Eat my words : reading women's lives through the cookbooks they wrote

329 Pages·2002·4.44 MB·English

by  Theophano, Janet

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Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page

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For my family
Jeff, Damien, Julia, and Omi
and
in loving memory of
Colin Gilmore, Ralph Ginsberg,
and David M. Smith
List of Illustrations
Figure I.1 Letter found in a nineteenth-century manuscript receipt book. Collection of the author
Figure 1.1 Hopestill Brett’s list of belongings brought to Horncroft. Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 1.2 A map of the Lehigh Valley from Mrs. Patterson’s manuscript receipt book. Courtesy, the
Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera
Figure 1.3 A drawing depicting the miners gathering in a saloon from Mrs. Patterson’s manuscript
receipt book.
Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed
Ephemera
Figure 2.1 Jewish housewife reading her cookbook as depicted in the Rochester Hadassah Cook Book.
Courtesy Rochester Hadassah
Figure 3.1 Contribution from an aristocrat to Lady Frescheville’s opulent seventeenth-century receipt
book.
Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed
Ephemera
Figure 3.2 Inscription on the inside front cover of Bailey’s Dictionarium belonging to the Darby family.
Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 3.3 Inscription on the first page of Bailey’s Dictionarium belonging to the Darby family.
Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 5.1 Mary Madcap’s signature and announcement “I am.” Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 5.2 The words “raspberries” and “strawberries” copied in a nineteenth-century manuscript
receipt book indicating someone practicing writing. Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph
Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera
Figure 5.3 Maternal commentary on the pages of the seventeenth-century Maddison manuscript receipt
book. Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of
Pennsylvania
Figure 5.4 Mrs. Maddison reflects on her writing ability.
Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 5.5 Lydia Grofton Jarvis’s manuscript receipt book “copied out for me by my brother.”
Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed
Ephemera
Figure 5.6 List of “discheveled books—in barn, for self education” on the last page of Grofton Jarvis’s
receipt book.
Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed
Ephemera
Figure 5.7 The poem “Like Swallowes” penned by Mrs. Maddison, the title copied by Mary Madcap.
Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 5.8 Multiple clipped newspaper recipes affixed with a straight pin in Marion Harland’s Common-
Sense in the Household (1871). Collection of the author
Figure 5.9 Marginalia from Mrs. Putnam’s receipt book (1854) critiquing the author. Courtesy of the
Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 6.1 Mrs. Elizabeth Raffald’s frontispiece portrait in The Experienced English Housekeeper.
Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 6.2 Frontispiece to Eliza Haywood’s New Present for a Servant-Maid depicting a woman reading
instructions from the cook book while cooking. This item is reproduced by permission of the
Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Figure 7.1 “A receipt how to make a Right Presbyterian in two days” found in Catharine Cotton’s
seventeenth-century cookery manuscript. Courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania
Figure 7.2 A stereopticon slide debasing an Irish servant.
Courtesy, the Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed
Ephemera
I savor each simple gesture in this kitchen, filling the tea kettle, lighting the stove, click of the
cup in the saucer. They’ve all been here, are here, the family of women, nursing one another
with teas—de canela, hierbabuena, gordolobo. Straight and erect in their good health or bent
with age and arthritis, sacramental acts for another woman, or a husband, father, or child,
steeping an old cure that began underground. “It is strange to be so many women,” as
Adrienne Rich says.
—Pat Mora, House of Houses (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997)
Acknowledgments
During the years I have worked on this project the support, encouragement, and
general goodwill of many friends and strangers have exhilarated me.
I owe a debt to Michael Ryan and Daniel Traister of the Annenberg Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania, for inviting me to
curate the Esther B. Aresty Collection of Rare Books on the Culinary Arts.
Nancy Shawcross, Lynne Farrington, and John Pollack of the Annenberg Library
graciously guided me through mounting my first exhibition. They and Margaret
Kruesi have continued to be an ever-present source of helpfulness, intelligence,
and bibliographical advice. Jerry Drew, Jennifer Lindner, Dana Plansky,
Rebecca Smith, and Karoline Wallace provided much appreciated research
support and the benefit of their own perspectives on the material. Patricia Smith,
then of the University of Pennsylvania Press, encouraged me to write this book.
I wish to thank Sherrie Inness for her support and editorial advice as I wrote
chapter 7, a version of which first appeared in her edited volume, Kitchen
Culture in America, published by University of Pennsylvania Press. I thank the
Press for allowing me to reprint it here. The excerpt from House of Houses is
reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.
I took several leaves from the College of General Studies at Penn to complete
the research and writing. I am deeply grateful to Richard Hendrix, director, and
to my colleagues for their patience during my absences. In particular, I would
like to thank Susan Gill, Denise Miller, and Kristine Rabberman who tended to
student affairs while I was away.
A research grant from the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation
enabled me to travel to England to the archives in Lincoln and London. Staff at
the Lincolnshire Archives, Deborah Thornton especially, and the Public Records
Offices in London answered a myriad of questions and helped to guide my
searches.
Librarians and archivists at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library
Company of Philadelphia, and the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe helped me
locate documents. Stephen Tabor at the Huntington Library, San Marino,
California, was especially helpful, as was Ian Argall of the Huntingdonshire
Family History Society, England.
At the Library Company of Philadelphia I found librarian Wendy Woloson, an
extraordinarily enthusiastic supporter. I am indebted to her for locating letters,
manuscripts, and books useful for my study. Excited by the topic, she went
above and beyond the call of duty and read the manuscript. Her comments and
insights were valuable additions. I would also like to thank James Green of the
Library Company for taking the time to talk with me about printing in
seventeenth-and eighteenth-century America.
A National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship at Winterthur Library
led me to a new collection of documents and the incomparable association of
librarians, fellows, and staff assembled there in the summer and fall of 1999. In
seminar discussions, in the archives, and at lunch, I benefited from conversations
and guidance from Gretchen Buggeln, Lori Finkelstein, Maggie Lidz, Cindy
Lobel, Richard McKinstry, Nicola Shilliam, and Susan Stabile. Their
companionship and conversation were invaluable during long days in
Winterthur’s sanctuary of rare books and manuscripts. I am especially grateful to
Jeanne Solensky and Neville Thompson for their inestimable and generous
assistance over the past two years.
There are many who read and commented on the chapters. Monique Bourque,
Janet Golden, Janet Tighe, and Elizabeth Toone of my writing group read earlier
drafts of some chapters and, along with their critiques, encouraged me to keep
writing. Regina Bendix read a draft of the manuscript; her gentle editorial
comments helped me to develop some of my arguments more completely. Her
friendship has been a comfort and an inspiration. Peter Parolin’s subtle and
thoughtful reading of chapter 6 enriched my ideas about women’s reading and
writing. I hope he finds the integration he suggested. Peter also introduced me to
Susan Frye, whose work on women’s literacy enhanced my own understandings.
Barbara and Burt Abrams read chapter 2 for accuracy. Masterful writer and
friend Gayle Samuels’s enthusiasm for the topic supported me through moments
of doubt. In addition, she transformed some awkward phrases into elegant prose.
Kimberly Lau read a draft of the manuscript and offered countless helpful
suggestions and encouragement.
I have benefited from colleagues whose historical perspective has enriched the
book: Marc Miller read and commented on every chapter with a historian’s eye.
His editorial advice evinced clarity from muddy passages. David Traxel read an
early draft of chapter 7. Russ Kazal offered suggestions for sources for chapter
2. Janet Golden and Eric Schneider cheered me on as I struggled through the