Data visualizations – Page 2 – Early American Cookbooks

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

Frugal cookbooks

Frugality has a long history in America. The Frugal Housewife by Susannah Carter (first edition 1772) was one of the first cookbooks to be published in the United States. Later books on the same theme included A new system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles of economy by Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell (1814), The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child (1835), and Economical cookery by Marion Harris Neil (1918).

Did frugal cookbooks differ markedly from other cookbooks? A text analysis comparison shows some interesting results.

Was the word “frugal” a common term in cookbooks? Did if fall in and out of favor over time? Check out the timeline chart of when the word appears in the Early American Cookbooks collection

Western

Books published in the West comprise 8.8% of the Early American Cookbooks collection. Most of these books were published in the 1890 to 1920 period when book publishing businesses in the west became more established. The majority were published in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Some of the interesting titles include The Times Cook Book, No. 2 : 957 Cooking and Other Recipes by California Women, Brought Out By the 1905 Series of Prize Recipe Contests in the Los Angeles Times, The Neighborhood Cook Book Compiled Under the Auspices of the Portland Section in 1912, Council Of Jewish Women, and Bohemian San Francisco : Its Restaurants and Their Most Famous Recipes, The Elegant Art of Dining by by Clarence E. Edwords (1914).

When books published in the West are compared to the full set of titles in Early American Cookbooks, the over-represented terms show regional place names (Los Angeles, San Francisco, California) as well as foods grown in the region such as Sunkist oranges, walnuts, and raisins. Chili and chile show the influence of the Southwest. The word “phone” shows that the Western set is far more modern than the full set of titles.

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

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

Continue reading “Western”

Fannie Farmer

Fannie Merritt Farmer (1857-1915) was a major figure in American cooking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her most successful cookbook, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, was first published in 1896 and sold millions of copies in many subsequent printings and editions. The 100th anniversary edition was published in 1996 and the book is still in print today.

The book was the first to introduce precise measurement and Farmer later became “the mother of level measurements.” Her discussion of food composition, caloric calculations and the body’s need for nutrients, formed a systematic view of cooking that influenced cooking instruction for decades to come (Feeding America).

Text analysis of Farmer’s books clearly illustrates her emphasis on precise measurements. When her books are compared to the full set of titles in Early American Cookbooks, the over and under-represented terms show that measurement is the key difference. In the tag clouds below, the over-represented terms are tablespoons, teaspoons, and cup. The under-represented terms are teaspoonful, tablespoonful and cupful which were frequently used in cookbooks of the era. Farmer insisted upon the difference between a vague “teaspoonful” and an exact “teaspoon.”

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

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