A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing
recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.
Hist ...
s.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by
course
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
(appetizer, first course, main course, dessert), by main ingredient, by cooking technique, alphabetically, by region or country, and so on. They may include illustrations of finished
dishes and preparation steps; discussions of cooking techniques, advice on kitchen equipment, ingredients, and substitutions; historical and cultural notes; and so on.
Cookbooks may be written by individual authors, who may be chefs, cooking teachers, or other food writers; they may be written by collectives; or they may be anonymous. They may be addressed to home cooks, to professional restaurant cooks, to institutional cooks, or to more specialized audiences.
Some cookbooks are didactic, with detailed recipes addressed to beginners or people learning to cook particular dishes or cuisines; others are simple aide-memoires, which may document the composition of a dish or even precise measurements, but not detailed techniques.
History
Early works
Not all cultures left written records of their culinary practices, but some examples have survived, notably three Akkadian tablets from Ancient Mesopotamia, dating to about 1700 BC, large fragments from
Archestratus, the Latin ''
Apicius
''Apicius'', also known as ''De re culinaria'' or ''De re coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking'') is a collection of Roman cookery recipes. It is thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. Its language is in many ways close ...
'' and some texts from the
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
.
The earliest collection of recipes that has survived in Europe is ''
De re coquinaria'', written in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
. An early version was first compiled sometime in the 1st century and has often been attributed to the Roman gourmet
Marcus Gavius Apicius
Marcus Gavius Apicius is believed to have been a Roman gourmet and lover of luxury, who lived sometime in the 1st century AD, during the reign of Tiberius. The Roman cookbook ''Apicius'' is often attributed to him, though it is impossible to pro ...
, though this has been cast in doubt by modern research. An ''
Apicius
''Apicius'', also known as ''De re culinaria'' or ''De re coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking'') is a collection of Roman cookery recipes. It is thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. Its language is in many ways close ...
'' came to designate a book of recipes. The current text appears to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century; the first print edition is from 1483. It records a mix of ancient Greek and Roman cuisine, but with few details on preparation and cooking.
An abbreviated epitome entitled ''Apici Excerpta a Vinidario'', a "pocket Apicius" by
Vinidarius, "an illustrious man", was made in the
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippi ...
era. In spite of its late date it represents the last manifestation of the cuisine of Antiquity.
Medieval
Asian
The earliest cookbooks known in Arabic are those of
al-Warraq (an early 10th-century compendium of recipes from the 9th and 10th centuries) and
al-Baghdadi (13th century).
''
Manasollasa
The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka . It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gov ...
'' from India contains recipes of vegetarian and non-vegetarian
cuisines, which preceded the cookbook writing history in Europe by a century. While the text is not the first among Indian books to describe fermented foods, it contains a range of cuisines based on fermentation of cereals and flours.
Chinese recipe books are known from the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
, but most were lost. One of the earliest surviving Chinese-language cookbooks is
Hu Sihui's "
Yinshan Zhengyao" (Important Principles of Food and Drink), believed to be from 1330. Hu Sihui,
Buyantu Khan
Buyantu Khan ( Mongolian: Буянт хаан; Mongolian script: ; ), born Ayurbarwada (Mongolian: Аюурбарбад ; ), also known by the temple name Renzong (Emperor Renzong of Yuan ( Chinese: 元仁宗, April 9, 1285 – March 1, 1320), was ...
's dietitian and therapist, recorded a Chinese-inflected Central Asian cuisine as eaten by the
Yuan court; his recipes were adapted from foods eaten all over the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe ...
. ''
Eumsik dimibang'', written around 1670, is the oldest
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...
n cookbook and the first cookbook written by a woman in East Asia.
European
After a long interval, the first recipe books to be compiled in Europe since Late Antiquity started to appear in the late thirteenth century. About a hundred are known to have survived, some fragmentary, from the age before printing. The earliest genuinely medieval recipes have been found in a Danish manuscript dating from around 1300, which in turn are copies of older texts that date back to the early 13th century or perhaps earlier.
