Charleston Women-Winter 2020

www.CharlestonWomen.com | www.ReadCW.com | www.CharlestonBrides.com CW W hen research for this project first began, it was full of laughter. The cookbooks I found had recipes for “Who Kissed Maybelle?” Stew and a boozy punch perfected by “a Charleston gentlemen.” Eyebrows were raised, and giggles ensued. Digging into the pages of old cookbooks is falling into the past, and the past, like the present, is full of stories. The history of American cookbooks is long and flavorful. The first known published American cookbook is “American Cookery or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-Pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves and All Kinds of CAKES, from the Imperial PLUM to Plain Cake.” Dictated in 1796 by Amelia Simmons, a self- proclaimed illiterate and “American orphan,” it shares the best way to roast mutton over an open fire and six ways to make rice pudding. It also includes commentary: “As this treatise is calculated for the improvement of the rising generation of females in America…doing those things, which are really essential to the perfecting of them as good wives, and useful members of society.” In other words, to be a useful female in 18th century America, you had to know how to cook. As time passed and traditions were established, cookbooks focused less on being American and more on the region in which they were written. In 1824, a Virginia socialite, Mary Randolph, published the first true Southern cookbook: “The Virginia Housewife.” She included a list of necessities for running a household, BY LEAH RHYNE A Tale of 5 Cookbooks Are these in Your Kitchen?