Thanks for the link, Teresa, it looks interesting - just scanned it but I'll HAVE to go back to the "Manual of Practical Housewifery" -LOL that's great, thanks for posting!

Looks interesting. I love to look at old cookbooks and even have a few of my own. I will definitely go back and read some when I have more time. Thanks for the link.
Clare

I also love old recipes, so "thanks" from me too.

Thanks for the great link!! I will definately enjoy browsing!!

What a treasure. I've looked and downloaded.

What a wonderful link. Thanks for sharing this.

I can't believe it. I have the Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes booklet (1909).

Carol

I want to look at The Settlement Cookbook...seems someone here said that was a favorite cookbook.

They have 5 "Charity and Church Cookbooks" that look interesting ... I bookmarked this site, should be fun to go through.

Thanks Teresa :)

Teresa, my mom learned to cook from the Settlement Cookbook. She did a darn good job of it too! I'll check out the site later when I have time to browse!
E

What a great site. I discovered this the other day when I was querying "euchred figs", and was reading some other old books. Fascinating stuff that we'd never have access to any other way.

I was one of the people who mentioned Settlement Cookbook before. It is what my mother used and I grew up using. But mine is the "New Settlement Cookbook" 1952 edition. Much later than the one on this site. I checked the sponge cake recipes that I use at Passover and they seem to be the same in both. BTW, Amazon.com has modern reproductions of the 1903 edition by a couple of publishers.
Feeding America is a great site. I discovered it when someone asked about a historic recipe for gingerbread (the thick cake type) for a school project and linked to it on that thread.

It is interesting to click on the by date link and see the really old cookbooks. It will make you glad for modern cookbooks. My mom wasn't taught to cook as a child and told me that the relative who taught her after she was married would respond to questions about how much to put in a recipe with "As much as is enough." Many of the old recipes are like that - if you could understand the recipe you probably don't need it except perhaps to jog your memory.

In addition to all our modern technological conveniences, recipe writing has improved a lot in the last 300 years.

Check out the "House Servant's Directory" under 1824-1828. It flips from recipes on food to recipes for cleaning supplies and back without taking a breath - no apparent organization to it. It has a recipe to treat a wine that is too sour - by hanging horseradish root in the barrel for a while. Weird stuff in that book!

From New England Cookery:
A light cake to bake in small cups.
Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, rubbed into two pounds flour, one glass wine, one do. rose water, two do. emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon and currants.

What is emptins? What kind of measure is do.?
How do you rub a butter sugar mixture into flour? Is it similar to cutting? (I've see "rub" before in old recipes.)

Shrewsbury Cake.
One pound butter, three quarters of a pound of sugar, a little mace, four eggs mixed and beat with your hand, till very light, put the composition to one pound flour, roll it into small cakes--bake with a light oven.

N. B. In all cases where spices are named, it is supposed that they be pounded fine and sifted; sugar must be dried and rolled fine; flour dried in an oven; eggs well beat or whipped into a raging foam.

"put" something "to" something is also common - I expect they mean to mix them together.

Here is a link that might be useful: Settlement cookbook at Amazon

Thankyou! What a fabulous site! I can't wait to find time to browse through all those books.

This is truly a treasure. Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post the link. I only wish I had been part of this project.

Great find....thanks for sharing.

I unearthed this gem of a quote from LA CUISINE CREOLE copyright 1885 (under the soup section):

"Cooking in all its branches should be studied as a science, and not be looked upon as a haphazard mode of getting through life. Cooking is in a great measure a chemical process, and the ingredients of certain dishes should be as carefully weighed and tested as though emanating from the laboratory. Few female cooks think of this, but men with their superior instinctive reasoning power are more governed by law and abide more closely to rule; therefore, are better cooks, and command higher prices for services."

Dan

I haven't figured out the do. abbreviation. But emptins are dregs from beer or cider casks, so it would be a kind of yeast leavening.

I love old cookbooks and recipes (even if I'm not thrilled about quotes pertaining to the supposed inferiority of women as cooks).

Carol

I think I've figured it out. Do. is a dollop of rose water (i.e. a dash or a splash).

Carol

That is quite a website. Thanks for the history. It makes the cookbooks I have that I thought were old look new.

Very interesting website.

The quote is a hoot Dan!

Beverly