❧The Historical Foodie

Old recipes, served fresh.

We discover, augment and publish remarkable recipes and kitchen wisdom from rare, out-of-print cookbooks — church fund-raisers, grand hotel manuals, Creole kitchens, and even unpublished manuscripts and collections — each one restored as a complete site: searchable, browsable, cookable.

Some of what's in these books is startling because it's so modern — macaroni and cheese in 1906 — and some, like Uncle Tony's roast 'possum, is a window into another world entirely. We publish it all exactly as written, with our commentary clearly marked.

21 books live · 74 more coming soon

Did you know?

There's a 1906 recipe here for macaroni and cheese — the book has eight macaroni recipes, one of them served as a vegetable.

— The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906

In 1906 a hamburger was chopped round steak, salt, pepper and onion, fried in fat. Nobody had thought of the bun yet.

— The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906

One 1906 summer drink is made with dilute sulphuric acid. The book calls it 'entirely harmless.' Please do not make it.

— The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906

The 1904 Creole kitchen measured butter by the egg, the walnut and the hazelnut.

— Cooking in Old Créole Days, 1904

In 1894, Delmonico's chef Charles Ranhofer published every secret of America's grandest restaurant — 3,500 recipes. His employers were not amused.

— The Epicurean, 1894

The 1911 Grocer's Encyclopedia has a full entry for opossum — 'recently popularized as a new dish,' roasted with sweet potatoes.

— The Grocer's Encyclopedia, 1911

The 1906 cookbook's possum recipe says to hang it in a tree for two or three nights before it's ready for the oven.

— The 20th Century Home Cook Book, 1906

365 Dishes of All Nations assigns a country's dish to every day of 1908 — you can look up your birthday dinner.

— 365 Dishes of All Nations, 1908

Delmonico's served roast peacock re-dressed in its own feathers. Recipe No. 2552 tells you how to dry the tail into a fan first.

— The Epicurean, 1894

The 1911 Grocer's Encyclopedia has an entry for RAT. Its considered advice: “A good cat is the best remedy.”

— The Grocer's Encyclopedia, 1911

Now on the table

The Belgian Cook Book

The Belgian Cook Book 1915

Recipes gathered from Belgian refugees in 1915 and sold for their relief — a national cuisine preserved by the women driven out of it.

Visit the siteone volume

Meatless Cookery

Meatless Cookery 1918

Wartime vegetarian cooking in earnest — hundreds of dishes built to feed a family when meat was rationed away.

Visit the siteone volume

Coming soon

Coming soonA Calendar of Dinners
Coming soonA New Snowdrift Cook Book
Coming soonArm and Hammer Valuable Recipes
Coming soonBakers Weekly Recipes
Coming soonBettina's Best Salads and What to Serve with Them
Coming soonBreakfast Dessert Supper
Coming soonBride's Cookbook
Coming soonButterick Book Of Recipes And Household Helps
Coming soonCerto Recipes
Coming soonChoice Recipes and How to Operate a Fireless Cookstove
Coming soonConsolidated Library of Modern Cooking and Household Recipes
Coming soonCook And Be Cool
Coming soonCook Book (good housekeeping)
Coming soonDromedary Recipe Book1920
Coming soonEntertaining Made Easy
Coming soonFive Roses Cook Book
Coming soonFleischmann's Recipes
Coming soonFor Luncheon and Supper Guests
Coming soonFruit Recipes
Coming soonGood Things to Eat and How to Prepare Them
Coming soonHigh-Class Cookery Recipes
Coming soonHot Weather Dishes
Coming soonHousehold Discoveries And Mrs Curtis's Cook Book
Coming soonHow to Cook in Casserole Dishes
Coming soonHow To Cook Vegetables
Coming soonkitchenette cookery
Coming soonLibertyville Presbyterian Cook Book
Coming soonLow Cost Recipes
Coming soonLowney's Cook Book
Coming soonMary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking · 13 vols
Coming soonMary Meade's Magic Recipes
Coming soonMeals Medicinal
Coming soonMenus Made Easy
Coming soonModernistic Recipe-Menu Book (De Both Homemakers Cooking School)
Coming soonMrs Fryers Loose Leaf Cook Book
Coming soonMrs. W.H. Wilson's New Cook Book
Coming soonMy Favorite Recipes
Coming soonNew Delineator Recipes
Coming soonNew Royal Cook Book
Coming soonOn Uncle Sam's Water Wagon
Coming soonOutdoor Cooking
Coming soonPhilathea Cook Book (folder named "Cook Book")
Coming soonPompeian Salad Recipes
Coming soonPopcorn for the Home
Coming soonReliable Recipes
Coming soonSalads Sandwiches And Chafing Dish Dainties
Coming soonSimple Italian Cookery
Coming soonSix Little Cooks
Coming soonSophie Leavitt's New Penny Pincher's Cookbook
Coming soonStudent's Manual in Household Arts
Coming soonThe American Soda Book
Coming soonThe Book of a Thousand Recipes
Coming soonThe Boston Cooking School Cookbook1896
Coming soonThe Bread & Biscuit Baker's And Sugar Boiler's Assistant
Coming soonThe British Cookery Book
Coming soonThe Butterick Cook Book
Coming soonThe Cook Book Of Left-Overs
Coming soonThe Cook's Decameron
Coming soonThe Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie1909
Coming soonThe Dispenser's Formulary or Soda Water Guide
Coming soonThe Dixie Cook Book
Coming soonThe Encyclopedia of Food And Beverages
Coming soonThe French Wine and Liquor Manufacturer
Coming soonThe Home Cook Book
Coming soonThe Italian Cook Book
Coming soonThe Metropolitan Cook Book
Coming soonThe Modern Method of Preparing Delightful Foods
Coming soonThe Pleasures of the Table
Coming soonThe Royal Cook Book
Coming soonThe Something-Different Dish
Coming soonThe Story Of Crisco1913
Coming soonThe Up-To-Date Sandwich Book
Coming soonThe Vinegar Buyer
Coming soonTwentieth Century Cook Book