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United Tastes: The Making of the First American Cookbook
United Tastes: The Making of the First American Cookbook
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The Library of Congress has designated
(1796) by Amelia Simmons one of the eighty-eight "Books That Shaped America." Its recognition as "the first American cookbook" has attracted an enthusiastic modern audience of historians, food journalists, and general readers, yet until now
has not received the sustained scholarly attention it deserves. Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald's
fills this gap by providing a detailed examination of the social circumstances and culinary tradition that produced this American classic. Situating
within the post-Revolutionary effort to develop a distinct national identity, Stavely and Fitzgerald demonstrate the book's significance in cultural as well as culinary terms. Ultimately the separation between these categories dissolves as the authors show that the formation of "taste," in matters of food as well as other material expressions, was essential to building a consensus on what it was to be American.
explores multiple historiesof food, cookbooks, printing, material and literary culture, and regionto illuminate the meaning and affirm the importance of America's first cookbook.