Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery
The full title of this book sums up its history pretty well: “Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats being a Family Manuscript curiously copied by an unknown Hand sometime in the seventeenth century, which was in her Keeping from 1749, the time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she gave it to Eleanor Parke Custis, her granddaughter, on the occasion of her Marriage to Lawrence Lewis.” Learning about the foodways of a particular time and place, such as 18th century Virginia perhaps, is a surprisingly revealing way of learning history. Recipes such as “candied marrygolds in the Spanish fashion,” “sheep’s tongue pie,” or “pickled lettis (lettuce) stalks” are sure to either pique the interest or gross out a child- perfect history lesson material. While many of the recipes in the book, such as a recipe that begins with deboning an entire turkey, may be a little too difficult to make in the classroom or home, some recipes such as apple puffs or almond cakes could be easily made today. Each recipe is annotated by author Karen Hess with interesting information about the ingredients, process, cost at the time, historical tidbits, etc. If you can’t make it to Mount Vernon to see our Foodways interpreters flipping up some hoe-cakes in person, this may just be the next best thing. Yum!
Tags: booke of cookery, colonial food, foodways, Martha Washington
