Customer Reviews

The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book

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Mix together some spicy ingredients of Southern history, add "receipts" (aka recipes) for food, plus personal memoir, and a fascinating book is ready for you to devour or to send to friends as a gift.
What a marvelous, brilliant weaving together of the family history of the Robert E. Lee family, along with insider Civil War history, social history, food history, family characters and so on, have been put together by Anne Carter Zimmer, who gives us recipes one longs to try. I definitely want to attempt the Charlotte Russe and certainly the Sally Lunn. (Wish I had the courage for the oyster dish where, halfway throughout, you throw out one batch of oysters and add a fresh batch.) When I read the book's first line, "We didn't make much of ancestors when I was growing up," (this from the great-grandaughter of Robert E. Lee), I knew I was in touch with an authentic voice and that I would love this book. And love it I did.

"THE ROBERT E. LEE FAMILY COOKING AND HOUSEKEEPING BOOK" is by Ann Carter Zimmer, Mrs. Lee's great-grand-daughter. It is a delicious read, and exactly what it says it is. First you get to know the family, the Washington - Lee connection. Robert E. Lee married Mary Custis, the daughter of George Washington's stepson. The branches of Mount Vernon and Arlington are closely entwined. Robert's father, "Light Horse" Harry Lee, was a hero of the revolution and a good friend of Washington, but died a debtor. "Robert inherited his military talent, but little else. Mary Custis was raised with more indulgence than her husband and in more comfort than Fort Monroe, offered the newlyweds, living in two rooms with dirt floors." Nevertheless the marriage endured and enfolded an ever growing family. Then the Civil War engulfed them all. After the family comes the cooking. Here's a sampling: "The Receipts" Creamed Terrapin. "Terrapin, the common marsh turtle, was so plentiful that slaves rebelled against being given so many to eat. When I grew up, the name described a land, or box turtle, that was served at least once during the meat rationing of World War II. When my mother asked where (our hostess) had found the main ingredient of her delicious lunch, Madame answered sweetly, `under the kitchen steps, my dear.' "(Substituting chicken for terrapin). Cut up a cold, chicken (roasted or boiled) into very small pieces, being careful to take off the skin, put into a skillet with a wine glass of cream, a good sized piece of butter rolled in flour & season to taste with cayenne pepper, a little mace & salt. Have ready 3 hard boiled eggs cut into small pieces & a wine glass of flavorful sherry or Madeira. When the chicken has come to a good boil, stir them in & in two or three minutes it will be ready to serve. "Precious Jellies For hundreds of years, cooks made elegant `jellies' of clear liquids stiffened with gelatin. Well into the 19th century people continued to extract Jell-O's ancestor painstakingly from deer antlers (hartshorn), sturgeon bladders (isinglass), and even powered ivory, which was boiled all night. By 1824 the calves foot jelly had become popular. Syrup of violets or syrup of gilli flowers and currant, quince and raspberry juice dyed the jellies. "The best and most simple arrangement for straining jelly is to invert a small table, fold an old table cloth four double, tie each corner to a leg of the table, set a bowl under the bag thus formed,.with another bowl at hand to slip under the bag, as will be necessary, the first run never being transparently clear. Shut up the room and let it drip. The jelly will run through the bag more rapidly if the cloth is first scalded. "Wine Jelly One box of gelatine makes one gallon of Jelly. "To one box of gelatine put one pint of cold water, let it stand an hour, add to it the juice of three lemons, 1&3/4 lbs of sugar, one pint of wine, a wine glass of brandy and enough boiling water to make with the other things a gallon of jelly." "No wonder the Lee ladies bought boxed gelatin by Cox, Nelson and Cooper after the war! "Throughout her adult life Mrs. Lee suffered from severe bouts of rheumatoid arthritis. Here are two of her "cures": "(1) "Get 12&1/2 cents worth of sarsparilla, 1 handful of lignum vitae sawdust, 1 stick of licorice, put these in one gal. of water and let it boil down to ½ gal, strain it & take three wineglasses full a day. When it is taken, no spirits should be drunk." "(2) " Pour brandy on porkberries, let it stand, shake it up well & take a wineglass full three times a day." (The author cautions that neither of these "cures" should be attempted by the reader!) Ann Carter Zimmer has done her great-grandmother proud. Utilizing Mrs. Lee's housekeeping records, she has created a real feeling for the life of this family in those troubled times. The book is so personal, it almost makes you feel like a long lost cousin.

This book is a great one for providing us a glimpse into life over 100 years ago. It is hard to imagine what a woman had to do back then to create the genteel life. Every household had to be self-sufficient, as this remarkable volume shows, making its own foodstuff, soap and cleansers. I loved this book and have shared it with good friends.

I'm seventh cousin to U.S. Grant but have always had tremendous respect for, and interest in, the family of General Robert E. Lee. Altho we know that General Lee was a man of impecable morals and a champion of valor and honor, less has been known of his immediate family. Anne Carter Zimmer's book gives us a window in time into the life of the family of her great grandparents and a look at 19th century housekeeping. I grew up in Ohio before moving South and some of Mary Lee's household hints were utilized by my grandmother and mother. This is a fantastic book, warm, humorous, informative and with photos and shetches enough to make one sense that they might have felt at home in the Lee household.

Please, Anne, let us hear from you in the future. I'd very much like to know more about your singular family!

Anyone who is interested in knowing more about the personal side of Gen. Robert E. Lee and the people who stood behind him and allowed him to become great (his family) will enjoy this insight into their everyday lives and the heritage the author (Lee's great-granddaughter) has had to live up to throughout her life.

I would strongly recommend this.

This book provides an interesting look at the Lees, past and present. Many family tidbits are interwoven with some really tasty "receipts." Here is a great gift for anyone interested in the Lee family, or life during the 1800's.

The author, Anne Zimmer, great-granddaughter of Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis Lee, provides both insight into the day-to-day patterns of life in the Lee home, as well as recipes from the Lee kitchen. Seventy recipes have been brought up to date and prepared by the author (and friends). This book represents a thoroughly enjoyable mix of plantation life and culinary history.

I've read about half this book and am really enjoying it; mostly because I enjoy Southern history. I would definitely recommend this book.

The author, a descendant of the Lee family, has turned a family manuscript cookbook into a really useful book. The history is well researched and the recipes are thoroughly tested and worked out for the "modern" kitchen. For each recipe, the author discusses the recipe, and how it was interpreted. A model of what can be done with a manuscript cookbook by smart, hardworking women.

If you want a comprehensive introduction to the American table, or at least the upper class Southern table, the combination of Martha Washington's Cookery Booke (edited by Karen Hess; the title is misleading, the ms is much older), and Mary Randolph's "The Virginia Housewife" cover the 16th-17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

I learned more about the personalities in the Washington and Lee families and the history of food. It was really enjoyable.