The Virginia Housewife

The first regional cookbook published in the United States, this nineteenth century kitchen manual includes recipes, kitchen tips and house management solutions.

Published in 1824 in Washington, DC, Virginia Housewife is considered by many culinary historians to be the first real American cookbook, with recipes that originated in American kitchens, leaving behind British traditions, ingredients and methods. Virginia Housewife is also recognized as the nation’s first regional cookbook with a focus on southern-style specialties, some appearing in print for the first time, such as Ochra Soup, Curry of Catfish, Gumbo, Chicken Pudding, Apoquiniminc Cakes. But author Mary Randolph also includes local variations of recipes from the West Indies, New England, Spain, and France, all reflecting the influence of many cuisines on Southern cooking. Diverse offerings include Dough Nuts, Gaspacho, Ropa Vieja, as well as a number of delightful ice cream recipes including, black walnut, quince, pear, citron, and almond. An immediate success, Virginia Housewife was republished at least nineteen times before the Civil War.

The Virginia Housewife is also a complete lifestyle reference providing an introduction to the food, culture, and manners of the antebellum South, as well as housekeeping instructions on topics ranging from soap making to herb drying and silver cleaning—everything that a woman of the nineteenth (or the twenty-first) century might desire to know.

This facsimile edition of Mary Randolph’s Virginia Housewife was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, founded in 1812.