Gioia Stevens – Page 2 – Early American Cookbooks

Government publications over-represented terms

What do the words feces, urine, experiment, grams, and ration have to do with cookbooks? They are all over-represented terms in United States government publications on cooking. These publications include primarily military cooking manuals with some additional USDA recipe booklets focusing on nutrition and use of substitute ingredients during wartime rationing. The subject matter of these publications is quite different from the rest of the cookbooks in the collection and this difference is demonstrated in the word cloud above. The government publications take a much more scientific approach to cooking, focusing on experiments, nutrition and digestion, measurements, and rations per man.

The word “feces” was a valuable clue in interpreting and correcting the data visualizations in this project. The word first appeared in an over-represented tag cloud for books published in the Southern census region of the United States. It seemed hard to believe that cookbooks on Southern cuisine featured feces so a re-examination of the dataset was in order. Washington, D.C. is part of the Southern census region, but it is also the place of publication for large numbers of government documents. Separating out the books published by government agencies from the larger Southern set proved to be the answer to the problem. Without the government publications, the over-represented terms for the Southern set no longer contained feces, urine, or any of the other nutrition related terms.

This visualization was created by comparing two sets of texts, government publications and the full Early American Cookbooks set, using the Meandre Dunning Log-likelihood to Tagcloud algorithm in the HathiTrust Research Center Portal.

Midwestern

Important Midwestern cookbooks include Buckeye Cookery, And Practical Housekeeping: Compiled From Original Recipes by Estelle Woods Wilcox (1877), Fullständigaste Svensk-Amerikansk Kokbok = Swedish English Cookbook (1897), Science in the kitchen by E.E. Kellogg (1892), and The Settlement Cook Book by Mrs. Simon Kander (1915 edition)

Books published in the Midwest comprise 24% of the Early American Cookbooks collection. When the books are compared to the full set of titles in Early American Cookbooks, the over-represented terms show several baking terms plus the name brand Crisco. Crisco was introduced in 1911 by Proctor and Gamble and promoted through cookbooks such as The Story of Crisco (1914). Other terms include the names of new types of foods introduced by the early vegetarian and health food movements such as protose (a peanut based protein food marketed by John Harvey Kellog) and graham (a whole grain flour biscuit introduced by Sylvester Graham).

Midwestern over-represented terms (Meandre Dunning Log Likelihood to Tagcloud Algorithm)

This visualization was created by comparing two sets of texts, cookbooks published in the Midwest and the full Early American Cookbooks collection, using the Meandre Dunning Log-likelihood to Tagcloud algorithm in the HathiTrust Research Center Portal.

Northeastern

Books published in the Northeast comprise 61% of the Early American Cookbooks collection. Large numbers of cookbooks were published in New York, traditionally the publishing center of the United States, as well as in Boston and Philadelphia. The high percentage in the Northeast also reflects the population distribution in the United States in period from 1800 to 1920. Most commercial publishing was centered in the Northeast in the early 19th century and book publishers became established in other regions as the population shifted westward over time.

Text analysis of books published in the Northeast shows some interesting trends. When the books are compared to the full set of titles in Early American Cookbooks, the over-represented terms show terms more common in early 19th century books. These include early printing styles such as the long “s” which looks like an “f.” In the tag cloud below “fweet” is “sweet’ and “fugar” is “sugar.” There are also old versions of words (divers rather than diverse) and English spellings such as flavour, colour, and centre. The Northeast region is also evident in place names such as Philadelphia and local companies such as Ryzon, a baking powder company based in New York

Northeastern over-represented terms (Meandre Dunning Log Likelihood to Tagcloud Algorithm)

This visualization was created by comparing two sets of texts, cookbooks published in the Northeast and the full Early American Cookbooks collection, using the Meandre Dunning Log-likelihood to Tagcloud algorithm in the HathiTrust Research Center Portal.

Southern

The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph (1824) is one of the first cookbooks to be published in the United States which was not an American edition of an English book. It is considered by some to be the first truly American cookbook and by all to be the first regional American cookbook (Feeding America). The book influenced generations of Southern cooks and it is still in print today.

Cookbooks published in the Southeast comprise only 6% of the Early American Cookbooks collection, but text analysis of this small number still shows a clear distinction when compared to the full set. The over-represented terms show a number of distinctly southern terms such as Creole or Atlanta as well as ingredients associated with the south such as okra and pecans. Citrus crops in Florida are represented by grapefruit and Sealdsweet, the brand name of a citrus company.

Southern over-represented terms (Meandre Dunning Log Likelihood to Tagcloud Algorithm)

This visualization was created by comparing two sets of texts, cookbooks published in the South and the full Early American Cookbooks collection, using the Meandre Dunning Log-likelihood to Tagcloud algorithm in the HathiTrust Research Center Portal.

Books by year

The number of cookbooks published per year grew steadily during the 19th century and bounded upwards in the early 20th century. In the early 19th century, most families used collections of handwritten recipes, often handed down through generations and shared with neighbors and friends. The publishing industry in the United States expanded rapidly during the late 19th century and commercially produced cookbooks became widely available. The market for cookbooks continued to expand with many famous titles produced in multiple printings and editions. Community cookbooks (published by a church or charitable organization to raise funds) also increased in number after the Civil War. The growth of the packaged food industry led to the publication of cookbooks tied to commercial products (such as Crisco or Jell-O) in early 20th century.

