The Williamsburg Art of Cookery; Or, accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion: Being a Collection of Upwards of Five Hundred of the most Ancient & Approv'd Recipes in Virginia Cookery.
Richmond: Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., 1938. Jones, Elmo. Hardcover. 276 pages. 18 x 10 cm. Helen Bullock based this compilation on the first cookbook printed in British America: William Parks's 1742 Williamsburg edition of E. Smith's The Compleat Housewife. Its title and typography deliberately echo that model. Parks took his text from the much larger English original. He left out recipes that called for "Ingredients or materials" that could not be had in Virginia, and printed only those "useful and practicable here." Bullock followed the same spirit and collected favorite Virginia recipes from period manuscripts and printed sources. The book opens with a note on Virginia hospitality. In then covers soups, fish, bread, garden stuff, pastry, preserves & pickles, herbs, confections, cakes, desserts, drinks & punches, and it ends with a section on Christmas in the Virginia style. All edges speckled. Pristine copy. Faux leather boards. Fine. Item #5128
Price: $50.00