American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection

 

In writing her cookbook, Eleanor clearly states that, after studying both French and English works, she chose Read’s Confectioner, a London publication, as the basis for her cookbook. However, she made many alterations based on her own experience with the “oldest, most extensive and successful confectionery establishment in the country,” and she added recipes that utilized American ingredients. The book contains “directions for making all sorts of preserves, sugar-boiling, comfits, lozenges, ornamental cakes, ices, liqueurs, waters, gum-paste ornaments, syrups, jellies, marmalades, compotes, bread-baking, artificial yeasts, fancy biscuits, cakes, rolls, muffins, tarts, pies, &c. &c." Plus over fifty different recipes for ice cream.

This edition of The Complete Confectioner 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 lives 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 comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.