Old Cook Books

I learned how to cook using my mom's 1964 Fannie Farmer and Joy of Cooking. To this day, if I could only have 1 cookbook in my house, it would be Fannie Farmer. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone would be the 2nd, if limited to 2. Of course, given the content here, you could also buy a modern re-print of the 1896 original Fannie Farmer since it's not on Proj.Gutenberg. Oh, so tempting...

While in the SCA, I had occasion to enjoy the fruits of others' labors in producing medieval (or close to it) foods. It opened my pallet even more. So, for my friends who are interested in cooking, there are quite a few interesting books at Project Gutenberg published prior to 1920. I also have several friends who are on a more limited diet or who are vegetarian - so I've included many of those.
The "historical" (i.e., pre-1700) recipes are listed 1st, being the fewest (3.5)
The vegetarian-only are listed 2nd
the others are included either because they're just old or the title amused me or the content looks good (19th century cookbook devoted to chocolate). Caveat emptor - don't even imagine I've read all of these, much less tried them

Pre-1700
see bottom for other really old stuff not in English

The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, Receipts For Mead, Metheglin, And Other Drinks, Cookery Receipts, pub. 1910 as a re-print of 1669 original text. The introductory biography is truly historically fascinating.

The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery, 1685

The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Stored with all manner of rare receipts for preserving, candying and cookery. Very pleasant and beneficial to all ingenious persons of the female sex, 1672

Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine, 1902, while published in '02, it is actually a treatise on ancient cuisine

Vegetarian

veggie The Golden Age Cook Book, 1898

veggie Vaughan's Vegetable Cook Book, How to Cook and Use Rarer Vegetables and Herbs, 1919 for 4th ed., it was the 'rarer' that caught my eye, although that designation might not be applicable in today's global market; however, the "distinction about toxic & non-toxic ... may not conform to modern knowledge" is inspiring me to read it.

veggie Dr. Allinson's cookery book Comprising many valuable vegetarian recipes, 1915

veggie Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery, A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet, 1891 - you'll have to page through quite a few advertisements for interesting products

veggie Food and Health, pre-1923, Canadian, pub. by Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company, recipes don't include their products, but there are copious testimonies about the efficacy thereof, leaving me wondering what exactly their "Vegetable Extract" was.

veggie Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Home Made Candy Recipes, pre-1923, but I'd guess closer to 1900, published by Baker's Cocoa company

veggie Food for the Traveler, What to Eat and Why, 1916, the content looks really intriguing, from directions on how to become a vegetarian to "foods not to mix" (not all of which are self-evident to me) and other things which should appeal to the modern connect with some nature-based philosophy life-styles. For Alison especially. Have absolutely no clue why "traveler" is in the title.

veggie No Animal Food and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes, pre-1923, advocating everything from vegetarianism to eugenics, is more of a treatise, but does have recipes.

veggie Let There Be Cheese, 1955 on frontispiece, but it must be out of copyright.

veggie .New Vegetarian Dishes, 1892


Everything Else

The Suffrage Cook Book, 1915,

Science in the Kitchen, 1893, the Kellogg author is from the Kellogg company -- includes a section for Evils of Bad Cookery -- key words include vegetarianism

A Little Book for a Little Cook, 1905, published by Pillsbury

Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them, 1918

Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus, A Collection of Practical Recipes for Preparing Meats,
Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, Etc., 1911 -- for Renaud

The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families, don't see a publication date, but the author died in 1828. Yes, 1828

The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery, 1877

Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six, 1878
sure, I have no idea what inflation has done to an 1878 dollar

Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them, 1919

A Poetical Cook-Book, 1864, each recipe is prefaced by a poem or verse about the food in question

Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools, 1918


other really old & intriguing stuff that's not in English
Le viandier de Taillevent, author died in 1395, in French
Apicii librorum X qui dicuntur De re coquinaria quae extant, 1922, in Latin - don't ask, I've no clue why a German publishing house would publish a Latin text on cooking in '22 - since I don't read Latin, I don't know if this is a re-print of something much older. The introduction has standard modern-ish citation forms for a couple of articles, which I just don't want to bother looking up, although they are in German journals. I simply can't imagine a cookbook being published in Latin unless it was so old that Latin was still the vernacular. -- although it does look like it's citing mss. from 15th-16th C. Hell, I'm taking it on faith that it even is a cookbook, although there are words I recognize which are food (vino, pices, oleum).
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