The American Gilded Age (1868 to 1900) and its extreme extravagance continue to be a source of wonder and fascination, particularly for foodies. The style and excessiveness of this era has ties to modern popular culture through books, films, and television shows, including The Alienist and the Julian Fellowes TV series The Gilded Age, on HBO. The Gilded Age Cookbook transports the reader back in time to lavish banquet tables set with snow-white linen tablecloths, delicate china, and sparkling crystal glasses. Cuisine featuring rich soups, juicy roasts, and luscious desserts come to life through historic images and artistic photography. Gilded Age details and entertaining stories of celebrities from the era—the Vanderbilts, Astors, Goelets, and Rockefellers—are melded with historic menus and recipes updated for modern kitchens.

"In Philadelphia during the first decades of the nineteenth century, Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow ran a popular bakery and sweet shop. In addition to catering to Philadelphia's wealthy families and a reputation of making the finest desserts in the young country, her business stood out from every other establishment in another way: she ran a small school to teach the art of cooking, the first of its kind in America. Despite her notoriety--references to her cooking as a benchmark abound in the literature of the period--we know very little about who she was. Since she did not keep a journal and never published any of her recipes, we have to rely on her students, most notably Eliza Leslie, who fortunately recorded many of Goodfellow's creations and techniques. Mrs. Goodfellow is known for making the first lemon meringue pie and for popularizing regional foods, such as Indian (corn) meal. Through old recipe books, advertisements, letters, diaries, genealogical records, and other primary sources, "Mrs. Goodfellow: the story of America's first cooking school" provides a more complete portrait of this influential figure in cooking history."--Back cover

Describes in detail a lavish seventeen-course meal that launched a new age in American dining.

I send this little book out into the world, first, to aid those who, having decided to adopt a bloodless diet, are still asking how they can be nourished without flesh; second, in the hope of gaining something further to protect "the speechless ones" who, having come down through the centuries under "the dominion of man," have in their eyes the mute, appealing look of the helpless and oppressed. Their eloquent silence should not ask our sympathy and aid in vain; they have a right, as our humble brothers, to our loving care and protection, and to demand justice and pity at our hands; and, as a part of the One Life, to-- "life, which all can take but none can give;Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep;Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each,Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to allWhere pity is, for pity makes the worldSoft to the weak and noble for the strong.Unto the dumb lips of the flock he lentSad, pleading words, showing how man, who praysFor mercy to the gods, is merciless,Being as god to those; albeit all lifeIs linked and kin, and what we slay have givenMeek tribute of their milk and wool, and setFast trust upon the hands which murder them." We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

A delightful romp through America’s Golden Age of Cocktails The decades following the American Civil War burst with invention—they saw the dawn of the telephone, the motor car, electric lights, the airplane—but no innovation was more welcome than the beverage heralded as the “cocktail.” The Gilded Age, as it came to be known, was the Golden Age of Cocktails, giving birth to the classic Manhattan and martini that can be ordered at any bar to this day. Scores of whiskey drinks, cooled with ice chips or cubes that chimed against the glass, proved doubly pleasing when mixed, shaken, or stirred with special flavorings, juices, and fruits. The dazzling new drinks flourished coast to coast at sporting events, luncheons, and balls, on ocean liners and yachts, in barrooms, summer resorts, hotels, railroad train club cars, and private homes. From New York to San Francisco, celebrity bartenders rose to fame, inventing drinks for exclusive universities and exotic locales. Bartenders poured their liquid secrets for dancing girls and such industry tycoons as the newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and the railroad king “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cecelia Tichi offers a tour of the cocktail hours of the Gilded Age, in which industry, innovation, and progress all take a break to enjoy the signature beverage of the age. Gilded Age Cocktails reveals the fascinating history behind each drink as well as bartenders’ formerly secret recipes. Though the Gilded Age cocktail went “underground” during the Prohibition era, it launched the first of many generations whose palates thrilled to a panoply of artistically mixed drinks.

In this book, excerpts from a wide range of sources--from period cookbooks to advice manuals to dietary studies--reveal how eating and cooking differed between classes and regions at a time when technology and industrialization were transforming what and how people ate. Most of all, the sources show how strongly the fabled glitz of wealthy Americans in the Gilded Age contrasted with the lives of most Americans. Featuring a variety of sources as well as accessible essays putting those sources into context, this book provides a remarkable portrait of food in a singular era in American history.