Published in 1861 in Hamilton, Ontario, this volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection is an early example of Canadian cookery, compiled from the best available English, French, and American recipes and adapted to Canadian kitchens.
The content of The Canadian Housewife’s Manual of Cookery owes much to contemporary cookbooks published in America, England, and France. There are several hundred recipes including soups, sauces, fish, meats, poultry, eggs, game, vegetables, puddings, pancakes, fritters, pastry, cakes, bread, sweets, salads, ale, beer, and summer drinks. In addition, the book contains a chapter on homemade concoctions for various illnesses, information on maintaining a dairy and cheese-making, keeping chickens, and ten pages of advertisements for everything from newspapers and books to jewelry, foodstuffs, patent remedies, and clothing. The recipes include a new emphasis on local produce such as squash, pumpkins, and tomatoes, and the general tone is one of sensible economy. The books urges housewives to “make the home the sweet refuge of a husband fatigued by intercourse with a jarring world.” This edition of Canadian Housewife’s Manual of Cookery was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.
