Describes the kinds of foods commonly consumed by colonists, including soldiers, during the time of the American Revolutionary War. Includes recipes.

What did people living in the 13 colonies eat? Readers discover the answer to this question as they take a look inside colonial kitchens to learn about early American history. The focus on colonial food sheds a unique light on a common part of social studies curricula. As readers explore the engaging and educational text, they also take in information from colorful and detailed images, such as primary sources. In addition, readers find recipes that allow them to feel like colonial chefs. Each recipe features step-by-step instructions, creating a fresh and fun hands-on history lesson.

History of food in the United States.

Of the one hundred Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth in 1620, nearly half had died within months of hardship, starvation or disease. One of the colony's most urgent challenges was to find ways to grow and prepare food in the harsh, unfamiliar climate of the New World. From the meager subsistence of the earliest days and the crucial help provided by Native Americans, to the first Thanksgiving celebrations and the increasingly sophisticated fare served in inns and taverns, this book provides a window onto daily life in Colonial America. It shows how European methods and cuisine were adapted to include native produce such as maize, potatoes, beans, peanuts and tomatoes, and features a section of authentic menus and recipes, including apple tansey and crab soup, which can be used to prepare your own colonial meals.

Describes some of the foods prepared in the various areas of what would become the United States during the colonial period. Includes recipes.

This eighteenth century kitchen reference is the first cookbook published in the U.S. with recipes using local ingredients for American cooks. Named by the Library of Congress as one of the eighty-eight “Books That Shaped America,” American Cookery was the first cookbook by an American author published in the United States. Until its publication, cookbooks used by American colonists were British. As author Amelia Simmons states, the recipes here were “adapted to this country,” reflecting the fact that American cooks had learned to prepare meals using ingredients found in North America. This cookbook reveals the rich variety of food colonial Americans used, their tastes, cooking and eating habits, and even their rich, down-to-earth language. Bringing together English cooking methods with truly American products, American Cookery contains the first known printed recipes substituting American maize for English oats; the recipe for Johnny Cake is the first printed version using cornmeal; and there is also the first known recipe for turkey. Another innovation was Simmons’s use of pearlash—a staple in colonial households as a leavening agent in dough, which eventually led to the development of modern baking powders. A culinary classic, American Cookery is a landmark in the history of American cooking. “Thus, twenty years after the political upheaval of the American Revolution of 1776, a second revolution—a culinary revolution—occurred with the publication of a cookbook by an American for Americans.” —Jan Longone, curator of American Culinary History, University of Michigan This facsimile edition of Amelia Simmons's American Cookery was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, founded in 1812.

Self published by the founder of the New York Cooking School, this forty-page leaflet was designed to educate new immigrant families with low incomes about preparing good, healthy meals. As the industrial revolution gathered steam and reformers focused on living conditions of the poor and disadvantaged, economical themes began to appear in cookbooks, and Corson’s pamphlet was extremely popular. In addition to numerous recipes and food preparation techniques, the book contains a “Daily Bill of Fare for One Week”—seven days of menus that cost $2.53 in total leaving a balance of $.62 for extra bread, milk, and butter. The little volume also contains favorable reviews of the book from contemporary publications, and an “ad” for six other books by Corson. The title page contains the following quote from the author: “This little book may not be a welcome guest in the home of the man who fares abundantly every day; it is not written for him; but to the working man, who wants to make the best of his wages, I pray it may bring help and comfort.” This facsimile edition of Juliet Corson’s Fifteen Cent Dinners for Families of Six was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.