OP: Mrs. Ellis’s Complete Cook, or Perfect Instructor

$110 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters · No longer available

American Sarah Ellis (1799-1872) was one of the 19th century’s most prolific writers of books intended specifically for women. Among her nearly three dozen titles, ranging from history, fiction, and essays on social issues to household manuals, are a handful devoted to cooking, of which her Complete Cook , 1867, was surely the best known. Even here, her bent toward questions of a woman’s place in modern society, while unquestionably traditional, were couched in language intended to make her readers sit up and take notice. Early in the book, she asserts that “home is the especial province of woman, and it should be her delight to feel that she has the power of administering to the wants and pleasures of her circle. There may be occupations more congenial to her taste than the management of a household, but if she systematizes her time and comprehends what she is about, she may almost always find leisure to gratify herself as well as others.” Then, with no further words wasted, she plunges right in to the subject of carving. From there it is straight on to fish, to “butcher’s meat,” to game, to vegetables, and on, all the way to pastries and other sweets. It concludes, as do most books of this era, with a torrent of household hints—cleaning shawls, preventing crust on tea kettles, dealing with ear aches, tainted butter, and bedbugs. The recipes are, of course, old-style, with no ingredient lists and providing information and instruction in good, clean prose. “Lamb,” we are told

• Binding: Hardcover

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