Low
Low or LOW or lows, may refer to:
People
* Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low
Places
* Low, Quebec, Canada
* Low, Utah, United States
* Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station
* Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...
and
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
manuscripts are among the most numerous. Among them is ''Daz buch von guter spise'' ("The Book of Good Food") written c. 1350 in Würzberg and ''Kuchenmeysterey'' ("Kitchen Mastery"), the first printed German cookbook from 1485. Two French collections are probably the most famous: ''
Le Viandier'' ("The Provisioner") was compiled in the late 14th century by
Guillaume Tirel, master chef for two French kings; and ''
Le Menagier de Paris'' ("The Householder of Paris"), a household book written by an anonymous middle class Parisian in the 1390s.
Du fait de cuisine is another Medieval French cookbook, written in 1420.
From Southern Europe there is the 14th century
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...
manuscript Llibre de Sent Soví (1324), the
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
("The book of all recipes of dishes") and several Italian collections, notably the Venetian mid-14th century ''Libro per Cuoco'', with its 135 recipes alphabetically arranged. The printed ''
De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' ("On honourable pleasure"), first published in 1475, is one of the first cookbooks based on Renaissance ideals, and, though it is as much a series of moral essays as a cookbook, has been described as "the anthology that closed the book on medieval Italian cooking".
Medieval English cookbooks include ''
The Forme of Cury
''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Middle French : 'to cook') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most fa ...
'' and ''
Utilis Coquinario'', both written in the fourteenth century.
The Forme of Cury
''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Middle French : 'to cook') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most fa ...
is a cookbook authored by the chefs of
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...
.
Utilis Coquinario is a similar cookbook though written by an unknown author. Another English manuscript (1390s) includes the earliest recorded recipe for ravioli, even though ravioli did not originate in England.
Modern cookbooks
With the advent of the
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
in the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous books were written on how to manage households and prepare food. In Holland and England competition grew between the noble families as to who could prepare the most lavish banquet. By the 1660s, cookery had progressed to an art form and good cooks were in demand. Many of them published their own books detailing their recipes in competition with their rivals. Many of these books have now been translated and are available online.
By the 19th century, the Victorian preoccupation for domestic respectability brought about the emergence of cookery writing in its modern form. In 1796, the first known American cookbook titled, ''
American Cookery'', written by Amelia Simmons, was published in
Hartford, Connecticut. Until then, the cookbooks printed and used in the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...
were British. The first modern cookery writer and compiler of recipes for the home was
Eliza Acton. Her pioneering cookbook, ''
Modern Cookery for Private Families'' (1845), was aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. This was an immensely influential book, and it established the format for modern writing about cookery. The publication introduced the now-universal practice of listing the ingredients and suggested cooking times with each recipe. It included the first recipe for
Brussels sprouts. Contemporary chef
Delia Smith is quoted as having called Acton "the best writer of recipes in the English language". ''Modern Cookery'' long survived her, remaining in print until 1914 and available more recently in facsimile reprint.
Acton's work was an important influence on
Isabella Beeton
Isabella Mary Beeton ( Mayson; 14 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work '' Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ...
,
who published ''
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management
''Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management'', also published as ''Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book'', is an extensive guide to running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton and first published as a book in 1861. Previously pu ...
'' in 24 monthly parts between 1857 and 1861. The book was a guide to running a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
household, with advice on fashion,
child care
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...
,
animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, star ...
, poisons, the management of
servants, science, religion, and industrialism. Despite its title, most of the text consisted of recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is ''Mrs Beeton's Cookbook''. Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that is still used today. Many of the recipes were plagiarised from earlier writers, including Acton.
In 1885 the ''Virginia Cookery Book'' was published by
Mary Stuart Smith. In 1896 the American cook
Fannie Farmer
Fannie Merritt Farmer (23 March 1857 – 16 January 1915) was an American culinary expert whose '' Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'' became a widely used culinary text.
Education
Fannie Farmer was born on 23 March 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, ...
(1857–1915) published ''
The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
The ''Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'' (1896) by Fannie Farmer is a 19th-century general reference cookbook which is still available both in reprint and in updated form. It was particularly notable for a more rigorous approach to recipe writing ...
