Why read American Cookery?

Book cover of American Cookery

Book description

Amelia Simmons worked as a domestic in Colonial America and gathered her cookery expertise from firsthand experience. Her book points out the best ways of judging the quality of meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, etc., and presents the best methods of preparing and cooking them. In choosing fish, poultry, and other…

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Why read it?

1 author picked American Cookery as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Melanie Kirkpatrick

Author

To understand the derivation of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, look no further than American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American to be published in the United States. The word “Thanksgiving” doesn’t appear in American Cookery, which came out in 1796. But recipes for the familiar holiday meal are all here: roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cornbread, and potatoes—and, of course, mince pie and pumpkin pie. American Cookery was the first time that most of these recipes appeared in print. So, too, Simmons was the first culinary writer to focus on New World foods, that is, ingredients…

From Melanie's list on The best books that will make your Thanksgiving more meaningful.