Aug
A (Very Brief) History of Cookbooks
My Burgundy Club series features a group of Regency era rare book collectors. My first, unconnected, romance, Never Resist Temptation, also had a bookish inspiration: cookbooks. The story features (off stage) Antonin Carême, the most celebrated French chef of the Regency era. Though by no means the first famous cookery writer, he was the first to parlay a career as a chef into one as a bestselling author of cookbooks. Carême’s clients included Napoleon, the Bourbon kings, the Tsar of Russia, Talleyrand and the Prince Regent. He began as a pastry chef and was famous for his extraordinaires, elaborate sugar and pastry creations that were intended not to be eaten but to decorate banquet tables. That tradition continues to this day; there’s a fascinating documentary called Kings of Pastry (available on Netflix) about a modern day competition for such food sculptures.
Illustration from a 1549 Italian work. Is that a rat at front right? Send in the health inspectors!
The oldest known cookbook is a Roman work by Apicius, first printed in 1498. The recipes are mostly lists of ingredients with few indications of quantities or cooking methods. This is quite common in early cookbooks. Writers assumed that their readers already knew how to cook and could figure out an exact recipe from a description of the dish. The first printed cookbook (in 1474) was De honesta voluptate et valetudine(“On honest pleasure and health”) written by the Vatican librarian, Bartolomeo Platina. (Why do I suspect he didn’t do a whole lot of cooking himself?)
This 1655 work on pastry has been attributed to La Varenne, another famous French chef. These cooks have a distinctly Dutch look about them, not surprising since the book was printed in Amsterdam. The woman seems to be preparing a game pie.
Many works followed, mostly from France and Italy, often with fascinating illustrations giving us a view into those old kitchens. The vast majority of these authors were men, reflecting the male domination of the cooking profession in Europe. The English, on the other hand happily hired female cooks and the most popular English cookbooks of the eighteenth century were written by women like Hannah Glasse, Elizabeth Moxon, and Eliza Smith. (I own a facsimile edition of Smith’s The Compleat Housewife and refer to it often when I need a menu for my characters.)
The New Book of Cookery by Elizabeth Price, 1780. I love how elegantly dressed these cooks are. Makes me think of Donna Reed vacuuming in a poofy skirt and high heels.
As with most books, colonial Americans relied on English imports or reprints of English works. The first real American cookbook, including native ingredients like corn, was Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, printed in Hartford, Connecticut in 1798.
A fun, and very American, type of cookbook is the charity compilation. You know them, collections of recipes by members of a church or other civic organization. Examples date back to the nineteenth century. Vegetarian recipes go back a long way, too. John Smith’s Fruits and Farinacea. The Proper Food of Man dates to 1845. And I would love to read Laura Holloway’s The Buddhist Diet-Book, published in New York in 1886.
Back in France (1814), men in tight pants rule the kitchen.
I own too many cookbooks. At one point I got rid of several boxes of them, but I just counted and I still have about 80 on my shelves. The oldest is a 1912 edition of Mrs. Beaton’s Household Management, a tome the size of a cinder block. I frequently use the classics: Elizabeth David, Julia Child, and Marcella Hazen. I love the new Joy of Cooking and I have some international favorites: Penelope Casas book on Paella; Claudia Roden’s The New Book of Middle Eastern Food; Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian; and Art of Indian Cuisine by Rocky Mohan, a wonderful book I picked up on a remainder table.
What are your favorite cookbooks, old or new? I’m sure you can tell me a few more I can’t live without.
Aug 27, 2011
2:10 am
Aside from various thematic cookbooks, the one I usually refer to is the Joy of Cooking. I don’t use it for recipes but to figure out at what temperature to cook various meats and such.
Aug 27, 2011
10:56 am
Joy is terrific for basic stuff. I also find it’s good for baking. The quantities always work with the recommended dish sizes, and the cooking times come out right. Mostly I’m a pretty slapdash cook, but with baked goods accuracy matters.
