Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Tidbits About Cookbooks thru the 19th Century

For today's post I thought I'd share some cookbooks throughout the 19th Century all of these are linked to Google books so you can download or browse a copy for yourself. You might be wondering why a writer would want or be concerned with cookbooks from the time periods they're writing in. It gives you a deeper understanding of the food available at the time and the differences in the recipes. Today we hardly ever cook with lard but during the 19th century and the first 70 years of the 20th century lard was used regularly. I hope you enjoy this short list.

The First is The New Family Receipt This is an English publication from 1810. Not that Receipt is the older version of the word recipes. This book also includes other recipes for Household cleaners, purifying wool, cleaning silk, etc.

The Second is The New Family Receipt Updated in 1820 with over 800 receipts whereas the first one had over 700.

The Third is an earlier version of one I had downloaded before. The French Cook1822. The later version 1829 no longer seems to be on Google books.

The Fourth is the first American Cookbook in this list The American Frugal Housewife1835 This book in my opinion is very practical.

The Fifth book is The New England Economical Housekeeper This one has far more food recipes than some of the previous books listed.

The Sixth is from 1851 Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery Miss Leslie has many versions of this book and updated throughout the rest of the Century.

The Seventh is The Book of Household ManagementSome of the reasons I like these management books are that not only do they have recipes but they also give a good insight in how the social mindset of people of that generation thought. Mrs. Beeton also has many later versions of her book(s)

The Eighth is another book that's been updated throughout the century. Dr. Chase's Family Physician, Farrier, Bee-Keeper and Second Receipts Book And as you can see by the title it includes more than food recipes.

The Ninth is Mrs. Owens Cook Book and Useful Household Hints

And the tenth and final cookbook for this list comes from a church cookbook. I've collected several over the years after all who hasn't been to a great Church pot-luck. Cook Book of Tried Recipes


Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 42 years. Lynn's latest novel "The Shepherd's Betrothal" is the third book in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series. Coming in Oct. The Rails to Love Romance Collection

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the links to these historical books. Do you know when and/or why the word receipts changed to recipe?

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    1. HI Vickie, I don't know why the change but I do know it happened around 1875 but receipts were still being used until the end of the century.
      Lynn
      PS. Sorry for the delay in response my home computer doesn't let me answer posts on blogger, very strange I know.

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  2. Thanks, Lynn. I seem to gravitate toward info found in cookbooks when I'm writing so this is a great resource.

    Great question, Vickie. :)

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  3. Delightful post, Lynn. Like Anita, I too gravitate to old cookbooks and have collected a few really old ones. I've tried some of them and in one instance had to buy a small bucket of lard to do it justice. Thanks for the links.

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    1. LOL thanks Linda. When I was younger my Mom would fry donuts in lard, they were the best. They probably weren't good for you but hey they tasted great.

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  4. Thank you so much for sharing your great post. I love recipes!

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing your great post. I love recipes!

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