Cookbooks Digital Library

Cookbooks in this collection provide historians and researchers with a close-up view of domestic life in America. Some resemble cookbooks as we know them today, with recipes (then called “receipts”) that include ingredients and instructions. Others cover non-cooking, yet essential, household topics (e.g., purifying water or feeding infants) as well as directions for making and administering health remedies).

Books for Cooks: Highlights from the AAS Cookbook Collection presents thematic introductions describing a few select cookbook titles from the over one hundred cookbooks made available below.

Cover or Title Page Title Publication Date Catalog Record Digital Copy Link to edit Content
The compleat housewife 1742 Description View images
The frugal housewife, or Complete woman cook 1772 Description View images
The new art of cookery, according to the present practice 1792 Description View images
One thousand valuable secrets, in the elegant and useful arts 1795 Description View images
American cookery 1796 Description View images
Dairying exemplified, or The business of cheese-making 1796 Description View images
New American cookery, or Female companion 1805 Description View images
The practical distiller 1809 Description View images
Cottage economy 1824 Description View images
The American vine-dresser's guide 1826 Description View images
The house servant's directory, or A monitor for private families 1827 Description View images
The French cook 1828 Description View images
The modern family receipt book 1828 Description View images
The Virginia house-wife, or Methodical cook 1828 Description View images
Apician morsels 1829 Description View images
The frugal housewife 1829 Description View images
Mackenzie's Five thousand receipts in all the useful and domestic arts 1829 Description View images
Modern domestic cookery, and useful receipt book 1829 Description View images
The Cook not mad, or Rational cookery 1830 Description View images
The cook's oracle; and housekeeper's manual 1830 Description View images
The Housekeeper's manual, or Complete housewife 1831 Description View images
Domestic French cookery 1832 Description View images
The cook's own book, and housekeeper's register 1833 Description View images
The intellectual house-keeper 1835 Description View images
The new whole art of confectionary 1835 Description View images
Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats 1835 Description View images
The New England cook book 1836 Description View images
The art of dining 1837 Description View images
Directions for cookery 1837 Description View images
A treatise on bread, and bread-making 1837 Description View images
Vegetable diet 1838 Description View images
The hand-book of carving 1840 Description View images
The Housekeeper's almanac, or, The young wife's oracle! for 1840! 1840 Description View images
The kitchen directory and American housewife 1841 Description View images
Total abstinence cookery 1841 Description View images
Every body's cook and receipt book 1842 Description View images
The complete cook 1843 Description View images
The New England economical housekeeper 1844 Description View images
Modern cookery, in all its branches 1845 Description View images
The complete confectioner, pastry-cook, and baker 1846 Description View images
Miss Beecher's domestic receipt book 1846 Description View images
The young housekeeper 1846 Description View images
The American family keepsake 1848 Description View images
The people's manual 1848 Description View images
The Cook book of rare and valuable recipes 1850 Description View images
The Carolina housewife : or, House and home 1851 Description View images
The house-keeper's guide and Indian doctor 1852 Description View images
The national cook book 1853 Description View images
The pantropheon or, History of food, and its preparation 1853 Description View images
Cook and confectioner. The complete cook 1854 Description View images
The physiology of taste, or, Transcendental gastronomy 1854 Description View images
Every lady's cook book 1856 Description View images
Christianity in the kitchen 1857 Description View images
The great western cook book, or Table receipts 1857 Description View images
Miss Leslie's new cookery book 1857 Description View images
Mrs. Hale's new cook book 1859 Description View images
The Canadian housewife's manual of cookery 1861 Description View images
Directions for cooking by troops, in camp and hospital 1861 Description View images
How to mix drinks 1862 Description View images
Confederate receipt book 1863 Description View images
Excelsior cook book, and housekeeper's aid 1863 Description View images
The new hydropathic cook-book 1863 Description View images
Science in the kitchen 1863 Description View images
Nouvelle cuisiniere Canadienne 1865 Description View images
Tit-bits, or, How to prepare a nice dish at a moderate expense 1865 Description View images
What to do with the cold mutton 1865 Description View images
The art of confectionery 1866 Description View images
Crumbs from the round table 1866 Description View images
Dainty dishes 1866 Description View images
Hand-book of practical cookery, for ladies and professional cooks 1867 Description View images
Verstille's southern cookery 1867 Description View images
What shall we eat? A manual for housekeepers 1868 Description View images
The cider makers' manual 1869 Description View images
Baker's guide; or, The art of baking 1870 Description View images
The philosophy of eating 1870 Description View images
What to eat, and how to cook it 1870 Description View images
The young cook 1870 Description View images
De Witt's Connecticut cook book, and housekeeper's assistant 1871 Description View images
Jewish cookery book 1871 Description View images
Mrs. Owen's Illinois cook book 1871 Description View images
Mrs. Porter's new Southern cookery book 1871 Description View images
The appledore cook book 1872 Description View images
The dessert book 1872 Description View images
The health reformer's cook book 1872 Description View images
The new housekeeper's manual 1873 Description View images
The Kansas home cook-book 1874 Description View images
Presbyterian cook book 1874 Description View images
California recipe book 1875 Description View images
Housekeeping in the Blue Grass 1875 Description View images
The Manhattan cook-book 1875 Description View images
My mother's cook book 1875 Description View images
1776-1876: The centennial cook book and general guide 1876 Description View images
The hygienic cook book 1876 Description View images
The Times' recipes 1876 Description View images
The cooking manual of practical directions for economical every-day cookery 1877 Description View images
Fifteen cent dinners for families of six 1877 Description View images
Mrs. Chase's practical advice for the skilful treatment of articles of diet 1882 Description View images
Canoe and camp cookery 1885 Description View images
La cuisine creole 1885 Description View images
Cocoa and chocolate 1886 Description View images
The Picayune's Creole cook book 1901 Description View images
Thirty-six years an ice cream maker 1907 Description View images