Aug 27, 2011
5:34 am
My favorite cookbook was my grandmother’s. My mom’s mom. That book was over 50 yrs old and the recipes written the old way. I loved that book. My mom collected cookbooks from around the world too. When she passed, they were split between my two younger sisters. We still don’t know what happened to grandma’s cookbook. Recipes you can’t even find today.
Aug 27, 2011
10:58 am
Was that a handwritten collection of recipes, Melanie? I love those old collections. They give such a picture of the cook who chose them. How sad that it disappeared – I do hope it turns up one of these days.
Aug 27, 2011
1:10 pm
It had some handwritten in the margins and the back of the book, but no, the main book was like any cookbook. I keep trying to remember the name and I just can’t seem to find it in my useless memory. LOL! Old timer’s disease I think. Anyway, you’d have loved this book and all the cookbooks my mother had. I believe her collection hit somewhere around 150 before her death. She used some of them, but she loved the recipes in them is why she bought them. After we all left home (five of us) she didn’t really cook much. I’ll keep looking and listening, maybe that dang name will come to me. I have a feeling the cookbook “disappeared” to my youngest sisters house. Many things did.
Aug 27, 2011
7:08 am
Oh, Miranda! One of my very favorite topics! I’m actually a cookbook collector…I have dozens of them, all lined up on the shelves in my dining room. Interestingly, while I love to read them, I find I’m always going back to the same two:
1) Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking – quiche, coq au vin, sides for an upcoming dinner party and (of course) pastry dough. This two-volume set is all a girl needs to get by with a little help from the master.
2) Cucina Simpatica – This is a fabulous Italian cookbook from Al Forno, one of the best restaurants in my hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. Great winter pasta dishes (there’s a 5 cheese that’s bound to clog your arteries and win your heart!)
I will say that I’m recently enamored of The Pioneer Woman, and so her book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, is a current favorite. It’s filled with the classic texmex American stuff…fried chicken, jalapeño poppers, cornbread, cobbler. I think I like it so much because I never grew up eating any of that stuff (European parents will ruin a girl’s palette), so now I’m learning from her.
Also…no surprise that so many chefs for so long were men…look at restaurant kitchens now–not exactly brimming over with ladies.
Thanks so much for the Salon! Hope everyone is staying dry!
Aug 27, 2011
9:31 am
Sarah, when you cook from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, please invite me over. Thankyouverymuch.
Aug 27, 2011
11:03 am
Julia is a goddess! I came to her quite late, having learned to cook from Elizabeth David, who was the English equivalent. She was a great writer – just so much fun to read. She wrote in the 50s and 60s when English cooking was at the well deserved nadir of its reputation. After WWII ingredients were hard to find: for example olive oil could only be bought at the pharmacy (I hate to think what it was for!). I always made boeuf bourguignon from her recipe until I read Julie and Julia and decided to try the Child version. Just as good, but much harder work!
I want Cucina Simpatica just for the title. (Off to Amazon…)
Aug 27, 2011
11:03 am
Me too!
Aug 28, 2011
7:53 pm
Done! You both are in NYC next week. Come over! I’ll make you something wildly western.
Aug 27, 2011
7:17 am
I don’t cook (unless boiled eggs and french fries count), so I can’t recommend or talk about any favorite book.
However, I like watching documentaries and shows about food and history. My favorite series of such documentaries is called Supersizers. I particularly enjoyed their installment about Regency and Victorian England. And all the documentaries are on YouTube, which is great.
Aug 27, 2011
11:05 am
I never make French fries! They’re far too difficult so don’t sell yourself short, Antonia. And I love boiled eggs.
Thanks for the tip about Supersizers on YouTube. I’ve heard of it but never seen.
Aug 27, 2011
7:21 am
Lol. Re: what Sarah said about European parents and tex mex… My mom is Hungarian and thanks to living in California, we grew up eating fusion cuisine like chicken paprikas fajitas.
