Customer Reviews

Kentucky Housewife

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Historical reprint cookbooks are not the best place to go for exciting recipes, detailed instructions, and precise measurements. But they are a lot of fun to read.
With over 1000 recipes (and some very small print) this cookbook is even more fun than most. The recipes too seem more exciting than is typical -- the author doesn't just offer 20 types of bread, 10 over-cooked vegetables, and instructions for roasting or boiling plain meat. She gives real recipes, some of which look like they actually have flavor!
But be aware that the long list of recipes is a bit misleading. The book is sort of like a chinese restaurant menu, where the same basic cooking method is offered for, for example, beef, veal, chicken, pork and fish; or a dessert might be described with 10 different fruits -- as 10 different recipes.

This book was meaningful to me since I am from Kentucky. It is not only a cookbook but a history book of times when the housewives had to prepare meats without the use of refrigerators and freezers.

This is a great little book, part history book, part cookbook, first aid, home improvement, survival guide, it's probably easier to list what it is not. I have over 60 cook/food books, but the Kentucky House wife is just a good book to read as it has all the relevant food stuff and a load more, really manages to create a great perspective on how the everyday essentials and luxuries of life were carved out of a strange new world. If you need to make cider, champagne, ice cream or maybe cure snake bites or toothache the secrets are all hide in here.

This 19th century reprint has lots to offer- exciting special-occasion desserts, homemade condiments of every variety you can buy in the store today and dozens more, various pickles, hearty vegetable side dishes, down to very simple meats (most often with presentation tips) . The book assumes a basic level of familiarity with the kitchen (and a kitchen scale- lots of ratios are given by weight), but given that, these are recipes that any cook today could try their hand at. While some people might say the recipes take 'a long time' to prepare, I'd counter that they only take forethought. If you want homemade pickle or lemon catchup, you'll spend an hour or so working, and a month or so with your jar in the back of the cabinet, and then you'll get to taste the fruits of your labor. The same applies to all the recipes for wines, meads, etc. Of course, the desserts are all ready in an hour to a day, so if you're impatient but still want to try your hand at pre-Civil War cookery, there is lots here for you.

My one complaint is that this binding is made only of thick paper, and won't stand up well to heavy use.