Published in 1874 in Leavenworth, Kansas, during the post-Civil War charity cookbook boom, The Kansas Home Cook-Book is a fascinating, genuine example of how women during this time were able to express their political influence through sales of cookbook collections. Besides the fund-raising that the cookbook provided, this culinary collection showcases the cooking talents of local women, what was common fare during the time period, and the local community opinions and prejudices. Each recipe is individually attributed and adds to the personal tone of the collection, which includes recipes with a Midwestern influence, such as Mrs. Elvira Burr’s Strawberry Short Cake, Prairie Chicken and Buckwheat Griddle Cakes, and Mrs. C. Foster’s Breakfast Rolls. With its special historical context and authentic local recipes, The Kansas Home Cook-Book is regional book in its origins, but it has modern-day appeal throughout the country. This edition of The Kansas Home Cook-Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

The Prairie Table Cookbook blends comforting rancher food recipes with a fascinating look at life and food on the historic cattle trails and cowboys of the 19th century. There's a prairie fire sweeping across America, one that comes from the people looking for more natural, healthy, and harmonious ways to eat meat from the land. Tallgrass Beef represents a return to "classic" ranching, and produces meat that consistently tastes better and is better for you than grain-fed. The Prairie Table Cookbook will immerse readers in the cowboy's world with delicious recipes to sustain any hungry family or famished cowboy. From hearty chilli to Texas Beef tips, scrumptious sourdough biscuits and corn fritters, these modern and classic recipes show range from simple homesteader to the more adventurous modern chef, and include contributions from celebrity chefs such as Charlie Trotter and Rick Baylis. Accompanied by anecdotes, letters and photographs from the heyday of the Kansas cattle trade, this cookbook will be a staple for any American looking to eat a better kind of beef around a cozy dinner table or glowing campfire.

Published in 1874 in Troy, New York, during the post-Civil War charity cookbook boom, the Presbyterian Cook Book is a fascinating, genuine example of how women during this time were able to express their political influence through the sales of cookbook collections. Besides the fund-raising that the cookbook provided, this culinary collection showcases the cooking talents of local women, what was common fare during the time period, and local community opinions and prejudices. The Andrews McMeel edition of Presbyterian Cook Book also features handwritten notes and recipes from the original owner, which offer an authentic and quaint addition to the book. The handwritten notes include recipes such as Wedding Cake, Blackberry Cordial, and Mrs. Roger’s Clam Fritters, along with the individually attributed recipes printed in the book such as Mrs. Nash’s Swan Pudding, Mrs. Vincent’s Coconut Cake, Minnie’s Caramels, and Miss Phipps’s Corn Oysters. With the original handwritten notes, the historical significance of the work, and the charming recipes, Presbyterian Cook Book is truly a piece of culinary history to be treasured. This edition of Presbyterian Cook Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

Born in 1811 to a prominent Philadelphia Quaker family, Hannah Bouvier was particularly concerned with making her recipes as useful and practical as possible, drawing them up in the “most concise and simple manner,” sacrificing “style to minute detail; not even avoiding repetition where it might render directions more explicit.” She noted correctly that in many contemporary cookbooks, the cook was forced to wade through a “formidable amount of reading before she can learn the process of making a pudding,” and others at the opposite extreme “are so brief in their explanations [they] are ever liable to misconception.” Bouvier’s training in mathematics and popular science advanced her goal of making the recipes as easy to use as possible for American women of the day, utilizing only readily available utensils and ingredients and encompassing only “purely American” cooking. She was also deeply concerned about cooking for the sick and convalescent and included a significant section with recipes prepared according to the directions of an eminent local physician. As might be expected of a scientist, the book is thorough and comprehensive, including recipes for soups, fish, meat, vegetables, sauces, pickles, pastry, sweets, tea cakes, cakes, preserves, and miscellaneous dishes, clearly organized with both a detailed table of contents and index, unlike many contemporary cookbooks that lacked both. This edition of The National Cook Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

The author of this fascinating mid-nineteenth century collection is not credited, but hints suggest that the material is not original and was compiled by the publisher from other sources. The recipes for a broad range of dishes represent basic cooking of the day obviously meant as an “everyday” household resource. In a long section titled “Indian Doctor,” medical treatment advice and remedies for every imaginable ailment from cholera and scarlet fever to corns and catarrh are included, and there is a substantial section on hair and skin treatment describing lotions and creams for everything from “preventing hair from falling” to curing freckles and pimples. The intriguing section “American Letter Writer” described as “letters on relationship” contains several dozen sample letters that family members and associates might write to each other in a wide variety of situations. For example: “From the Daughter to the Mother, in excuse for her neglect,” “From a Mother in town, to a Daughter at School in the country, recommending the practice of Virtue,” “From a Daughter to her Father, pleading for her Sister, who had married without his consent,” “From an officer to a Lady with whom he is in Love,” “The Officer’s Letter to the Lady’s Father,” and sample answers from the Lady and her father. This edition of The Housekeeper’s Guide and Indian Doctor was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.