As far as cookbooks. I love them and have many. However until a few years ago, I rarely looked at a recipe. Then when I did get into making complicated, must follow a recipe food, like Kaddo Bourani from my favorite Afghan restaurant, I found browsing online was much easier. So…haven’t bought a cookbook in years.
Aug 27, 2011
11:09 am
I envy you and Sarah growing up with yummy traditional foods. I had to learn them all from books since my mother was a truly appalling cook (see English food above). I never knew my Polish grandmother so I missed out there.
Thanks for the recipe link. It sounds delicious and easy and pumpkin season is coming up.
Aug 27, 2011
12:00 pm
I grew up in the rural Midwest. In the summer, we had wonderful fresh tomatoes, corn, and so forth. But the rest of the year, it seemed like every recipe involved:
a) condensed cream-of-mushroom soup
b) Jell-O
c) tatertots
d) all of the above
We poured straight corn syrup on our pancakes before it was the main ingredient in most “maple” varieties.
When I moved to California as an adult, the wider variety of fresh and ethnic food was like a revelation. Avocados! Artichokes! Sushi!
Aug 27, 2011
12:07 pm
I should say though, in fairness to my mom, she always cooked a variety of interesting things. The cream-of-mushroom/Jell-O surprises seemed to be the staple at potlucks and so forth.
Aug 27, 2011
1:08 pm
Going to my boyfriend’s mother’s holiday meals was culinary culture shock to me. Where else was a whole head of cauliflower covered in melted cheese considered a veggie dish? What was the deal with ambrosia salad (Jell-O with stuff in it)? Was this “American” food? As my boyfriend commented, holiday gatherings was more for the company than for the food. I’m thankful *my* mother is a great cook (I know, for example, that cooked green beans should be green, not some color between dark green and brown).
Aug 27, 2011
2:24 pm
I love potlucks, Tessa. The dishes can be absolutely delicious or – on occasion – fascinatingly awful. It’s wonderful how much fresh food is available now, even outside California. But I envy you all that wonderful local produce.
I hear you on corn and tomato season – I’m wallowing in it now in the northeast. Hope the bleeping hurricane doesn’t destroy the crops and cut it short.
Aug 28, 2011
7:55 pm
And beer-cheese soup, right?
For the readers…Tessa introduced me to beer-cheese soup in Orlando two summers ago. How I lived prior to that I shall never know.
Dec 13, 2011
9:02 am
It’s always a relief when someone with obvious expertise anserws. Thanks!
Dec 15, 2011
6:29 am
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Aug 27, 2011
8:57 am
I love going through desserts cookbooks. It helps give me ideas on how I can make my own recipes and flavor combinations that I have not thought of before. I started my own recipe book about 15 years ago and have slowly added to it.
Aug 27, 2011
11:12 am
Invite me over, please! I’m so impressed by anyone who improvises desserts. I do that with other dishes (mostly because it depends on what ingredients I have on hand: “I don’t have any of this so I’ll leave it out and try this instead”).
Aug 27, 2011
12:36 pm
I envy people who can improvise too! Like I said below, my dad is a really good cook. Sometimes it’s frustrating because when he tries to teach me how to make something, he doesn’t give me exact measurements or how long something can take. I always ask how much I should add, and he always tells me you just have to keep tasting and testing, when all I want is for him to say a cup of this, half a tsp of that. He can just throw things in the pan, and season by instinct since he’s been doing it so long.
Aug 27, 2011
2:26 pm
Lisa: Your dad would no doubt be able to manage the recipes in these old cookbooks. They were definitely meant for experienced cooks like him.
Aug 27, 2011
9:28 am
Oh, I *do* love this post, Miranda! The Kings of Pastry sound like my sorts of men. Must look into that.
