Old Farmer's Almanac Colonial Cookbook

Additional Details

Description: The recipes in this book are not written like the one for cheesecake reproduced here. Though evidently clear enough to seventeenth century cooks, in the twentieth century it leaves much to be desired — and guessed at! Mrs. Leeds was no Fannie Farmer, and cookery books and kitchens have come a long way since 1662. It would be hard — probably impossible — and extremely time-consuming to reproduce colonial cooking methods in a modern kitchen; just imagine beating the whites of twenty eggs stiff with a handful of twigs! 

The colonial housewife cooked and roasted over an open fire, and baked in reflecting ovens set on the hob or brick ovens built into the fireplace. Many dishes took hours, or all day to cook (baked beans and steamed brown bread or boiled suet and meat pie for example), but then the mistress of the house "lived in" and kept the home fires burning — a serious responsibility in the winter. 

Ingredients readily available differed somewhat: white sugar came in costly loaves, hard to come by in rural areas; honey, molasses, and maple syrup were more common sweeteners. Yeast was home made, and baking powder was unknown. Eggs, salt and soda were used as leavening agents besides yeast. 

Nevertheless, one can set a table with dishes that an early settler or a Son of Liberty would recognize and relish, and this is what this cookbook is all about. Our recipes are for the most part completely re-written to suit the needs of now, and make free use of baking powder and granulated sugar. Occasionally, you will come across recipes calling for "butter the size of an egg", Or walnut, as the case may be; those recipes we feel to be clear enough as is, and workable even without Fannie Farmer's standard measurements. 

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Condition: Good condition.