Other Sources of Historical Menus and Recipes

The researcher or cook in search of historical recipes can of course go directly to an historical cookbook: Scappi for 16th-century Italy, for example, or La Varenne for 17th- century France, Hannah Glasse for 18th-century Britain, Eliza Leslie for early 19th-century America. Some of the culinary histories listed above include recipes, as the facsimiles do. Increasing numbers of cookbooks adapt historical menus and dishes for the modern kitchen. A selective list of these, along with some originals, follows.

Apicius. De re coquinaria. English. The Roman cookery of Apicius: a treasury of gourmet recipes & herbal cookery translated and adapted for the modern kitchen. (Point Roberts, Wash., Hartley & Marks, 1984). *R-VT 94-8148.

Grigson, Jane. Food with the famous. (New York: Atheneum, 1980). JFE 91-5585. Through culinary history with John Evelyn, Jane Austen, Thomas Jefferson, Emile Zola, Marcel Proust, et al.

Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. Pleyn delit: medieval cookery for modern cooks. 2nd ed. (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, c1996.) JFE 96-371.

Stewart, Katie. Cooking and eating: a pictorial history with recipes. (St. Albans, Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1975). JFE 95-241. 111 historical recipes from Greek and Roman to a sprinkling of Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese.

Vence, Celine, and Robert J. Courtine, comps. Les Grands maîtres de la cuisine française du Moyen Age à Alexandre Dumas. (Paris: Bordas, c1972). JFF 94-2869. The better known of the maîtres, from 1373 to 1873, are Taillevent; La Varenne; Bonnefons; Pierre de Lune; Massialot; La Chapelle; Marin; Menon; Beauvilliers; Viard; Carême; Gouffé; and Dumas.

Willan, Anne. Great cooks and their recipes: from Taillevent to Escoffier. (Boston: Little, Brown, c1992). JFF 93-530. From a baker's dozen of the "greats" in Western cooking. With a select bibliography and some annotations.

Wolfe, Linda. The literary gourmet: menus from masterpieces.(New York: Harmony Books, c1985). JFE 94-8252. The Bible, Cervantes, Virginia Woolf, et al.

The United States

Krondl, Michael. Around the American table: treasured recipes and food traditions from the American cookery collections of the New York Public Library. (Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Pub., 1995). JFE 96-1618. Informative as well as practical, with recipes dating from 1600 to 1955.

Old Sturbridge Village cookbook: authentic early American recipes for the modern kitchen, edited by Caroline Sloat. (Chester, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, c1984). JFD 94-18512. Recipes adapted from The American frugal housewife (1829) by Lydia Maria Child.

Turgeon, Charlotte Snyder. Favorite meals from Williamsburg: a menu cookbook. (Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; New York: dist. by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, c1982). JFF 94-1937.

Filippini, Alessandro. The Table (various editions). (New York: C.L. Webster & Co. or Baker & Taylor Co., 18--). 1889, 1892, 1895 under VTI. 1890, 1891, and 1892 editions under *Z-6839 no. 4, *Z-6992 no. 5, and *Z-6875 respectively. A chef at Delmonico's, Filippini includes hundreds of "menus for every day."

Ranhofer, Charles. The Epicurean. (New York: C. Ranhofer). Editions of 1894 in VTI, with another copy in *Z-6837 no. 3; 1900 and 1916 in VTI+. Also a chef at Delmonico's, Ranhofer includes many menus from the restaurant.