With mid-nineteenth century advances in scientific studies of health and nutrition, diet-based cookbooks like Dr. Russell Trall’s proliferated. Trall founded the New York Hydropathic and Physiological School in 1854, and his New Hydropathic Cook Book was one of the first to subscribe to the school’s advocacy of the water cure, using baths and drinking pure water to combat disease and maintain health. The diet proposed in the cookbook consists almost entirely of fruits, grains, and vegetables, with a few animal-based recipes thrown in for those who demanded a wider diet. More than just a list of recipes, the cookbook presents the basis of Trall’s diet—the belief that all nutritive material comes from vegetables, and thus animal foods are inferior because they are derivative and likely to be impure. It also includes a discussion of digestion and an exhaustive catalogue of vegetable foods. This edition of The New Hydropathic Cookbook was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

Published in 1872 in Boston, The Appledore Cook Book was authored by renowned cooking teacher and writer Maria Parloa to be a go-to cookbook for new brides and housekeepers, and it was specifically geared toward simpler recipes with less expensive ingredients. This first of many cookbooks by Parloa was inspired by her time spent cooking at the Appledore House hotel on the Isles of Shoals, Maine. The Appledore Cook Book contains the first known recipe for tomato chowder (known today as tomato soup) as well as delectable family-sized recipes such as Lamb Chops, Dumplings for Soup, Baked Potatoes, Fried Ham, Buckwheat Cakes, Apple Cake, Ginger Snaps, and Pumpkin Pie. Emphasizing the purpose of this popular cookbook, Parloa states in the preface, “The great trouble with all the cook books which I have known . . . is, that they are too expensive, and that they use weight instead of measure, and also that they take for granted that the young housekeeper knows many things which she really does not.” With The Appledore Cook Book, Parloa provides just such a cookbook of simple-yet-tasty, inexpensive meals—a theme as popular in the 19th century as it is today. This edition of The Appledore Cook Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

Published in 1876 in Michigan, The Hygienic Cook Book was part of the 19th century health reform movement that stressed a vegetarian diet to achieve wellness. Author John Harvey Kellogg, an American physician, took the health reformer’s diet even further by emphasizing abstinence from caffeine, alcohol, spices, condiments, dairy, eggs, and vinegar. Kellogg believed that “[c]ondiments are innutritious and irritating….they irritate the digestive organs, impairing their tone and deranging their function.” Above all, he stressed the importance of bowel health for an overall healthy body. Along with tips for reforming the diet as well as reasons for abstaining from animal products, spices, and condiments, The Hygienic Cook Book also contains wholesome recipes such as Johnny Cakes, Potato Bread, Apple Brown Bread, Graham Crackers, and Peach Toast. While Kellogg’s hygienic diet might not be for all tastes, The Hygienic Cook Book offers a fascinating look into the 19th century’s new focus on a healthier diet. This edition of The Hygienic Cook Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.

This volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection, published in Philadelphia in 1850, is an exhaustive compilation of hundreds of methods, formulas, and recipes for culinary, housekeeping, agricultural, and medical issues of importance in nineteenth century households, assembled by an unknown physician. In his introduction, the “eminent physician” cited as compiler of this fascinating volume states, “There was a time when ladies knew nothing beyond their own family concerns; but in the present day there are many who know nothing about them.” His intention was to supply every possible bit of information about housekeeping, homemaking, farming, and medical care that contemporary women seemed to lack. His work contains hundreds of procedures, advice, and recipes organized in a whimsical hodgepodge without a table of contents or index to guide the reader. For example, a recipe for “an excellent tooth power” is sandwiched in between “a method of cleaning china” and “how to stain paper.” Similarly, “pickling tomatoes” can be found between “means of stopping a runaway horse” and “grafting grapevines.” It makes an engrossing, entertaining read that provides an intriguing portrait of nineteenth century lifestyles. Although many medical entries appear throughout the text, the final 20 percent of the book appears to be an independent and uncredited work entitled The Family Physician—such plagiarism was common in nineteenth century publishing. In fact, the disorganization of the material makes it likely that the entire contents of the book were taken from an existing volume or a number of sources and the “compiler” simply collected other authors' work in this encyclopedic treasury. This edition of The Cook Book of Rare and Valuable Recipes was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes