Additional information
by Amelia Simmons (Author)
2022 Reprint of the 1798 Edition. This edition reprints all the recipes in the original edition and is newly typeset for clarity. All of the original language is retained in its entirely. Only the recipes are included, with passing preliminary comments being excluded for the sake of economy. Named by the Library of Congress as one of the 88 "Books That Shaped America," American Cookery was the first cookbook by an American author published in the United States. Until its publication, cookbooks printed and used by American colonists were British. The recipes in her book were adapted to the United States, a just recently constituted nation. The recipes reflect the fact that American cooks had learned to make do with what was available in North America. This cookbook reveals the rich variety of food colonial Americans used, their tastes, cooking and eating habits, and even their rich, down-to-earth language. Bringing together English cooking methods with truly American products, American Cookery contains the first known printed recipes substituting American maize for English oats; and the recipe for Johnny Cake is apparently the first printed version using cornmeal. The book also contains the first known recipe for turkey. Possibly the most far-reaching innovation was Simmons use of pearlash; a staple in colonial households as a leavening agent in dough, which eventually led to the development of modern baking powders. Thus, twenty years after the political upheaval of the American Revolution of 1776, a second revolution, a culinary one, occurred with the publication of a cookbook by an American for Americans.--Jan Longone, curator of American Culinary History, University of Michigan.
