offered by a community nestled within a leafy corner of the largest city in southern Indiana, near the banks of the Ohio River. With approximately four hundred brief attributed recipes, including: Federal Rolls, Jennie Lind Cake, Rice Muffins, Flannel Cakes, Cream Fritters, Evansville Corn Cakes, (White) Bean Soup, Oyster Omelette, Turbot, Broiled Mutton Chops, Roast Goose, Sweet Pickled Cantaloupes, Butternut Pickles, Fricasseed Tomatoes, Potato Puffs, Fried (Sour) Apples, Orange Cake, Almond Custard Cake, Marguerites, Crullers, Lemon Pie, Yankee Pumpkin Pie, Charlotte Russe (four versions), Brown… Read More