Topic modeling for early American cookbooks

Topic modeling shows some interesting trends and patterns in the text for the 1450 books in the collection. The ten word clouds in the chart below show different topics or clusters of words that recur across all of the texts. The names of the topics were not generated by the algorithm but rather added as a way to label and interpret the clusters. While it is impossible to draw definitive analytical conclusions, the topics do provide an interesting snapshot of the subject matter.

Early American cookbooks had many common themes, largely because the diet and cookery techniques in the 1800 to 1920 period were far more homogeneous than they are today. Nearly every cook used salt, pepper, and butter as the primary methods of seasoning (topic 1), boiled kettles over a fire for long periods of time (topic 2), prepared meat, most frequently with gravy or sauce (topic 3), made bread (topic 6), cake (topic 9), and various fruit based items such as jelly, lemonade, or ice cream (topic 10). Some topics are more sparse and hard to interpret. Topic 5 possibly represents boiling vegetables and topic 7 seems to be about pickling or similar processes. Topic 4 includes words such as place, time, made, long, heat, air, and dry. The significance is unclear, but the topic may possibly refer to storage of food in cupboards, drying fruit or other related processes. Topic 8 reaches beyond the ingredients and instructions into the how and why of cooking and homemaking. Words such as food, time, good, made, great, people, work, body, give, family, years are commonly present in the forewords and introductions to cookbooks which sought to provide inspiration for readers.

Regional cookbooks

This map shows the number of books published per state for the full collection of 1450 cookbooks. New York has the greatest number of books published, followed by Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and California. These numbers align with the growth of the book publishing industry in the United States. New York City, traditionally the publishing center of the United States, published the greatest number over time, followed by other publishing centers in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The trend in the numbers also shows the history of westward expansion from 1800 to 1920, with the greatest total numbers in the East and much lower numbers in the West.

Dividing the collection into United States census regions shows that 61.1% of the titles were published in the Northeastern region, 24% were published in the Midwest, 8.8% in the West, and 6.1% in the Southeast.

The map was created by downloading the MARCXML catalog records for the collection from the HathiTrust Research Center. The records were converted using MarcEdit and then sorted and cleaned using OpenRefine. The records were then loaded into Tableau to create latitude and longitude data from state names and to make a filled map displaying the number of records per state.

Authors chart

The most prolific authors in the collection are the famous names of 19th century cooking: Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Julia Corson, Fannie Farmer, Marion Harland, Eliza Leslie, Mary J. Lincoln, Marion Harris Neil, Maria Parloa, Sarah Tyson Rorer, and Maria Eliza Rundell. These women’s books went through multiple editions and printings and reached millions of American households.

Other notable authors include Ella Eaton Kellogg, health food advocate and wife of John Harvey Kellogg, William A. Alcott, first president of the American Vegetarian Association, Rufus Estes, African-American railway chef, and Jessup Whitehead, chef and restauranteur.

eac-author-chart

Cookbooks written by and for men

The vast majority of early American cookbooks were written by and for women. Some cookbooks were written by men who were professional chefs, restauranteurs, nutritionists, doctors, military cooks, and compilers of encyclopedias of household knowledge. A very small percentage of cookbooks were written by and for men, to be used by men living without women who need or want to cook for themselves.

The Bachelor and the Chafing Dish by Deshler Welch (New York : F. Tennyson Neely, 1896) is an interesting collection of chafing dish recipes prepared by the author “in the presence of carefully scrutinizing bon vivants on board of yachts, in private dining rooms of many clubs, in bachelor apartments, and among clever men and charming women at their homes.” The chafing dish was very popular new form of kitchen equipment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chafing dish meals were simple and easy to prepare and did not require a large kitchen or the assistance of servants.

Welch drew a sharp distinction between male and female cooks. He observed that woman often knows little cooking and “the more she may be mentally equipped to preside over the kitchen realm the less she seems inclined to have anything to do with it.” On the other hand “men appear to have an instinctive fondness for meddling with everything appertaining to the art of cookery, for such is it come to be under ingenious skill and logical deduction.”

Canoe and Camp Cookery: A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers by “Seneca” (New York : Forest and Stream Pub. Co., 1893) is a detailed introduction to cooking outdoors with limited equipment and ingredients. The author (actually H.H. Soule) takes issue with the majority of cookbooks which were written by “good housewives” with no knowledge of the realities of outdoor life. The book includes recipes collected from trappers and hunters as well as army and navy cooks. Detailed instructions for packing prepared foods and equipment are followed by recipes for meals made with freshly caught fish, turtles and wild game.

Handwritten recipes

Many old cookbooks contain handwritten recipes on the endpapers or other blank pages. Recipes such as this one for jumbles cookies in an 1802 edition of The Frugal Housewife give a glimpse into the daily lives of earlier owners of the book. This recipe also demonstrates how measurements and instructions in early 19th century recipes were far less precise than in later eras.

The recipe reads: “To make jumbles, 1 of sugar, half a pound of butter, 2 of flower, 5 eggs. Jumbles: take 1 pound of flower, 3/4 of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter mixed together, 2 eggs the white of one, 2 teaspoonfuls of rose water, beat them a quarter of an hour, a few caraway seeds, mix all together, bake them in a slow oven.”

The Frugal Housewife by Susannah Carter (Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1802)