'' which contained some 1,849 recipes.
Types of cookbooks
Cookbooks that serve as basic kitchen references (sometimes known as "kitchen bibles") began to appear in the
early modern period. They provided not just recipes but overall instruction for both kitchen technique and household management. Such books were written primarily for housewives and occasionally domestic servants as opposed to professional cooks, and at times books such as ''
The Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 b ...
'' (
USA), ''
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange'' (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
), ''The
Art of Cookery'' (
UK, USA), ''
Il cucchiaio d'argento'' (
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
), and ''
A Gift to Young Housewives'' (
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
) have served as references of record for national cuisines.
Cookbook also tell stories of the writers themselves and reflect upon the era in which they are written. They often reveal notions of social, political, environmental or economic contexts. For example, during the era of industrialization, convenience foods were brought into many households and were integrated and present in cookbooks written in this time. Related to this class are instructional cookbooks, which combine recipes with in-depth, step-by-step recipes to teach beginning cooks basic concepts and techniques. In vernacular literature, people may collect traditional recipes in
family cookbooks Family cookbooks are books which contain a variety of recipes collected by specific families. Whilst these cookbooks are sometimes later published, the concept is of a commonplace book where useful recipes are retained and passed on to later gener ...
.
While western cookbooks usually group recipes for main courses by the main ingredient of the dishes,
Japanese cookbooks usually group them by cooking techniques (e.g.,
fried foods,
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...
ed foods, and
grill
Grill or grille may refer to:
Food
* Barbecue grill, a device or surface used for cooking food, usually fuelled by gas or charcoal, or the part of a cooker that performs this function
* Flattop grill, a cooking device often used in restaurants, ...
ed foods). Both styles of cookbook have additional recipe groupings such as
soup
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling soli ...
s or
sweets.
International and ethnic
International and ethnic cookbooks fall into two categories: the kitchen references of other cultures, translated into other languages; and books translating the recipes of another culture into the languages, techniques, and ingredients of a new audience. The latter style often doubles as a sort of culinary travelogue, giving background and context to a recipe that the first type of book would assume its audience is already familiar with. Popular Puerto Rican cookbook, Cocina Criolla, written by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli, includes recipes that are typically of traditional Puerto Rican cuisine such as
mofongo and
pasteles
''Pasteles'' (; singular ''pastel''), also pastelles in the English-speaking Caribbean, are a traditional dish in several Latin American and Caribbean countries. In Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, ...
. Valldejuli's cookbook was not only important to Puerto Ricans, but also very popular in the United States where her original cookbook has since been published in several editions, including English versions. These include The Art of Caribbean Cookery - Doubleday, 1957; Puerto Rican Cookery - Pelican Publishing, 1983; and, Juntos en la Cocina (co-authored with her husband, Luis F. Valldejuli) - Pelican Publishing, 1986.
Professional cookbooks
Professional cookbooks are designed for the use of working chefs and culinary students and sometimes double as textbooks for culinary schools. Such books deal not only in recipes and techniques, but often service and kitchen workflow matters. Many such books deal in substantially larger quantities than home cookbooks, such as making sauces by the liter or preparing dishes for large numbers of people in a
catering
Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and r ...
setting. While the most famous of such books today are books like ''
Le guide culinaire
''Le Guide Culinaire'' () is Escoffier's 1903 French restaurant cuisine cookbook, his first. It is a classic and still in print. Escoffier developed the recipes while working at the Savoy, Ritz and Carlton hotels from the late 1880s to the time o ...
'' by
Escoffier or ''The Professional Chef'' by the
Culinary Institute of America
Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs ...
, such books go at least back to medieval times, represented then by works such as
Taillevent's ''
Viandier'' and Chiquart d'Amiço's ''Du fait de cuisine''.
Single-subject
Single-subject books, usually dealing with a specific ingredient, technique, class of dishes or target group (e.g. for kids), are quite common as well.
