In the first half of the nineteenth century, New England made a concerted effort to assert cultural leadership in the new American nation. Cookery wasn’t neglected in this campaign. New Englanders sought to encourage refinement of American manners and taste, and New Eng......More
In the first half of the nineteenth century, New England made a concerted effort to assert cultural leadership in the new American nation. Cookery wasn’t neglected in this campaign. New Englanders sought to encourage refinement of American manners and taste, and New England cookbooks played a big part in that effort. Connecticut had already led the way a few years earlier with Amelia Simmons’s publication in Hartford of American Cookery (1796), the first American cookbook. A number of American recipes and food terms made their print debut in American Cookery: pumpkin pie, squash pudding, cranberry sauce, molasses, Indian pudding, Johny cake, shortening, cookie, and the precursor of baking soda, called pearlash. Many of the dishes that first appeared in American Cookery are still enjoyed today. In the second half of the nineteenth century, in response to industrialization and the arrival of the immigrant work force that industrialists recruited, regional leaders flipped the cultural coin and began to sentimentalize rustic rather than refined foods, thinking they were more emblematic of the colonial past. Although these “Colonial Revival” dishes were altered from the originals, often with the addition of lots of molasses, sugar, butter and cream, many of them also remain American favorites. In their illustrated talk at the La Grua Center on May 8, 2025 at 6pm, Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald will offer a guided tour of the once-celebrated dishes and culinary ideas that have influenced American cuisine. Their talk will be followed by a sample item from the Colonial Revival. Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald are the authors of America’s Founding Food (2004), Northern Hospitality (2011), and United Tastes (2017), which have become standard works in the field of food studies. They have contributed to the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, and the noted British food history journal Petits Propos Culinaires. They have frequently spoken on New England and American foodways at historical societies, museums, libraries, and conferences, here and abroad. They live in Jamestown, Rhode Island.
The La Grua Center, 32 Water Street, Stonington, CT, 06378, United States
