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There are still many, many 18th century American cookbooks that haven't been digitized yet. Some have probably been lost given their proximity to kitchens, whic
by sneakernets 8y ago
There are still many, many 18th century American cookbooks that haven't been digitized yet. Some have probably been lost given their proximity to kitchens, which were separate from the house, more prone to weather and, perhaps, fire. I can only find references in old catalogues that they existed, but nothing much else.
- csours 8y agoI don't know how to ask this question, but how useful is a cookbook from the 18th century (or even the early 20th century)? The ingredients are likely called something else, or may be unavailable.
- sneakernets 8y agoOld cookbooks are little historical slices of culture in the commoner language/parlance of that time.
- wcfields 8y agoThey are incredible useful for historical insights that would otherwise be lost like what was the supply chain even like [1]? [1] http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/717 http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/arti...
- vorpalhex 8y agoActually surprisingly useful. Cooking has grown as an art, but it's not dramatically different. Words differ some, but not in a way that can't be resolved with a bit of experimentation.
- freedomben 8y agoAgree with this, and further add that sometimes you find interesting solutions/ingredients that were used in the past because of lack of modern convenience. You could buy most staples, but even things common during their harvest season were unavailable most of the year. One of the most surprising ingredients I've seen was turpentine! People used to eat that!
- opencl 8y agoActually there are still people that eat turpentine, it gets peddled by some of the "natural medicine" crowd.
- azeirah 8y agoHistory? Curiosity? Some of them might contain interesting recipes? Some cookbooks might've been written in an interesting style? Some books might be able to give clues about miscellaneous uncertainties about the everyday life of people around that time? Or if not their life, perhaps they might shine light on how certain tools were used in ways we don't know? Perhaps some words used in these books are useful for linguists? Maybe we'll uncover some hidden etymologies. Also, reading stuff that's just out there can help shake up your mind in interesting ways. There are tons of possibilities.
- DanAndersen 8y agoYou're correct that there's often a lot of interpretation and historical research that has to be done when looking through such cookbooks. However, they can offer quite an interesting glimpse into another era. Specifically, I'd recommend watching some of the Townsends "18th Century Cooking" YouTube videos [0] which show how some unusual (or familiar!) recipes from colonial America may have been made. [0] https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson
- sneakernets 8y agoThat is one of the best channels on YouTube, and I know a few teachers who used some of his videos in their lesson plans.
- FlyMoreRockets 8y agoYou may also like https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr2d4As312LulcajAkKJYw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr2d4As312LulcajAkKJYw Lots of interesting 18th century cooking and other period skills.
- masonic 8y agoAlso, "A Taste of History", seen locally on PBS stations. http://www.atasteofhistory.org http://www.atasteofhistory.org
- ghaff 8y agoAs a cookbook? Not very. I find them interesting as historical documentation of cooking. You'll recognize most of the ingredients well enough based on my reprint of the 1884 Boston Cooking School Cook Book. But a lot of meats are going to be different enough that you'd want to change the prep. And, to most modern tastes, the recipes are just not going to be very good. I still keep some of the cookbooks handed down from my mother (like old Gourmet cookbooks from the 1960s or so). And even those are just not that useful for how I cook today.
- Gibbon1 8y agoI have my mom's old cookbook. Stuff works as long as you realize that modern butter has a about 2/3 the fat as 1950's era butter. And store bought eggs are about 2/3 the size of ones in the 1970's.
- BenjiWiebe 8y agoTry making your own butter. The way I do it is just shake heavy cream in a jar.
- roywiggins 8y agohttp://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199729937.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199729937-e-13 http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199... > There are ways the historian can read between the lines of the recipes, so to speak to answer questions that are not directly related to cooking or material culture but may deal with gender roles, issues of class, ethnicity and race. Even topics such as politics, religion and world view are revealed in the commentary found in cookbooks and sometimes embedded in what appears to be a simple recipe. The most valuable of cookbooks and related culinary texts also reveal what we might call complete food ideologies... > Nor should any of these caveats prevent the historian from cooking historic recipes today. There is something palpably direct to be gained from tasting food from the past, in much the same way as one can learn from hearing a symphony on period instruments or viewing an old painting in a museum. The esthetic values that inform flavor preferences of the past are indeed very different from our own. Some ingredients people enjoyed would today be considered abhorrent; some flavors and textures bizarre if not disgusting. But this should not deter the intrepid investigator... What one learns from such an exercise is a feeling for the embodied experience of physically carrying out certain culinary tasks and a direct apprehension of what the palates of our forebears might have experienced.
- Fezzik 8y agoOne great example of utility: my grandmother had a cookbook from the early 1900s that was truly farm (or forest) to table: it included instructions for catching and cooking squirrels, as well as the complete process for taking a chicken from your yard and preparing it for dinner. It was quite impressive. And this was a brand-named cookbook, like Better Home & Garden or some such. My aunt now possesses it, much to my chagrin.
- beauzero 8y agoGet some Foxfire books on ebay.
- skookumchuck 8y agoKitchens definitely were separate from the house due to fire concerns.