THE COOK NOT MAD, OR RATIONAL COOKERY; BEING A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL AND SELECTED RECEIPTS Embracing not only the art of curing various kinds of meat and vegetables for future use, but of Cooking, in its general acceptation, to the taste, habits, and degrees of luxury, Prevalent with the American Publick in Town and Country. To Which are Added, Directions for preparing comforts for the Sick Room; together with sundry Miscellaneous kinds of information, of importance to housekeepers in general, nearly all tested by experience
Watertown, NY: Knowlton & Rice, 1830. First Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo (3" x 5-1/2") bound in original sheep-backed paper-covered boards; 120 pages with copyright notice and errata leaf pasted to verso of title as usual. A delightful early American cookery and household management book designed to teach the preparation of "Good republican dishes," instead of "English, French, and Italian methods of rendering things indigestible." The emphasis is on American ingredients: cranberries, corn, turkeys, pigeons, watermelon, etc. Includes recipes and instructions for general cookery and housekeeping, preserving and dyeing, pesticides, gardening, simple medicines and cleansers. Included are recipes for Tasty Indian Pudding, Federal Pancakes, Good Rye and Indian Bread (cornmeal), Johnnycake, Indian Slapjack, Washington Cake, and Jackson Jumbles. In spite of the author's American intentions, the book does include some foreign influences and contains one of the earliest known recipes for shish-kebab in American cookbooks. Early manuscript recipes on endpapers. Bitting, page 536; not in Cagle though the 1831 Second Edition is listed as Cagle 180; Lowenstein 127. Faint dampstaining and some light foxing throughout; leather lacking from the spine with peeling of paper from the boards; text block a little loose but firmly held by the cords. Well used but text complete with original endpapers. Fair to Good. Item #022422
This same book was published in 1831 in Canada as well, with the word "Canadian" substituted for "American" in the subtitle, and is commonly referred to as Canada's first cookbook.
Price: $1,500.00