The History of the cookbook
March 19th 2010 00:38
My collection of vintage cookbooks
Not only does it store recipes but it can be an insight into a culture that is foreign or long gone.
According to the website essortment.com the first known cookbooks were clay tablets from Babylon around 1500BC.
They contained recipes for elegant meals.
Up until the 18th century cookbooks were really only for the wealthy. Mistresses would read out the directions on how to make dishes to their illiterate servants.
One of the first published cookbooks in America was 'The Complete Housewife' by Eliza Smith and it was published in 1742.
Often these cookbooks didn't use specific measurements.
Cookbooks through the ages
Many 19th century cookbooks not only included recipes but also advice and household tips.
In Australia the first known published cookbook according to the National Library of Australia is Hobart landowner Edward Abbott's book published in 1864 entitled 'The English and Australian Cookery Book:Cookery for the Many, as well as the 'Upper Ten Thousand'.'
It had a section on game, which included kangaroo, emu, wombat, mutton birds and black swan.
First Australian Cookbook by Edward Abbott published in 1864.
One of the first cookbooks published in the style we are used to today was the 'Boston Cooking School Cook Book' published in 1896 by Fannie Merritt Farmer.
The approach was more scientific and gave precise measurements for ingredients as well as instructions. (Reference: joyofbaking.com).
Cookbooks today can be practical, a coffee-table art work or simply an empty notebook where we put our favourite recipes (or receipts as they were first called).
They can be for specific foods, times of year, for special diets or just from your favourite celebrity chef.
Today you would be very hard-pressed to find a household that didn't' have at least one cookbook gracing its shelves.
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Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate
Comment by Samantha Elley
Food Journo
The Sandwich Shak
Vintage Foodie
Little House among the Canefields
It is a fascinating exercise comparing different cookbooks from different times. It really does reflect the changes in society through time.
It's funny you mention measurements. I recently did a news story on a cupcake competition in the local area. Someone gave me a recipe with the wrong measurements which I published and the cupcakes literally exploded in some readers ovens!!
Funny now, but I had to publish the correct recipe to make it up to our poor readers.
Sam