On 28th April, 1796 Amelia Simmons' cookbook, American Cookery was published.It was the first cookbook by an American author.
You can read and download a PDF version of the book.
The book can be viewed as a success as it was printed, reprinted and even pirated. Have a look at Lucy Emerson's New England Cookery Book 1808, which is essentially Simmons' book with a different cover!
While have a look on the website that hosts this PDF version I came across The Historic American Cookbook Project which sounds really interesting. On reading further it is a collection of heritage cookbooks and contains images of heritage cooking utensils and objects held by The Michigan State University Museum. There is a detailed essay of how the project started HERE and it also contains full details of the books within the archive and links to them.
This is a fabulous site and I am so pleased I stumbled across it.
Taking part in Weekend Cooking, hosted by BethFishReads
Wow what a cool resource. Who knew that America had a cookbook just 20 years after becoming a country. I'm definitely going to check this out.
ReplyDeleteJulie this is great thanks for sharing! I so love old cookbooks, can't get much older than this one!
ReplyDeletewow, this is really cool! i will have to check out these links!
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