Jack Monroe
Jack Monroe (born 17 March 1988) is a British food writer, journalist and activist known for campaigning on poverty issues, particularly hunger relief. She initially rose to prominence by writing a blog titled ''A Girl Called Jack'' (now r ...
for example features
low budget recipes. Some imprints such as
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children.
The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' ...
have specialized in this sort of book, with books on dishes like
curries,
pizza
Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, ...
, and simplified
ethnic food
A cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture or region. Each cuisine involves food preparation in a particular style, of food and drink of particular types, to produce individually con ...
. Popular subjects for narrow-subject books on technique include
grilling/
barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke ...
,
baking
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferre ...
,
outdoor cooking
Outdoor cooking is the preparation of food in the outdoors. A significant body of techniques and specialized equipment exists for it, traditionally associated with nomadic cultures such as the Berber people, Berbers of North Africa, the Arab B ...
, and even recipe cloning (Recipe cloning is copying commercial recipes where the original is a
trade secret
Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily a ...
).
Community
Community cookbooks (also known as compiled, regional, charitable, and fund-raising cookbooks) are a unique genre of culinary literature. Community cookbooks focus on home cooking, often documenting regional, ethnic, family, and societal traditions, as well as local history.
Sondra Gotlieb, for example, wrote her cookbooks on Canadian food culture by visiting people and homes by region. She gathered recipes, observed the foodways, observed the people and their traditions of each region by being in their own homes. Gotlieb did this so that she could put together a comprehensive cookbook based on the communities and individuals that make up Canada.
Gooseberry Patch has been publishing community-style cookbooks since 1992 and built their brand on this community.
Community cookbooks have sometimes been created to offer a counter-narrative of historical events or sustain a community through difficult times. ''The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro'', published in 1958 by the
National Council of Negro Women
The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1935 with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African-American women, their families, and communities. Mary McLeod Bethune, the ...
, includes recipes that illuminate histories of Black resistance, including "
Nat Turner
Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Her ...
Crackling Bread." The 1976 ''People's Philadelphia Cookbook'', published by grassroots organization The People's Fund, includes recipes from members of the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Cali ...
,
The United Farm Workers, and the Gay Activist Alliance of Philadelphia. For ''In Memory's Kitchen'', written in the 1940s by Jewish women interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, women drew on their memories to contribute recipes.
Chefs
Cookbooks can also document the food of a specific chef (particularly in conjunction with a
cooking show
A cooking show, cookery show, or cooking program (also spelled cooking programme in British English) is a television genre that presents food preparation, often in a restaurant kitchen or on a studio set, or at the host's personal home. Ty ...
) or restaurant. Many of these books, particularly those written by or for a well-established cook with a long-running TV show or popular restaurant, become part of extended series of books that can be released over the course of many years. Popular chef-authors throughout history include people such as
Delia Smith,
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, ...
,
James Beard
James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...
,
Nigella Lawson,
Edouard de Pomiane,
Jeff Smith,
Emeril Lagasse
Emeril John Lagassé III ( ; born October 15, 1959) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regio ...
,
Claudia Roden,
Madhur Jaffrey,
Katsuyo Kobayashi
was a Japanese celebrity chef, food writer, and founder/leader of the charity "Kagurazaka Women's Choir".
Biography
Katsuyo Kobayashi was born in Osaka in 1937. A graduate of Tezukayama Gakuin College, she became a homemaker after marriage. ...
, and possibly even
Apicius
''Apicius'', also known as ''De re culinaria'' or ''De re coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking'') is a collection of Roman cookery recipes. It is thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. Its language is in many ways close ...
, the semi-pseudonymous author of the Roman cookbook
De re coquinaria, who shared a name with at least
one other famous food figure of the ancient world.
Famous cookbooks
Famous cookbooks from the past, in chronological order, include:
*''
De re coquinaria (The Art of Cooking)'' (late 4th / early 5th century) by
Apicius
''Apicius'', also known as ''De re culinaria'' or ''De re coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking'') is a collection of Roman cookery recipes. It is thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. Its language is in many ways close ...
