Below is a list of cookbooks that were written, published, and/or sold in early America. They are listed in chronological order and feature 18th and 19th century cuisines from across the Americas. Each entry is hyperlinked to a digitized version provided by the Internet Archive. It should be mentioned that many of these volumes include instructions for social etiquettes common at the time of their publication, the language and ideas of which are often gendered and racialized. There are also additional links for entire digitized collections of early American cookbooks. A useful reference resource is Waldo Lincoln’s “Bibliography of American Cookery Books, 1742-1860.” Many of the recipe’s in the cookbooks below have been explained and prepared by many of the blogs and YouTube channels on our Early American Content Creators page.

Early American Cookbooks

Eliza Smith, The Compleat Housewife: Or, Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion… (London, 1734)

Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any Thing of the Kind ever yet Published (London, 1747)

Charlotte Mason, The Lady’s Assistant for Regulating and Supplying Her Table… (London, 1777)

Richard Briggs, The English Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice: Being a Complete Guide to All Housekeepers… (London, 1788)

Amelia Simmons, American Cookery: Or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards, and Preserves… (Hartford, 1796)

Abraham Edlin, A Treatise on the Art of Bread-Making… (London, 1805)

Mary Randolph, The Virginia Housewife, Or Methodical Cook (first published 1824; Baltimore, 1836)

Robert Roberts, The House Servant’s Directory, Or, A Monitor for Private Families… (first published 1827; Boston, 1828)

Eliza Leslie, Directions for Cookery: Being a System of the Art, in Various Branches (Philadelphia, 1837)

Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks, Or, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion (New York, 1862)

Confederate Receipt Book: A Compilation of Over One Hundred Receipts Adapted to the Times (Richmond, 1863)

Digitized Collections

18th- and 19th-Century Cooking in the Hudson Valley

American Institute of Wine & Food Culinary Collection

Cookbook Collection at McGill University Library

Doris S. Kirschner Cookbook Collection

Duane Family Cookbooks, 1840-1874

Early American Cookbooks on the HathiTrust Digital Library

Feeding America

South Caroliniana Cookbook Collection

University of Texas San Antonio’s Mexican Cookbook Collection