Cookbook Comparison Guide

Objective

Illustrate and explain how have cookbooks represented cultural values and how have they been used to construct particular identities.

Method

Pick TWO books from this collection, and make sure they are BEFORE 1900. After that, there tends to be more variety than we are prepared to deal with. Spending a few minutes finding books that you actually find interesting (and have something to say about) makes the assignment MUCH easier and more effective. Click the “Full View” link to actually see the cookbook; if it doesn’t work for some reason, just choose another one.

Your job is to compare the cookbooks in terms of what they discuss, what they don’t, tone, style, ingredients, recipes, overall content (many of these books are about way more than cooking).

Why TWO books? Because the variety of cookbooks is remarkable! They illustrate the wide variety of values and approaches to the genre. That said, you might end up comparing cookbooks that are quite similar. This is also fun because then you can reflect on their shared values and reasons for variation. You need to write about TWO books, but it is very helpful to skim through even more to get a sense of what kinds of things are NOT in your cookbook. (p.s. if you want to compare 3 or 4 books, you can, but any more turns into a mess.)

DO NOT SUMMARIZE EACH BOOK! The point of the exercise here is to find and explain similarities and differences between the books.

Basics

• ~800–1000 words. But quality is more important than quantity.
• At the top of your essay, put a functional hyperlink to the cookbooks you are discussing.
• Apply the readings to your analysis of a historic cookbook based on the questions below. We’ve talked a lot of about attitudes toward ingredients and dishes, as well as how food is used to signal social status and nationality. How does (or not) your cookbook illustrate the issues we’ve been discussing?
• It is probably easiest to organize your essay by theme/topic rather than writing about one book and then the other. Organizing your essay by topic makes it way easier to compare/contrast the books.
• Be sure to spend adequate time with prefaces, introductions, tables of contents, and similar sections where the author might be directly answering some of the below questions.
• But remember you need to read BETWEEN THE LINES.
• Enjoy looking through primary sources for food history! This is meant to be more of a fun way of engaging with historical sources and getting a feel for a very common source of food history.

Themes to consider

These are all topics we’ve discussed already. Remember, you’re comparing the cookbooks to describe what they can tell us about their historical context and the broader themes listed below. ** Use the details of the cookbook to analyze the BIG PICTURE**.

Ask the Basic Questions

1. Who wrote it?
   • Professional chef, home cook, reformer, immigrant, former enslaved person?
   • Male or female author—does gender matter here?
2. Who was the audience?
   • Working class, middle class, elites, immigrants, reform-minded households?
   • Was it written for insiders (ethnic community) or outsiders (mainstream Americans)?
3. When and where?
   • What’s happening historically? (industrialization, immigration, westward expansion, slavery/abolition, women’s rights).
   • Regional clues? (New England frugality, Southern traditions, frontier self-sufficiency).
4. Why was it written?
   • Instruction, profit, reform, entertainment, national identity, nostalgia, charity?
5. How was it published?
   • Cheap pamphlet, community fundraiser, widely printed manual, luxury illustrated volume?

Read Between the Lines

• Ingredients: What do they say about trade, technology, class, or region? (Sugar in 1830 ≠ sugar in 1890.)
• Techniques & tools: Are stoves, canned goods, or precise measurements used? What does that reveal about technology and modernization?
• Language & tone: Is it moralizing (frugality, virtue), scientific (precision, progress), nostalgic, or aspirational?
• Format: Large fancy book = elite; small cheap paperback = working class; community cookbook = local identity.
• Ideology: Does it push thrift, efficiency, national pride, immigrant preservation, or assimilation?

Connect to Broader Historical Themes

• Gender: Does it reinforce or redefine women’s domestic role?
• Class: Who can afford the foods/recipes? What values are being taught?
• Race & Ethnicity: How are African American, Indigenous, or immigrant foodways represented or erased?
• Nation & Identity: Is it trying to define “American” cuisine, or preserve a minority tradition?
• Change Over Time: Compare cookbooks across decades—what shifts in values, technology, and identity do you notice?

Connect to Broader Course Themes

• How much does tradition or originality matter to the author?
• How does it help construct an American identity or a sense of “American food”?
• What struck you as most interesting or unexpected about the cookbooks?

As with reading reflection prompts, you might find it more interesting/useful to spend more time on some questions over others depending on the kind of cookbooks you have. So don’t feel like you need to address each one explicitly.

References and Citations

Any time you refer to a specific quote or idea from a specific should a have parenthetical page reference so that a reader can look it up to better understand the context. These also show the reader (and graders, in our case) HOW you are using the book in your analysis. For example: The author claims that all meat should be cooked until well done (13).

Questions

Writing is hard enough, and virtually impossible when you’re not sure what you’re trying to do. Please get in touch with questions!