Since last week, I’ve been running around with the idea in my head that I wanted to write about a first: namely, the author of the first known American cookbook, Amelia Simmons. We aren’t lucky enough to own an early edition of the treasured American Cookery, or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards, and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plum to Plain Cake: Adapted to this Country, and All Grades of Life (first published in 1796), but we do have a 1996 reprint of the second 1796 edition. (Oh, how I do enjoy a long cookbook title!)
Below I’m sharing the book itself, but profiling Amelia turns out to be a near-impossibility! Her history is gleaned in bits and pieces. There’s a wonderful biography of what is known and speculated about her online at the Feeding America project from MSU. I won’t re-hash it here, but it is a great read and I recommend it.
American Cookery was first published in 1796. The country was young, still creating an identity. American food culture, influenced by Simmons and some of her receipts, was developing right along with it. Certainly this and other publications relied on mostly British cooking and British cookbooks would remain popular and common in America for decades to come. However, Simmons’ receipts incorporated native ingredients, most notably cornmeal (Indian meal), and, by the 1798 edition, advice for how to improve access to resources for cooking (“The cultivation of Rabbits would be profitable in America”). Simmon’s recipes include the use of pearl ash (also called “pot ash”), which functioned as a precursor to what we consider modern baking powder, still about 50 years ahead of her time. The final page of our edition also contains directions for “emptins,” an ingredient that worked as a kind of yeast. Simmon’s book wasn’t only about recipes, but cooking and baking as processes in the home. The 1798 edition offered was expanded to offer information on growing and choosing foods, as well as preparing them.
Feeding America has a digital copy of the 1798 edition online, for those of you interested in viewing the whole item and Project Gutenburg includes the text of the first 1796 edition, if you’d like to compare. Either way, this book offers us a great peek into the roots of American food and its history. Now, Independence Cake, anyone? 🙂
What's Cookin' @ Special Collections?! 
Interesting – I was just reading about Simmons elsewhere and she was certainly innovative, not only in bringing practical recipes (receipts) to the American cook, but also in recognizing and encouraging a new native regional cuisine. Which reminds me – I need to cook some cornmeal mush for fried mush. mmmmmm. Grandma spoiled me on that one!
Maybe time for something on Mary Randolph. She authored the first real Virginia Cookbook. The first published in Williamsburg was a copy of an English Cookbook with a new cover. Her book was declared the most outstanding of the 1800s. We do have early copies of her book in the Peacock-Harper Collection. Thanks for your interesting Blog!
I actually did a post on Mary Randolph back in March 2012: https://whatscookinvt.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/virginia-housewife-randolph/. I sent that post out again today through another venue, the blog for manuscript & archival materials in Virginia: http://vaheritage.org/2014/03/26/americas-first-regional-cookbook-thanks-virginia/. The following month, I did a post on The Williamsburg Art of Cookery, too: https://whatscookinvt.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/williamsburg-art-cookery/. I’ll have to find some new Virginia materials to blog about in the coming months! 🙂
-Kira
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