*''Kitab al-Tabikh'' (''The Book of Dishes'') (10th century) by
Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq
( ar, أبو محمد المظفر بن نصر ابن سيار الوراق) was an Arab author from Baghdad. He was the compiler of a tenth-century cookbook, the ( ar, links=no, كتاب الطبيخ, ''The Book of Dishes''). This is the earlies ...
*''Kitab al-Tabikh'' (''The Book of Dishes'') (1226) by
Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi
Muḥammad bin al-Ḥasan bin Muḥammad bin al-Karīm al-Baghdadi, usually called al-Baghdadi (d. 1239 AD), was the compiler of an early Arabic cookbook of the Abbasid period, كتاب الطبيخ ''Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ'' (''The Book of Dishes'') ...
*''
Liber de Coquina (The Book of Cookery)'' (late 13th / early 14th century) by two unknown authors from France and Italy
*''
Forme of Cury'' (14th century) by the Master Cooks of
King Richard II of England
*''Viandier'' (14th century) by Guillaume Tirel alias
Taillevent
*''De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' (1475) by
Bartolomeo Platina - the first cookbook printed in a native language (Italian) in 1487
*''Cookbook of Infanta
Maria of Portugal'' (c. 1565) - the oldest extant
Portuguese cookbook
* ''
The Good Huswifes Jewell'' (1585) by
Thomas Dawson
* ''
The English Huswife'' (1615) by
Gervase Markham
*''Arte de Cocina, Pastelaria, Vizcocheria e Conservaria'' by Francisco Martinez Montiño - palace cook of King
Philip II of Spain
Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal fro ...
(1680).
*''
'' by
Kenelm Digby (1669)
*''
Eumsik dimibang'' (1670) by
Jang Gye-hyang of
Andong Jang clan
*''Arte de Cozinha'' by Domingos Rodrigues - the first cookbook printed in
Portuguese (1680)
*''
Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw
''Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw'' (''A Collection of Dishes'') is a cookbook by Stanisław Czerniecki. First put in print in 1682, it is the earliest known cookery book published originally in Polish. Czerniecki wrote it in his ca ...
'' by
Stanisław Czerniecki
(; '' fl.'' 1645–1698) was a Polish soldier, property manager, chef and writer, best known as the author of '' Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw'' (''A Collection of Dishes''), the first cookbook written originally in the Polish lang ...
– first cookbook in Polish (1682)
*''
The Compleat Housewife'' (first American edition 1742) by
Eliza Smith
*''
The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy'' (1747) by
Hannah Glasse
Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, '' The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'', published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It ...
*''Hjelpreda I Hushållningen För Unga Fruentimber'' (1755) by
Cajsa Warg
*''
The Experienced English Housekeeper'' (1769) by
Elizabeth Raffald
*''
American Cookery'' (1796) by Amelia Simmons
*''
A New System of Domestic Cookery
''A New System of Domestic Cookery'', first published in 1806 by Maria Rundell (1745 – 16 December 1828), was the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as "Mrs Rundell", b ...
'' (1806) by
Maria Eliza Rundell
*''
Le Cuisinier Royal'' (1817) by
André Viard
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...
*''
Modern Cookery for Private Families'' (1845) by
Eliza Acton
*''El Cocinero Puerto - Riqueño 1859 (author unknown)
*''
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management
''Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management'', also published as ''Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book'', is an extensive guide to running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton and first published as a book in 1861. Previously pu ...
'' (1861) by
Mrs Beeton
Isabella Mary Beeton ( Mayson; 14 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work '' Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ...
*''Подарок молодым хозяйкам'', ''
A Gift to Young Housewives'' (first Russian edition 1861) by Elena Molokhovets
*''Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen'' (1866) by
Malinda Russell
Malinda Russell (ca. 1812 – ?) was a free black woman from Tennessee who earned her living as a cook and published the first known cookbook by a black woman in the United States. The book is historically significant, as it shows that black Sout ...
