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.
Seventy-five Receipts For Pastry, Cakes, And Sweetmeats.
By Miss Leslie.
Boston, Mass.: Munroe and Francis, 1832.
We have selected to reprint three of Miss Leslie's nine books, reflecting her place in American culinary history and the popularity of her cookbooks.
Eliza Leslie was one of the most prolific and successful of 19th century cookery authors. [See also Directions for Cookery and The Lady's Receipt-Book. ] This was the first of her many popular and influential cookbooks. First published in 1828, it had dozens of printings, most of the time by itself, but often added as an appendix to The Cook's Own Book. These combined volumes had varying titles, including The American Family Cook Book. Before modern reprints of this important and influential book, a printing of the "20th edition" appeared as late as 1875.
Miss Leslie tells us that her first book was compiled from a "tolerable collection of receipts, taken by myself while a pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's cooking school in Philadelphia." However, when this volume appeared, there was no mention of Mrs. Goodfellow and no attribution of any kind. Miss Leslie simply states that the recipes were "all orginal, and have been used by the author and many of her friends with uniform success."
She also stesses the fact that the recipes in Seventy-five Receipts are "in every sense of the word, American; but the writer flatters herself that (if exactly followed) the articles produced from them will not be found inferior to any of a similar description made in the European manner."
The recipes are well written for their time and most contain measurements. One would like to try the Preserved Pine-Apple, Gooseberry Jelly, Apees, Jumbles, Gingerbread Nuts, Butter Biscuits, Trifle, Cocoa-nut Pudding, Curds and Whey, Almond Cake - or any of the other tempting dishes to be found in this volume.
