American Taste & Tradition

America's first European colonists encountered a continent already peopled with native food cultures and traditions, but they brought their European tastes and food conventions with them.

Although there were plenty of edible plants and animals here, American colonial food remained grounded mainly in British traditions until well into the 19th century—dominated by meats and breads, with very little use of fruits and green vegetables.

American food began to distinguish itself from its European and British origins at the end of the 18th century, as the young nation developed its own cultural, political, and domestic traditions. Soon, American cookbooks would reflect the use of bountiful native ingredients, such as corn, squash, and cranberries.

Until the last decades of the 19th century, most American cookbooks emphasized practicality and economy over luxury and elegance. The often primitive conditions of rural and frontier life demanded a survivalist approach to cooking and domesticity. Toward the end of the century, however, food habits came to reflect the country’s growing prosperity, with an increasing interest in French cooking, elegant entertaining, and fine dining.

The Frugal Housewife

Carter, Susannah. The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete Woman Cook: Wherein the art of Dressing all Sorts of Viands, with Cleanliness, Decency, and Elegance, is Explained in Five Hundred Approved Receipts. Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, 1802.

The first cookbooks published in America were reprinted from English works. Susannah Carter’s The Frugal Housewife, originally published in London, was one of the first cookbooks printed in America. Her work features a full alphabetical index for more than 500 recipes, providing a fascinating snapshot of mid-18th century Anglo-American culinary practice.

American Recipes, 1847

The American Family Receipt Book: a New Collection of Nearly 500 Rare and Valuable recipes ... New York: H. Phelps, 1847.

The patriotic covers on this 1847 American cookbook reflect a growing national pride in a distinctly native approach to food and domestic economy. The book contains advice on everything from how to revive tainted meat, to how to rid the house of rats, to how to jump out of a wagon.

American Regional Cuisines

Maria Collins. The Great Western Cook Book, or, Table Receipts, Adapted to Western Housewifery. New York, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1857.

American regional cuisines began to emerge by the mid-19th century. Written for the benefit of Western housewives, this book of recipes shows how ingredients and cooking methods were adapted as settlers migrated west. It includes recipes for "California Soup," "Corn-meal Batter Cakes," and "Veal—Western Fashion."

Home Economy

Susan Anna Brown. Mrs. Gilpin's Frugalities. Remnants and 200 Ways of Using Them. New York: C. Scribner's, 1883.

This book is typical of the frugal practicality of most American cookbooks in the 19th century.

The Boston Cooking School

Mary J. Lincoln. Boston School Kitchen Text-Book. Lessons in Cooking for the Use of Classes in Public and Industrial Schools. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1887.

Founder and first director of the Boston Cooking School (1879-1885) Mary J. Lincoln aimed to bring a standard cooking curriculum into the home. Lincoln’s cookbooks were used and extensively cited by leaders of the home economics movement, which sought to apply scientific principles to improve nutrition and hygiene in the American home.

Fannie Farmer

Fannie Merritt Farmer. What to Have for Dinner. New York: Dodge Pub. Co., 1905.

Influential graduates of the Boston Cooking School—such as Fannie Farmer—went on to spread the school’s teachings in restaurants, classes, and a variety of publications. Their recipes marked a new era of professionalism, detail, and clarity in cookbooks, establishing the format we know today.

The American Marketplace

Thomas Farrington De Voe. The Market Assistant, Containing a Brief Description of Every Article of Human Food Sold in the Public Markets of the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867.

Guides to Eastern produce and meat markets trace the growing wealth and variety of food available to American consumers after the Civil War. This guide was written by Thomas De Voe, head butcher of New York City’s historic Jefferson Market, which still exists today.

Food Will Win the War

American Red Cross Book of Recipes for the Use of Chinese Foodstuffs. Prepared for Publication by the Committee on War Time Economy for the Household, Nanking chapter, American Red Cross in China. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1918.

Food can define cultural boundaries and reinforce communal identities. This power is perhaps most evident when starkly different food traditions collide.

This guide to Chinese food was written by women of the American Red Cross stationed in Nanking during World War I. It admonishes Americans overseas to use local food products, so as to help save home food imports for the allied armies. In the book’s preface the author, Mrs. J. H. Reisner, rallies her colleagues to do their patriotic duty by adapting Chinese ingredients to Western tastes.