The art of cooking has been long explored by people and the quest for achieving the perfect mixture of flavors is an ancient one. Humankind has always been interested in spices, herbs, and how to make food more appealing, and recent discoveries of ancient cookbooks are proof of this.
There is a great online collection of American and European recipes from the past gathered in the Cookbooks and Home Economics collection at the Internet Archive.
You can find a lot of interesting articles on the website, from ancient recipes that make use of ingredients both as food and medicine to cookbooks from the 1900s. Food enthusiasts and professional cooks as well can learn techniques from the past and how dishes and taste evolved over the years, so it is both a cookbook collection and sociological research.
There are even cookbooks for specific categories in the collection, such as cookbooks for bachelors and for brides. So, if you are passionate about food, but also want to know a recipe’s origin and dig deeper into the art of food, browsing this online library can be a great start.
Over 10,000 scans of historic cookbooks are available for free on the Internet Archive.
The country housewife and lady’s director, in the management of a house, and the delights and profits of a farm…,” by Richard Bradley, published 1732, London. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library. (Photo: Cookbooks and Home Economics / Internet Archives)
From early colonial recipes to 20th century brand promotion, you can explore the history of gender, consumption, and class through this extensive collection of historic cookbooks.
Among the strange recipes, you may discover some gems, such as Queen Victoria’s Toasted Cheese or Maple Custard.
A Bachelors Cupboard; containing crumbs culled from the cupboards of the great unwedded,” by A. Lyman Phillips, published 1906. Courtesy of the New York Public Library. (Photo: Cookbooks and Home Economics / Internet Archives)
The Italian Cook Book : the Art of Eating Well : practical recipes of the Italian cuisine by Gentile, Maria, Publication date 1919 (Photo: Cookbooks and Home Economics / Internet Archives)
source: Open Culture