I’ve cooked from medieval cookbooks for my students on occasion (with help from members of the Society for Creative Anachronism who’re quite good at guesstimating quantities and suggesting substitutions when an ingredient like the fat of a wild boar cannot easily be had). I’ll admit I am very dependent on The New Joy of Cooking for basics like cooking temps and the best way to prepare an artichoke, for instance. My DH and I tend to cook a lot of Indian food, and I adore Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbooks (although given the complexity of some of her creations we sometimes joke that her recipes may as well begin with “Go to India and harvest mustard seeds…”). Some years ago I discovered a wonderful little Indian American fusion cookbook by the film producer Ismail Merchant. It’s called Passionate Meals — my favorite sort of dining, don’t you know.
Aug 27, 2011
1:27 pm
Cooking medieval sounds so much fun. I’d like to take a course with you
I adore Indian food but I know what you mean about the ingredients. Even if you find a good source, they always seem to be called something else. (And don’t even get me started on finding the right chilis for authentic Mexican).
I’d live to get the Merchant book, mostly because I love Merchant-Ivory movies. So sad that he died.
Aug 27, 2011
9:43 am
I really don’t cook anymore, being an empty nester. But, I love to watch Paula Deen and Rachael Ray cook. It reminds me of when I used to watch my Grandmother cook back in the day.
Aug 27, 2011
12:03 pm
There is something rather soothing about watching people cook, isn’t there? And it makes you realize how much of the food experience is social rather than tastebud-related.
Aug 27, 2011
1:28 pm
I love TV cooking shows too, but I miss the smell. What I most enjoy about watching people cook IRL is smelling the food. When you cook yourself the nose quickly becomes accustomed and you don’t get to appreciate the wonderful aromas.
Aug 27, 2011
9:43 am
Great post Miranda!
I shamefully admit to not owning any cook books, I hate cooking. I’m with Antonia on the Supersizers series though, it was brilliant. I loved the way Giles and Sue fully immersed themselves in the period while sampling the food of the era. Well worth a watch on youtube if you can find the time.
Aug 27, 2011
1:29 pm
There’s nothing wrong with not cooking, Beebs. Someone has to eat and appreciate what cooks produce
Aug 27, 2011
1:52 pm
I’m very good at appreciating other people’s produce (too good really). *g* I think my biggest problem with cooking is the preparation, that and being forced to do cookery at school when I really didn’t like it (no boys in those lessons either, so unfair). Thumbs up to the other commenters who sound like great cooks.
Aug 27, 2011
2:50 pm
I enjoy prep, Beebs, as long as I’m not in a hurry or tired. I find chopping very soothing. I never learned cooking at school. For some reason I had the choice between cookery and physics and chose the latter, a bad decision since I found it incomprehensible. OTH perhaps that’s why I enjoy cooking, so it’s all good.
Aug 27, 2011
10:23 am
What a great post Miranda!
Very interesting, and it made me hungry, lol.
I don’t really have a lot of cookbooks, but I’ve always found the Food Network website to be a great resource for finding a good recipe. I found one for Giada DeLaurentiis’ shrimp fra diavolo which was great. But I have to confess that I don’t really cook much and my culinary skills are mediocre. People are always shocked when they hear this because I come from a restaurant family. Though if you think about it, it makes sense. It’s so much easier to just go there for food, why cook it yourself? And plus, my parents always found it easier to just cook the food there and bring it home.
So hence me always saying I gotta find a man who can cook! lol.
Aug 27, 2011
12:32 pm
I forgot to add, my dad did try to teach me how to cook once, and it didn’t go quite as well as planned. Because it seems I have this penchant for keeping the burner on high so it’ll cook faster. My dad had to explain that sometimes these things take time, and turning the heat down will get you a more moist and tasty product. Who knew? lol
I obviously didn’t inherit his talent for cooking, and my impatience may explain why my cooking is ok at best!
Aug 27, 2011
1:32 pm
How fascinating that you never had the urge to learn the family business. Your dad’s abortive cooking lesson made me laugh. Good luck on finding your very own personal chef!
Aug 27, 2011
3:07 pm
Actually, I still help out at the restaurant from time to time on the weekends-it’s just I stick to the front of the house, lol. Trust me, it works out better for every one that way.
