Category: Frugality

A text analysis comparison between the texts cookbooks containing the word “frugal” and the full Early American Cookbooks set shows some interesting differences. The “frugal” books have over-represented terms which feature everyday words such as them, that, good, not, should, your etc which have no obvious connection to cooking. The under-represented terms feature kitchen measurement terms such as teaspoons and also names of ingredients, notably some more luxurious items such as chicken, chocolate, cake, butter, and pineapple. While it is not possible to form definitive conclusions, it seems clear that the frugal books emphasize ordinary language (perhaps directed toward expenditure and lifestyle choices with a healthy dose of “should” and “not”?) and do not offer a wealth of different ingredient names.
 

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

The number of books in the Early American Cookbooks collection which contain the word “frugal” in the text increases over the years 1800 to 1920. This increase may simply be a reflection of the overall increase in the number of books published over time in the collection (see books by year chart). The peaks in the numbers at the end of the 19th century may reflect an increase in the number of books directed at young, inexperienced housekeepers with a small budget such as The Cottage Kitchen: A Collection of Practical and Inexpensive Receipts or Motherly Talks: The Home, How to Make and Keep It.