– first known cookbook by an African American woman
*''
La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
'' (1891) by
Pellegrino Artusi
*''The Epicurean'' (1894) by
Charles Ranhofer
*''The
Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'' (1896) by
Fannie Merritt Farmer
*''The Settlement Cook Book'' (1901) and 34 subsequent editions by
Lizzie Black Kander
*''
The Cook's Decameron: A Study In Taste, Containing Over Two Hundred Recipes For Italian Dishes'' (1901) by Mrs. W.G. Waters
*Various cookbooks (between 1903 and 1934) by
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-An ...
*''
Edmonds Cookery Book'' (1908) by T.J. Edmonds Ltd
*''
The Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 b ...
'' (1931) by
Irma Rombauer
Irma S. Rombauer (October 30, 1877 – October 14, 1962) was an American cookbook author, best known for ''The Joy of Cooking'' (1931), one of the world's most widely read cookbooks. Following Irma Rombauer's death, periodic revisions of the boo ...
*''
Larousse Gastronomique
' () is an encyclopedia of gastronomy. The majority of the book is about French cuisine, and contains recipes for French dishes and cooking techniques. The first edition included few non-French dishes and ingredients; later editions include many ...
'' (1938)
*''Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище'', ''
The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food'' (first Soviet edition 1939) by the Institute of Nutrition, USSR
*''O Livro de Pantagruel'' (first edition 1946) by Bertha Rosa-Limpo
*''
A Book of Mediterranean Food'' (1950) by
Elizabeth David
*''
Il cucchiaio d'argento'' (1950)
*''The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook'' (1954) by
Alice B. Toklas
Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein.
Early life
Alice B. Toklas was born in San F ...
*''Cooking with the Chinese Flavor'' (1956) and subsequent books by Lin Tsuifeng ("Mrs.
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang ( ; October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese inventor, linguist, novelist, philosopher, and translator. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generati ...
")
*''Mrs Balbir Singh's Indian Cookery'' (1961) by
Mrs Balbir Singh
*''
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, who was from the United States. The book was written for the American market and published ...
'' (1961) by
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, ...
*''
Ten Talents'' (1968) by Rosalie Hurd
*''Helen Gurley Brown's Single Girl's Cookbook'' (1969) by
Helen Gurley Brown
* The ''Fanny and Johnnie Cradock Cookery Programme'' (1970) by
Fanny
Fanny may refer to:
Given name
* Fanny (name), a feminine given name or a nickname, often for Frances
In slang
* A term for the vulva, in Britain and many other parts of the English-speaking world
* A term for the buttocks, in the United States
...
and Johnnie Cradock
*''
Diet for a Small Planet'' (1971) by
Frances Moore Lappé
*''
The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook'' (1975) by Louise Hagler
*''The Complete International Jewish Cookbook'' (1976) by
Evelyn Rose
*''
Moosewood Cookbook
''The Moosewood Cookbook'' (1977) is a vegetarian cookbook by Mollie Katzen that was published by Ten Speed Press.
It is a revised version of a 1974 self-published cookbook by members of the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York.
History Se ...
'' (1978) by
Mollie Katzen
Mollie Katzen (born October 13, 1950, in Rochester, New York, U.S.) is an American cookbook author and artist. The author of twelve cookbooks (all of which she also illustrated), she is best known for the hand-lettered, illustrated ''Moosewood C ...
*''
Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book
''The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book'' is a recipe book focused on children's-themed birthday cakes published as part of ''The Australian Women's Weekly'' magazine cookbook series by Australian Consolidated Press, written ...
'' (1980) by Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark
Collections and collectors
Several libraries have extensive collections of cookbooks.
* Harvard's
Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America has a collection of 20,000 cookbooks and other books on food, including the earliest American cookbook, and the personal collections and papers of
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, ...
,
M.F.K. Fisher, and the authors of ''
The Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 b ...
''.
* New York University's
Fales Library includes a Food and Cookery Collection of over 15,000 books, including the personal libraries of
James Beard
James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...
,
Cecily Brownstone
Cecily Brownstone (18 April 1909 – 30 August 2005), was a food writer, who wrote several cookbooks and articles about food over a period of 39 years. Canadian-born, Brownstone was the Associated Press Food Editor from 1947 to 1986—for t ...