Growing up in the business, I know first hand how hard it is, and how much time and effort it takes to keep the business going. If my parents weren’t physically at the restaurant, they were on restaurant business-taking care of bills, supplies, repairs, etc. It’s almost a 24/7/365 type of deal.
And this also explains why when I go out to eat, I always make sure to be nice to the wait staff and to tip generously. Being a waiter is tough-no doubt about it!
Aug 27, 2011
11:36 am
Very interesting! Although many of my favorite recipes are ones that have been handed down through my family, I do love and have cookbooks. Lately, however, I seem to pull most of my recipes from the internet – particularly, recipes recommended by food bloggers. I also like Lisa Lillien – a.k.a Hungry Girl. Her Bite It vs Fight It recipe comparisons are great!
Ultimately, my old standby is a paperback Betty Crocker’s cookbook that is only slightly older than me. Now, if I ever get my hands on my mom’s Joy of Cooking . . . .
Aug 27, 2011
1:36 pm
Although I use the internet for just about everything, I don’t much for cooking. If I decide I want to cook a certain thing, I like to pull out a bunch of cookbooks and compare recipes and ideas. My favorite recipes have food stains all over the pages – not bibliographically desirable but I enjoy the way the damage reflects my personal history.
I’ll have to check out Hungry Girl. I really do recommend the new Joy of Cooking. I’ve given up on the old one because so many of the recipes seem old-fashioned now: heavier on the fat and flour thickening.
Aug 27, 2011
11:54 am
What fabulous illustrations, Miranda!
My thoughts on cooking are like Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s thoughts on music: If I ever should have learned, I would have been a great proficient.
Seriously, right now taco salads qualify as “adventurous” eating in our small-children-riddled family, but eventually I hope to have more reasons to cook interesting food. I love to watch people cook, in life and on TV, and I love to eat!
Cookbooks, though… I’ve never owned very many. Hm. Strange. Nowadays, I look up most of my recipes online, because I love being able to see the comments others have made and possible adjustments to the recipe. I have the All-Recipes dinner spinner app on my phone, and I love it!
Aug 27, 2011
12:28 pm
Me too Tessa! I love watching people cook, and I’m totally addicted to Food Network. My favorite is definitely Alton Brown’s Good Eats. I love the research and science he puts into his shows, the gadgets, and it’s just plain fun!
But my parents always wonder why I watch FN when I never really cook, lol.
Aug 27, 2011
1:40 pm
LOL on Lady Catherine. I could use that excuse for so many of my non-existent skills.
Small children do cramp one’s style. There’s nothing more discouraging than preparing something new and interesting and being greeted with a chorus of yucks.
That’s a good point about online comments. I sometimes make my own in my cookbooks. But usually things like “do not be tempted to try this again – too much effort for too little reward.”
Aug 27, 2011
12:27 pm
When my mother passes (not soon I hope) I will get her collection of cookbooks. One of them is a war brides book that took into account rationing. She also has one that is handwritten. It is passed down from generation to generation. Each girl gets a copy of the original book to add to it. So my mom’s book is the same as my aunt’s book but they have added their own recipes to it. I am thinking of copying the book for my nieces, to add my older sister’s concoctions (YUMMY) so that they can pass down this interesting tome. Have you ever heard of “Vinegar Cake with Continental Icing”? On my bookshelf I have about 15 cookbooks. When I moved to Texas I had to purge the collection so I am in the process of rebuilding it. Luckily Borders is having a 60% off sale.
Aug 27, 2011
1:51 pm
What an absolutely marvelous family tradition, Lady Susan. I love it! I didn’t know what continental icing is so I googled it. A boiled frosting with butter. Most of the delicious butter frostings are American. Though the English are great cake eaters, I grew up with just two “icings.” Glacé, which is pretty much confectioners sugar and water with food coloring, and “Royal” which is sugar and lemon juice. It’s great for decorating because it’s holds a stiff peak. Unfortunately if you don’t eat it soon it gains the consistency of cement and will break your teeth. It’s the traditional covering for the rich fruit cakes the English eat at weddings and Christmas.
