Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book

by Lily May Spaulding (Editor), John Spaulding (Editor)

Godey's Lady's Book, perhaps the most popular magazine for women in nineteenth-century America, had a national circulation of 150,000 during the 1860s. The recipes (spelled "receipts") it published were often submitted by women from both the North and the South, and they reveal the wide variety of regional cooking that characterized American culture. There is a remarkable diversity in the recipes, thanks to the largely rural readership of Godey's Lady's Book and to the immigrant influence on the country in the 1860s. Fish and game were readily available in rural America, and the number of seafood recipes testifies to the abundance of the coastal waters and rivers. The country cook was a frugal cook, particularly during wartime, so there are a great many recipes for leftovers and seasonal produce. In addition to a wide sampling of recipes that can be used today, Civil War Recipes includes information on Union and Confederate army rations, cooking on both homefronts, and substitutions used during the war by southern cooks.

Genres: Cookbooks, Civil War, History, Cooking, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 10, 1999

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fascinating read of old time recipes (or, "receipts" as they were known). People during the Civil War, in both the North USA and the South CSA, had to make do with very little since most agricultural and meat supplies were going to feed the opposing armies, etc. I copied a couple of the recipes down just so I would have some authentic ones from that time. The book was also full of interesting historical tidbits from the various areas from which the recipes came. Suitable for Intermediate and older readers. Karen