, and
Dalia Carmel
Dalia may refer to:
People
* Dalia (given name), a given name and listing of people with the name
* Dalia (Egyptian singer), of album ''Bahebak enta'' 1998
* Badrunnesa Dalia, Bengali singer known as Dalia
Places
* Dalia (oil field), an offshor ...
.
* The
Brotherton Library at
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
holds a
Designated
Designation (from Latin ''designatio'') is the process of determining an incumbent's successor. A candidate that won an election for example, is the ''designated'' holder of the office the candidate has been elected to, up until the candidate's i ...
Cookery Collection of over 8,000 books and 75 manuscripts, including the personal collections of Blanche Leigh, John Preston and Michael Bateman.
Some individuals are notable for their collections of cookbooks, or their scholarly interest therein.
Elizabeth Robins Pennell, an American critic in London from the 1880s, was an early writer on the subject, and has recently been called "one of the most well-known cookbook collectors in the world". Much of her collection eventually went to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
. Held alongside hers are the thousands of gastronomic volumes donated by food chemist
Katherine Bitting; their collections were evaluated in tandem in ''Two Loaf-Givers'', by one of the LOC's curators; a digital version is available.
Usage outside the world of food
The term ''cookbook'' is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to any book containing a straightforward set of already tried and tested "
recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.
Hist ...
s" or instructions for a specific field or activity, presented in detail so that the users who are not necessarily expert in the field can produce workable results. Examples include a set of circuit designs in
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
, a book of
magic spells, or ''
The Anarchist Cookbook'', a set of instructions on destruction and living outside the law.
O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books, produces tech conferences, and provides an online learning platform. Its distinctive brand features a woodcut of ...
publishes a series of books about
computer programming
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
named the
Cookbook series, and each of these books contain hundreds of ready to use, cut and paste examples to solve a specific problem in a single
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming l ...
.
See also
*
Cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
*
Culinary art
*
List of women cookbook writers
*
Diet food
*
Dish (food)
*
Food group
*
Food photography
Food photography is a still life photography genre used to create attractive still life photographs of food. It is a specialization of commercial photography, the products of which are used in advertisements, magazines, packaging, menus or cookb ...
*
Food preparation
*
Food presentation
*
Food writing
*
Foodpairing
*
Gourmet Museum and Library
*
Haute cuisine
''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is the cuisine of "high-level" establishments, gourmet restaurants, and luxury hotels. ''Haute cuisine'' is characterized by the meticulous preparation and careful presentation of food at a high pric ...
*
Indian Cook Books
*
Kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water ...
*
List of nutrition guides
*
Meal
A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.
Although they c ...
*
Outline of food preparation
*
Portion size
A serving size or portion size is the amount of a food or drink that is generally served.
A distinction is made between a portion size as determined by an external agent, such as a food manufacturer, chef, or restaurant, and a 'self selected p ...
*
Recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.
Hist ...
*
Restaurant
*
Stove
A stove or range is a device that burns fuel or uses electricity to generate heat inside or on top of the apparatus, to be used for general warming or cooking. It has evolved highly over time, with cast-iron and induction versions being develope ...
*
Whole food
*
Wikibooks Cookbook
Notes
References
*Adamson, Melitta Weiss ''Food in Medieval Times.'' Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 2004.
*''Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays.'' Melitta Weiss Adamson (editor). Garland, New York. 1995.
*''Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays.'' edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson (editor). Routledge, New York. 2002.
*
What's the Recipe? - Our hunger for cookbooks. Adam Gopnik, ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...
'', 2009.
External links
*
The Wikibooks' open-content cookbook anyone can editJanice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive- a learning resource on the history of cookery books from the British Library
Baby food cookbooksFeeding America at Michigan State University Digital Librarya collection of influential early American cookbooks, including a large number of books specializing in immigrant cuisine
Home Economics (including cookbooks) at Project GutenbergMenus and Cookbooks at The New York Public Library
{{Authority control
Food-related literary genres
*