The good thing about having a good book purge is that one can buy news ones. (Works for cookbooks or romances
)
Aug 27, 2011
11:00 pm
Butter in Continental Icing? The one in my gma made was flour and milk cooked then confectioners sugar whipped in. Ends up like whipped cream. I know all about Royal Icing. Used it a lot when making gingerbread houses and people.
My book purge was due to being limited by weight and not knowing how much space I would have when I got here. I have been adding to my cookbook collection. I actually went to Borders today and got some really good books for 50% off. I have bid in on a couple of the bookshelves.
I don’t get rid of my romance books….they are good friends.
Aug 27, 2011
3:09 pm
Lady Miranda, it’s so nice to meet you. Mrs. B said you’d be coming today to share some new receipes and I can’t wait to share them with Cook. She asked that I bring my great-great granddaughter,s receipe for Chocolate Blanc Mange. Well actually she had to transport the receipe to me thru time since it appeared in Lowney’s Cook Book in 1921.
1/2 cup Irish moss
3 coups cold water
4 cups cold milk
2 square Lowney’s Premium Chocolate
3/4 cups sugar
Soak Irish moss in cold water twenty minutes; drain, and pick over. Put milk in double boiler; add moss, and cook without stirring two minutes, add to first mixutre. Strain, mold, chill, and serve with sugar and cream.
Now does anyone here have an Irish relative who could get me some Irish moss?
Lady Hasting
Aug 27, 2011
3:30 pm
What a fascinating recipe! I had to go google “Irish Moss” and found out that it’s a jelly/seaweed thing. So that makes sense, how it would be a thickener.
When I toured some of the old houses in Britain, the kitchens always seemed to have a full shelf or two of gleaming, copper blancmange/jelly molds in various shapes and sizes. Seemed as though they must have made it a LOT.
So maybe the Regency had more Jell-O salads than a midwestern potluck!
Aug 27, 2011
9:22 pm
Glad you looked that up, Tessa. I think the chocolate is a good addition, Jeanne. We used to get blancmange (white or pink) at school and it was vile. I don’t know why it was so popular but I think it may have something to do with making pretty shapes on the buffet table – hence all those molds.
I don’t know about jello salads, but definitely jelly, as the Brits call it. It’s a vital component of children’s birthday parties.
Aug 27, 2011
9:01 pm
I use Joy of Cooking, Better Homes and Gardens (red/white check cover) and the NYTimes (Craig Claiborne) cookbooks as general references. I have a ton of Southern Living books that I like a lot, too.
But, I am from south Louisiana. My two very favorite cookbooks–out of the 100+ I own–are River Road II (Baton Rouge, LA–Jr. League) and Talk About Good (Lafayette, LA–Jr. League.)
Thanks for an interesting column.
Aug 27, 2011
9:24 pm
Craig Claiborne was a wonderful writer. I picked up the first River Road book when I visited New Orleans a few years ago. Haven’t cooked anything from it for ages. Must dig it out and have a look.
Sep 2, 2011
4:18 am
I am a complete foodie, and while writing, I find meal times are just as fun to describe as architecture and fashion. Julia Child is an old stand-by of course, as is an old 1940s edition of The Joy of Cooking, but what really kickstarted my culinary adventures was The America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.
I’m the type of cook who likes the how and why of cooking (i.e. why eggs are so vital to cakes, or why something made with bread flour will taste different from something made will all-purpose flour, etc), and ATK is marvelous on that aspect.
I’ve also delved into the wonderful world of food blogs, and have practically cooked around the world and have fearlessly jumped into making things from scratch (like candies, ice cream, or jams) I assumed one could only buy ready-made. The kitchen and food is the fount my creativity, and I’m learning to transfer my fearlessness in cooking and in my palate to a fearlessness in writing.