{"id":4448,"date":"2016-11-01T09:15:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T09:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=4448"},"modified":"2021-07-02T11:04:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T17:04:08","slug":"special-collections-cooking-part-1-early-american-cookbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2016\/11\/01\/special-collections-cooking-part-1-early-american-cookbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Collections Cooking \u2013 Part 1: Early American Cookbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cookbooks offer a unique opportunity to engage with the historic record through performance, allowing the reader to experiment in the kitchen using the print materials available to the original audience. Reinterpreting historic recipes can be an opportunity to investigate issues of economics, material culture, class, gender, and lifestyles of their authors and readers. This three week Special Collections Cooking series<\/a> will engage with American foodways using materials in DePaul\u2019s Special Collections and Archives<\/a> to recreate historic dishes, one recipe at a time.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0cooking series was born from the concept of experiential historical research. Coming to DePaul from a background in historical archaeology, my research has sometimes included reassembling early American domestic spaces or \u201cexperimental archaeology\u201d to recreate historic tools or housework methods. While cooking implements, ceramic and glass tableware, and food waste form a major part of site collections, the cookbooks held in DePaul\u2019s Special Collections and Archives offer a glimpse into these materials\u2019 actual use as well as the tastes and ideals of their readers.<\/p>\n

\"img1_rundell_titlepage\"<\/a>
The Experienced American Housekeeper title page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our first Special Collections Cooking entry examines recipe books in the newly formed United States, focusing on an 1823 edition of Maria Eliza Rundell\u2019s The Experienced American Housekeeper<\/em><\/a>. Rundell\u2019s book, originally published in London as Domestic Cookery<\/em> in 1806, is one of several early British and American recipe books<\/a> held in DePaul\u2019s Special Collections and Archives. Formal publications that included recipes or \u201creceipts\u201d were circulating in England by the sixteenth century, building upon a tradition of hand-written books that primarily collected formulas for medical treatments and home cleansing. Recipe books gradually shifted focus from medicinal to culinary recipes in the eighteenth century, as healthcare routines in the era stressed an intrinsic link between dietary elements like acidity, spice, and temperature and physical health.<\/p>\n

\"img2_domesticduties_p217\"<\/a>
Frances Parkes’s Domestic Duties, p. 217<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Early Americans typically used original or reprinted British cookbooks like Rundell\u2019s that covered a range of topics related to household management. Popular cookbooks included sections on distillation, treatments for illnesses, and home maintenance along with culinary recipes. These books\u2019 wide focus was partly intended to help families instruct a variety of hired domestic servants, with one author\u2019s introduction noting her work used simple language to \u201cinstruct the lower Sort.\u201d Frances Parkes\u2019s\u00a0Domestic Duties<\/em><\/a> (1829), a guide for young married women, includes a mock dialogue in which two ladies discuss using popular cookbooks, including Rundell\u2019s, as instruction sources for their cooks to \u201cstrictly follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

While these early cookbooks highlight the importance of domestic management among wealthy families, they may also have served as an avenue for less wealthy readers to indulge in aspirational meal preparation, mimicking the culinary lifestyle of more affluent swathes of society. Most late eighteenth and early nineteenth century cookbooks were attributed to women authors, echoing the era\u2019s increasing classification of home management as a feminine sphere as well as publishers\u2019 attempts to appeal to women as a growing consumer base. Domestic management was especially relevant to American readers, as post-Revolutionary leaders championed an idealized image of the nascent American household in which women cultivated their families\u2019 physical and moral development. Women were seen as key to raising the new nation\u2019s first generation of temperate, industrious workers, and food was a critical part of their enterprise.<\/p>\n

American cookbooks initially reflected the habits of wealthy Europeans, but they began including more affordable eating styles in the early nineteenth century as the perceived importance of economical domestic management grew. American reprints of British works began including new recipes using local crops like pumpkin, cranberries, and cornmeal, or \u201cIndian meal.\u201d These recipes balanced other entries for expensive European fare that required imported wheat flours and heavily taxed sugars and wines. The mix of luxury foods with simpler recipes accompanied an increasing focus on responsible food buying, reusing goods, and substituting expensive ingredients.<\/p>\n

Rundell\u2019s Experienced American Housekeeper<\/em><\/a> follows this trend, mixing elaborate recipes like \u201cNeck of Veal a\u2019-la-braise\u201d with a variety of breads, cakes, and meat dishes made with staple ingredients, such as \u201ca Cheap Seedcake\u201d and \u201cBubble and Squeak,\u201d fried cabbage and beef or tripe. Also included are extensive alternate recipes and suggestions for ingredient substitutions. To explore the mix of recipes stressing economy with those offering indulgence or luxury, I decided to recreate Rundell\u2019s recipe for \u201cfool\u201d, a dessert mixing thick, sweetened custard with stewed fruit.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for Thursday\u2019s entry to explore the difficulties in translating 200-year-old cooking instructions and to see how you can whip up a nineteenth century dessert in the modern kitchen.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Special Collections Cooking is a periodic, bi-weekly series using resources from DePaul University\u2019s Special Collections and Archives to explore American lifeways by recreating historic recipes. The entire series may be viewed here.<\/a> To learn more about DePaul\u2019s rare books and archival collections, contact Special Collections and Archives at 773-325-7864, or archives@depaul.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cookbooks offer a unique opportunity to engage with the historic record through performance, allowing the reader to experiment in the kitchen using the print materials available to the original audience. Reinterpreting historic recipes can be an opportunity to investigate issues of economics, material culture, class, gender, and lifestyles of their authors and readers. This three <\/p>\n

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