The introductory texts reproduced here were written by the original Feeding America team to contextualize the books that were selected for inclusion as part of the 2001 digitization project.
The Market Assistant, Containing a Brief Description of Every Article of Human Food Sold in the Public Markets of the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn.
By Thomas Farrington De Voe
New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867.
How grateful we all should feel to Thomas De Voe, a butcher who wrote two of the most important works, on the food scene of the North East shortly after the Civil War. His first work The Market Book (1862) describes and gives a detailed history of the Public Markets of the City of New York, "from its first settlement to the present time." A second volume, which never appeared, was to cover markets in Boston, Philadelphia and Brooklyn. It is a pity that this second volume was never published as it would have added immeasurably to our knowledge.
What did appear, in 1867, was a companion volume, this one, The Market Assistant. This work discusses "every item of human food sold in the Public Markets." This is a remarkable and invaluable culinary source.
The number of items discussed is simply staggering. Under Wild Game, he discusses Venison, Buck Venison; Elk, or Wapiti; Caribou, or American Reindeer; Black-tailed Deer, or Mule-deer; Moose; American antelope, or prong-horn; Big-horn, or mountain sheep; Rocky Mountain goat; Northern hare; Rabbit, or gray hare; Domestic or fancy rabbits; Guinea pig or cavy; Squirrels; Black bear; Raccoon; Wild-cat, or bay lynx; Opossum; Wood-chuck, or ground-hog; Porcupine; Skunk; Beaver; Otter; Badger; and Musk-rat or Musquash.
This is followed by a chapter on Poultry followed by an exhaustive chapter on Wild-Fowl and Birds, called Game. The author tells us that the "variety, quantity, and quality of wild-fowl and birds...received in the public markets, especially of the city of New York, is not surpassed in any other city of the world." To list their names will prove his point: Wild swan or whistling swan; Trumpeter swan; Wild goose, or Canadian goose; Snow-goose, or white brant; Mud or Hutchins' goose; Canvas-back duck; Red-head, or Pochard; Mallard; Black duck, or dusky duck; Wood duck or summer duck; Bald-pate, or American widgeon; Broad-bill, blue-bill, or scaup duck; Creek broad-bill, or lesser scaup duck; Bastard broad-bill, ring-necked, or tufted duck; Blue-winged teal; Green-winged teal; Pintail duck, winter duck, sprig-tail duck; Gray duck, Welsh drake, German duck, or gadwall; Shoveller, or spoonbill; Weaser, buff-breasted merganser, or goosander; Harlequin duck; Whistler, or golden-eye duck; Salt-water teal, or ruddy duck; Dipper, butter-ball, or buffel-headed duck; Old wife, old squaw, long-tailed duck; Squaw duck, shoal duck, or eider duck; Skunk duck, sand-shoal duck, or pied duck; Saw-bill, shell-drake, hairy-head, or hooded merganser; Pied shell-drake, or red-breasted merganser; White-winged coot, or velvet duck; Surf Duck, spectacle duck; Hell-divers, or horned grebe; American scoter, coot, (Eastern States as the) butter-bill; Loon, or great Northern diver; Wild turkey; Partridge, pheasant, or ruffled grouse; Prairie-hen, heath-hen, prairie-chicken, or pinnated grouse; Sharp-tailed grouse; Spruce partridge or Canadian grouse; Willow-grouse, or white grouse; Cock of the plains, or sage cock; California quail; English pheasant; English partridge; Black cock, or black grouse; Red grouse, or moor cock; English woodcock; Quail; Woodcock; English snipe, common snipe, or Wilson's snipe; Robin snipe, or red-breasted sandpiper; Gray plover, grass field, or upland plover; Frost plover, greenback, or golden plover; Ring plover, or ring-neck; Beach bird, or piping plover; Brant bird, horse-foot snipe, or turnstone; Dowitcher, quail snipe, or red-breasted snipe.....and about another 60 items!
The chapters on Fish and Shellfish are equally exhaustive, and remarkable. You will see how much we have lost in the way of the availability of game and fish.
It is interesting to compare this volume with Ward's Grocer's Encyclopedia of 1911 , a similar book published about 45 years later.
