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.
Hand-book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks. Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food.
By Pierre Blot. Professor of Gastronomy, and Founder of the New York Cooking Academy.
New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1868.
Pierre Blot is still an enigmatic figure in American culinary annals. We know much about his life, career and contributions to American cookery in America, but have still not been able to track down his early history in France. Be that as it may, what we can say is that Blot was one of the, if not the, first celebrity chef in America. His activities and classes were written up in great detail wherever he appeared.
His two major books were What To Eat and How to Cook It (New York 1863) and this one, Hand-Book of Practical Cookery in 1867. In the years between the publication of these two books, Blot captured the imagination of the American media and the American public. In 1865 he opened Professor Blot's Culinary Academy of Design in New York City, arguably the first French cooking school in America.
A lengthy article in the New York Times (March 24, 1865) described the opening of the school and its first class in detail. Later articles in the Times described additional classes. Blot went on to teach all over New England and the rest of the Northeast, always gathering favorable and voluminous press coverage.
When Blot published the book now under consideration, he was probably the most famous chef in America. A review of this book in the New York Times is most favorable. The review begins, "Prof. Blot, the eminent gastronome and founder of the New-York Cooking Academy, whose name has become a household word, has just issued a work on the Science and Art of Cooking....he presents very clearly the frequently forgotten truth that by preparing the 'good things of life' properly upon scientific principles, that we beautify the physique, and make our bodies fit receptacles of elevated minds." The review continues in this positive attitude and ends with the admonition that "The book ought to be in the hands of every housekeeper in the land."
So, we have followed that suggestion by making this book available to "every housekeeper in the land." The book begins with a discussion on cookery followed by a glossary and dictionary. Hundreds of well-written and professional recipes follow. Small black and white drawings of equipment and techniques are scattered throughout the volume and enhance the book's usefulness, as do the Bills of Fare suggestions.
We select the chapter on Game to show the careful and thorough coverage in this book. There are discussions of Bear-meat; Buffalo; Wild Ducks, Geese, Pigeons and Turkeys; Blackbird, Bobolink, Reed-bird, Rice-bird and Small Birds; Grouse or Heathcock; Hare, Leveret; Pheasants, Crane, Ostrich, Peacock, Pelican, or Other Large Birds; Praire-bird, Praire Hen, and Partridge; Snipe, Quails, Rabbit, Opossum, Otter, Racoon, Skunk, Fox, Woodchuck, and Other Like Animals; Venison; and Snails. The methods for preparing them include In Civet, In Chartreuse, In Crapaudine, In Croquettes, In Gibelotte, Marengo, In Papillotes, With Olives, Salmis, and Sportsman-like, among many others.
Clearly, we have lost much variety in our food supply.
Shortly after the publication of this work, Prof. Blot's star began to fade. He had been, in his prime, hailed as "a starcuisinier," a "benevolent missionary of civilization," and a "beneficent being sent from the heaven of good Americans to confer upon us the blessings of a good cuisine." Yet by the time he died in 1874 he had fallen into sad obscurity.
