Lessons From An Early American Kitchen, Which Can Still Be Used Today

By Shannon Hicks

When I was in high school one of my friends was already very careful about closing cereal boxes tightly, re-wrapping other foods so they wouldn’t spoil, and even — horror of horrors! — using coupons (we would never dream of being so penny-wise at that age) long before the rest of us considered recycling on a regular basis or otherwise following suit. Sometimes behind her back we would giggle with an ignorance that can only be blamed on youth and call her “Miss Thrift,” as if it were a dirty word.

Today of course that friend of mine has more money than any of us, a pool in the backyard of the two-story home she and her husband purchased a few years ago — the one that now has animals grazing in the “front paddock” — and a career path that will almost certainly keep her financially comfortable for the rest of her life.

A re-released book, The American Frugal Housewife, which is, according to its subtitle, “Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of economy,” is right up my friend’s alley.

Dover Publications, a Mineola, N.Y.-based publisher, has re-released a classic book that provides an entertaining and educational look into American kitchens of the early 19th century. The book is quaint in its old-fashioned tone (“[children] can knit garters, suspenders, and stockings,” author Lydia Maria Child wrote in her Introductory Chapter more than a century and a half ago), yet timeless in some of its basic advice. “Children can very early be taught to take all the care of their own clothes,” “If you are about to furnish a house, do not spend all your money, be it much or little,” and “It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend — even of a paper of pins” are three of her suggestions from the same chapter.

The Frugal Housewife was first published in 1829 by the Boston firm of March & Capen and Carter and Hendee. The word American was added to the title upon the publication’s eighth edition in 1832. The title specifies this country because there was an English work of the same name “not adapted to the wants of this country,” Mrs Child wrote in a note added to the opening pages of her book.

The book, according to a new introduction by Jan Longone, quickly became a standard of its time. Women kept it handy and referred to it so often that it equaled and in some areas even exceeded the popularity of similar volumes, including Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery of 1796 and Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife (1824).

The American Frugal Housewife was reprinted at least 35 times by 1850. It then went out of print in America for two main reasons. The first was Mrs Child’s increasingly public — and very unpopular to some — work for the anti-slavery cause. The other reason is something that continues to be seen in all fields of publishing today: Newer and more modern books were always being released.

(Ironically, Mrs Child’s book continued to be reprinted in England for another ten years.)

Born in 1802 and the youngest of the six children of Susannah Rand and the baker and businessman Convers Francis, it was from her parents that Lydia Maria Francis learned to live simply and be generous to others. Her love of learning and the need to clearly communicate her beliefs led the young Lydia Francis to have a voracious appetite for reading. She very much wanted the Harvard education older brother Convers had received, but had to settle for reading and learning more on her own.

In 1924 Miss Francis published her first novel, called Hobomok, which brought her a good amount of fame. Miss Francis offered readers a then-scandalous tale of a white woman’s marriage to an American Indian.

Two years later Miss Francis founded The Juvenile Miscellany, the first American monthly periodical for children. She continued to write for a number of newspapers and magazines right up to 1929, when at age 25 she married David Lee Child.

Mrs Child did not abandon her career at that point. On the contrary, she became the couple’s breadwinner. Mr Child has been described as a “dreamer.” He quickly depleted the couple’s small savings, which led to an even simpler lifestyle than that which the two had been living.

Mr Child also found himself in jail for a spell, which added to Mrs Child’s independence. For a number of reasons, The Frugal Housewife was a natural compilation for the newspaperwoman and novelist.

Every sentence is written with the slightest amount of excessiveness. What else could have been expected from a woman who spent her life telling everyone within earshot “Save! Share! Do not destroy!” Chapters begin with “Old Scraps for the Economical,” which outlines ways of following the three-part mantra of the previous sentence, and continue with “Simple Remedies,” separate chapters on storing herbs and vegetables, “Cheap Dye-Stuffs” (rules for coloring using vegetables, fruits, flowers, tree barks, etc), “Choice of Meat,” and more.

“Common Cooking” includes written lessons on cooking everything from veal, beef, alamode beef, mutton and lamb, a calf’s head, and souse (which is apparently a combination of “pigs’ feet, ears, &c.”) to puddings and custards, pies, common cakes, and preserves.

The short chapter entitled “General Maxims for Health” is another charmer in its straightforwardness. “If you find yourself really ill, send for a good physician,” the author matter-of-factly advises. “Have nothing to do with quacks; and do not temper with quack medicines.”

The main section of the book is followed by an Appendix, which continues with even more hints, tips, and advice in no particular order, and a section called “Extracts from The English Frugal Housewife” which is coupled with an amusing note from the author that explains why she wrote her book. The book does not include a table of contents, but a full Index serves just as well as such a table at the beginning of the book would have done.

Lydia Maria Child was a household name in America for 50 years. The American Frugal Housewife was far from her last published work, but it was her only cookery book. She continued writing novels, fiction, and newspaper articles until the end of her life and became known for her passion for women’s rights.

While Mrs Child reportedly felt Housewife was not one of her life’s greatest contributions, many, including Janice Bluestein Longone, a cookbook authority from the Wine and Food Library in Ann Arbor, Mich., consider the book “an invaluable tool for social historians and all those interested in America’s past.” Mrs Longone provided the Introduction for the new Dover edition.

Since 1984, Dover Publications has been creating a collection of facsimiles of classic American cookbooks. Dover first brought The American Frugal Housewife back to the bookshelves with a hardcover re-release in August 1989. Last year the publisher followed with the softcover version, which is now available for $6.95.

The Dover release is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the 29th edition of The American Frugal Housewife, which in 1844 was being published by Samuel S. & William Wood. The 29th edition carried a note on its cover that the edition had been “enlarged and corrected by the author.”

(For the purists, there is also The Family Nurse, Or Companion of The American Frugal Housewife. “Mrs Child,” which is how the book’s cover gives the name of its author, had this work originally published in 1837. Applewood Books re-released a hard-cover reprint edition in May 1997. Its list price is $12.95.)